Tropical forests are continuing to disappear at an alarming rate. Between 1990 and 2005, the rate of deforestation averaged about 13 million hectares a year, of which some 6 million hectares were primary forest. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that the forestry sector, mainly through deforestation, accounts for about 17% of global greenhouse emissions, making it the second largest source after the energy sector.

Without implementation of effective policies and measures to slow deforestation, clearing of tropical forests will likely release an additional 87 to 130 giga tonnes of carbon (GtC) by 2100, an amount equivalent to the carbon release from more than a decade of global fossil fuel combustion at current rates. The Bali Action Plan, adopted by UNFCCC at the thirteenth session of its Conference of the Parties (COP-13) in December 2007, therefore mandated Parties to negotiate a post-2012 legal instrument, including possible financial incentives for forest-based climate change mitigation actions in developing countries.

In this context, UNEP is currently implementing and facilitating a number of capacity building efforts and pilot projects to prepare countries to start reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation. These include:

• UN-REDD Programme Website
• UN-REDD Collaborative Programme
• GRASP
• COMIFORM