Climate and Forest

Implementing inclusive forest solutions to the climate crisis one country at a time.

Our work in Geneva and beyond

UNDP’s climate and forest portfolio works with over 30 countries to support the design and implementation of national policies and measures to reduce deforestation and manage forests sustainably. Our programmes support governments to achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions and mitigate climate change transparently, increase access to climate finance for the forest sector and drive equitable forest solutions for Indigenous Peoples and local communities.  

In Geneva, our hub supports our global team and flagship programmes with technical assistance, high-level multi-stakeholder policy dialogues, advance REDD+ finance and enhance the implementation of forest management. Throughout implementation, UNDP strives to ensure that climate-forest solutions are gender-responsive, wherein all those involved are equitably and actively engaged in and benefit from such efforts. 

Find out more about UNDP's Climate and Forest portfolio

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A snapshot of our work | Government NDC support and transparency

UNDP Climate & Forests provides support to countries to assess, enhance, and accelerate NDC mitigation actions in the forest and land use sector by:

  • Facilitating high-level policy coordination and multi-stake holder dialogues
  • Developing financing and investment opportunities for forest and land use related NDCs.  
  • Policy and technical support for forest and land coverage expansion.
  • Performance-based climate finance in the forest sector  
  • Streamline stakeholder inclusion in forest and land-use aspects of NDC review processes.  

 

Featured Story: How women in Costa Rica reforest implement REDD+ using UNDP’s performance-based payments. 

 

Climate and forest finance

Finance flows need to support the goals of the Paris Agreement and countries’ low carbon and climate -resilient development pathways. This includes financing both readiness efforts as well as rewarding performance. UNDP Climate & Forests provides support to countries to access to REDD+ finance and carbon markets by:

  1. Strengthening national capacities and readiness to enable their access to REDD+ results-based payments and carbon markets
  2. Public-private partnerships on finance for deforestation-free commodities
  3. Operationalizing domestic performance-based finance mechanisms and carbon pricing instruments.  

UNDP supports high ambition and integrity in international carbon markets to ensure they deliver overall mitigation in global emissions and avoid double counting  

What are Carbon markets and why are they so important? Read more here.  

Climate Promise

With support from the United Kingdom following COP26, UNDP is scaling up the Forests, Land and Nature work area under Climate Promise, with a focus on demonstrating NDC-related nature ambition at COP27 and beyond, delivering on Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use.

Through this UK-funded initiative, UNDP is supporting Cambodia, Colombia, Congo, Dominica, Ecuador, Kenya, Liberia, and Viet Nam to advance NDC ambition and implementation in the forests and land use sector.

 

Featured Story: Read here how the Democratic Republic of Congo’s journey on strong carbon financing and markets to achieve NDC ambitions.  

Equitable and integral forest solutions

When promoting forest and climate policies and investments in countries, UNDP employs a social inclusion approach, wherein effective stakeholder engagement is ensured, the rights of indigenous peoples and forest communities are promoted, gender equality and women’s empowerment principles are mainstreamed, and policy reforms towards more equitable land use and tenure systems are encouraged.

Featured story: Meet five Indigenous Peoples leaders who explain what the forest means to them.  

Our partnerships