BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE
THE REDD+ roadmap aims to prepare Solomon Islands to be REDD+ ready by 2020.
This was expressed in UNDP’s “Integrating Global Environment Commitments in Investment and Development Decision Making Project Solomon Islands” report.
The report highlights what REDD+, a UN programme, aims to accomplish in the Solomon Islands.
UNDP stated that the vision of REDD+ in the country is to establish a sustainably managed forest sector which supports rural livelihoods, maintains the quality of the environment, contributes to national socio-economic development and to reduce levels of emissions from the forest sector.
All the more, key policy areas for REDD+ identified by the roadmap include; reducing impact of commercial agriculture, sustainable management of forests, reforestation, afforestation and plantation, forest reserves and protected areas.
Three phases of the Solomon Islands national REDD+ roadmap are REDD+ scoping, piloting capacity development and reform and scale up activities.
The Solomon Islands government ratified the UNFCCC in 1994 and used the platform to battle domestic climate change.
From 1994 to 2016, regional partnerships were strengthened to combat climate change and there was also the establishment of communication and reporting channels with UNFCCC.
On top of that, national policy and key programme areas like agriculture, water and sanitation progressed as well as the development of the “Solomon Islands REDD+ Readiness Roadmap 2014-2020” under the UNREDD Programme (United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation).
