Forest Carbon Partnership Facility

Organization Profile: The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) is a global partnership of governments, businesses, civil society, and indigenous people's organizations focused on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, forest carbon stock conservation, the sustainable management of forests, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries, activities commonly referred to as REDD+. The FCPF works with 47 developing countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, along with 17 donors that have made contributions and commitments totaling $1.3 billion. The FCPF has two separate but complementary funding mechanisms—the Readiness Fund and the Carbon Fund—to achieve its strategic objectives

The FCPF Readiness Fund helps countries set up the building blocks to implement REDD+. This includes designing national REDD+ strategies, developing reference emission levels, designing measurement, reporting, and verification systems and setting up national REDD+ management arrangements, including proper environmental and social safeguards.

The Carbon Fund is set up to pilot incentive payments for REDD+ efforts in developing countries. FCPF participant countries that have made significant progress in their REDD+ readiness endeavors may be selected to participate in the Carbon Fund, which became fully operational in May 2011. Carbon Funds payments are designed to help countries and their stakeholders achieve long-term sustainability in financing forest conservation. They are intended to help reduce climate change impacts from forest loss and degradation by making forests more valuable standing than cut down. The Carbon Fund remunerates participant countries in accordance with negotiated contracts for verifiable emission reductions (ERs).

Financing Instruments: Loans, grants

Project Scale: Projects have ranged from $200,000 for a REDD Readiness Preparation Proposal to $8.6 million for REDD+ Readiness activities.

Recipient countries/ regions/country groups: Global

Recipient categories: Governments

Eligibility Criteria: Readiness activities include:

- Adopting national REDD+ strategies

- Developing reference emission levels (RELs)

- Designing measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems

- Setting up environmental and social safeguards

A REDD+ Country Participant is a developing country located in a subtropical or tropical area that has signed a Participation Agreement to participate in the Readiness Fund.

Application Guidelines: The first step for interested countries is to submit a Readiness Plan Idea Note to the FCPF. The next step is for selected countries to prepare their Readiness Plan, which is a framework for a country to define a clear approach, budget and schedule to undertake REDD+ activities. The FCPF's governing body reviews and assesses Readiness Plans and decides on the allocation of FCPF grants to countries. Readiness activities must involve a high degree of consultation with civil society and indigenous peoples’ organizations. Indigenous peoples and other forest dwellers play a central role as stewards of tropical forests. It is critical that governments set up participatory mechanisms to ensure that they are meaningfully consulted during the formulation and implementation of Readiness Plans and REDD+ Strategies, and that they benefit from capacity building and future financial incentives.

The Carbon Fund Process consists of the following steps:

a) ER Program pre-approval: Preparation of the ER Program Idea Note (ER-PIN) and presentation to the FCPF Carbon Fund for its acceptance;

b) ER Program approval: Preparation of the ER Program Document (ER-PD), FCPF due diligence and presentation to the Carbon Fund for its acceptance;

c) Monitoring and Reporting:

d) Validation and Verification:

e) Payments and allocation of ERs to the Carbon Fund

f) Post-Carbon Fund