Project Overview
The Paris Agreement commits countries to limiting global temperature rise to well below 2°C, with efforts toward 1.5°C. Yet climate change is already impacting agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and related ecosystem services, particularly in Africa, where extreme weather events threaten livelihoods, food security, and stability—potentially pushing an additional 35–122 million people into poverty by 2030.
Forests are central to Africa's climate resilience. The Congo Basin, the world's second-largest tropical rainforest, plays a critical role in mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity conservation. However, deforestation remains alarmingly high, with the Democratic Republic of Congo alone losing nearly 500,000 hectares of primary forest in 2021.
This project supports African countries in meeting their REDD+ forest emission reduction commitments, contributing to the UN-REDD goal of reducing 1 GtCO₂eq annually by 2025. Achieving the Paris goals requires urgent transformation of the AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use) sector and scaling up of forest financing, given forests' estimated mitigation potential of 4.1–6.5 GtCO₂e by 2030.
Project Goal
Since 2008, African countries have made progress in REDD+ readiness, but challenges remain, including slow implementation, capacity gaps, and limited knowledge-sharing. The project seeks to address these barriers by strengthening countries' capacities and knowledge through UN-REDD's technical expertise and convening power, combined with AFF's regional networks, expertise, and local knowledge.
Expected Outcomes
- REDD+ practitioners capacitated through access to tailored UN-REDD and AFF expertise addressing African priorities
- Decision-makers better informed on REDD+ and equipped with tools for policy integration across sectors
- Strengthened digital capacity development and knowledge management infrastructure for AFF and UN-REDD, with emphasis on low-bandwidth regions
Project Information
AFF Programme Areas
AFF Enablers
Target Groups
Global & Continental Alignment
- Paris Agreement
- African Union Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy 2022–2032
- AU Sustainable Forest Management Framework 2020–2030
Project Manager
Dr. Moussa Massaoudou
Profile coming soon
Blogs
10 African Countries converge in Arusha
To boost region's access to REDD+ finance and knowledge on social inclusion and benefit sharing
Key messages delivered to AFWC24
Results Based Finance, social inclusion and benefits sharing mechanisms in African countries' REDD+ process
Resources
Implementation status of REDD+, CDM, AFOLU/INDC and voluntary carbon market related activities in Anglophone Africa
African woodlands and savannahs: opportunities from and potential of REDD+
Vol 2 (15)
National and sub-national REDD+ activities implemented in mangroves in West and Central Africa
Working Paper Vol. 2 (19)
Climate change vulnerability of African forest plantations and the role of permanent sample plots
Vol 2 (4)
