GLA - NCRC- Develop Position Paper Outlining Opportunities to Influence the Development of Landscape Standards and Emission Reduction

"Across the global south, forested countries are engaged in serious efforts to reduce deforestation and degradation and to conserve their forests in an effort to reduce the negative impacts of climate change and safeguard the invaluable and myriad ecosystem services that forests provide. Over the last eight years, two types of initiatives that have gained widespread interest and investment are landscape standards for agricultural production systems and emission reductions programs. Agricultural productivity and efficiency urgently need to be increased in order to meet the current and future demand of human populations. At the same time REDD+ initiatives in particular jurisdictional REDD+ programs will become increasingly important in efforts to protect and manage forested landscapes. These programs help link zero-deforestation commodity initiatives to government programs aimed at addressing deforestation with jurisdictional or landscape wide monitoring, verification and reporting. In light of the nascent nature of these two initiatives, there is little peer reviewed research available about these initiatives and their impacts. Yet there are a number of NGO and civil society members who already have extensive experience in such programs and standards. Thus, there is a significant and important opportunity for the GLA to learn from these experiences and then work with country-level NGOs and representatives of civil society to engage with the main proponents of these initiatives in order to influence the design and outcomes of landscape standards and ER Programmes to better ensure positive forest outcomes for forests, forest users and agricultural small-holders. " "1) generation of an semi-structured questionnaire to be sent to approximately 20 experts and practitioners from GLA countries and countries with major experiences on landscape standards and ER Programsg; 2) on-line follow-up discussions with each practitioner to discuss the follow-up questions and emerging trends; 3) preparation of a position paper, based on the questionnaire responses and discussions, that gives a brief background to the two types of initiatives, that describes the associated early findings, experiences, opportunities and challenges, and that makes lobby and advocacy recommendations for the GLA as well as next steps for cross-cutting, collaborative information collection and action. "