REDD-PAC Project

Presentation of REDD-PAC findings to the scientific community

The four-day conference Our Common Future Under Climate Change (OCFCC) is considered the largest forum for the scientific community to come together ahead of the UNFCCC COP21 in Paris in late 2015. The Conference addressed key issues in the context of climate and global change including REDD+ with a focus on moving from present knowledge to future solutions.

Already before the conference, the Global Land Project (GLP) has endorsed REDD-PAC as a REDD+-related project featuring scientific excellence and contributing to three main objectives: Identifying the dynamics of land systems, assessing consequences of land system changes and integrating analysis & modeling for land sustainability. At the OCFCC conference, the GLP gave an overview of GLP-endorsed projects and preliminary results produced by these.

Zooming in on REDD-PAC results, Alexandre Carvalho (IPEA) presented a methodology to harmonize different sources of land use information for Brazil. This approach was adopted by REDD-PAC to produce a consistent land cover-land use map which subsequently served as a solid basis to develop GLOBIOM Brazil.

On these grounds, Aline Soterroni (INPE) gave an oral presentation about potential pathways for sustainable REDD+ policies in Brazil.

Global commodities are expected to also put increasing pressure on Congo Basin forests in the coming decades. Against this background, Aline Mosnier (IIASA) used the CongoBiom modelCongoBiom model to assess the role of increasing population and demand for palm oil in the Congo Basin.

REDD+ policies will have major impacts on future land use and in turn biodiversity. In this context, assessment of biodiversity implications of REDD+ policies in Brazil and the Congo Basin built the bridge between both target regions of REDD-PAC.