Background

The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) outline a country’s transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilience future. Understanding the role of forests and other land-based sectors’ contributions to the achievement of NDC targets is important as is understanding the balanced use of natural resources for economic, social and ecological purposes.

The role of forests and their guardians in mitigating climate change has been brought to the forefront by recent discussions about long-term global goals for reducing emissions, culmulating in a new global agreement set at COP 21 in Paris, named the Paris Agreement.

The Paris Agreement calls for all participating parties to commit to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which form a country’s mitigation strategies and goals. Together with the Paris Agreement, the Conference of the Parties (COP) adopted a decision that guides pre-2020 actions and sets out implementation details, including setting a country’s NDCs.

The NDCs describe the enhanced actions and the necessary enabling environment that need to be developed from 2015 to 2019, which will lay the foundation for more ambitious goals beyond 2020, including contributing to the concerted effort to prevent a 2 degree Celsius increase in the average global temperature and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The NDC targets can only be achieved through actions taken regarding a number of different sectors, including both land-based and non-land-based. This sub-theme, however, would only focus on forestry and land-based sectors.

The objectives of the Paris Agreement cannot be achieved without forests and the land-based sector. Forestry is a unique land-based sector that serves as a source of emissions while maintaining its contribution as a sink. In short, forests and land use present a number of special challenges as well as opportunities for climate mitigation.

Many countries in the Asia-Pacific region give a large importance to forests and trees in their NDCs. However, as most countries in the region are still developing, the role of forest and land in a country’s economic development cannot be overlooked. Managing the balance between economic, social and ecological factors, while achieving a country’s NDC targets, remains a challenge. The balance would also include maintaining the sustainability: in form of food, water, energy security and climate resilience. Another challenge arise from the side of support, including finance, capacity building and technology transfer to achieve the country NDCs target.

With big opportunities for, as well as significant risks to, climate mitigation in land-based sectors, including forests, a discussion on long-term goals for emission reductions is vital. The discussion will be even more important if the dialogue features various views and perspectives from various stakeholders including donors, community, NGOs, and reserachers, and covering broader issues of balancing the economic, social and ecological factors and supports.  

The discussion aims to help Asia-Pacific countries and their governments formulate goals that ensure the reduction of emission from land use and forestry; the increase of carbon stores; land-based mitigation; and restoration of forests on the national, sub-national and community levels.

Objectives

The High-Level Panel on “Forests in NDCs” at the 3^rd Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit will discuss:

1. Points of view from different countries, multilateral agencies and experts on the challenges and commitments to achieving the NDC targets with forests and land-based sectors and how this is linked to helping maintain the balanced use of forests and land for economic, social and ecological purposes
2. Experiences from Asia-Pacific countries regarding forests and NDC targets
3. Understanding and supporting the role of non-party stakeholders in achiving NDC targets with forests and land-based sectors

Expected Outcomes

The expected outcomes of the High-Level Panel on “Forests in NDC” are:

1. Clear considerations on balancing economic, social and ecological objectives in achieving NDCs targets
2. Common understanding of the role of forests in NDCs

Agenda

•  NDC Partnership: Converging and delivering
•  Implementing NDC target under MRV: Challenge and principle on land based sector
•  Forests in NDCs