IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

This connection has put the prospects of combining climate and conservation goals by reducing emissions from deforestation and ecosystem degradation (REDD) increasingly at the centre of international attention and discussion. While IUCN sees the international carbon market as a promising channel for improving livelihood opportunities for the rural poor in forest areas, it is our conviction that REDD schemes that reward reductions in deforestation rates at the national level can only be successful if they are underpinned by effective forest governance arrangements achieved through participatory tripartite reform processes. IUCN sees such processes as a key element of REDD-readiness, without which the critical conservation and poverty alleviation benefits that REDD-based approaches have to offer are likely to go unrealized.