ICIMOD’s REDD+ Initiative organized a Regional Learning Workshop on ‘Demystifying REDD+ Safeguards for South Asia’ from 2–6 November 2015 in Kolkata, India. The meeting brought together four partner countries, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, and Nepal, with the long-term goal of establishing an REDD+ safeguard information system by fostering south-south learning in the HKH region. The meeting aimed to improve understanding of the REDD+ safeguard approach and its compatibility with the existing safeguard mechanisms explained under different policies, laws, and rules. It also identified gaps in existing policies, laws, and rules; established a technical expert group; and formulated a work plan for documenting and sharing knowledge products on REDD+ safeguards.

In addition, as a part of technical assistance from the United Nations Environment Programme under the ‘Costs and Benefits of Reducing Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Nepal’, a programme designed to identify the economic implications for different stakeholders of conserving and enhancing carbon through reduced deforestation and forest degradation, a two-day orientation programme for the enumerators was organized at ICIMOD on 10–11 December 2015. This orientation was focused on the field sampling technique and methodology for conducting a forest inventory. Immediately after the orientation, all of the enumerators conducted field sampling in the project sites in Kailali, Rupendehi, and Kapilvastu. A total of 120 plots were sampled (40 plots in each site).

Furthermore, on 20 November 2015, ICIMOD, under its REDD+ Initiative, joined hands with the National Trust for Nature Conservation to initiate a process for developing a Biodiversity Monitoring Protocol for REDD+ in Nepal that is in sync with the UNFCCC, CBD, and UNCCD to ensure that investment in REDD+ is sustainable and addresses the risks associated with the decrease in value of biodiversity and ecological resilience.

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