This three-day regional event, held from 12-14 September, assembled 50 delegates from 13 countries around Asia & the Pacific to exchange practical experiences on forestry and climate change.

It focused on the topic of Forest Reference (Emission) Levels (FREL/FRLs), a mandatory requirement for countries to be eligible to receive results-based payments under the international REDD+ framework. Submitting FREL/FRLs to the UNFCCC is an involved process that requires
understanding national circumstances that drive emissions and removals, and the adoption of reliable and transparent
methodologies to measure, report and verify emissions and removals from forests.

To help countries address the
challenges they face in this technical process, leading experts from the three UN-REDD Programme agencies (UN
Environment, UNDP, FAO) gave insightful presentations about the latest developments regarding FREL/FRLs.

The event was organized by the UN-REDD Programme, with the support of the Forest Survey of India (FSI), India Council for Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and GIZ/BMZ (Government of
Germany).

Participants travelled from as far away as Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar,
Vietnam and Indonesia for the occasion, alongside delegates from India’s neighboring countries of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal, to gain knowledge and exchange with the counterparts on their respective REDD+ strategies.

The event was comprised of a two-day workshop and a one-day field trip. During the interactive workshop, countries were asked to present the choices they made when they constructed their FREL/FRLs, and to share their experiences with the technical assessment process. The field trip to Thano Forest Reserve was led by the Forest Survey of India with ICFRE’s support, and involved a field demonstration on how to lay out sample plots for the collection of data for India’s national forest carbon inventory.