REDD+ Legal and Institutional Framework

Introduction

REDD+ is embedded in Ethiopia‟s national Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy, which envisions bringing the country to middle income status by 2025 through an environmentally sustainable and climate resilient economy while maintaining zero net greenhouse gas emissions. The Government of Ethiopia (GOE) established the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MEF) in May 2013 with the mandate to facilitate the implementation of the CRGE Strategy, including through development programs in environmental management and forestry.

Ethiopia is receiving international support to achieve REDD+ readiness and prepare the country for receiving results-based payments for emission reductions in the forestry sector. The national REDD+ Readiness program - primarily coordinated under the REDD+ secretariat at MEF - intends to serve as a vehicle through which the CRGE objectives on land use and forestry sector are achieved. The CRGE Strategy is closely related with the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), a five-year economic growth plan that aims to improve the overall national economy through GDP growth driven by the agriculture sector.

Ethiopia is a participant country of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and submitted a Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP) in 2011, which was approved in October 2012. The REDD+ Readiness Program - funded jointly by FCPF and the Governments of Norway and the UK- was launched in January 2013. As part of achieving REDD+ readiness Ethiopia is currently preparing its national REDD+ strategy.

A REDD+ Strategy Development Task Force has been set up and a group of core institutions has been nominated, including representatives of the MEF, Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MOWIE), Global Green Growth Institute(GGGI) and the Oromia REDD+ Coordination Unit. Terms of reference for the REDD+ Strategy have been agreed and individual entities are currently preparing the relevant sections. A draft version is planned for November 2014 and the strategic options identified will be translated into the Government‟s second GTP, due early next year.The elaborated outline highlights a focus on landscape level approaches for multiple-benefits as well as increased coordination between sectors with links to deforestation and forest degradation as some of the main features.

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