Govt aims at forests to address climate change
Environment and Renewable Energy Minister Susil Premajayantha
inaugurated a programme to put forests at the heart of Sri Lanka's
strategy to tackle climate change.
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Environment and Renewable Energy Minister Susil Premajayantha,
UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Sri
Lanka Subinay Nandy and others at the launch of the Sri Lanka
UN-REDD National Programme. |
The programme will help Sri Lanka to prepare for an international
mechanism to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation
(REDD+).
REDD+ will be part of a future international comprehensive agreement
to tackle global warming, which is being negotiated through the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
REDD+ will be implemented on a voluntary basis; no country will be
obliged to take on a commitment if they see no benefit in doing so.
Under a REDD+ mechanism, industrialized countries are expected to
provide positive incentives for Sri Lanka and other developing countries
in exchange for information which proves that they have improved forest
and land use management practices. Sri Lanka will do this by measuring
the emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), a potent greenhouse gas, caused
through clearance of forests or loss of forest quality.
This is a challenge for Sri Lanka. As the country's economy continues
to grow, more pressure is put on forest resources. The Environment and
Renewable Energy Ministry requested the assistance of the UN-REDD
Programme, a collaborative initiative of the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to
help them prepare. Minister Premajayatha thanked UN-REDD for providing
funding for the implementation of Sri Lanka's REDD readiness proposal.
UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Sri Lanka
Subinay Nandy also spoke. |
