REDD plus and Biodiversity Conservation: A Review of the Biodiversity Goals, Monitoring Methods, and Impacts of 80 REDD+ Projects

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) presents an unprecedented opportunity to conserve biodiversity, but whether these biodiversity benefits are delivered will depend on how REDD+ is designed and implemented. In order to inform ongoing policy discussions on REDD+ and biodiversity, we examined how 80 existing REDD+ projects are addressing biodiversity issues, assessing the types of biodiversity benefits these projects aim to provide, the activities they are undertaking to achieve biodiversity goals, their plans for monitoring biodiversity, and the types of biodiversity impacts they are delivering. While all 80 REDD+ projects described biodiversity conservation goals, these goals typically lacked specificity. Furthermore, in 33 of 80 projects, there was a lack of coherence across the stated biodiversity goals, project activities and intended monitoring plans. The lack of specific goals and logical links between these goals, project interventions and monitoring suggests that the projects will have difficulty achieving and measuring biodiversity impacts. Future REDD+ projects and national level REDD+ programs could enhance the biodiversity outcomes by more explicitly articulating biodiversity goals, carefully identifying and addressing threats to biodiversity, tailoring interventions and monitoring plans to specific goals and threats, and more explicitly linking REDD+ activities to national biodiversity conservation efforts.