Community Forestry: Responding to both Adaptation and Mitigation

Many  countries  in  the  region  are  developing  or  revising  their  national climate chage adaptation strategies and it is critical that forest use by communities be considered and included within these plans. At the same time, mitigation activities  such  as  REDD+  have  rarely  explicitly  considered  adaptation or  the  need  to  develop  adaptive  capacity  (FAO,  2012). This  means  that valuable  opportunities  are  being  missed  to  ‘couple  up’  activities  with a goal to achieving results in both areas.

Five community forestry sites across Asia were explored with a view to better understanding this relationship. Specifically, how can mitigation initiatives such as REDD+ enhance synergies with adaptation and how can trade-offs be avoided?

This policy brief outlines the key points from our publication, "Linking Adaptation and Mitigation through Community Forestry: Case Studies from Asia"