REDD+ Policy Characteristics. REDD+ policy is intended to develop actions to reduce carbon emissions through reducing deforestation, forest degradation and enhancing carbon stock in forests, ultimately, to reduce global warming. It is expected that concerted efforts on the part of all stakeholders could reduce carbon emissions below business as usual (BAU). The impetus for the REDD+ policy has come mainly from developed countries and is now a global concern. REDD+ is voluntary and will adopt market mechanisms to ensure the opportunity costs of reducing carbon emissions are compensated. However, while the cost of not logged forests, for instance, is clear, the benefits will depend on the readiness of the REDD+ market. The government bears the cost of formulating, communicating and implementing REDD+ policy at different levels. Aid from donors, particularly from Norway, Australia and international agencies, have already arrived to support REDD+ implementation. The cost of transitioning can be categorized as short term, medium term and longer term. The short term is mainly for capacity building and meeting the funding gap. The capacity building embraces research, analysis and knowledge sharing, policy and institutional reform and demonstration activities. The medium term involves costs for determining effective national targets, monitoring-reporting-verification (MRV), link forest carbon credits and markets and advocacy for good governance. The longer term embraces costs for inclusion in the global carbon market (Eliasch, 2008). REDD+ policy is quite complex, its issues are shown in the mind map in Figure 2, which covers scope, spatial scale, approach, undesired outcomes, reference level and MRV. The MRV system requires remote sensing technology to develop reference levels and monitor change. REDD+ requires commitment and change of behaviours from various actors who deal with forests directly and indirectly as well as creating the demand for REDD+ credit. The complexity of REDD+ requires the involvement of many institutions such as Ministries of Forestry, Agriculture, Provincial Land Use Planning Unit, business companies and NGOs. This complexity implies administrative commitment to manage and make REDD+ work. The policy change process will not occur instantly. Policies at the national level need to be translated to provincial and district levels. The same broader policies need to elaborate detailed regulations. Real change will take time from understanding the policy, capacity building a...
