Environment related issues are high on the global agenda. The fact that forests play an important role in combating climate change has become increasingly evident in the period 2000-2005. After ratifying the Kyoto Protocol (1997) the subject of Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation (RED) got more and more attention.
The Coalition of Rainforest Nations, of which Suriname is a member, has fought with the Forest 8 to get the issue of "avoided deforestation" in the UNFCCC (The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) agenda.
This implies that countries with high forest and low deforestation, like Suriname, also need positive reasons to protect their forests and use them sustainable.
At two meetings of the Conference of the Parties, COP-13 and COP-14, important decisions were taken about the direction in which the fight against greenhouse gasses should develop.
Developing countries, including Suriname, made the Conference recognize the efforts of developing countries to preserve their forests. Until then, only industrial countries who would try to reduce emissions were taken into consideration, but there was no reference of developing countries who already had low emissions.
Developing countries brought to the table that they too should have the right to develop their countries. However, unfortunately this (economic / social) development often goes hand-in-hand with the disappearance of forests for the construction of infrastructure or industries. There had to be a plan for developing countries to develop in a more balanced way to prevent them of making the same mistakes as the industrial countries did before them.
At the following times there are major global decisions taken at the international climate conference COP (Conference of the Parties):
| COP-13 (2007), Bali: |
Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) was a central point on the international policy agenda
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| COP-14 (2008), Poznan: |
the '+' was added, which refers to the last section of the REDD +
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At the COP-14 conference Suriname has actively participated in the negotiations on REDD+.
The Conference recognized that besides combating deforestation and forest depletion other initiatives such as promotion of the protection and restoration of degraded forests could have a positive effect on mitigating climate change.
The resulting Bali Action Plan has thus added REDD in the category of mitigation of climate change.
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