An innovative Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) monitoring tool, the International Database on REDD+ Projects and Programs Linking Economic, Carbon and Communities Data (ID-RECCO), is now hosted by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry’s (FTA) lead center, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Launched in 2013, ID-RECCO highlights 467 subnational REDD+ initiatives from around the world. It includes 110 variables, such as carbon certification, sources of funding, and expected socioeconomic and environmental impacts, in a format that can be used for research purposes and analysis. ID-RECCO was the first tool to gather such a large amount of information on subnational REDD+ initiatives in a comprehensive way, and it continues to evolve.

“CIFOR is very pleased to host the ID-RECCO database given our priority for understanding the progress and performance of REDD+ on the ground. We are committed to keeping the database updated and ensuring that it stays relevant for the broader tropical forests and climate community,” said Amy Duchelle, CIFOR Senior Scientist.

As Duchelle describes, the next big change to ID-RECCO will allow users to easily distinguish between local REDD+ projects and subnational jurisdictional programs. For REDD+ projects, CIFOR will validate the data through a survey with project implementers that will be conducted in upcoming months. To expand the database to include subnational jurisdictional REDD+ programs, CIFOR will draw on new collaborative research with Earth Innovation Institute (EII) and the Governors’ Climate and Forests (GCF) Task Force.

ID-RECCO was created by Gabriela Simonet when she was based at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and Climate Economics Chair (CEC) with founding partner the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI). CIRAD is also an FTA partner institution.

“ID-RECCO was born in the hands of Gabriela in CIRAD, pushed by her motivation to understand if REDD+ was going to fulfill the on-the-ground socio-economic and ecological impacts that stakeholders were advocating for. In that sense is a ground-breaking initiative and a unique dataset to reach such an understanding. It allows, for example, to extract simple statistics, like the amount of hectares covered by REDD+, and understand the trends and types of REDD+ projects and initiatives,” said Driss Ezzine-de-Blas, CIRAD Researcher.

Ezzine-de-Blas also notes that while the data can be used by researchers to match their expectations to the reality of REDD+, other stakeholders will also benefit by taking REDD+ more seriously and will have data-based evidence in hand to continue their work.

“ID-RECCO is the first comprehensive database on REDD+ projects worldwide. It has the great advantage to allow international comparison of very diverse types of projects, in various locations. Being frequently updated and open access, it then constitutes a unique tool that makes possible monitoring and impact evaluation of those initiatives, which will provide a better understanding of the conditions of success of REDD+ implementation,” said Philippe Delacote, Researcher, Climate Economics Chair.

ID-RECCO can be accessed at http://www.reddprojectsdatabase.org/

For more information, please contact Gabriela Simonet at gabriela.simonet@gmail.com.

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This announcement was originally published by CIFOR.