Climate Week 2 – Implementation Forum

As part of the 2nd Climate Week in Africa, the UNFCCC Secretariat organized an implementation lab on forests as part of the Implementation Forum. This highlighted the strong consensus and mandate for forest climate action, and then empowered Party delegates and stakeholders to discuss implementation of best practices, current trends and future solutions. 

The implementation lab on forests combined short dynamic action-oriented input presentations with interactive roundtable discussions centered on the potential of forests to contribute to the objectives of the Paris Agreement, with a focus on halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030.

The details on the implementation forum are available at https://unfccc.int/event/implementation-forum-0.

Presentation from the secretariat is also available at https://unfccc.int/documents/649816.

Key Takeaways

• Across the Africa-focused discussions, the shared bottleneck is alignment: aligning contested land/tenure realities (especially costly urban land and complex coastal/rural tenure) with nascent NbS understanding, tight municipal budgets/short political timelines, and uneven governance and enforcement. Cities must justify nature on a business-case clock while benefits mature slowly; rural frontiers face asymmetric power between smallholders and large agrifood actors, weak market transparency, fragmented farm structures, and poverty pressures that keep expansion into forests attractive. Add to this the need to downscale data for multi-hazard risk (fires, drought, pests) and to measure fire-related emissions credibly, and the result is a system that struggles to deliver at the pace and scale required.

• (Strongest actionable recommendation) Institutionalize cross-tier coordination and de-risk delivery with PPPs. Stand up (or empower) a national arrangement (e.g., a Designated National Authority for market and non-market approaches) and working groups on MRV/safeguards to streamline approvals; then use PPP frameworks with binding agreements to crowd-in private finance for forest-positive urban/coastal projects and city-region landscape programs aligned with NDCs/Green Legacy/NBSAPs. Pair this with a city-region approach for REDD+ eligibility and deploy valuation tools (e.g., IISD SAVi) so municipalities can evidence avoided-flood savings, jobs, and sequestration.

• Success depends on champions at every level (mayors, local admins, community leaders) and deep community ownership from day one. Equip governments and implementers with modern tech + local knowledge—remote sensing and AI for planning/monitoring, coupled with community-based fire management and data systems—within a multi-hazard frame. Build a community of practice (e.g., Fire Hub with regional partners) and integrate DRR (tsunami/flood) and waste-management plans. On the policy/market side, clarify land/tenure, run technical/financial/social feasibility studies, keep forests visible in all finance channels (REDD+, voluntary, Article 6.2/6.4), and advance transparency and incentives for deforestation- and conversion-free (DCF) supply chains, including stronger public monitoring/enforcement and support for farmer organizations.

• (Insightful quote or idea) Participants converged on a few crisp truths: “Cities everywhere are in tremendous need of nature and forests,” but “legal and governance gaps at different levels are our biggest bottleneck.” Financing confidence matters—“PPP provides comfort to the private investor… when investments are secure, they want to do business with you”—and so does integrity and visibility: “If forests are pushed out of Article 6.4, we lose a critical path to finance,” and “If you are invisible you will continue to be exploited… you have to be on the map, literally.”

• For Africa—with lessons globally—the path to scale is to align policy and markets, localize capacity, and de-risk investment so nature-based action moves from projects to durable programs. That means stable rules and access to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement; empowered sub-national partners using PPP-ready models; transparent, incentivized DCF supply chains that reduce agricultural pressure on forests; and community-led implementation that delivers quick municipal wins (jobs, avoided losses) while building long-term resilience across multiple hazards.