Safeguarding Forests and People

The document outlines a roadmap for REDD+ countries to establish national systems that protect biodiversity and the rights of local people while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation. It proposes a four-part framework consisting of goals, functions, rules, and institutions to manage social and environmental risks. The report emphasizes that governments should first assess existing rules and institutions to identify gaps before creating new laws or agencies, noting that the specific design of these systems must be tailored to national circumstances.

• The UNFCCC REDD+ safeguards consist of seven guiding principles, including transparency, participation, the protection of biodiversity, and the protection of the rights of local people, designed to prevent REDD+ actions from exacerbating existing inequalities.
• A robust national safeguard system is composed of four integrated components: goals (what the safeguards achieve), functions (the processes to achieve goals), rules (the parameters of the system), and institutions (the entities ensuring rules are followed).
• To be complete, a safeguard system's functions must cover five key areas: anticipating risks and opportunities, planning to avoid harm, managing actions through safeguard plans, monitoring outcomes for course correction, and responding to grievances.
• Before establishing new rules or institutions, governments and stakeholders should assess the extent to which existing frameworks already meet safeguard goals and identify specific risks resulting from current gaps.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Safeguarding Forests and People. https://www.wri.org/research/safeguarding-forests-and-people

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Safeguarding Forests and People. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/safeguarding-forests-and-people.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Safeguarding Forests and People |url=https://www.wri.org/research/safeguarding-forests-and-people |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendsafeguarding, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Safeguarding Forests and People}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/safeguarding-forests-and-people}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }