Rio+20 (18/06/2012) –Louis Verchot, CIFOR, talks to Pavilion TV about the REDD+ process and the lessons that have been learnt from the projects being implemented on the ground to date.

He says a whole host of lessons have been learnt from the international level and achieving political consensus to the local level on the ground where in many countries the political and economic interests may lean towards keeping the statue quo. He says lessons have also been learnt about the technical aspects of the programme.

He talks about the success the programme has had in putting forestry on the map. When forests were just considered as forests, in their own right, the discussion on conservation did not go so far, but since 2005, and the introduction of REDD, linking forests to other international agendas, for example climate change, has brought more stakeholders to the table and discussions have gone much further.