The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has provided a platform to the international community to negotiate and take measures for climate change mitigation. The concept of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation Plus (REDD+) was developed as an incentive based mitigation mechanism to address the potential role of forestry up to 17 - 25 % reported share towards Green House Gases (GHG) emissions reduction.

Pakistan is a low forest cover country but has a significant potential for REDD+ for which it has a long list of endeavours to enter into the global mainstream in order to bring future REDD+ into its practice and for the benefit of local community together with global contribution towards mitigation response. This paper analyses the global dynamics, existing national and international policies and local governance setup, and aims at providing policy recommendations through a framework of actions to meet all requirements of REDD+, especially for the setting up of good governance model moving from Readiness (2011-2012) to Mainstreaming phase from 2013 onward.

The paper chronicles Pakistan’s involvement with all the Conference of Parties (COP) from COP-11 to COP-17 and the country’s commitment to meet all the REDD+ requirements especially with the commemoration of 2011 as the International Year of Forests (IYF).

As green beds, forests provide links to our livelihoods and insurance against the climate challenge. The year 2011 is, which provides an opportunity to evolve work on sustainable forestry. The paper notes that Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with Pakistani Ministry of Environment has initiated pioneering work on REDD, and launched the "Pakistan Carbon Initiative (PCI)" to further drive the REDD initiative.

In addition to the above measures and to fully achieve the REDD+ goals, the paper concludes by suggesting several government and NGO interventions that will accelerate Pakistan’s readiness phase.