This policy brief concerns the landmark decision on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) reached in Cancun. The REDD decision states that developing country Parties can contribute to mitigation actions in the forest sector by undertaking the following activities:

reducing emissions from deforestation
reducing emissions from forest degradation
conservation of forest carbon stocks
sustainable management of forests
enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

According to the brief, the REDD decision fails to place adequate and fair guidelines on how to address the drivers of deforestation. It calls on developing countries to take action, but does not address the role that developed countries play in driving tropical deforestation. The paper highlights the following agreed key elements for REDD readiness, which developing country Parties are encouraged to develop:

a national strategy or plan, although the decision does not provide guidelines on how the plan should be developed
a national reference level; the details around how reference levels are established will need to be elaborated
a forest monitoring system to provide information on the progress of implemented REDD activities and on how the safeguards are being addressed.

The brief explains that the safeguards referred to in the decision provide guidelines on how REDD should be implemented. They refer to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as social and environmental safeguards, although it is unclear how these provisions will be effectively operationalised. The paper concludes that the Cancun accords were a necessary step, because it would have been very difficult to otherwise justify continuing engagement in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process and forest conservation would have continued in an uncoordinated and fragmented fashion.