Established in October 2010, Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) aims to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in Guyana by financing the related REDD+ capacity building and implementation activities. GRIF is intended to finance the implementation of Guyana’s national policy framework “Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS)” and capacity building activities. LCDS was developed after Norway and Guyana signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Joint Concept Note (JCN) to establish GRIF. It is the over-arching policy for Guyana in implementing REDD+ activities for GRIF, including REDD+ governance development plan and MRV roadmap.[1]
Scope
Country
Guyana
Sector
Forestry and land use
Timeframe
2010-2015 (Initial plan); extension for another 5 years is decided
Volume
The fund was to receive up to US$ 250 million from Norway until 2015.
Donor(s)
Norway will be the first contributor; however there is flexibility to allow other contributors to participate.
Implementer(s)
Specialized agency of the UN that is a member of the UN Development Group
Final beneficiary
Local communities, land owners and small business enterprises
Inputs and activities
1) Inputs: Finance, knowledge from the actor involved in the design and implementation of the program.2) Activities: Phase 1. Establishment of national framework to adopt the REDD+ model; Phase 2. Capacity building for implementing REDD+; Phase 3. REDD+ support result base payment based on several performance indicator.
On which level are RBCFs used?
At the program level, countries need to have proper capacity for national level MRV system to achieve results before being eligible for results-based financing.
At the project level, payments are made based on RBCF modality.
Disbursement linked indicator(s)
Deforestation and degradation rates against baseline, and tCO2e
Program Design: GRIF is designed to enable Guyana to carry out REDD+ activities. Thus it also follows the general design of REDD+ modality, which includes policy level reform, capacity building and results-based payment against verified achievements.
Purpose / Goal
Outputs
1) Strategies for implementation of low carbon activities developed;2) Appropriate national level MRV system built;3) Deforestation aspect: Certain amount of forestland preserved - not converted to a non-forest use; 4) Degradation aspect: e.g. certain measures to prevent forest fire adopted and certain actions to ban illegal logging activities taken.
Outcomes
1) Enhanced national capacity to adopt and implement REDD+ MRV activities;2) Improved situation with regard to deforestation and degradation in Guyana.
Impacts
1) Combat climate change by emission reduction activities;2) Promote economic growth and development for indigenous people through conservation of forest.
On which of these levels are measurable indicators defined / formulated?
Output
RBCF Design & DLIs: The activities financed by GRIF based on RBCF imply that the RBCF components occur on two levels. From the perspective of the Guyana government, the country needs to have proper capacity in policy making and MRV, etc. before being eligible to get funding for projects and activities. On the project level, the results-based element is that payments are made against verified results, e.g. reducing deforestation rate.
Support Instrument
Type of support granted:
1) GRIF and Implementing agencies offer policy advice;2) initial grants are offered for capacity building activities;3) Payments (grants) against verified results.
How is the payment related to the goal(s)?
Payments are based on an independent verification of Guyana's implementation of REDD+ enabling activities.[2]
1) For deforestation activities, the reference measure is a deforestation rate of 0.275% (the average of Guyana historical deforestation rates + global average deforestation rates 2005-2010). If the deforestation rate increases above 0.1%, no payment will be made; if the rate increases beyond 0.056% (Benchmark Year 1 rate), the payment will be reduced;
2) For degradation activities, the benchmarks for certain activities are relatively definable, e.g. a benchmark of a degradation area of 4368ha is used to assess Indicator 2.3. For other activities, verification methodology on results are less defined --- in some cases with manual inspection and interviews with forest authorities, e.g. a default factor of 15% is used in illegal logging activities in absence of "hard" data.
Note: Payment indicators are for the period 01 January 2013 to 31 December 2013
Lessons-learnt: GRIF can assist in enhancing national capacity to adopt REDD+ readiness process, implementing REDD+ activities, and improving the situation with regard to deforestation and degradation in Guyana. Strategies and implementation modalities could be developed in the country. Appropriate national capacity could be built in terms of conducting MRV and determining Reference Emissions Level (REL). Generally speaking, similar types of RBCF initiatives like GRIF could build capacity for key forest countries, which could contribute to the preparation for NDCs.
Blog » Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF)
Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF)
Established in October 2010, Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) aims to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in Guyana by financing the related REDD+ capacity building and implementation activities. GRIF is intended to finance the implementation of Guyana’s national policy framework “Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS)” and capacity building activities. LCDS was developed after Norway and Guyana signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Joint Concept Note (JCN) to establish GRIF. It is the over-arching policy for Guyana in implementing REDD+ activities for GRIF, including REDD+ governance development plan and MRV roadmap.[1]
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