Economics of forest and forest carbon projects: translating lessons learned into national REDD+ implementation

This report draws lessons on finance options and barriers related to project activities from the forest sector. It investigates the economics of implementing forest and REDD+ projects through a number of case studies from Africa, Latin America and Asia. Key conclusions include: public-private partnerships offer the most successful means to attracting investment and achieving sound project management; national REDD+ programmes offer the greatest potential to scale up investment in REDD+; forest carbon projects still do not represent attractive investment options for the private sector when compared to standard carbon projects; and financial risk is a major barrier to scaling up from forest carbon projects to REDD+ national strategies. The report hopes to advise policymakers, financial sector stakeholders and project developers on how to structure and implement REDD+ initiatives and strategies, especially in relation to attracting private and/or public investments.