JICA’s cooperation on REDD-plus
Morita Takahiro (Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA))

Session 2

JICA’s cooperation on REDD-plus
Morita Takahiro (Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA))
JICA’s mission and vision

Today, I will be talking about JICA’s cooperation on REDD+ initiatives.

First, I would like to introduce JICA’s mission and vision.

Based on the Development Cooperationof the government, we are carrying out various activities.

We are trying to promote human security.

Charter1

In other words, we want people to be able to live with dignity in this world.

At the same time, we want toprotect the global environment and achieve high quality sustainable growth.

Those are in our mission

statement.
As for our vision, we hope that our initiatives will contribute to Japan gaining trust from the world.
are five actions that we are focusing on in that regard.

There

We want to commit to achieve what we have said wewould do.

Related to REDD-plus, we want to try to do mid to long-term initiatives with a long-term

perspective.

When implementing projects, we will always aim for innovation and for co-creation with multiple

stakeholders.

Finally, but not least, we need to go into the field and work together with the people in the field.

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Those are the basic actions that we want to take at JICA as a cooperation for REDD.
JICA’s strategy for nature conservation

In JICA’s work for natural conservation, we also included REDD+ related activities.
strategic objectives that we pursue.

There are three

The biggest goal is to harmonize nature conservation and human activities.

First, regarding climate change mitigation, we are highly aware of the UNFCCC, and for mitigation of GHG
emissions, we are trying to promote sustainable forest management to address climate change.
have been many forest fires, as well as damage from typhoons.
based disaster risk reduction.

We want to use the ecosystem to do ecology-

So we have strategic goals both for mitigation and adaptation.

are many people living in very severe natural environments.
resources sustainably and improve their livelihoods.
Convention to Combat Desertification2.

Recently, there
Second, there

We want to help them to use their natural

We are carrying out these projects in line with the UN

Third, we want to promote biodiversity conservation, especially inbuffer zones and protected areas under the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity3.
activities contribute to a number of SDGs.
REDD+ cooperation policy

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All these

JICA’s cooperation on REDD-plus
Morita Takahiro (Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA))

Next is the REDD-plus cooperation policy.

Session 2

Based on the government’s Development Cooperation

Charter and JICA’s 4th Medium-term Plan4, we are promoting climate change mitigation and we are trying tocontribute to a sustainable society.

These are focus areas for both of these policies, and we are also developing

and implementing multiple projects in this line.

We have three basic policies for mitigation and REDD+ cooperation.

The first is to work for mitigation

under the Paris Accord, promoting and helping independent activities, especially in developing countries.
want to contribute to developing countries to develop good policies and to implement them.

WeSecondly, since

JICA is an aid organization of Japan, we want to apply Japan’s knowledge and technology as much as possible
to our actions.

For instance, after World War II, Japan’s forest rate was less than 50%, but now it has recovered

to around 70%.

The whole nation worked together to recover its forests.

shared with people in developing countries.

We think this experience could be

We also have superior remote sensing systems.

We want to workwith research agencies and government agencies as well as private sector players to make full use of our remotesensing and other technologies.
external funds.

Japan’s ODA budget is limited, so we want to help players get access toWe also want to make sure that the measures for emission reduction at the national level

contribute to global emission reduction.

4At JICA, we are focusing on global partnerships making use of

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external funds as one approach.

This is Policy 3.

For Policy 1, the keyword is to work with people in developing countries to develop their development
policies and help them in their preparation and implementation, as well as results-based payment phase ofREDD+ projects.
REDD+.

We want to help them to take a tailor-made approach to developing and implementing

Dr. Nyi Nyi Kyaw of Myanmar and Mr. Ma of ITTO mentioned that education is very important.

We are also inviting students from overseas to Japan to help contribute to the policy adoption andimplementation capability of many countries.
Regarding Policy 2, as I explained, we want to make use of Japan’s advanced remote sensing technology toprovide effective and efficient sustainable forest management technology development and expand these resultsaround the world.
Regarding Policy 3, for external funds and partnerships, as Dr. Buszko-Briggs mentioned of FAO
mentioned, we work closely with FAO and ITTO as important partners.
stakeholders and partners around the world.

We are collaborating with various

As for external funds, in addition to doing projects in Africa,such as the Congo, we have been doing co-financing with the Central African Forest Initiative5.
blending multiple funding sources for our projects.

5https://www.cafi.org/

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We have been

JICA’s cooperation on REDD-plus
Morita Takahiro (Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA))

Here is an example of our innovation in the field of remote sensing.

Session 2Dr. Buszko-Briggs of FAO

mentioned about SEPAL, but we at JICA are working with JAXA and making use of the ALOS-2 (Daichi 2)
satellite for monitoring of tropical forests in 77 countries around the world.

If you have a PC or a smartphoneand do a search for JJ FAST6, you will be able to take a look at the system.

If you tap the map, you can see

the situation of the forests of the world for instance.

We would like to share this information globally.

Itwould be very costly and time consuming for each country to develop these systems on their own, but bycollaborating with JAXA, it has been possible to shorten the time and reduce the cost for developing such aforest early warning system by offering one platform.

As for overseas funds access, we have been working closely with GCF.

GCF is a public fund promoting

climate change measures under a global partnership. In Japan, JICA has been partnering with Mitsubishi UFJ
Bank7 and has been accredited as an accredited entity.
grant projects.

JICA is the only entity in Japan authorized to accredit

At the Pacific Alliance Leaders Meeting, leaders from around the world expressed highexpectations for JICA to serve as a GCF accredited entity.
accreditation entity for GCF.

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We will continue to focus on our role as anSession 2

We are now trying to develop projects for preparation, implementation, and results-based payment ofREDD+.

Regarding cooperation with stakeholders, we are also working with FFPRI to establish a public-privateplatform for REDD+ since 2014.

About 90 private sector corporations have joined this platform to doknowledge-sharing, promotion of understanding, and development of business models.

If there are any

Japanese companies who have not joined the REDD+ platform yet, we encourage them to actively consider
becoming a partner of the REDD+ platform in Japan.

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JICA’s cooperation on REDD-plus
Morita Takahiro (Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA))

Session 2

Here are the REDD+ related projects that JICA is carrying out around the world.

In Asia, Africa, andCentral and South America, we are carrying out a wide range of REDD+ projects.

This is in English, but unfortunately we do not have any REDD+ projects in Myanmar.
door in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, we are doing REDD+ projects.
Myanmar’s REDD+ program is quite advanced.

However, next

Dr. Nyi Nyi Kyaw mentioned that

We are inspired by that.

We are currently working inVietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, but we hope to work with Indonesia as well, and do work for conservation in
the Mekong region in general.

It will be wonderful if we could collaborate to that end.

Way forward for JICA’s cooperation on REDD+

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Developing countries are working proactively on REDD+, but there is still a need for further capacitydevelopment.

As Dr. Sato of FFPRI mentioned, there is a need for long-term initiatives.

continuing to focus on capacity development.

We at JICA are

Rather than continue with business-as-usual, we want toactively promote innovation and make the best use of Japan’s know-how and technologies.

Furthermore, wewant to connect the results of multiple projects to link them together and then make those dotted lines expandinto broader footprints for a larger scale and impact.
REDD+.

JICA will continue to maximize its cooperation toThat is our wish, so we seek your continued support and cooperation.

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