Advances in technology and practical implementation experience have created a growing body of research and evidence that reducing carbon emissions through forest conservation can be a credible part of the fight against climate change.  This report explores the primary challenges in demonstrating this credibility, including:

• Demonstrating that the climate benefits from REDD areadditional (i.e. would not have happened anyway).

• Setting realistic baselines (i.e. business-as-usual scenarios).
• Measuring, monitoring, reporting and verifying the carbon stocks preserved in forests and actual emissions avoided.
• Addressing leakage (i.e. the shifting of emissions elsewhere).
• Managing risks to the permanence of the emissions reductions generated (i.e. strength in avoiding potential reversals).
• Ensuring the involvement of and benefits to local and indigenous peoples.
• Ensuring such efforts enhance, rather than undermine, environmental co-benefits.
• Expanding the scale and scope of REDD efforts.