Emerging Lessons from Social and Environmental Safeguards Assessments for ART TREES Certification in the States of the Brazilian Amazon

In Brazil, various States are proactively implementing strategies to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, recognizing the critical role of the Amazon and other biomes in global climate regulation. These efforts include stringent enforcement of environmental laws, promotion of sustainable land-use practices, and the integration of indigenous knowledge in conservation strategies. Additionally, States are increasingly tapping into climate finance mechanisms, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), to secure funding to implement their policies. This financial support rewards their conservation successes and provides essential resources to sustain and scale their environmental actions, fostering a model of economic development that aligns with ecological preservation. The States of the Legal Amazon are currently working towards demonstrating compliance with the ART-TREES Standard in order to access funding for activities that contribute to reduce emissions from deforestation. Under the Governor’s Climate and Forests Task Force (GCFTF), UNDP, together with Fundação Amazônia Sustentável (FAS) and six other non-governmental organizations¹, has been supporting the States in this process. This blog shares emerging lessons from this experience, which took place between 2022-2024.

Introduction

Assessing conformance with the ART-TREES Standard’s environmental, social and governance safeguards across the States of the Legal Amazon has yielded valuable insights.

Across all the States, the assessment entailed a comprehensive review of existing policies, laws and regulations, coupled with an evaluation of their practical implementation. This was complemented by a literature review and interviews, capacity building trainings and workshops involving diverse stakeholders, including technicians from State and Federal Governments, members of States’ climate change and REDD+ Councils and Fora², Indigenous Peoples, traditional communities, and family farmers (PIPCTAF), and civil society organizations.

Anticipating challenges

Several challenges were anticipated and addressed upfront in the assessment design stage. Potential challenges fell into two main categories:

Stakeholder engagement

Stakeholders not informed of assessment process, not invited to participate;
Stakeholders not capacitated to effectively engage in assessment process;
Stakeholders not engaged at appropriate level or self-determined representative body;
Stakeholders may dispute or have concerns related to State-submitted safeguards data and documentation.

Safeguards assessment

Focus on existence of policies, laws and regulations, rather than their effectiveness, including institutional capacity to implement;
Undertaken without due engagement of Jurisdictional REDD+ governing structures and institutions;
Undertaken in parallel to other safeguards processes in the same Jurisdiction, exacerbating fragmented systems; resulting in a lost opportunity for consolidation, synchronicity, and effective use of resources;
Uncoordinated approach between State and Federal levels;
Safeguards data reviewed in a vacuum, assessment not specific to REDD+ interventions or results during a discrete period of time.
Insufficient attention to social and environmental risks associated with the REDD+ Programme, in the context of each indicator.

Key assessment design principles

Early recognition of these potential setbacks led to the development of the following principles to guide the safeguards assessments:

Transparency & inclusiveness: Demonstration of effective stakeholder engagement on, and ownership of, safeguards assessment.
Jurisdictional ownership: Strengthened Jurisdictional capacities to implement identified measures for conformance within a Jurisdictional REDD+ system.
Harmonized & nested: Harmonization of safeguards interpretation and coordination, building on complementary safeguards assessments (national-subnational; programmatic).
Risk-based lens: Incorporation of social and environmental risk assessment and management component, related to effective implementations of policies, laws and regulations in Jurisdictional REDD+ programmes (focus on non-compliance, grievances, etc.).
Quality assurance: Assessments and plans are informed and reviewed by a wide range of sources and stakeholders to ensure the quality of the data and process (triangulation).
Sustainability: Assessments and plans for conformance target the long-term establishment of institutional capacity to assess and manage social and environmental risks within the Jurisdictions, including sustained equitable use of proceeds and verified safeguards reporting, to promote overall sustainability of the process.

Below are three emerging lessons from the assessments and how these principles impacted the outcomes.

Inclusivity as a cornerstone for robust safeguards assessments

Incorporating input from a diverse array of stakeholders in the assessment ensured a more comprehensive understanding of local contexts, perspectives, concerns and interests. Including a core focus on training and capacity building for all stakeholder participants--to enhance their understanding and ability to effectively engage in the assessments--resulted in higher quality data and information. Targeted and tailored interviews with PIPCTAF representatives shed light on the unique impacts they experience and allowed for the triangulation and quality assurance of State-provided or publicly available information. Together, these factors increased the overall quality and credibility of the safeguards assessments.

Jurisdictional ownership paves way for effective uptake of recommendations

Jurisdictional governing bodies’ perspectives, expertise and institutional capacities were integral to the evaluation. The deep engagement with States shifted the focus from merely assessing the existence of policies, laws and regulations to a comprehensive examination of institutional capacity, effectiveness of application, and identification of gaps and needs within Jurisdictional bodies. This in turn, increases the likelihood that the findings and plans for conformance will be internalized and adopted. Because the assessments align with the practical needs and capacities of the States, there is a greater sense of ownership and commitment to the implementation of REDD+ safeguards.
Enhanced governance structures enable greater alignment and progress on nesting

The assessments were guided and supported by the Amazon States’ Safeguards Working Group, comprising over 50 members, including technicians from State and Federal governments, NGOs and civil society. UNDP acts as the Secretariat.

The Working Group has made significant contributions to coordinating safeguards activities across the States and with the Federal level, including:

Aligning States’ interpretation of the ART TREES Safeguards indicators, through the collaborative development of the ART TREES Safeguards Interpretation Guide in the Brazilian Context, which is also consistent with resolutions of the National Commission for REDD+ (CONAREDD+).
Aligning States’ approaches to State-level Safeguards Information Systems (SIS) and Summaries of Information (SOIs), while also ensuring consistency with other safeguards reporting requirements (e.g. those of Multilateral Development Banks, UN organizations, bilateral donors) as well as CONAREDD+ resolutions and the National SOI.

The Working Group will continue to play an important role in knowledge sharing, learning and capacity building across the States, as it will be the forum where the results of the safeguards assessments and plans for conformance are shared and discussed. The Working Group also plans to share practical experiences from States on how they are progressing in establishing benefit sharing plans and grievance mechanisms as well as in applying free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).

Towards ART-TREES certification

At COP27, the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF) Coalition, a public-private initiative dedicated to ending tropical deforestation, announced six new agreements with forest nations and states. Among these, Amapá, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, and Pará became the first Brazilian States to sign Letters of Intent (LOI) with Emergent, the Coalition's coordinator.

These LOIs signify a commitment from all parties to advance negotiations towards binding agreements for supplying emissions reductions to LEAF Coalition participants, marking significant progress for the Coalition in Brazil.

Further demonstrating this momentum, Acre became the first Brazilian State to sign a Term Sheet with Emergent at COP28 in Dubai. This Term Sheet sets the stage for a binding Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA), aiming to provide up to 10 million high-integrity forest carbon credits to the LEAF Coalition from 2023 to 2026. Both parties are committed to finalizing the ERPA in 2024. Although non-binding, this agreement highlights the rapid and substantial progress made by Emergent and the State government of Acre towards unlocking large-scale finance for forest protection.

A key part of this momentum, the safeguards assessments, have offered States an opportunity to strengthen their implementation of REDD+ in a transparent and inclusive manner, extending benefits beyond the assessment itself. This work helps lay the strong foundations that States need to produce high-integrity carbon credits.

[1] BV Rio, Conservation International (CI), Earth Innovation Institute (EII), Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV), Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (IPAM), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
[2] Tocantins: the State Environmental Council (COEMA); Amapá: the State Council for the Environment (COEMA) and the Amapaense Forum on Climate Change; Acre: the State Validation and Monitoring Commission (CEVA); Pará: the Steering Committee of the State System on Climate Change (COGES - CLIma) and the Pará Climate Change Forum; Mato Grosso: the REDD+ Management Council and the Mato Grosso Climate Change Forum; Rondônia: the State Council for Environmental Policy and the State Forum on Climate Change; and Roraima: the State Council for the Environment (CEMA) and the State Forum for Boosting Low-Emission Economic-Environmental Development.