The DRC REDD+ Investment Plan

Adopted in 2013 and revised in 2015, the DRC REDD+ Investment Plan translates the vision of the National REDD+ Strategy into concrete actions. It sets the programmatic framework over the next five years, and identifies priority policies and measures for which a total amount of 1 billion US$ is deemed necessary by 2020. Its general objective is to reduce the loss of forest cover from the current 300,000 ha/year to 200,000 ha/year by 2020.

Strategic interventions

The Investment Plan aims at two major impacts: emission reductions and improved livelihoods, especially through increasing the income of population amongst the poorest and most vulnerable worldwide.

To this end, the REDD+ Investment Plan includes a portfolio of REDD+ programs across the country that include

• Major structural and policy reforms, such as land tenure reform to secure rural tenure, a land use planning policy, improvement in governance and increases in agricultural productivity that promotes activities in savannahs
• Investments at provincial level to drive a sustainable, inclusive model of rural development and create new socioeconomic opportunities for local communities, farmers and smallholders

The result framework of the REDD+ Investment Plan is built upon the drivers identified through national consensus in 2012:

A national consensus reached after years of consultations

As a reference document, the REDD+ Investment Plan is the result of extensive consultations over several years with seven sectoral ministries, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, private sector, technical and financial partners around a shared vision of what priorities are for sustainable land use and development. The plan is therefore based directly on the decisions taken in a participatory way since 2009 in the context of developing the Forest Investment Program (FIP) and the National REDD+ Strategy.

2016: implementation of the REDD+ Investment Plan begins

After a double independent review in 2015, the REDD+ Investment Plan was praised by the CAFI Executive Board for its quality, coherence and ambition. CAFI agreed to contribute to its implementation through a Letter of Intent.

Now capitalized, the National REDD+ Fund, which serves as the multi-stakeholder governance framework to pilot the implementation of the Investment Plan, launched the investment programming cycle in 2016, allowing for activities to start in 2017.