To provide learners/students necessary KSA (Knowledge, Skills and Attitude) on social and environmental issues potentially associated with REDD+ projects and the safeguard tools for assessing these issues.

Social and Environment al Soundness is the one of the four modules of USAID LEAF’s Regional Climate Change Curriculum for universities and training institutions in the Asia Pacific region.

Regional Climate Change Curriculum Development is part of capacity building component of the USAID LEAF program funded by USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia. US Forest Service has provided technical support to the curriculum development process.

This module will cover a broad range of social and environmental soundness topics, focusing on core underlying principles as well as REDD+ project application. Focusing on these core principles, the module materials are highly relevant to any climate change action implemented through on-the-ground projects, whether framed in terms of mitigation or adaptation, whether carried out by the public or private sector, and whether in response to an established multilateral climate change convention mechanism such as REDD+ or not.

SES module is divided into three sections, each including multiple relevant topics:

• Section I. Introduction and Background
• Section II. Existing Social and Environmental Issues: Strengthening Design and Implementation of REDD+
• Section III. State of the Art in Action: Bringing the Pieces Together

Topics (or sub-sections) are accompanied by a PowerPoint Presentation file as teaching materials, covering:

• An overall structure for class delivery
• Specific learning objectives
• Suggested active learning activities
• A short topical list of references

Some topics are accompanied by separate classroom handout files to support the suggested active- earning activities.

The module materials are elaborated in English and will be translated into the national language of the USAID LEAF participating countries. The module can be tailored to both degree and non-degree programs.

• Undergraduate and postgraduate students
• Governmental managers, planners, policy makers at different levels
• NGO practitioners and natural resources professionals

At the end of the module, students will be able to:

• Interpret social and environmental “soundness” and explain how it fits into larger contexts of climate change, climate change mitigation, and climate justice debates.
• Analyze conceptual and theoretical frameworks underlying social and environmental soundness
• Apply a variety of relevant tools for addressing soundness.  
• Appraise how gender issues relate to REDD+ and cut across various other concepts.
• Explain how safeguard mechanisms and approaches are being used in practice.
• Evaluate social, environmental, and economic costs and benefits, risks and opportunities associated with REDD+ and with other PES (Payment for Ecosystem Services) or conservation programs and projects.
• Synthesize a range of social, economic, and environmental considerations for application in REDD+ projects and safeguard mechanisms
• Assess real-world REDD+ and safeguard design and implementation

In class, case study, role plays, exercises, discussions, other interactive activities

Respective university will award a certificate/degree to those learners/students who successfully complete the module.

At the end of this session, learners will be able to:

• Explain the difference between climate variability and climate change
• Describe the causes climate change
• Describe the effects/impacts of the change

At the end of this session, learners will be able to:

• Explain why forests are important to society
• Describe the relationship between forests and climate change
• Elaborate on how and where forests store carbon, and the general factors that might influence forest carbon storage
• Explain the evolution of forest-based mitigation efforts, from RED to REDD+
• Define and describe the key components embodied in the acronym of “REDD+”
• Explain why a thoughtful and cautious approach to REDD+ implementation might be important

At the end of this session, learners will be able to:

• Identify the importance of SES and explain its key concepts and principles
• Explain a range of different safeguards and standards in REDD+ context
• Discuss the linkages between SES principles and justice issues

At the end of this session, learners will be able to:

• Identify the principles of sustainable development linked to social, economic and environmental issues
• Describe the concept of environmental ethics and the essential features of moral or ethical thinking
• Identify how a human-rights-based approach can arise from an ethics framework
• Relate and develop the skills to recognize and apply moral discourse for leadership in environmental fields, including in climate change mitigation

II.         WHAT SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES EXIST:

STRENGTHENING DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION OF REDD+ PROJECTS

• Explain the concepts of “environmental co-benefits” and “unintended consequences”
• Explain how ecosystem services and biodiversity are related
• Classify ecosystem services according to the four categories defined in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
• Compare the potential environmental benefits and risks associated with markets and payments for ecosystem services (including carbon)

• Define REDD+ carbon accounting issues and explain why they are critical to ensuring the environmental integrity of REDD+
• Describe the difference between Monitoring and MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification)
• Compare the four different options for measuring carbon stock and change, and describe why at least two methods are important to creating robust carbon measurements
• Explain why carbon monitoring is important in the context of REDD+

• Define governance in the context of REDD+
• Explain the three key components of governance in the context of REDD+
• Explain the four key principles of governance (transparency, accountability, participation, and rule of law) in relation to REDD+
• Refine arguments for why the four principles of natural resource governance are important in the  REDD+ context

• Describe regulatory frameworks and identify how they relate to forest governance
• Define and differentiate tenure, forest tenure, and carbon rights and compare different types of rights that can be part of tenure
• Analyze the relevance of regulatory frameworks, forest tenure, and carbon rights to governance

• Identify who are the stakeholders and what are their stakes within a REDD+ project context
• Apply the 4R Stakeholder Analysis Tool to analyze within a REDD+ project context
• Explain the various forms and levels of participation, the core values of participatory decision-making, and how this impacts on stakeholders in REDD+

• Explain the key concepts that define FPIC
• Explain the difference between consultation, negotiation, participation, and FPIC
• Explain why seeking consent is important in a REDD+ project
• Identify the risks of not seeking FPIC in a REDD+ project
• Explain the supporting values of FPIC within the context of REDD+
• Differentiate between a rights holder and a stakeholder in a REDD+ project

• Explain the concept of co-benefits, within the REDD+ context
• List a variety of different potential social co-benefits that could arise from the implementation of REDD+, PES, or other conservation programs or projects
• Categorize social co-benefits under a variety of approaches
• Analytically link the concepts of safeguards to co-benefits
• Apply the concept of co-benefits, using a gender equity example, to assessing international and national funds design

• Explain theory-based definitions of gender and women’s empowerment
• Articulate the arguments for women’s empowerment in REDD+ or PES
• Analyze the roles of the socio-cultural context of gender in efforts to achieve women’s empowerment as a project social co-benefit

• Explain the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment in climate change context
• Explain the concept of gender mainstreaming
• Explain the purpose and domains of gender analysis in development projects
• Apply a gender analysis tool (the Harvard Framework) to integrate gender related considerations into climate change mitigation and REDD+ projects

• Explain the history, purpose, and key elements of the WEAI tool (how it is constructed)
• Analyze the advantages and limitations of the index
• Construct at the conceptual level, modified indices for application within REDD+ projects or within forestry sector projects

• Explain who indigenous peoples are
• Explain the scholarly critique of simplistic understandings of community, in the context of conservation
• Explain the importance of partnerships to build respect for natural and cultural heritage
• Apply Kabeer’s theory of empowerment to a case study example
• Analyze the contribution of co-benefits to an empowerment outcome

• Explain the livelihood concept and the sustainable livelihoods framework
• Assess and apply the asset pentagon approach
• Distinguish forest-dependent livelihoods from other types of livelihoods
• Consider how gender might be incorporated into the sustainable  livelihoods framework
• Assess the link between REDD+, forest governance, and forest-dependent livelihoods

• Relate the general details of a REDD+ project case study in Papua New Guinea (April Salumei Sustainable Forest Management Project) and identify stakeholder participation and FPIC aspects the project
• Apply the sustainable livelihoods framework to this case study and explain the potential livelihood implications of the project
• Design a research project to collect data on potential livelihood impacts
• Assess livelihood implications of similar REDD+ projects

• Understand and explain the concepts of costs and benefits in the context of REDD+ and apply these to a framework of effectiveness and equity
• Explain key concepts/ terms: elite capture, exclusions, benefit sharing, benefit distribution systems, performance-based payments, proxy measures, payment coefficients
• Analyze challenges and opportunities in the design of benefit distribution systems
• Design an illustrative benefit distribution system

• Explain the basic economic concepts relevant to PES/REDD+
• List, categorize, and identify the B&C (benefits and costs) and tradeoffs
• Apply the developed skills to use economic decision tools for analyzing social and environmental soundness in REDD+
• Evaluate the linkages between B&C of REDD+ and how these link to SES

Learners will be able to:

• Relate currently available specific SES safeguards and tools
• Explain associated key concepts, purposes, and operational processes of key safeguard mechanisms relevant for REDD+ programs
• Exhibit skills to analyze social and environmental issues in REDD+ using one of the safeguard mechanisms employed in REDD+

• Assess the need and options for streamlining safeguards and standards

• Relate the status and key initiatives for REDD+ safeguards in various countries in the region
• Demonstrate familiarity with national safeguard options, national safeguard systems, and grievance redress mechanisms
• Synthesize and integrate SES issues and tools in the context of either a hypothetical country or a real-word case study

Knowledge

Necessary knowledge on SES

Final exam (summative-objective)

Skills

Completion of activities and out-of-class assignments (written assignments and debate)

Attitudes

Attendance

Punctuality

Group participation

Quality of assistance to others

Contribution to the overall learning effort

Perceived effort

Preparation for class

Percentage

Marks

Awarded