Forests have continued to degrade and disappear for decades despite numerous efforts to protect them. One of the elements undermining such efforts is poor governance. Addressing this is essential to protecting the remaining forests from destruction. 

Global Witness has been working on independent monitoring for over a decade. We pioneered Independent Forest Monitoring (IFM), through which we have promoted cooperation between governments, civil society, and the private sector in timber-producing countries such as Cambodia, Cameroon, Honduras and Nicaragua. IFM entails the use of an independent third party that, by agreement with state authorities, provides an assessment of legal compliance, and observation of and guidance on official forest law enforcement systems.

We are now drawing on this expertise to ensure Independent Monitoring of REDD (IM-REDD) constitutes a core building block in the overall REDD architecture and supports good governance. Designing and implementing national-level IM-REDD in a transparent, accountable and participatory way is fundamental to guarantee REDD delivers for forests, people and the global climate.