Evolution of REDD Plus: From Kyoto to Doha

REDD+ is a financial instrument to incentivize conservation and sustainable management of forests, and thereby achieve reduction in the GHG emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation. It aims at compensating forest owners in developing countries for conserving their forests by putting a value on the forest carbon stocks - one of the many ecosystem services that forests provide. This chapter aims at discussing this path of evolution and the current state of affairs with the REDD+ mechanism. It further delves into analyzing how scope of this financial instrument has been increased to address the diverse drivers of deforestation/forest degradation and over the years, it has gained wide acceptability among the UNFCCC member nations.