Jamaica’s progress for readiness with respect to the Warsaw Framework’s four pillars for the building blocks of REDD+ is emerging however, none of the four pillars are at this time completed. To be specific, with regards to the NFREL component, the historical emissions baseline is under development. With respect to the National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) the National Forest Inventory Assessment manual and protocol is being revised to meeting the requirement of REDD+ inclusive of the quantification of carbon, methods for quantifying carbon stocks, statistical data analysis for emission factor estimation, and data management and processing in the R statistical programming language. With respect to the REDD+ Safeguards Information System (SIS), preliminary assessment are underway and requisite entities for the function of the system are being engaged to complete the Strategic Environmental and Social Safeguards Assessment (SESA) and the Environmental and Social Management Framework. Lastly, with respect to the National REDD+ Strategy, six (6) REDD+ Strategy options are under review to determine the best strategic options for Jamaica’s REDD+ strategy (e.g., cost-benefit analysis, interest group analysis, simple risk analysis, feasibility assessment, environmental and social risk assessment feasibility, and viability for Jamaica to pursue.

Yet, towards the end of achieving a national REDD+ Strategy and the revised NDC goals the implementation of JAM-RS 003 revealed several gaps around three key areas. These areas are:

• Weak institutional capacity at the national level of government stakeholders to manage a REDD+ programme/strategy,
• The inability to track and monitor at a national level, social safeguard data in the absence of baseline data and central data repository
• Poor capacity and engagement of local communities and private landowners; the latter being key holder of forested lands in Jamaica.

As a result, the country is seeking to submit a supplemental grant request. The objectives of this supplement proposal are: 1) to address the gaps identified through the implementation of JAM-RS-003 2) to strengthen the capacity of Jamaica to implement a credible National REDD+ Strategy/Programme that is based in expansive participation of local communities and individual large private forest landowners.

The proposal will also further support work within the forest sector towards sustainable forest management which is a national priority for the country with emphasis on engaging individual large private forest landowners who are especially important as over 70% of the islands forest resources in the hands of these individuals (private sector or private entities/individuals) thus representing the largest proportion of direct beneficiaries from the project.