Opening Statement by Mr. Ikuo Yamahana
Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
At the Aichi-Nagoya Ministerial Meeting of the REDD+ Partnership

October 26, 2010
(Japanese)

Honorable Ministers, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great honor to convene this meeting today, with the attendance of so many Ministers and representatives from more than sixty countries, heads of international organizations, and representatives of NGOs. The membership of the REDD+ Partnership has now expanded to sixty-nine countries. I welcome the broad participation of the international community this represents. As a co-chair, I would like to reiterate my gratitude for the cooperation and support from various countries and stakeholders in leading this innovative process. I would also like to express my appreciation of the efforts of my co-chair, the Honorable Samuel Tei Abal, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration of Papua New Guinea.

We have only one month before COP16. Towards establishing a fair and effective international framework in which all major economies participate, we need to achieve a balanced outcome in Cancun. Each country needs to engage in the negotiations hereafter with a sense of urgency. Forest conservation is one of the important pillars of the negotiations. In order for us to move forward, this REDD+ Partnership will have a significant role to play.

REDD+ is one of the most effective and efficient measures for tackling climate change and is an area where immediate action is required. Understanding different national circumstances, we need to provide assistance for REDD+, taking into account sustainable development, conservation of biodiversity, and protection of the rights of the indigenous peoples who are living in a traditional way. In order to respond to the need for significant funding, it is important to design a system that will promote investment and private sector participation. The role of technology is also imperative. We need to intensively work on acquiring and disseminating the necessary technologies, such as satellite images to monitor forests.

This partnership is a problem-solving framework. It aims to share information and knowledge and to enable us to learn from each other's experiences and best practice. The scaling up of funds and their efficient provision is a major objective. A total of 4 billion dollars in fast-start financing has already been pledged in the field of REDD+. Japan has pledged 500 million dollars over three years. It has already decided on the implementation of 200 million dollars in bilateral assistance. In addition, we are proactively looking into disbursing some funds for the administration of the REDD+ Partnership. I look forward to hearing about further assistance from the other Partners.

In the morning session, we will review this year's activities since the REDD+ Partnership was established in May 2010. In the afternoon, in order to further strengthen the activities of the Partnership, I would like us to reach a common view on a framework for the work program for 2011 and 2012 which should then be finalized in Cancun. I strongly hope this will spur the negotiations towards COP16 in Cancun. We need to demonstrate to the international community that our innovative efforts are making progress. I look forward to lively discussions in this regard.

Thank you very much for your attention.