Pakistan has a long list of endeavors to mitigate the emerging trends in climate change, particularly in forestry sector such as REDD+. However, despite having its presence and little recognition, there is a need to bridge information and capacity gaps in making REDD+ operational at various levels. As a matter of fact, there is an urgent need of information dissemination and capacity building to address the issues and challenges such as adopting a national approach and scenarios embedded with provincial context in the aftermath of the 18th amendment, revisions in the forest laws to accept forest carbon as a commodity, natural resources governance and benefits sharing mechanism in context of sustainable development. It is the right time to chip in the REDD+ mechanism by starting parallel activities, such as strengthening institutional capacities, awareness raising, development of related knowledge products, National Strategy for REDD+ implementation, trainings programmes, feasibilities and pilot studies.

The level of understanding on climate change and REDD+ among all the stakeholders is diverse and low. There is a dire need to promote inclusive platform for REDD+ implementation at national and provincial levels to solicit ownership and commitment of stakeholders by maximizing the outreach of REDD+ messages. Therefore, awareness raising and consultation processes need to remain essential components of the REDD+ Readiness Program in Pakistan.

Since Pakistan is promoting REDD+ Readiness program for preservation of forests through private-led carbon sequestration and carbon credit generation through establishment of Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs) and Community Based Organizations, there have been some issues that need to be resolved and it could only be possible through improvement in the system based on lessons learnt so far. Under such scenario, it is high time for relevant stakeholders to gear up their efforts to synchronize and support the obvious cause by launching a large-scale information and communication campaign both at national and provincial levels. This campaign should affect all relevant stakeholders; various authorities at different levels, technocrats, central and local administrative authorities, religious, political, community leaders, opinion leaders, NGOs, civil society, donors and media and last but not the least the general public. Utilizing its extensive affiliation with the subject and expertise in the field of research, advocacy and networking, along with its forthcoming initiatives/collaborations.

The REDD+ Awareness and Outreach component activities under the FCPF grant have been assigned to Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in February 2017 and includes reaching out to parliamentarians, journalists, religious scholars and other politicians. The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) has been a partner of Ministry of Climate Change (MOCC) (previously Ministry of Environment) in various issues of sustainable development including forestry. The objectives of this assignment are as under:

• To devise and launch an awareness raising campaign both at national and provincial levels to create an enabling environment for effective implementation of REDD+ Readiness activities in Pakistan
• To devise a strategic communication plan to engage all relevant stakeholders’ including policy makers, technocrats and central and local administrative authorities, local Communities, religious and political leaders, general public, NGOs, and religious and academic scholars.
• Developing a short documentary video highlighting Pakistan’s status and commitment to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
• To organize awareness raising seminars on REDD+ and relevant mobilization activities that would also target women and marginalized segments of the society.

The overall aim of the REDD+ Awareness Raising Outreach Campaign is to promote REDD+ messages and knowledge in the society through application of standard norms and processes. Through the launch of this REDD+ Awareness raising campaign, SDPI will take all relevant stakeholders on board i.e. from grassroots to technocrats to develop critical mass through a vibrant engagement with media, religious scholars, parliamentarians, all line departments and community leaders. Social and traditional media (both print and electronic) will also extensively be used. The National REDD+ office is also conducting awareness-raising seminars on new emerging concepts related to REDD+ in collaboration with academic institution and universities.