Nuts and Bolts for India's REDD+ Calculus

To get ready with a sound case of REDD+ it is critical to check the ground reality and generate desired information on various physical data pertaining to forest cover, degradation and deforestation rate, socio-economic dependence on forest stock, etc. and costs like opportunity costs, transaction costs, implementation and capacity building costs of setting up REDD + projects. There is an urgent need to put our own house in order first such that India is well prepared and proactive in the international negotiations process to claim REDD + benefits. The paper attempts to provide a list of essentials for India's REDD + readiness for Cancun COP 16, so as to enable India to get advantage of international climate financing.