An Explainer Animation: What is a Forest Reference Level? (FREL/FRL)

Developing countries that participate in REDD+ must develop a Reference Level (FREL/FRL). These benchmarks assess a country’s REDD+ performance by providing a quantitative way to measure emissions reductions and removals. As of February 2019, 39 countries had submitted 44 FRLs to the UNFCCC. The submitting countries represent 1.5 billion hectares of forest, which is 37% of global forest area. 13 of them are located in Asia and the Pacific.