This collaborative mechanism is designed to provide incentives for developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their forest and peatland sectors. A broad range of stakeholders - governments, multilateral organisations, civil society, indigenous groups and other forest-dependent communities, academia and the private sector - are included in all REDD+ planning and implementation processes. This chapter describes how REDD+ works and draws out some common denominators among the partnerships it promotes. With only a few exceptions - most notably, Brazil, which has slashed its deforestation rates over the past decade - the clear tendency in many countries is towards a continued and drastic decline in forest cover. While it is not known precisely how fast or how much forest is being lost, some estimates hold that 130 000 km2 disappear every year (FAO, 2010) - an area the size of Nicaragua or England. Most of this loss occurs in tropical areas, such as the great rainforests of the Amazon, the Congo basin, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.