Transcript Regional Highlights of R-PINs - Africa

Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
Regional highlights of R-PINs
Africa Region
By FCPF Technical Advisory Panel
FCPF Steering Committee Meeting
Paris, July 9 and 10, 2008
 10 countries from Africa submitted
their R-PINs before May 30, 2008
 R-PINs submitted for consideration by SC
were complete and used the latest R-PIN
template
Overview
 8 countries being considered in the SC
meeting
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Central African Republic
Democratic Republic of Congo
Gabon (in French)
Ghana
Kenya
Liberia
Madagascar
Republic of Congo
Africa: A variety of situations
Forest rich, low deforestation:
Gabon
Republic of Congo
Forest rich, high deforestation:
DR-Congo  variety of situations (humid, mountains, savanna)
Liberia  after conflict situation, revamping of forestry activities
Central African Republic  degradation in humid forest zone
Ghana  fragmentation of forests, agricultural expansion
Forest poor, high deforestation:
Madagascar  poverty, population growth, biodiversity hotspots
Kenya  intensive use of dry lands, energy
With commercial logging:
Gabon, Republic of Congo,
DRC, CAR, Ghana
Without commercial logging:
Kenya, Madagascar, Liberia
REDD – Issues on Methodologies
 Forest degradation is not routinely monitored
/ estimated
General
Observations
 National capacity to monitor forest cover
changes is crucial to REDD Programmes –
includes techniques to estimate both above /
below ground biomass
 Low national capacity to monitor forest cover changes
major bottleneck
 Use of projections of future DD scenarios
proposed by many countries
 Many countries make the link to the larger
Environmental Services agenda
REDD – Policy Issues
 Coordination among national
agencies will be complex but
important to address
General
observations
 Countries showed strong support to
involving communities in forest
management
 Land tenure - complex governance
issue that could jeopardize REDD
 Clarifying Emission / carbon rights reaching the poor is a priority
Ownership of R-PIN and REDD Agenda
 Interest up to the highest political
level to tackle the issue of DD with
new tools and instruments;
General
observations
however
 Countries are at different stages of
discussions of REDD at the national
level;
 Interest among countries is high
though in some countries there was
substantial inputs from external
consultants – a capacity constraint
 Congo Basin countries (CAR, DRC, Gabon, Rep. of
Congo) proposed a regional approach to monitoring
forest cover, through COMIFAC’s OFAC (Central
Africa Forest Observatory)
Monitoring
Systems and
Reference
Scenario
 CAR, DRC and Rep of Congo have proposed
impressive methods to estimate biomass hence
carbon stocks
 Ghana proposes an integrated forest monitoring
system
 DRC presents a concrete case of the need for
modeling future deforestation/
degradation. Issue of palm oil plantations
 Liberia already has an impressive national grid of
sample plots to assess forest carbon stock
 Madagascar proposes a “participatory ecological
monitoring” for biodiversity
 CAR, DRC and Republic of Congo - emphasis on
improving their forest concession management
(maintaining existing carbon stocks)
 Gabon implementation of REDD projects based
on future deforestation scenarios, including PES
(Payment for environmental services) for forestdependant people
REDD
Strategies
 Kenya proposes activities “outside forests”
(agriculture & energy) to address deforestation
and degradation and promotion of PES schemes
 Liberia proposes to integrate REDD into its “3
C’s” strategy to forests – communities,
conservation & commericial
 Madagascar proposes a nested approach
(combined national and project level approach)
 Gabon, Ghana and Kenya envisaging
establishment of PES schemes to change
land use behavior
Infrastructure
to implement
REDD
activities
 Liberia suggests the establishment of
strong institutional mechanism to
coordinate REDD activities (National
Carbon Working Group) with the overall
sustainable development agenda
 Madagascar has a national “REDD Group”
in place that meets regularly, discussing
issues such as the development of a REDD
revenues distribution mechanism
 DRC is currently implementing the first forest
carbon finance project in the country: Bateke
fuelwood plantations
 Gabon is currently improving its large scale
forest concessions (CFADs) system and has
created 13 new protected areas
Potential
effectiveness
of proposed
REDD
strategies, and
previous
experiences
 Ghana has very active policy dialogue w/
donors on forest resources, through a multidonor operation (Natural Resources and
Environmental Governance) – high chance of
success for REDD
 Kenya has experience in A/R CDM, the
Greenbelt Movement’s reforestation project (w/
BioCF support)
 Madagascar has experience w/ three ongoing
REDD projects on the ground (two linked with
protected areas, one to the development of a
national REDD concept)