liberia conservation
TRANSCRIPT
Conservation International and the Government of Liberia
Collaboration for a new development pathway
Liberia: a shining light for west Africa and the world
Transition from terrible conflict to “ready for development”
Conservation International and Liberia: partners for 8 years
The opportunity is now
Opportunity for what?
Development based on good management of natural systems
Management for ecosystem service provision:watererosion protection, climate change bufferingMaybe ecotourism
Development will be difficult or impossible without this
How far have we got?
We know what the natural forest asset base consists of:carbon volumebiodiversity distributionmanagement principles
We are working on getting more people involved in this as a business opportunity
Liberia is the most important country in the Guinean Forest Hotspot, containing about 43% of all remaining forest, and most of the interesting biodiversity
The government has shown great foresight in developing the institutions, policy and oversight tools
Forest Development Authority
Environmental Protection Agency
National Forest Policy
Accession to Convention on Biodiversity and Kyoto
National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan
Protected area strategy and draft management plan
What are the opportunities?
“Position Liberia as the regional and global leader in conservation of biodiversityand development based on sound environmental management”
Impacts
Higher international profile
Increased resilience to climate change
Increased investment in natural resource management through Carbon funding and biodiversity conservation
Improved mechanisms for engaging local communities in natural resource management, improving democracy and governance
Regional and global profileMadagascar as an example
Since 2003, Madagascar has based its development strategy on sound environ-mental management, including the tripling of the national protected area network
A trust fund for management of these areashas now passed 50M USD in capitalization
Most new protected areas are community-co-managed
A very high profile on the international stage
Great opportunity for transboundaryWorld Heritage Sites
Everyone is on Liberia’s side!
Probable result:
Increased human pressure leading to natural resource conflicts.
Rainfall in the Sahel will likely be drastically reduced population
migration southwards towards less affected areas such as Liberia.
Sea-level rise as much as 5 meters (due to ice melting) over the next
century is major issue. Predicted inland migration from coastal
communities.
Increase resilience to climate change
How to manage this situation?
Reinforce civil society participation in natural resource management,as a business and development opportunity
Invest in conserving the asset base, to ensure continued yield
Promote good governance through investment in capacity
Engage regionally to demonstrate leadership and foresight
• Liberia’s historic deforestation rate of 0.2-0.4 % per year has been low, but this won’t last
• This deforestation accounts for over 900,000 to 1.8M tCO2 emissions annually (forest to non-forest)
• Process for engagement in carbon markets started
Potential for investment from climate change mitigation
Initial proposed protected area network 1.14 million hectares
Conservative historical deforestation rate (1986-2000 forest to non-forest)
0.038 % per year within the PAN only
Comparable tons CO2/hectare (Winrock Aug 2004 Guinea report)
900 tons CO2 per hectare
(stored in forest biomass)
Percent closed canopy forest in proposed PA network
73 % closed canopy forest
(Omits regrowth and degradation)
Assume 50% reduction in PA network deforestation rate
0.019 % per year
Conservative carbon price estimate $5 - $10 / tCO2
Conservative gross carbon revenue $700,000 - $1,400,000 per year
Potential carbon mitigation yield
Community management of natural resources
Essential to promote democracy, reduce social instability, promote equity and transparency
Considerable challenges in post-conflict areas, but;
Investment mechanisms are the key, seeding money into communities at theappropriate scale and volume
In order to build development on sound environmental management, what have we learned from elsewhere ?
Technical resources: community management of forest; consultation plan fornew protected areas, investment in community structures; biodiversity management
Policy resources: land tenure, forest resource management rules, investmentmechanisms
Further investment:
(in addition to good access to health care, infrastructure, markets and education)
steady long-term and flexible revenue streams to enable communitiesto rebuild their social structures and start the development process for themselves
Secure long-term financing to cover recurrent costs of managing the protected areas network, to sustain biodiversity against impacts of climate change
Above all, strong civil society structures supported and capacitated by governmentand partners
Investment: so far, USAID and World Bank, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund,Fauna and Flora International, Conservation International, other development partners
New investment opportunities
European Union: are expressing strong interest in regional program
World Bank- Forest Carbon Partnership Facility- proposal submitted
US Government- Matches to HIPIC debt restructuring
French, German and UK governments- protected areas and civil society
Corporates for carbon investment
Debt swap opportunities – capital funds, high profile projects
Diaspora- civil society structures and carbon offsets
US Foundations- capacity building for conservation and development
Conclusions
People need secure access to natural resources for development
Those natural resources are assets that will provide great yields, if managed wisely
Many of these asset values are only now becoming clear
The market is fast-moving and complex
Liberia has the opportunity to become a great regional and global leader
Conservation International will do whatever we can to help