Regional highlights of R-PINs

Africa Region

FCPF Steering Committee MeetingParis, July 9 and 10, 2008

By FCPF Technical Advisory Panel

Forest Carbon Partnership FacilityForest Carbon Partnership Facility

Overview

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

8 countries being considered in the SC meeting 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:GabonRepublic of Congo

Forest rich, high deforestation:DR-Congo variety of situations (humid, mountains, savanna)Liberia after conflict situation, revamping of forestry activitiesCentral African Republic degradation in humid forest zoneGhana fragmentation of forests, agricultural expansion

Forest poor, high deforestation:Madagascar poverty, population growth, biodiversity hotspotsKenya intensive use of dry lands, energy

With commercial logging: Gabon, Republic of Congo, DRC, CAR, Ghana

Without commercial logging:Kenya, Madagascar, Liberia

General Observations

REDD – Issues on Methodologies

Forest degradation is not routinely monitored / estimated

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

Generalobservations

REDD – Policy Issues

Coordination among national agencies will be complex but important to address

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

Generalobservations

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;

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

Monitoring Systems and

Reference Scenario

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)

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

REDD Strategies

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 forest-dependant people

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)

Infrastructure to implement

REDD activities

Gabon, Ghana and Kenya envisaging establishment of PES schemes to change land use behavior

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

Potential effectiveness of proposed

REDD strategies, and

previous experiences

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

Ghana has very active policy dialogue w/ donors on forest resources, through a multi-donor 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)