Regional highlights of R-PINs Africa Region FCPF Steering Committee Meeting Paris, July 9 and 10, 2008 By FCPF Technical Advisory Panel Forest 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: 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

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

General observations 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

General observations 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)