The Congo Basin Forests Partnership Anchor Conference will take place in Brazzaville from October 8-9, 2014 alongside related meetings

 

Dear Partner,

 

The CBFP Facilitation is pleased to inform you that Congo Basin Forests Partnership Anchor Conference will be held in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, on October 8-9, 2014, focusing on “Opportunities and Challenges: Climate and Land Use in the Congo Basin”. It will be organized with the generous support of Norway, the United States, Germany, France, the Republic of Congo and IUCN.

 

We welcome your participation at this anchor Conference, which will also feature the distribution of the 2013 State of the Forests report, the Land Use Planning Guide (USFS-COMIFAC), the State of the Apes publication and the Validation of the Land Use Atlas for the Congo Basin.

 

The draft agenda for the CBFP Anchor Conference is as follows:

 

♦ October 8, 2014 - The Anchor Conferencewill focus on the following themes: (i) REDD+ and Low Emissions Development for Green Economic Growth:  the role of forest protection, land restoration, improved agriculture and inter-sectoral planning, low emissions sustainable development and climate programs; (ii) Impacts of UNFCCC / international processes for Central Africa (iii) Finance Mechanisms for REDD+, rural economic growth, low emissions development, and tropical forest protection (iv) New Horizons: a Revised Plan de Convergence.  A marketplaceofideas on land use, sustainability and climate by CBFP partners will be proposed just after the afternoon sessions.

 

♦ October 9th, 2014 will be devoted to interactive discussions on (i) Addressing Deforestation and Land Use planning in Central Africa: Forests and agriculture in land use planning, including a pioneering “innovation alley” exhibition of successful projects (ii) Expanding the engagement of key partners for optimal national LEDS and REDD implementation. (iii) Addressing Threats: Wildlife and Empty Forests.A final segment will invite partners to pledge bold visions: “Taking New Actions, New Linkages for 2015.”

 

Additional information:

 

♦ The CBFP Advisory Committee Meeting – October 7, 2014

The CBFP Advisory Committee will hold a board meeting --by invitation only-- to discuss key and strategic issues concerning the CBFP. The aim will be to update partners of the CBFP Advisory Committee on a range of important and strategic issues, to investigate various ways of bolstering the visibility of the Partnership’s strategic actions at the Meeting of Partners.

 

♦ From October 6 to 7, 2014 – a series of workshops aimed at strengthening the capacities/skills of negotiators, civil society organizations and the media in the area of Climate Change (Climate/REDD) will be held prior to the CBFP Anchor Conference plenary. The workshops will be jointly organized with the financial support of the United States Forest Service, The United States CBFP Facilitation, CARPE-FCMC (USAID), Norway, the World Bank and IUCN.

 

♦ October 10, 2014 – A high-level segment will be convened by His Excellency Henri Djombo, Minister of Forests of the Rep. of Congo.  Further information will follow in subsequent correspondence.

 

♦ A side event has been proposed by EC (DEVCO) on October 9 to unveil the strategic document on African Wildlife Conservation.  The EC (DEVCO) will present a strategy document including a synthesis and 5 regional chapters.  A panel with key partners will invite feedback. To frame this strategy, the EC (DEVCO) is also developing a database of biodiversity-related initiatives, as requested by several partners.

 

♦ At October 10^th, 2014 - This Central Africa training workshop which is one of a suite of regional on Social and Environmental Soundness (SES) workshops of the Forest Carbon, Markets and Communities (FCMC) Program (USAID). FCMC's core mission is to build technical capacity by developing tools and training that support United States Government (USG) contributions to the international architecture for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+).

 

♦ From October 10-11, 2014 theSecond regional workshop of The BIOPAMA project will present and validate the reference information system, the institutional arrangements to the main stakeholders (regional and national services, donors, NGOs). The BIOPAMA project aims at developing regional reference information systems and observatories on protected areas in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries (www.biopama.org). The Reference Information System is based on the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas, jointly implemented by JRC, IUCN and UNEP-WCMC (dopa.jrc.ec.europa.eu/explorer). BIOPAMA is funded by EU and implemented jointly by EC-JRC and IUCN (with input from UNEP-WCMC).

 

 

The agenda and venue and logistics details for events will be announced in due course.

 

Furthermore, participants wishing to organize side events at the CBFP Anchor Conference should kindly contact Dr. Pokem (dany.pokem@pfbc-cbfp.org) as soon as possible.

 

Best regards from the CBFP Facilitation Team!

 

 

Matthew V. Cassetta

Facilitator, Congo Basin Forest Partnership

U.S. Department of State

 

  

N.B.

1. Participation fees shall be borne by the participant.

2. Registration will open June 27^th and will close no later than July 31^st 2014.

3. After capacity is reached, registrations will be ranked on a waiting list until space becomes available.