From 14 to 15 March 2013 Gabon, hosted an important workshop in the city of Libreville, on operational planning of the COMIFAC-FAO “ National monitoring and MNV systems with a regional approach for Congo Basincountries” Project.

The workshop, jointly organized by COMIFAC and FAO, with CBFF-ADB funding , brought together 23 participants representing organizations (FAO, COMIFAC, CBFF, and INPE) many of whom are members of the follow-up committee comprising national Climate Focal Points, National REDD+ Coordinators as well as national MRV consultants recruited in COMIFAC countries.

 The meeting had three main objectives, namely:

♦ To carry out consensual operational planning of the first phase of the project;

♦ To strengthen stakeholder ownership of the project ; 

♦ To ease contacts between national and regional project consultants and national REDD+ coordinators and climate focal points of COMIFAC member countries.

.

The meeting, chaired by Mr. MAHAMAT Idriss from Chad and moderated by Mr. Igor TOLA KOGADOU from CAR, witnessed three highlights: 

1. The opening ceremony, which was punctuated by a welcome address delivered by Mr. Rodrigue ABOURO, Director of Studies, Litigation and Environmental Law, representing the Gabonese Ministry of Economy, Employment and Sustainable Development, and a keynote speech by Mr. Michel NDJATSANA, representing the COMIFAC Executive Secretary. The latter expressed his gratitude to the Gabonese authorities and to the Congo Basin Forest Fund/ADB for making the meeting a reality and expressed the wish that developing countries would rally around the future REDD market. A copy of the FAO representative’s speech was distributed to all the participants. 

2. Presentations: The aim of the INPE team was to sensitize participants on the stakes of the project as well as enhance the national consultants’ and national Climate Focal Points understanding’ of the S & MNV concept. Participants’ expectations were expressed during a question and answer session which helped to throw more light on presentations which focused on:

♦  An overview of the project,

♦  Introduction of indicators,

♦  The Brazil forest monitoring system,

♦ Intervention strategies in countries without R-PP,

♦ The National Forest Monitoring System,

Presentation of project budget, budget allocations by country and types of activities to be funded by the project in its first phase. 

3. Break-out discussions and recommendations: Group discussions enabled participants to further examine the points raised during question and answer sessions. The discussions focused mainly on prioritisation of activities and highlighting indicators of expected results for the first phase of the project at the level of each country.

During the plenary sessions following the break-out discussions, monitoring indicators for results of 2013 were amended and adopted. A kit of deliverables by country was validated and strong recommendations made. Overall, participants encouraged the project to mobilise funds for countries without R-PP in order to integrate them into the project while taking into account the linguistic specificities of some countries like Equatorial Guinea and Sao-Tome & Principe. It was also recommended that Ministries in charge of REDD+ should lead the way, and finally that remote sensing capacities of national experts be strengthened and that reflection should start on the extension of activities beyond the current schedule. On the other hand, recommendations for COMIFAC member countries revolved around on technical, economic and organisational plans and elements to be factored into the preparation of R-PPs for countries which do not yet have any.

Training sessions in Brazil on the monitoring systems were recommended provided they were eventually extended to all 10 COMIFAC countries.

On this note of recommendations, participants parted, satisfied with the workshop.

Kindly download the final workshop report