During a key workshop held in the conference room of the Azimut Hotel in Bangui from 25 to 26 July 2014, organized by IUCN with financial support from the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) a host of actors, namely, representatives of Ministries, the Focal Points of the CEFDHAC Network, Mayors of councils, NGOs and platforms, the private sector, representatives of forestry sector trade unions as well as representatives of partners and the Bureau of the CEFDHAC-CAR National Forum came together to breathe life into the CEFDHAC-CAR National Forum.

Chaired by Blandine Paulette GAHORO-DEALI, Director of Environmental Planning (MEFET) the meeting aimed to help revitalize the CEFDHAC-CAR National Forum, validate studies conducted under CBFF and identify core elements needed to formulate the engagement strategy and communication plan of the Central African Republic’s civil society grouped within the CEFDHAC Forum. Achieving these objectives hinged on five main meeting events aside from the opening ceremony, namely:

♦ Presentations in plenary session and exchange of views on the workshop’s terms of reference, the Draft Statutes and Internal Rules and Regulations arising from basic texts approved by the Council of Ministers in Bangui in 2008and FN texts of CEFDHAC-CAR and a report on the current situation of the CEFDHAC-CAR National Forum.

♦ Break-out group work on review of Draft Statutes, review of Internal Rules and Regulations.

♦ Feedback from studies conducted under the CBFF with regards to REDD + issues in CAR, dealing with the development of a strategy for involving indigenous peoples and women in the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas (APDS), in identification, analysis of factors in deforestation and forest degradation with a view to proposing elements for use in elaborating a deforestation monitoring system in the two landscapes concerned; governance mechanisms for forest resource management in order to suggest improvements to REDD + and the existing benefits sharing mechanism with the aim of assessing GAPS in REDD + mechanisms.

♦ Presentation of draft membership directory, operational action plan of FN CEFDHAC-CAR and the draft Position Paper.

The fruitful discussions that followed these different segments resulted in recommendations made first of all by the participants to the CEFDHAC-CAR National Forum (NF) to the effect that it should set up a small team of six (6) people to harmonize the Statutes and Internal Rules and Regulations and a small team of five (5) to update the Operational Action Plan of the CEFDHAC-CAR NF. A recommendation was put to IUCN to help organize a special validation workshop at national level, to validate the results obtained given their importance and especially to ensure ownership of the results by all stakeholders at large. It was further recommended that the Bureau of the National Forum should improve the content of the Position Paper and incorporate comments made during the meeting.

With these strong recommendations, the lesson and experience-rich workshop ended, leaving the participants very satisfied.  

For more information on the conduct of the workshop, please see the final communiqué below: