For more information, please see the following report of the Steering Committee for the Enhancing institutional capacities on REDD + for sustainable forest management in the Congo Basin Project

The fourth Steering Committee of the Enhancing institutional capacities on REDD+ for sustainable forest management in the Congo Basin Project, was held in Douala from 9 to 10 January 2014, bringing together the whole array of bodies involved in project implementation (CGP, national coordinating bodies and focal points) under the chairmanship of the ECCAS General Secretariat.

Participants at the steering committee bore the heavy duty of reviewing project forecasts, to assess the degree of implementation which led to the adoption of new guidelines for the implementation of the project in 2014.

Thus reports were presented, paving the way for thorough scrutiny of the following issues:

1. Implementation of the last steering committee’s recommendations: it appeared that the project had executed more than half of the recommendations of the last SC and the pending ones were reiterated with minor improvements.
2. Project achievements in 2013: Technically speaking, the project completed 52.80% of the activities planned for the year with a disbursement rate of 45.95%. This achievement level was lauded despite the fact that most activities scheduled and assigned to firms were completed in the last quarter of 2013.

Having endorsed the 2013 activity report, the SC devoted particular attention to other matters. These included:

1. PTBA 2014: it amounted to 2,457,163,000 CFA francs (USD 4,914,326) against 1,923,170,429 FCFA (3,846,340USD) for the year 2013 and after careful consideration, the CP validated it subject to some amendments.
2. Purchase of vehicles for data collection with a view to elaborating allometric equations, the SC endorsed the purchase of one vehicle per country.
3. The role of National Coordinating bodies in the implementation of activities by the firms: it came out from the discussions that the National Coordinating bodies are required to be involved at all levels of activity granted to firms.

At the end of this successful Steering Committee meeting  with which both participants and the SC Chairman were satisfied, the latter made an appointment for July 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in hopes that the project would make significant advances. Furthermore, with respect to all the points discussed during the two-day deliberations, a series of recommendations were made and are contained in the report prepared to that effect.

For more information, please see the following report of the Steering Committee for the Enhancing institutional capacities on REDD + for sustainable forest management in the Congo Basin Project