Context
- With 47% of the national territory, i.e. 28.3 million hectares (ha), covered by forests, 9% of which is dense forest in the south-west and south-east of the country, the Central African Republic (CAR) is a biodiversity hotspot. Its development vision prioritizes decentralization, including land tenure and land-use planning, sustainable forest management, agricultural transition and transparency in the mining sector.
- The Central African Republic is engaged in the transition from humanitarian to development assistance and in a decentralization process, reinforced by signing recently the recent signing of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation. The implementation of the REDD+ process makes it possible to support these processes while ensuring that the need to implement sustainable management methods of forest resources management methods is taken into account.
- REDD+ implementation requires cross-sectoral coordination led at the highest level to meet expectations and improve the effectiveness of actions at the local level. A first preparatory grant from CAFI, which closed in June 2020, enabled the Central African Republic to develop its REDD+ National Investment Framework (NIF), which was transmitted to CAFI by the Prime Minister in early 2020.
Due to a lack of data on the drivers of deforestation and forests at the national level and outside the Southwestern forest massif, pre-feasibility studies are now necessary for CAR to commit to quantified objectives in terms of forest cover preservation.
The objective of this second preparatory grant from CAFI is to support the continued efforts of the partnership between the former and the Government and CAFI for the implementation of the measures identified in the National Investment Framework, through
- support for the development of a Letter of Intent and the associated coordination and monitoring-evaluation mechanism, and
- the conduct of three pre-feasibility studies for programs in three pilot areas.
National partner:
Ministry for Environment and Sustainable Development
Implementing agency:
French Development Agency (AFD)
Implementing partners:
WWF, Chinko reserve (African Parks), Agora (ACTED), World Bank, European Union, FAO
dollars approved
pre-identified pilot zones
pre-feasibility studies
multi-stakeholder consultation committees will be established
associated development partners
participatory workshops are planned
Expected Results
- Through activities preparing for the implementation of investments in the sectors identified in the National Investment Framework, the preparatory grant will provide data to help define ambitions for reducing emissions and improving livelihoods in the three target areas.
- Institutional arrangements will be put in place to ensure the effective participation and ownership of stakeholders in the process of developing and validating the letter of intent with CAFI (steering committee, technical working group).
- The grant will provide operational and logistical support to the policy dialogue between CAFI and CAR for the development of a Letter of Intent, through
- collecting and analysing progress in the different land use sectors
- capacity building of stakeholders (women, youth, indigenous, vulnerable)
- developing a proposal for a coordination, monitoring and evaluation mechanism, chaired by the Prime Minister, for the implementation of the Letter of Intent
- Pre-feasibility studies will be elaborated and validated to prepare 3 programs in 3 pilot areas (Bangui & periphery, Dzanga-Sangha + Mbaere Bodingue protected areas complex and corridor, Bangassou forest). The studies will analyze the drivers of deforestation, stakeholders' capacities and needs, assess the potential for CO2 mitigation and storage and propose intervention approaches.
- The content of the Letter of Intent and results of the pre-feasibility studies will be disseminated to the populations.
Areas of intervention
This program targets both the national level (policy dialogue) and the local level. Three pilot intervention zones have been proposed in the NIFINC to experiment innovative pilot REDD+ initiatives at the local level: Bangui and its periphery, in the southwest of the country the Dzangha-Sangha Protected Areas Complex (APDS), the Bodingue Mbaere Park, the Ngotto forest and the corridor connecting them, and in the southeast the Bangassou forest. Please also see the section "Pilot zones identified in the NIF".
Complementarity
The project will be based on a platform of actors present or operating in the pilot areas: WWF (which manages the Sangha-Dzanga zone and develops activities around Bangui), African Parks (Bangassou), the NGO ACTED/Impacts (Bangassou), CIRAD, FAO (which contributes to the implementation of the FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs)VPA-FLEGT and coordinates the CAR Forest Landscapes project within the framework of the GEF-funded Restoration Initiative funded by GEF), the World Bank (which is deploying the Natural Resource Governance project around Mbaéré Bodingué in the South-West forest massif and the PRADAC project) and the European Union, which is very present in the environment and local development sector.
Preliminary results
This section will be updated in the first annual report of the project (end of 2021).
Resources
Prodoc: Preparatory Grant to support policy dialogue and feasibility studies in CAR (signed, in French)
Prodoc: Preparatory Grant to support policy dialogue and feasibility studies in CAR (signed, in French), 21 Apr 2021
21 Apr 2021
Call for Expression of Interest in Central African Republic (2020)
Call for Expression of Interest in Central African Republic (2020), 12 Mar 2021
12 Mar 2021
Link to CAFI Drive - CAR Prep grant on Policy dialogue and feasability studies
Link to CAFI Drive - CAR Prep grant on Policy dialogue and feasability studies, 5 Aug 2020
5 Aug 2020
Photocredit: Stephan Gladieu, World Bank