First two programmes approved in Republic of Congo to monitor forests and optimize governance in support of the Prime Minister Office

Trees along the river

The first two programmes under the joint programming framework of the Letter of intent were approved in June 2021. They aim to improve decision-making on forest use and management thanks to an enhanced forest monitoring system, and support the Prime Minister's Office in its coordination role.

With over 22 million hectares of forest and low rates of deforestation and forest degradation, the Republic of Congo aims to realize its immense climate change mitigation potential by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the land use, land use change, and forestry sectors and by increasing carbon storage in biomass.

In June 2021, CAFI's partnership with the country expanded with the approval of two programmes in the Republic of Congo, the first two in a pipeline under development.

The first programme aims to operationalize the National Measurement, Reporting and Verification System (abbreviated in French as SYNA-MRV).  This system is designed to monitor the activities of the National REDD+ Strategy and to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and removals specific to the forest and land use sectors.

Developed by the country's National Center for Inventory and Valuation of Forest and Wildlife Resources (abbreviated in French as CNIAF), with support from the FAO and the World Bank, the system requires additional funding and training to become fully operational. Two million dollars have been approved by CAFI, through the FAO, for a period of two years.  

The programme will ensure the availability of timely and transparent data and its accessibility to the public.

This verification system will also allow the Republic of Congo to access performance-based payments, inform the future sustainable land-use planning programme, and improve forest management decision-making.

The Republic of Congo was the first African country to submit a Forest Reference Emissions Level to the UNFCCC in 2016. The programme will revise the Forest Reference Emissions Level for the Republic of Congo to be submitted to the UNFCCC, and incorporate complete and consistent greenhouse gas emission calculations and uncertainties in activity data and emissions factors. Meanwhile, the SYNA-MNV will produce the data needed by REDD+ monitoring and national forest monitoring. All the data produced will be available on an open source geoportal and will be published annually in a report for the national audience.

The second approved programme of two million dollars, titled Coordination project in support of the Prime Minister Office, will be jointly supported by the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office and the CAFI Secretariat.

It will ensure the effective functioning and coordination of the high-level and cross-sectoral management bodies established for the implementation and monitoring of the Letter of Intent, in line with the REDD+ National Strategy Investment Plan. Due to the extremely broad scope of the policies and measures covered by the Letter of Intent and their technical complexity, as well as the wide spectrum of stakeholders involved in the process, this programme is critical to increase the mobilization and alignment of the public and private sector, and of domestic and international interventions.

With the approval of these first two CAFI-funded programmes, the Republic of Congo now has the tools to coordinate actions to meet the commitments and vision of the Letter of Intent - aiming to maintain and increase the forest's sequestration potential through improved management and reforestation - and to measure the impacts of its actions.

 

Photocredit: CAFI Secretariat