As part of efforts to reduce green-house gas emissions by safeguarding the state of tropical forests, stakeholders on June 18, 2014, gathered at the Yaounde Mont Febé Hotel to listen to the findings of a study carried out since 2009 by the Centre for International Forestry Research, CIFOR and partners, Known as FORAFAMA or “Support for Sustainable Management of Forests in the Congo and Brazilian Amazon Basins”. The project gathered knowledge on the link between forest management and climate change in Central Africa and the Amazonia.
It supported pilot projects in logging concessions and strengthened the positions of States and forest communities in future discussions on the implementation of the REDD+ process. REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) is an effort to create financial value for the carbon stored in forests.
It offers incentives to developing countries to reduce green-house emissions from forested land, thereby curbing climate change effects. The report concludes that REDD+ projects play a key role in international negotiations because they help in efforts against deforestation and forest degradation, and facilitate conservation and sustainable forest management efforts aimed at increasing forest carbon stocks. Such projects attract private sector investments and are also needed in zones where State activities have had little impact, the research notes.
Finally, the projects raise awareness and serve as motivation to local stakeholders in the implementation of sustainable forest management activities.
According to the authors of the report, the recent acceptance of tropical forests in international negotiations on climate change and the growing interest of Central African nations, calls for the putting in place of REDD+ mechanisms by forest managers. This is especially so because of the key role logging concessions play in the reduction of green-house gas emissions.
The 80 participants at the report presentation ceremony included scientists, forestry and government officials and partners of the Central African Forest Commission, COMIFAC, who are interested in REDD+ and forest exploitation.
The FORAFAMA project is funded by the French Development Agency, AFD and the French Global Environment Facility, FFEM. An international consortium, including CIFOR, implemented the project from 2010 to 2012.
