District Validation Workshop on “Developing interventions of District REDD+ Action Plan”

Introduction

Nepal joined the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) programme in 2009 as an observer country. Since then, Nepal has made active contributions towards the global REDD+ agenda. Led by REDD Implementation Centre [REDD IC] of the Ministry of Forestry and Soil Conservation [MoFSC], Nepal developed a Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP) and has been implementing a programme of Readiness activities since 2011 mainly through the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank, and several bilateral initiatives.

A number of gaps in the current strategy development process were identified by the REDD Implementation Centre and other stakeholders, and noted in the mid term review of the FCPF programme in October 2013. To address these gaps, in 2013 the REDD Implementation Centre conducted studies on the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation [D&FD] and on the design of a REDD+ fund management system, with financial assistance from the UN-REDD programme’s Targeted Support facility, and technical assistance from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The REDD Implementation Centre submitted a further Targeted Support request to the UN-REDD Programme in 2014, to follow up on these studies and address other gaps in readiness activities. As part of this request, FAO agreed to provide technical assistance in the ‘Development of Monitoring Protocols for REDD+ Policies and Measures (PAMs) using Proxy Indicators.

The REDD Implementation Centre and The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) discussed this topic with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in connection with past funding opportunities. The potential for explicit linkages with existing ICIMOD field activities and their recently-initiated GIZ/BMU project (see below) identified them as the appropriate implementing partner for this UN-REDD Targeted Support activity. UN-REDD support will therefore be incorporated within the log frame and context of the GIZ/BMU (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit/German Environment Ministry) project, under this objective of improving sub-national capacity for REDD+ implementation, rather than administered as a standalone activity. This will minimise administration costs of ICIMOD and allow for the outputs of this LoA to have a wider impact.

This work will be based in Chitwan district, where it can build on ICIMOD’s field experience through their Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) supported community based REDD+ pilot project activities. Furthermore, ICIMOD has now established a Regional REDD+ Initiative with finance from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and BMU and technical support from GIZ. For activities in Nepal, the REDD+ Initiative will partner with the REDD Implementation Centre and focus on Chitwan district for sub-national capacity development activities. Chitwan also falls within the Terai Arc Landscape, which is the focus of Nepal’s Emissions Reductions Project Idea Note (ER-PIN) under the FCPF Carbon Fund, and is therefore a priority area for the REDD Implementation Centre.

Objectives

The objectives of this workshop are to validate the District REDD action plan which was developed for the Chitwan district.

Participants

The workshop will be attended by district level REDD+ stakeholders, community forest user groups and buffer zone management committee, district level government Institutions, NGOs and civil societies, representatives from the REDD IC/MoFSC. ICIMOD will support the all participants costs according to the policy of ICIMOD. There will be around 65 participants in this two-day workshop.

Expected outcomes

Upon the workshop’s completion, the monitoring protocol will be validated by the district level stakeholders and will be ready to be presented to RIC/MoFSC.