NEWS

Regional cooperation for the sharing of resources and expertise of forestry administrations

The ONF and the FFEM, represented by the Agence Française de développement (AFD), France’s development agency in Cayenne, have just signed a financial agreement of 1 million euros for the implementation of a forestry programme in countries of the Guyana Schield with the aim of reducing their carbon emissions. The countries concerned in the framework of this project are Guyana, Suriname and Brazil’s Amapá State, and France through French Guyana. It will be up to French Guiana’s ONF, the programme leader, to strengthen the technical skills of the countries while prioritising regional cooperation of the forestry services. The programme will endeavour to involve participants in the field of research, the ONG, representatives of the indigenous communities and sponsors.

Through a regional technical platform for dialogue and exchange of experiences, this programme will offer a framework conductive to a combined approach for the development of lands and of the carbon issue in conformity with the REDD-plus mechanism2. The idea is to value the environmental capital represented by the Guyana Schield by taking into account its forestry carbon potential. The ONF will make available its methodological tools and knowledge for the reinforcement of forestry inventories, the monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon stocks in the area and the identification of drivers of deforestation and forest degradation.

The stakes are high: the Guyana Schield countries contain territory comprising tropical humid forests which are a rich resource of carbon, and the biodiversity of which is exceptional. In the eyes of the international community, these counties are responsible for sustaining a heritage of global value.

These tools assist with local political decision-making

Experiencing an economic and demographic boom, these countries are anxious to oversee their development in a sustainable manner. Political decision makers wish to procure data that allow them to combine the development of land with carbon mechanisms, and to benefit from the revenue from sales of emission reduction certificates.

The FFEM’s funding will help to define a framework for cooperation in sharing data and carbon inventory methodologies. The project will have to make it possible to quantify and analyse the factors of deforestation in each country, with a view to transnational distribution. Finally, a model for development scenarios and opportunities to avoid forest-derived carbon emissions will be established. Political decision makers will be equipped with technical, legal and administrative tools, allowing them to benefit from the REDD-plus mechanism.

An investment in the global environment and in local development

FFEM funding comes within the framework of agreements made by France with regard to REDD-plus following the 15th Party Conference on Climate held in Copenhagen in 2009. This programme has just improved the carbon storage capacity and reduced deforestation in an area of major interest as far as biodiversity is concerned. This programme will bring together local populations involved in the implementation and collection of data, even at different stages of the programme.

To fight against climate change, and adapt to its consequences, the investment needed for the development and transfer of green technologies to developing countries may be improved, through better cooperation between public funding actors and private companies.

This initiative, aimed at companies in the private sector, is intended to facilitate the transfer of innovative technologies to developing countries, which may thus benefit from innovative technologies in the fight against climate change, without going through the stage of development that contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.

This inventory is essential in the process of obtaining annual exploitation certificates (certificats annuels d’exploitation, or CAEs) that allow forestry resources to be exploited legally. This data collection is vital for monitoring the development of forestry resources and the area’s endangered species.

The inventories have been finalised by a team of ten people. The operation took nearly 45 days in each of the forests. That represents nearly 1000 ha of forest cover, in which all the animal and plant species were located and listed. The result provides a multi-resource inventory of exploitation in the areas, which are potentially vulnerable to exploitation in 2013.

This initiative, launched by the SSI programme of the FFEM, aims to allow an exchange of experiences on the subject of beekeeping, which represents a sustainable and profitable economic activity for these associations.

Six associations, beneficiaries of a PPI grant, got together for a beekeeping exchange trip. In total, 11 participants attended: representatives of the associations AGEREF-Bala, AFAUDEB, Impulsion (Burkina Faso), ADT and AE2D (Togo), and AFEL (Benin).

They were welcomed at the Ruche des Collines in Benin, an organisation made up of sixty beekeepers led by Alphonse Worou, 2011 winner of the mutual aid entrepreneurship prize of the Fondation Ensemble (Together Foundation). The Ruche des Collines has more than a thousand beehives and achieves an annual output of 45 litres per hive. The profits made in 2011 amounted to 2 million CFA francs (approximately 3,050 euros).

During this visit, the Ruche des Collines, accompanied by the collective interest cooperative society, Solidarité Entreprises Nord-Sud (SENS-Bénin) [North-South mutual benefit companies Benin], explored the functional aspects of a beekeeping business, from the raw honey production stage up to the marketing of honey derived products.

This exchange provided the opportunity for the different associations to understand how the hive functions, exchange views on technical aspects, but also to discuss the necessity of raising awareness among the population with regard to protecting the plants needed to feed the bees.