The Climate Protection through Avoided Deforestation project is providing support for Luang Namtha and Xayaboury provinces to help reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) next year.
This information was revealed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH during a meeting held recently in Huaphan province to present and discuss the provincial REDD+ Action Plan (PRAP), which has been designed to guide the implementation of policies, actions and measures.
The meeting’s aim was to outline the PRAP development process which has been agreed upon during the first consultations in mid-2016 and present the outcomes of the two rounds of district consultations.
As a pilot province, Huaphan is also the first province in Laos to develop a PRAP and five other provinces under the Emission Reductions Programme will follow the approach applied in Huaphan, said GIZ.
The Climate Protection through Avoided Deforestation project is working in Huaphan as one of its pilot provinces. The project supports the Lao government in its REDD readiness process at the national and sub-national levels.
The PRAP in Huaphan province is aligned to the provincial 8th Socio-Economic Development Plan and designed to achieve emission reductions to serve the emission reductions programme under the Carbon Fund, the provincial Agriculture and Forestry Department official said.
PRAPs can be seen as a tool to design and guide the implementation of REDD activities at provincial and local levels. They will be developed in six provinces that have been selected for the country´s Emission Reductions Programme under the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Carbon Fund.
Laos was accepted into the FCPF Carbon Fund in late 2015 and must now prepare an Emission Reductions Programme Document, which must be submitted to the Carbon Fund by early 2018, added GIZ.
The PRAPs can be seen as a building block providing concrete plans which together will serve as the foundation for Laos’ Emission Reductions Programme in order to receive REDD performance-based payments.
PRAPs are developed using a participatory process based on consultations with broad stakeholders from different key sectors (e.g. agriculture, forestry, planning and investment, energy and mining etc.) These actors should have a sense of ownership to the PRAP and support not only its planning process but also take responsibility for future implementation.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is providing policy advice and capacity development measures to support the creation of a national and provincial REDD framework, as well as REDD planning processes. It is testing local-level mitigation, and is also developing pro-poor REDD mechanisms and sustainable financing models.
GIZ is cooperating closely with the financial component of the project, which is funded by the German Government through the KfW Development Bank.
Source: Vientiane Times
