ITTO-JICA joint side event at UNFCCC COP 19 “REDD+: Study Safeguards from Field Experiences NOW!”

Deliver the Reality from the Field to the Conference

ITTO organized a side event on “REDD+: Study Safeguards from Field Experiences NOW!” at the UNFCCC COP19 in Warsaw, Poland. The event was jointly organized by ITTO and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and held on 15 November at the Japan Pavilion. It was well attended by a total of about 50 delegates of the Parties and representatives of IGOs and NGOs from various parts of the world.
 
The objective of the side event was to contribute to the development of practical REDD+ mechanisms by sharing experiences and lessons learnt from field activities and therefrom extracting key elements needed to be addressed in developing and reporting on the social and environmental safeguards. The issue of safeguards is now one of the challenges being tackled by a range of actors toward the consideration by the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advise (SBSTA) at its 41st session to be held in 2014.
 
Representing ITTO, Dr. Emmanuel Opuni-Frimpong, Research Scientist of the Forest Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) and Dr. Carmenza Robledo, ECOEXISTENCE, as well as Mr. Takeshi Goto, Assistant Director (Forest Management) of ITTO, served the event as a presenter, facilitator of a panel discussion and the MC respectively.
 
Dr. Emmanuel Opuni-Frimpong is the Project Manager of an ITTO project PD 450/07 entitled “Capacity building for CDM forestry in the framework of SFM emphasizing community forests and poverty alleviation in Ghana”. He emphasized in his presentation the importance of developing equitable benefit sharing between landowners and local farmers engaged in the agroforestry practices. He also pointed out the need of addressing the land ownership structure and a range of social, economic and environmental benefits to make the REDD+ activities successful.
 
Dr. Carmenza Robledo, who has provided support to ITTO since 2001 in various climate change related issues, asked a series of questions to the presenters in the panel discussion attempting to stimulate the exchange among participants. She summarized in her concluding remarks that the modalities and procedures to be developed for the safeguards should promote meaningful stakeholder participation at a minimum costs and should be flexible enough to recognize the respective national and local circumstances.


Dr. Emmanuel Opuni-Frimpong, Research Scientist of the Forest Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) giving his presentation on Capacity building for CDM forestry at the ITTO-JICA side event at UNFCCC COP 19. Photo: A. Okada/ JICA

Tentative agenda

Presentations