Background
The Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reached in December 2015 in Paris a landmark agreement “to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future”. The agreement gave opportunities for the first time to all countries parties to take actions based on national circumstances, priorities and capabilities.
To date (UNTC, 01/05/19), 185 parties, among which 50 African countries have ratified the agreement. An important measure of success of the Paris Agreement is related to the recognition of the gap in emission reductions, providing countries ability to ameliorate their ambitions overtime, in addition to periodic global stocktaking to assess collective evolution by regular updates after every five years.
Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use account for 16% and 46% respectively of the Sub-Sahara African countries’ emissions share through inappropriate agricultural practices, accelerated deforestation and forest degradation, and unsustainable forest management. According to NDC Explorer (Pauw, 2017), these sectors represent 2nd (90%) and 3rd (81%) most covered sectors in the African region (I)NDCs, just behind the energy sector (99%).
Thus, investments and innovations in this sector would be valuable to assist African countries in their efforts on climate change mitigation and adaptation and therefore, their NDCs implementation.
The purpose of the side event is two-fold:
- share experiences on forest-based NDCs implementation in some African countries;
- draw lessons that will help strengthen the design of forest interventions in the NDCs.
Moderator: Prof Godwin Kowero, Executive Secretary, AFF
Panellists:
- Dr Marie Louise Avana-Tientcheu, AFF
- Dr Vincent Onguso Oeba, AFF
- Mr Raymond Mdomba Ngoye, COMIFAC
- Prof Jurgen Blaser, Bern University of Applied Science, Switzerland