Nairobi, 5 June 2017. The African Forest Forum (AFF) in collaboration with partner host institutions, namely: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security of the Government of Sierra Leone; and the Forestry Development Authority of the Republic of Liberia will hold its third series of national training workshops on Rapid Forest Carbon Stock Appraisal (RaCSA) in Freetown, Sierra Leone from 5-9 June 2017 and Monrovia, Liberia from 12-16 June 2017.
Over the last two decades considerable attention has been paid to issues of climate change with respect to forests and trees and putting people and the environment at the centre. Many countries now include mitigation and adaptation practices in their forest policies, plans and programmes given the noticeable awareness and growth of various initiatives like REDD+. However the challenge remains in the development of profitable forest carbon projects -often viewed as a complex and rigorous task.
It is for this reason that the goal of the trainings is to strengthen the capacities of African countries on rapid appraisal of forest carbon stock and to facilitate communities to establish basic data needed in negotiating with carbon markets in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner. The training will be offered to various stakeholders, including extension and civil society organizations, and will address issues of adaptation, mitigation, carbon assessment and trading and payments for ecosystem services (PES), as well as development of a project idea note (PIN) and project design document (PDD); all as related to forestry.
Specifically, the trainings intend to:

familiarize participants with methods for carbon assessments (plot-level carbon measurement and spatial analysis of land-use cover), monitoring/measurement, reporting and verification -MRV of carbon projects;
strengthen skills on the development of a project idea note (PIN) and a project design document (PDD) for forest carbon projects;
improve understanding of principles and practices of forest carbon financing;
enhance understanding of principles, concepts and processes of carbon trade and marketing;
improve understanding on policy and other regulatory frameworks in carbon markets and trade.

At the end of the five day workshops, participants are expected to: have good understanding of methods for carbon assessment; contribute to / or conduct an assessment of forest carbon for a project; have  the necessary skills for  developing a carbon project document; and have a better understanding of  markets  and trade in forest carbon.
The first series of training on RaCSA were conducted from November 2013 to November 2015 and resulted into the training of 357 trainers of trainers (ToT) drawn from 12 countries: Ethiopia, Zambia, Niger, Tanzania, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria, Madagascar and Swaziland. The second tier of trainings were organized in 2016 with a total of 71 people trained, of which 40 were from Guinea Conakry (29 males and 11 females) and 31 were from Ivory Coast (5 females and 27 males).
These series of training workshops are an integral component of the “African forests, people and climate change” project that is supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The aim of this project is to better understand and work on issues that are within the realm of forest and climate change in semi-arid areas (Sahel region), the woodlands of West, East and Southern Africa, and the moist forests in Central and West Africa.
For further information on the training workshop contact:
African Forest Forum
United Nations Avenue, Gigiri
P.O. Box 30677-00100
Nairobi, Kenya
Email:  exec.sec@afforum.org