The African Forest Forum (AFF)in collaboration with the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) and the University of Dschang conducted two training workshops to build the capacityof extension workers, and civil society organizationson the science and practice of climate change based on modules developed by AFF and partners in 2012.
The workshops “Retooling staff from extension and civil society organizations on key areas of science and practice of climate change in relation to forests’’ were held in Accra, Ghana, on July 29-31, 2013, and in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on September 9-11, 2013, respectively.
The overall objective of theworkshops was to equip participants with key elements for professional training on climate change in forestry.Specifically, the workshops intended to:
1.    Familiarize participants with training and research needs in African forestry as related to climate change identified during an AFF organized workshop in Nairobi in November 2012;
2.    Familiarize participants with AFF training modules developed during the workshop in Nairobi in November 2012;
3.    Understand the role of forests in adaptation and mitigation of climate change effects;
4.    Understand the way carbon is assessed and traded;
5.    Enable the participants to further design, develop and eventually implement the contents of training modules on forests and climate change.
The first workshop held in Ghana, brought together 35 participants from 15 African countries representing government agencies, civil society organizations and youth organizations. They were from Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
It was facilitated by a team of three resource persons supported by staff from AFF Secretariat. Resource persons gave presentations on issues related to REDD+ and MRV in Ghana. The participants commended AFF for taking the lead on this initiative and promised to follow up this workshop with the use of the training modules in their work and institutions.
The second workshopin Yaoundé, Cameroun, attracted 41 participants from 17 African countries; mainly from extension services and civil society organizations. The represented countries were: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroun, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinée Conakry, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Central Africa Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sénégal, Chad and Togo.The workshop was facilitated by two resource persons supported by staff from AFF Secretariat. In addition, resource persons made presentations based on case studies related to REDD+, MRV, allometric equations, CDM projects and other livelihoods projects implemented in Central African countries.
Participants actively participated in reviewing the contents of the training modules, identified gaps and made suggestions on strategies for their implementation. They made the following recommendations: