Support for the development of Congo’s REDD+ Preparedness Plan (R-PP) Congo

Context of the service

The REDD+ mechanism was officially launched at the Bali Climate Conference in December 2007. It aims to reward tropical countries that reduce their greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation or maintain or even increase their carbon stocks. At the same time, the G8 in Heiligendamm launched the Forest carbon partnership facility (FCPF), a multi-donor fund managed by the World Bank. In early 2013, more than 15 developed countries and more than 40 developing countries, including Congo, joined.
As early as 2008, developing countries wishing to benefit from the REDD+ mechanism were encouraged to prepare a REDD+ Programme Identification Note (R-PIN) and submit it for approval to the FCPF Committee of Participants. Congo was among the first countries to have its R-NIP approved, as early as 2008.
Consequently, the French Development Agency (AFD) wished to encourage the efforts of Central African countries meeting within the Central African Forests Commission (COMIFAC) to prepare a more consistent document, the REDD+ Readiness preparation plan (R-PP), in order to develop and implement a national REDD+ strategy. An R-PP must be developed in a very specific format, set up by the FCPF Participants' Committee. It requires extensive institutional, legal, economic and technical analysis, punctuated by broad stakeholder consultations.
To do this, AFD has mandated three NGOs based in the Congo Basin, World wildlife fund (WWF), Wildlife conservation society (WCS) and Conservation International (CI) to support COMIFAC countries in their REDD+ processes. It is in this context that WCS, in charge of supporting the Congolese REDD+ process, called on ad hoc expertise to support the development of the R-PP, the basis for the development of the REDD+ strategy.

Services provided

In very close liaison with the Congolese Ministry in charge of forests and the NGO WCS, the support consisted in planning, supervising and reviewing the work of more than 15 experts (national and international, 8.3 hm of work in total), in order to arrive at an R-PP that could be validated by the FCPF Committee of Participants. Specifically, the services have made it possible to:
- Identification of roles/responsibilities in terms of implementation of the REDD+ strategy and constitution of ad hoc committees,
- Identification of stakeholders to be informed and consulted in the development of this strategy and design of an ad hoc consultation plan,
- Review of the social, economic and environmental framework to identify the direct causes and factors of deforestation and forest degradation,
- Development of strategic options to combat deforestation and degradation, with analysis of technical feasibility, social acceptability, environmental efficiency, economic efficiency, sustainability, robustness, risks,
- Identification of existing legal measures in terms of land and carbon rights and formulation of legislative proposals to improve the existing framework,
- Socio-environmental assessment of the consequences of REDD+ options,
- Development of a methodology for calculating a baseline scenario of greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,
- Development of a complete forest carbon inventory system,
- Development of a budget for the implementation of the R-PP.
The Congolese R&PP was approved in 2009 and Congo has since started implementing REDD+ activities.

Summary of the service

Coordination of support for the development of Congo's national REDD+ (R-PP) preparation: supervision of the 10 national and international experts and consolidation/revision of the final report (institutional structuring, identification of the causes of deforestation, development of the reference scenario, definition of mitigation strategies, legal rules relating to carbon law, MRV of forest carbon and co-benefits).