REDD+ FOR THE GUIANA SHIELD Technical Cooperation Project

1. REDD+ FOR THE GUIANA SHIELDTechnical Cooperation Project Working Groups Sabá Loftus and Sara Svensson, ONFI 11th December 2013 2ndSteering Committee, Macapá

2. Working Groups = regional meetings for technical collaboration • Relevant specific topics: • Forest cover monitoring • Carbon stocks assessment • Budget • First Regional Working Group took place in Guyana 5-6 December on REDD+ MRV IMPLEMENTATION AND DRIVERS OF DEFORESTATION Working Groups – central to the project Merge or keep separate?

3. How to monitor degradation? Shifting cultivation: how to identify it and how to classify it? Mangrove forests: remote sensing analysis, integration of natural changes within global deforestation statistics and REL, assessment of emission factor. Remote sensing analysis methodologies and software to automatically and semi-automatically analyze land-use, land-cover and changes. QA/QC - How to validate land-use and land-cover changes maps? Drivers of deforestation – how to monitor drivers of deforestation/degradation and how to use the information in MRV systems and for REL/RFL establishment? How to create and manage GIS database? Interrelationship between NFI and MRV How to capitalize on existing data and monitoring tools to feed the MRV system and the REL/RFL? Linking data within the MRV system Reporting exercise How to ensure long term consistency and comparability while changing methodologies, source information? Suggested topics for Working Group meetings Additional topics? Priorities?

4. “REDD+ for the Guiana Shield” project team is in charge of making the meetings happen with relevant content • Division of responsibilities within the team: Organizing the Working Group meetings Marie Rachida TECHNICAL ORGANIZATION LOGISTICAL ORGANIZATION Sérgio Sabá

5. Tools for communication • On calls, Interpretation will be provided via chat feature or will separate audio line • List serve • Regional events calendar • Website for all project materials. Are there any tools you prefer?

6. Draft Terms of Reference are provided with the following content: • Article 1 – Objectives and Mandate • Article 2 – Composition • Article 3 – Organization and technical focus • Article 4 – Expected outputs and reporting • Article 5 – Expertise needed • Article 6 – Meetings frequency and number of events • Article 7 – Costs Terms of Reference for Working Groups Do you want to suggest any changes?

7. 1.1 The Objectives of the Working Groups are to: Share technical experiences and good practices among the countries; Highlight other experiences, projects and methodologies that have been developed and are used within or outside the region ; Discuss specific technical topics in order to enhance the countries’ knowledge and capacities; Identify the needs of the countries in terms of capacity building and technology transfer, including in the perspective of a common understanding of REDD+ MRV. 1.2 The Working Groups mandate is to put into place a regional technical dialogue on the different components of the project and to feed the Steering Committee decisions with technical inputs and summary of discussions, including on the capacity building and technology transfer plans, as well as on the perspective of regional tools development. Article 1 – Objectives and Mandate

8. 2.1 The core Working Group will be composed of four (4) technical experts designated by the forestry services of the Guiana Shield partners based on the topics that will be discussed. Ideally, at least one or two experts per country would remain the same over the all Working Group Meetings in order to ensure consistency and enable to build a global overview of the REDD+ MRV exercise. 2.2 Working Group members will be designated by the participating institutions, in their respective countries and based on Article 5 below. 2.3 Additional experts may be invited to the Working group Meetings upon members’ request or suggestions from the project team. Article 2 – Composition

9. 3.1 Working Group will be facilitated by the REDD+ for the Guiana Shield project team (ONF International) in charge of technical supervision (content organization and identification of outside experts), secretariat and logistic organization of Working Group meetings. 3.2 Project team will also be in charge of providing tools to facilitate dialogue (physical meetings as well as online tools such as data sharing, webinar and conference call platforms). Article 3 – Organization and technical focus

10. 3.3 Working Groups (hereafter WG) will focus on methodologies and experiences in terms of assessing and monitoring forest cover, carbon stocks and drivers of deforestation and degradation. Each WG meeting will focus on a specific topic, based on the program agreed by the Steering Committee members. Once an oversight and policy stage is reached, at least one of the WG meetings will focus on methodologies and processes to link the different components within a unique MRV system, as well as on the way to link the existing monitoring initiatives with the MRV systems (e.g. a registry of forestry concessions, a log tracking system, etc.). Article 3 – Organization and technical focus

11. 3.4During the WG meetings, time will be dedicated to: • List and present the countries’ positions and advancements regarding the topics that will be discussed; • Identify the needs for capacity building and technology transfer in the different countries; • Discuss the regional perspective. Article 3 – Organization and technical focus

12. 4.1 Working Group Meeting Report For each WG meeting, a report will be prepared. This report will summarize the discussions. Based on the information that will have been provided during the WG meetings and for each of the topics that will have been discussed, the report should also provide: A regional review (i.e. a list and review of existing activities and methodologies that are implemented and used); A list of identified capacity building and technology transfer needs that will feed the plans to be prepared by the project team and submitted to the Steering Committee members. Article 4 – Expected outputs and reporting

13. 4.2 Position papers • On specific topics and when considered relevant, some regional position papers will be produced by the WG. 4.3 All reports will be prepared by the focal point in charge of the WG meetings, under the supervision of the project manager. All reports will be first submitted to Working Group participants review before being shared with Steering Committee members and other stakeholders. Publicity of reports will be on cases basis and upon Steering Committee and WG participants’ approval. Article 4 – Expected outputs and reporting

14. 5.1 The Working Group will be composed of representatives designated per each country. They should be selected based on their knowledge, understanding and expertise on the project components (Forest Cover Monitoring, Carbon Stock Assessment, Quantification and Localization of Drivers of Deforestation/Degradation), both in terms of tools and needs in the country. Article 5 – Expertise needed

15. 5.2 At least one of the Working Group members attending meetings from each forestry service should be familiar with technical methodologies and tools for forest cover monitoring (such as GIS, Remote Sensing, interpretation of satellite images, ground truthing and reliability check of data used for forest cover mapping), carbon stock assessments (such as forest or biomass inventories, NFI, etc.), quantifying and localizing drivers of deforestation (socioeconomic scientists, GIS experts, etc.). 5.3 At least one of the Working Group members per country should have a good knowledge and understanding of existing initiatives and stakes of Forest Cover Monitoring, Carbon Stocks Assessment and Analyzing drivers of deforestation and degradation in the country, including in the framework of REDD+ implementation. Article 5 – Expertise needed

16. 6.1 ONF International will convene two WG meetings every three months. 6.2 A total of 6 to 9 meetings will be organized depending on the participants’ availability, program of discussion, number of participants per event, as well as on format and place of the meetings. 6.3 These meetings can either be physical or take the format of webinar discussions or conference calls or online collaboration, using online tools such as e-mail listservs, document sharing platform and conference calls or webinar. Online meetings will focus on a specific topic and will not last longer than one (1) hour. Agenda’s and details about how to join will be circulated in advance to the forestry services. Article 6 – Meetings frequency and number of events

17. 7.1 All costs related to meeting participation will be covered by the “REDD+ for the Guiana Shield” project based on the agreed number of meetings and discussions, as well as the agreed number of participants. 7.2 The budget available per Working Group will depend on the number of Working Group. Budget will be prepared and decided by the Project Team who will report to the Steering Committee on that issue. Article 7 – Costs

18. Decision: Can the Steering Committee validate the Terms of References for Working Groups?

19. MERCI /THANK YOU /DANK U / OBRIGADO saba.loftus@onfinternational.com sara.svensson@onfinternational.com http://www.onfinternational.com Photo credit: ONF Guyane