Getting REDD right for Africa

1. Getting REDD right for Africa Godwin Kowero Executive Secretary AFRICAN FOREST FORUM (AFF)

2. THE DIVERSITY OF FORESTS • The diversity of forest types and conditions in Africa is both the strength and the weakness of the continent in devising optimal forest-based responses to climate change. • For each forest type and condition, there is need for data on forest cover, deforestation, degradation, biomass productivity and forest utilization, etc to determine the role and capacity of the forests in mitigating, and adapting to, climate change. • The forests and trees are impacted by climate change and also influence climate.

3. THREATS TO LIVELIHOODS • Climate change poses a significant threat to African forests and their role in society. Agricultural production and overall access to food across the continent may be severely compromised. • With only basic farming technology and low incomes, many African farmers will have few options to adapt and will inevitably rely more on natural forest resources to survive. • Any strategy to address climate change in Africa must also enhance the livelihoods of forest-dependent populations. • It is not clear how the bulk of the African population that depends on natural forests for their livelihoods would access the same, or receive alternative livelihood support, under REDD.

4. MATCHING MECHANISMS TO FOREST CONDITIONS Current and proposed mechanisms (CDM and REDD) will fare differently under different forest types and conditions. Example conditions influencing choice of mechanism: • high deforestation rates are likely to be associated with forests close to densely populated communities; . • forest re-growth from abandoned farmland will likely exhibit higher carbon dioxide sequestration rates than old forests in protected areas . • a subsisting practice of agro-forestry. The forest type and conditions will have to be ascertained for each situation to provide the appropriate fit to either CDM or REDD arrangements.

5. AFRICA AND THE CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM-CDM • It is difficult for Africa to adequately participate in CDM because of the procedures, costs and capacity requirements for developing qualified CDM projects. • Political and tenurial uncertainties, together with unstable investment environment, also diminish interest to invest in potential CDM projects in the African forest sector. • CDM is restricted to afforestation and reforestation as defined under the Kyoto protocol, and this does not suit many African forestry conditions: • the only places where afforestation for CDM is accepted are where there has not been a forest in the last 50 years • reforestation can only be done where there was no forest on December 31, 1989. • By April 2009, only three afforestation and reforestation projects globally were approved for funding

6. REDD IN AFRICA REDD aims at reducing emissions through avoided deforestation and forest degradation Adapting it to African conditions: • Making REDD work for Africa requires recognising the complexity and diversity of African forests. • Making REDD work for Africa means recognising the crucial role that forests and trees play in African socioeconomic development and addressing the underlying causes of deforestation and degradation. • Forests and trees support key sectors in many African economies, including crop and livestock agriculture, energy, tourism and water. • It also means being able to monitor and measure the impact of actions — in particular how to set baselines. • Most natural forests in Africa are under no form of management or administration, which makes it very difficult to determine their true coverage and what is in them. • It also means learning from the failings of current strategies — in particular the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

7. REDD IN AFRICA • The form of REDD favoured by industrialised countries applies mainly to dense forests such as rainforests. • The current UNFCCC definition of ‘forest’ seriously limits the range of lands that would qualify for REDD in Africa. • This would benefit heavily forested countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, but those dominated by sparse woodlands could fall by the wayside. • Africa has yet to have a common position on REDD. • It is not clear how to ensure that compensation from REDD is distributed fairly in countries where many people are subsistence farmers. • REDD as it is now, is fairly limited in scope; it proposes to only compensate landowners for not logging/harvesting wooded areas

8. MAKING REDD MORE INCLUSIVE Interventions that hold significant potential to reduce deforestation and degradation in African forests include: 1. Improvements in crop and livestock agriculture • Most forest loss and degradation is due to crop farming and animal grazing. • Enhancing efficiencies in crop and livestock agriculture is key to reducing deforestation and degradation in Africa. • Support to intensification of crop and livestock agriculture around forest margins could significantly reduce deforestation and degradation: • improved security of land tenure, • support for farm inputs and better livestock husbandry, • promotion of agro-forestry, • conservation agriculture

9. POPULATION GROWTH AND AGRICULTURE Note: (1) Warm humid dry forests, (2) Warm sub-humid dry forests and (3) Warm very dry wooded savannas. Based on Haveraan (1988).

10. POPULATION GROWTH AND AGRICULTURE Dry forests (A) and Cropland (B) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cropland is based on Mayaux etal. (2003).

12. MAKING REDD MORE INCLUSIVE 2. Improvements in energy efficiency: • The bulk of African domestic energy need is met from forests and trees. • Need to improve the efficiency with which trees and forests are harvested and converted to energy for both domestic and industrial uses, in order to reduce deforestation and degradation . 3. Wood harvesting and processing: • Logging and wood processing in many African countries is done inefficiently and in many cases using old and obsolete equipment. • Increasing efficiency in logging and wood processing has significant potential to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. 4. Harvesting of other forest products: • Many other forest and tree products are harvested inefficiently and unsustainably, leading to forest degradation as much biodiversity (animals, plants and insects) is extracted without consideration for its replacement. • Introduction of sustainable practices can help to stem this source of forest loss and degradation.

13. MAKING REDD MORE INCLUSIVE 7. Other land uses • These include communication infrastructure (like dams, roads, railways and power lines), large scale crop and forest plantations, and urbanization; all of which will require land. • If the land for these developments is taken from existing forests, this will lead to considerable deforestation and forest and land degradation. • For REDD to be effective in Africa it should take into account activities in the full range of Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Uses (AFOLU). 8. Support for existing initiatives and programmes • Existing national forest programmes (NFPs) in many African countries and activities that implement various international agreements, initiatives and conventions (like CBD, UNCCD, and UNFF-NLBI); all target unwanted deforestation and forest and land degradation. • Support to these initiatives in Africa will considerably facilitate the attainment of the REDD objectives.

14. THE ROAD TO COPENHAGEN – UNFCCC COP 15 • African forests and trees are now receiving increasing global attention. • The forests and trees are now seen at the centre of the socio-economic development and environmental protection. This provides a unique opportunity to bring these issues to the public at all levels. • African countries have little time to work out the details of their requirements and to lobby the rest of the world before UNFCCC COP15 in December 2009 • No new propositions will be considered in Copenhagen. • African countries will need to put their proposals forward at one of the two preparatory meetings ahead of the summit — in Bangkok in late September and in Barcelona in early November.

15. For further information please contact: Prof. Godwin Kowero Executive Secretary African Forest Forum (AFF) c/o World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) P.O. Box 30677 – 00100, Nairobi, Kenya Tel. +254 7224203, Fax: +254 7224001 Email: g.kowero@cgiar.org Website: www.afforum.org