By Hafsa Obeng
Accra, Oct. 7, GNA – Ghana has hosted a South-South Regional REDD+ Study Visit and Knowledge Exchange Workshop, to accelerate readiness among West African countries to access results-based climate finance for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
The workshop brought together representatives from Benin, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone to share experiences, strengthen forest governance and identify practical pathways towards accessing climate finance.
Mr Timothy Ataboadey Awotiirim, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, said REDD+ readiness constituted the first phase of the Warsaw Framework and provided the foundation for countries to access results-based payments.
He said participating countries were developing key systems, including national forest monitoring, forest reference emission levels, safeguards information systems and national REDD+ strategies.
Mr Awotiirim said Ghana had made significant progress in establishing those systems, including submitting its forest reference emission level to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), for technical assessment and strengthening forest monitoring and carbon accounting arrangements.
Ghana had also integrated REDD+ into its Biennial Transparency Report through the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme, he said.
“Those systems have now been tested where it counts. Verified results have earned Ghana more than $21 million in results-based payments from the World Bank’s Carbon Fund,” he noted.
Mr Awotiirim, however, said the achievement had taken years of institutional coordination, capacity building and engagement with stakeholders and communities, making the South-South exchange important for countries with similar landscapes and challenges to learn from one another.
“Our forests do not stop at national borders, and neither should our solutions. Peers learn best from peers who work in similar landscapes and under similar constraints,” he said.
He encouraged participating countries to openly discuss challenges including institutional coordination, staff turnover, financial gaps, community expectations, safeguards and free, prior and informed consent, to enable the workshop to identify practical solutions.
Mr Awotiirim said the workshop would also examine forest monitoring, greenhouse gas inventories, reference levels and Biennial Transparency Reports, stressing that understanding the links among those systems would help countries report with greater confidence and attract climate finance.
He said Ghana had participated in processes involving the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), the World Bank’s Carbon Fund, and the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF) Coalition.
It was also exploring opportunities under the Green Climate Fund, LEAF and the TFFF.
He expressed the hope that each participating delegation would develop a National Climate Finance Roadmap by the end of the workshop.
Dr Meshack Malo, the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Representative to Ghana, said FAO was committed to helping participating countries bridge the gap between available climate finance and access to those resources.
He said the ultimate objective should be to ensure that climate finance reached forest-dependent communities whose efforts contributed to protecting forests.
Dr Malo said FAO was proud to support the South-South cooperation initiative and facilitate the sharing of Ghana’s experiences with participating countries, assuring them of continued support to strengthen their institutional and technical capacities and enable them to access climate financing.
He thanked Ghana for hosting the workshop and said it provided an opportunity for countries to learn from Ghana’s experience and identify the capacities and systems required to successfully access results-based payments.
GNA
Edited by Christabel Addo
Reporter: Hafsa Obeng
Email: [email protected]