Through training and networking, the World Land Trust (WLT) and IUCN-NL, aim to enable African partner NGOs to benefit from carbon funding opportunities. The training will cover both general aspects of global climate policy and associated funding mechanisms and technical aspects of voluntary forest carbon projects with high biodiversity value. We also aim to explore lessons learned from existing forest carbon projects in Africa and identify key challenges and opportunities for such projects in the African context. The training will include workshops and an on site demonstration of a forest carbon project. In addition, a selected group of NGOs will be assisted with development of forest carbon project proposals. Training material will be developed and will be disseminated through the African networks of WLT, IUCN and the Natureandpoverty.net portal.

In doing this, we aim to create a network of stronger African NGOs positioned to profit from carbon opportunities and to understand developments in the global climate policy post Copenhagen, spreading the knowledge and capacity to mitigate climate change whilst delivering many other environmental benefits.

Although there is no more room for NGO participants in the current training, the training may be repeated in the future, depending on demand.

Update: 2 March 2010

The first workshop was held recently from the 15th-18th February in Akosombo, Ghana. 22 organisations participated from all over Africa with a total of 34 people attending all together including trainers, staff and representatives from IUCN-NL. The workshop was a success with a combination of excellent trainers and motivated participants discussing many exciting potential projects and ideas for the future. The trainers included Roger Wilson from World Land Trust (WLT), John Mason from NCRC, Khosi Ramachela from the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) South Africa, and Denis Slieker from Face the Future (formerly the FACE Foundation) from the Netherlands; all of which have much experience in this field and were willing to share lessons learnt and offer their advice to participants to help them with their next steps.

Proceedings will be made freely available on this platform.

Update: 23rd April 2010

The 2nd workshop will run from 2nd-11th May and will be held in Kibale National Park, Uganda.

Due to progressing further in the 1st workshop than expected, the second workshop will still cover some of the technical issues as planned but also allow each participant to apply them to their specific proposal. At the end of the 2nd workshop, therefore, the output will be a set of well-developed Project Information Notes (PINs) - one for each participant - approaching readiness for submission to potential donors. The final months of the training programme will then be used for further refinement with continuing help from the trainers.

8 participants have been selected from the 1st workshop and will be working in both groups and one to one sessions with the trainers on their PINs, these include NGOs from Burkina Faso , Senegal, Ethiopia, Burundi, Cameroon, Uganda, Togo and Kenya. IUCN -Uganda will also be attending to strengthen their role as a catalyst/facilitator for REDD projects in the future.

Update: 5th July 2010

After a successful 2nd workshop in Uganda, the outcomes included 1 completed PIN, 4 nearing completion and 3, through further analysis at the workshop, identified as not ready for full scale REDD just yet. These however still demonstrate important use of REDD+(+) techniques and potential to evolve into full REDD+(+) projects in the future. There are still smaller scale opportunities available for these NGOs which can be presented to funders and which would assist in capacity building for future REDD projects.

Since the workshop, all participants have been continuing to develop their PINs in consultation with trainers and we are awaiting their final drafts for screening.

The training programme has received excellent feedback and confirmed the need and demand for capacity building in this area. It is clear that good, innovative demonstration projects are needed to get policy-makers to start talking with project implementers and to help link the climate negotiations to practical experience. Early success is important for leveraging more political acceptance and stakeholder interest.

For additional info/input, contact: Kristina Turner:KTurner(at)worldlandtrust.org or Mark van der Wal: mark.vanderwal(at)iucn.nl