Stakeholders hold REDD+ regional awareness workshop

By Peter Gitau

The East African Wild Life Society (EAWLS) and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) organized a two (2) days regional awareness workshop for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) between 3^rd to 4^th September, 2014 at Green Hills Hotel in Nyeri.

The workshop was held to widen informed stakeholder’s engagement for REDD+ by looking at key elements of wise REDD+ project, strategies and approaches that can be used in implementation of wise REDD+, how participants can be engaged, readiness progress and status over REDD+ projects in Kenya and various case studies.

Priority areas of focus for REDD+ in the country includes; reducing pressure to clear forests for agriculture, settlements and other land uses, promoting sustainable utilization of forests by promoting efficiency and energy conservation, improving governance in the forest sector by strengthening national capacity for forest land enforcement and governance (FLEG), advocacy and awareness as well as enhancement of carbon stocks through afforestration, reforestation and addressing fire problems.

Currently the United States Department of State funding for Conservation International is supporting five (5) governments namely; Kenya, Costa Rica, Peru, Suriname and Vanuatu to strengthen and broaden engagement of key stakeholder groups like government officials, civil society, indigenous people and the local community in REDD+.

Some of the key project deliverables expected by EAWLS and ICUN include; Identification of stakeholder engagement platforms (mechanisms) to use for consultation, capacity building for key stakeholder groups on specific REDD+ issues and documentation of the lessons learnt from the stakeholder consultation.

EAWLS and IUCN expect to meet the national REDD+ goals as well as contributing to global climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts and helping in the realization of the National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) goals.

REDD+ is a mechanism that has been under negotiation by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since 2005.

The main objective has always been to mitigate climate change through reducing emissions of greenhouse gases as well as removing greenhouse gases through enhanced forest management.