Transcript SADC Forests and Climate Change

Nyambe Harsen Nyambe
SADC SECRETARIAT
Food, Agriculture & Natural Resources
Private Bag 0095, Gaborone
AMCEN:
Botswana May 25 – 29, 2009,
Nairobi, Kenya
SADC TREATY
ARTICLE 5: OBJECTIVES are to:
 Achieve development and economic growth,
alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and
quality of life of the people of Southern Africa;
 Promote self-sustaining development on the
basis of collective self-reliance, and the
interdependence of Member States;
 Achieve sustainable utilisation of natural
resources and effective protection of the
environment;
Protocol on Forestry
 Promote the development, conservation,
sustainable management and utilisation
of all types of forests and trees - NLBI;
 Achieve effective protection of the
environment, and safeguard the interests
of both the present and future
generations;
Protocol on Forestry
 State parties to assist and support each
other to address issues of common
concern including deforestation, genetic
erosion, climate change, forest fires,
pests, diseases, invasive alien species,
and law enforcement in a manner that
makes the best use of the technical,
financial and other resources in the
Region;
Dar-es-Salaam Declaration
on Agriculture and Food
Security
 Promote conservation, management and
sustainable utilisation of plants and
animals, including fisheries, forest and
wildlife.
egional Indicative Strategic
evelopment Plan of SADC
 Ensuring a coordinated regional positions in
the negotiations and implementation of MEAs;
and other agreements.
 To ensure maximum benefit for SADC Member
States in all MEAs; and coordination of the
development and implementation of national
and sub-regional action programmes and
resource mobilization
SADC Policy Decisions
 SADC Extra-Ordinary Summit on Poverty
and Development, held in Mauritius in
April 2008 recognised the urgent need for
the region to address climate change,
particularly adaptation in order to safe
guard livelihoods.

Setting the Scene
 Established a Task Force to spearhead
development of a programme on climate
change;
 Identified the need to assess the impacts of
carbon trading on the region & mobilised
resources;
 Joined forces with COMESA and EAC in
developing a programme on Bio-carbon.
 Identified need for training negotiators and
mobilised support.
 Decided to hold a regional workshop on Forest
and Climate Change, May 12 – 15, 2009.
Workshop Outcome
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Importance of Forest
Observations
Concern
Consideration
Recommendations to AMCEN
Appeal for SADC
Importance of Forest
 Cost effective carbon sink.
 Livelihood anchor esp. for vulnerable
ones.
 Linked to the 3 Rio conventions biodiversity conservation and combating
desertification.
Observations
 SADC contributed less to climate change
but has to bear the burden and incur
opportunity cost;
 Poverty levels are high;
 Heavy dependence on natural resources;
 Reliance on rain fed agriculture;
 High vulnerability esp. related to drought.
Observations
 SADC has generally not benefitted as
expected from CDM and other climate change
funding mechanisms;
 Limited capacity to adapt to climate change;
 Lack of incentives for conservation of forest
and biodiversity – avoided deforestation;
 No provision for transboundary conservation
efforts such as transfrontier conservation areas
(TFCAs);
 REDD seem not to accommodate all types of
forests;
 Limited knowledge of carbon stocks.
Concern
 Carbon markets if not handled well may not
address climate change.
 Absence of incentives for conservation will not
result in increased emissions from reduce
emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation.
 Without recognition of sequestration of carbon
by soils in SADC, will not provide sufficient
incentives for low forest countries not to disturb
the land.
Consideration
 Committed to adopt technologies and systems that
reduce all kinds of emissions – despite low
contribution;
 The priority REDD should not just be for reducing
emissions but as an opportunity to enhance national
development – conservation of biodiversity;
 Predictable, sustainable and additional financial
commitments from Annex I countries – condition;
 The concerns and priorities of local communities and
forest dependent communities must be taken into
consideration in REDD.
Recommendations
 REDD should cover all types of forests and
Sustainable Forest Management (“REDD plus”).
 Given the natural potentials for carbon sequestration
and storage in biomass and soils, SADC favors a
broad approach.
 SADC also advocates for the fact that the rules of
accounting for Annex I countries under Land Use and
Land use change and forests (LULUCF) should be the
same as for non-Annex I.
Recommendations
(cont)
 SADC argues that instead of being reduced to
so called “co-benefits” of the future Post 2012agreement, poverty reduction, community
benefits, conservation of biodiversity and
sustainable development are core principles to
any successful climate mitigation and
adaptation strategy.
 REDD mechanism should provide access to
adequate, predictable and sustainable financial
resources and technical support, including full
access to global carbon markets.
Recommendations
(cont)
 Readiness for REDD requires substantial resources for
capacity development, methodology development, data
management and strengthening of forest administrations.
 Markets alone will not be able to generate – and adequately
assign the resources. Therefore the commitment of
additional resources from Annex I countries will be crucial
for REDD to work properly. These funds should be seen as
contributions to development e.g. offering alternative
livelihoods, above and beyond climate change
commitments.
 These funding commitments should be made available as a
facilitation measure for SADC countries to prepare
themselves for an eventual engagement in carbon trading.
Recommendations
(cont)
 Annex-1 countries should commit
resources for technological transfer that
will support innovative sustainable
energy solutions, including solar, wind
and micro hydro schemes, as the bulk of
the emissions from SADC and the rest of
Africa are generated from the burning of
biomass for energy and activities related
to land preparation.
Appeal for SADC
 Support for data collection on forest
resources.
 Capacity building for REDD and climate
Change in general.
Thank you
Merci