‘The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 4th
Assessment Report in 2007 described the Pacific Islands as one of the world’s
most vulnerable regions with respect to the adverse impacts of climate change.’
‘The
effects of climate change are very likely to adversely affect agricultural and
forestry production systems in our region, and issues such as food and water
security, coastal vulnerability and biodiversity loss, and their
socio-economic, environmental and cultural implications, will be important
considerations for us over the coming decades,’ Ratukalou said.
In
the current international climate change negotiations under the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the important role of forests
and trees in reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide is well recognised.
This,
Mr Ratukalou added, has opened up opportunities for new forestry funding through
mechanisms such as REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation) and REDD+ (which includes the role of conservation, sustainable
management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks). These
programmes will enable developing countries, including those in the Pacific, to
pursue measures to improve the management of their forest and tree resources.
‘One
of the major technical barriers for REDD+ implementation anywhere is the
accurate forest and carbon monitoring at the national level, and this will be
extra challenging for the Pacific given the fact that most of us have never
done any national forest inventory or have not done it to the desired level of
acceptability and regularity,’ he said.
The workshop aims to build capacity of key personnel
and institutions on forest carbon assessment and monitoring in Pacific Island
countries and territories and share information on the latest methodologies and
technologies for forest carbon monitoring to identify common challenges.
Other
goals of the workshop are to facilitate discussion on the regional standard
methodologies, to establish a regional forest carbon monitoring technical
group, and to allow continued discussion towards the formulation of the draft
Regional Policy Framework for REDD+. The workshop also includes training on
development, use and management of relational databases for analysing, storing
and reporting of forest information using Microsoft Access.
The
week-long workshop, attended by 54 participants/observers, is being supported
by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the European Union African-Caribbean-Pacific Forest
Research Network (EU-ACP-FORENET),
German technical cooperation agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) via
the SPC/GIZ Regional Project on Climate Protection through Forest Conservation
in Pacific Island Countries, Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Forestry and Forest
Products Research Institute (FFPRI) of Japan, Forest Research Institute of
Papua New Guinea (PNGFRI), Centre for International Forest Research (CIFOR),
and Asia Pacific Network on Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation
(APFNet) in Beijing, China.
[Ends]
(For further information please contact Vinesh Prasad on telephone
(679)3370733, email LRD Help Desk on email lrdhelpdesk@spc.int or visit
the SPC website: www.spc.int.)
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