Telling real people’s stories about forests and livelihoods in Africa: a video series

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The forest and climate teams at the World Bank sponsored a series of video stories to give a human face to deforestation and raise awareness on opportunities to transform the livelihoods of forests communities. The aim was to go beyond the usual indicators and reach people on the ground to learn first-hand how communities are benefiting from improved forest management under countries’ Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) initiatives, aiming to put in place financial incentives for more sustainable forest management.

Recognizing the importance of forests for economies and for the climate, these initiatives create opportunities to improve governance, realign incentives, improve transparency in land use decisions, and share benefits more equitably.

The videos, developed together with government colleagues and forest communities, share the transformation happening on the ground through REDD+. They tell the story of individual and community perceptions of REDD+ and forest improvement efforts in selected African countries. They depict their

challenges, successes, and hope for the future.We worked with a wide range of project sites, engaged communities, and focused on activities that aim to reduce drivers of deforestation -- and found great enthusiasm for a brighter future. The videos delve into forest livelihoods in countries with dynamic forest and REDD+ activities: Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Ghana, Liberia, and Mozambique.

Africa’s forests, landscapes, and ecosystems produce many economic and social benefits for development. They contribute directly to the well-being and food security of poor people. Per the World Bank Forest Action Plan, the impact of forests on poverty is greatest in Africa, with forest-related income lifting 11 percent of rural households out of extreme poverty. Forests also supply critical raw materials needed to grow the economy, provide habitat to rich flora and fauna, regulate water systems and store carbon.

Telling real people’s stories about forests and livelihoods in Africa: a video series

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Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a mechanism developed by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). REDD+ aims to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests and offers incentives for developing countries to preserve forested lands as a key step on the path to sustainable development. Actions to reduce deforestation also provide direct benefits in terms of forest products, rural jobs, valuable environmental

services and quality of life. These actions also improve local and national resilience to climate change.

The countries highlighted here are demonstrating how REDD+ can catalyze a shift toward more sustainable land use and forest protection while addressing the impacts of climate change. These countries are implementing preparation and investment projects financed by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and the

Forest Investment Program (FIP), which are climate finance vehicles supported by multiple donors and multi-lateral development banks. Many of these countries are also advancing Emissions Reductions Programs that will provide payments for successful performance in reducing deforestation. The videos also show how these initiatives can support livelihoods for local communities, conserve biodiversity, and offer a balanced way forward for long-term economic growth.

The preparation of videos was supported by a Global Environment Facility, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, the Forest Investment Program, and the BioCarbon Fund. The videos were produced by Centro de Alianzas para el Desarrollo (CAD), Center of Partnerships for Development, under supervision of the several governments and the World Bank.

REDD+ IN BURKINA FASO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, GHANA, LIBERIA, MOZAMBIQUE AND REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Ghana relies on agriculture, forestry, agroforestry, and fisheries for more than half of its land use, 20 percent of GDP, and 60 percent of jobs, including 53 percent of women. Forests play critical roles in the lives of poor Ghanaians, by supporting agriculture, hunting, clean water and critical raw materials needed by households. Cocoa production – which relies on forest resources – generates about 15 percent of value added and livelihoods for about 800,000 farmers; it is the third most important exported commodity (after oil and gold). However, forest and land degradation compromise productivity, economic growth, and environmental quality, and contribute to runoff and water pollution that affect both rural and urban Ghanaians.

Ghana has lost over 60 percent of its forest cover and is suffering from high rates of deforestation, especially in the cocoa-forest landscape of the High Forest Zone. Key drivers of forest loss include conversion to agriculture, legal and illegal timber production, illegal mining and other indirect forces. Soil degradation coupled with climate change (rainfall and temperature variability) are key drivers of low cocoa productivity that threaten Ghana’s position as a leading global producer.

Ghana:

20% OF GHANA’S FORESTS AND BIODIVERSITY WILL DISAPPEAR IN 10 YEARS

REDD+ AIMS TO SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE EMISSIONS FROM DEFORESTATION BY

40% OVER NEXT 10 YEARS

60% OF GHANA’S FOREST COVER HAS BEEN LOST

BETWEEN 1950 AND THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

Engaging People in Sustainable Forest Management and Bringing Community Benefits

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Engaging People in Sustainable Forest Management and Bringing Community Benefits

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FCPF AND FIP INVESTING IN GHANA’S FORESTSUnder the FCPF Readiness Fund, Ghana is implementing a participatory and consultative REDD+ process, developing reference emission levels and monitoring systems, and developing a national REDD+ strategy. These activities lay the foundation of governance and operating environment for implementation of investments, as well as future potential performance based payments.

Ghana’s FIP investments focus on the High Forest Zone, where deforestation rates and carbon stocks are high. FIP investments aim to introduce more inclusive management practices and benefit sharing models to improve management of forests, agroforests and cocoa landscapes; increase trees on farms by promoting climate smart cocoa practices; and develop viable alternative livelihoods for communities to reduce pressure on forests. FIP also targets reforms in policies and practices that remove barriers and create incentives for improved landscape level outcomes. Wider benefits include enhancing agricultural biodiversity, soil conservation, habitat connectivity and ecosystem services, such as sustaining water supplies.

Under the FCPF Carbon Fund, Ghana is preparing the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Emission Reductions Program. This ambitious program aims to leverage strong private sector commitment and investment into a climate-smart cocoa production system, supported by policy reforms, as well as a wide range of stakeholders. The program will be implemented in the High Forest Zone, as is the FIP, and has five main elements: institutional coordination, landscape planning in hotspot intervention areas, climate-smart cocoa, risk management and finance, and legal and policy reforms. Through this program, Ghana expects to generate substantial emissions reductions, leverage performance based payments and private sector action, transform cocoa agroforestry practices, and benefit smallholder farmers.

Ghana’s Cocoa Forest REDD+ Program has a strong focus on greening the cocoa supply chain that is driving forest loss through agricultural expansion. The program seeks to significantly reduce emissions driven by expansion of cocoa into forest areas, coupled with illegal logging.  The program will cover almost 6 million hectares and focus on cocoa farming resources and land use interventions, while promoting other tree crops or agroforestry systems in areas that are unsuitable for cocoa. The ultimate beneficiaries of

these REDD+ activities are the rural communities in the Western and Brong Ahafo Regions who manage agricultural landscapes and forests for their livelihoods.

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGESGhana’s forest resources are important in terms of trade, climate change and biodiversity. The country seeks to use forests and partnerships to leverage financial and technical assistance needed to advance toward more sustainable management. Ghana’s forests face numerous governance challenges, related to tenure, enforcement, benefit sharing and transparency. Also challenging are the limited alternative livelihood opportunities for rural farming communities.

REDD+ aims to provide solutions to these broad challenges by building capacity, pilot testing new approaches and practices, and by providing resources for investment in land, trees and people. By implementing REDD+ actions, people can improve their lives by adopting smart agricultural techniques, contribute to the global fight against climate change, and conserve Ghana’s heritage and biodiversity.

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in the Sahel region in West Africa. It is characterized by arid and semi-arid ecosystems that represent a significant potential for carbon sequestration. Its wooded areas and forests (including fallow land, wooded savannah and wooded steppes) cover almost 13 million hectares (43 percent of the country). The population is mainly composed of smallholder farmers who depend heavily on the sustainable management of lands to secure their livelihoods.

Traditionally, the forests and wooded areas provide a large income for the neighboring communities, through either woodworking, hunting, non-timber forest products (such as shea and nuts) or tree planting. Households use plants and animals from natural forests and woodlands as well as planted trees for food, energy, medicine, fodder, housing, furniture and baskets. The forests and wooded areas also preserve agricultural sustainability, by providing windbreaks against erosion and desertification, restoring soil fertility, pollinating crops, and maintaining water quality.

Burkina Faso: Improving forest and woodlands management to support local communities’ adaptation to climate change.

Improving forest and woodlands management to support local communities’ adaptation to climate change.

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CHALLENGESA major challenge is continued degradation of the country’s natural resource assets (forests, farm and grazing lands, lakes, and rivers). Ninety percent of the population depends on these assets for their livelihood. Depletion of natural capital is a crucial challenge for the country’s development policy and poverty reduction strategy.

The main drivers of forest loss and degradation are agricultural expansion, overgrazing, bush fires, increasing demand for fuel-wood and charcoal, over-harvesting of non-timber forest products and mining. The main underlying causes are competing land uses, difficulties enforcing rules on forestry and the lack of efficient tools for sustainable land use planning and management.

FIP AND FCPF IN BURKINA FASO For three decades, Burkina has been an open-air laboratory for participatory management of natural assets where the government launched a dynamic process to accompany the communities to manage their own resources. Since 2012, Burkina’s REDD+ efforts have been complemented by support from the

FCPF which helps countries set up efforts to reduce deforestation and degradation. Under the Forest Investment Program, also since 2012, Burkina’s is increasing investments to help the local and national governments adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while tackling poverty and inequality. Burkina Faso is the first Sahel country to become a REDD+ and a FIP country.

Burkina Faso is managing the two programs in an integrated approach, using common teams and leadership to link the FCPF-financed national REDD+ strategy and readiness processes to the FIP-financed activities on the ground. The established FIP program area lays the groundwork for a potential large scale (or ‘jurisdictional’) REDD+ program in the same area that will aim to reduce forest loss and support more sustainable livelihoods – and potentially receive further FCPF and donors’ support

To address land degradation and climate change, it is vital for community members to work together on integrated land management and to strengthen participatory governance. FIP has piloted a 3-step approach that can be replicated in other municipalities and countries with similar environmental issues.

As a first step, the Government sponsored a participatory planning process in 32 FIP pilot municipalities to bring together different communities (farmers, shepherds and forest users), discuss issues openly, and forge agreements capable of accommodating the various interests. Setting up such a participatory process was a challenge in itself that involved selecting participants, assessing land tenure issues, identifying group’s challenges and concerns, listing their propositions to improve natural resource management, and elaborating municipal land-use plans. As a result, each municipality developed and endorsed a zoning plan and a local REDD+ investment plan, both locally owned and based on the communities’ own innovative and transformational solutions to improve management, livelihoods and vegetation in the landscape.

As a second and third steps, the activities and investments agreed during the participatory process are implemented on the ground, while dedicated activities will tackle the governance, land tenure and land-use planning issues to ensure the sustainability.

With this synergy between the FCPF and FIP, the communities are being provided with the means to collectively establish, implement and enforce their own rules for common land and natural resources, which will help to achieve REDD+ objectives at the municipal level.

OPPORTUNITIESBecause of the positive results of this local governance approach to natural resource management, the government is now expanding the use of municipal REDD+ investment plans as building blocks for a large jurisdictional Emission Reduction Program. The ER Program will also support private sector engagement to improve value chains for non-timber forest products (shea and cashew), complementing the FIP municipal model and bringing new partners as well as other sources of funding. Through this program, Burkina Faso aims to transform the rural development trends from negative to positive by tackling the underlying issues that have hampered its development: land tenure, soil degradation, land degradation, and fragile private sector development.

DRC has the second largest intact block of rainforest in the world. It covers more than half of the remaining rainforest in the Congo Basin. Forests cover around 152 million hectares or two-thirds of the country. About 60 million people across Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo depend on the Congo basin forests for their livelihoods. These forests represent 20 percent of the world’s remaining primary tropical forests and play a globally important role in climate regulation and biodiversity protection. The Congo Basin forest hosts more than 10,000 species of plants, 400 species of mammals, 1,100 bird species, and 400 species of fish, comprising one of the most important and diverse ecosystems on earth.

About 35 million people reside in or are dependent on DRC’s forests, which provide food, employment, building material (timber), energy (fuelwood and charcoal), shelter, medicine, cultural values and environmental services of local and national importance. The country’s Indigenous Peoples known as Pygmies have specific needs and rely almost entirely on forests. The timber industry is also vitally important to the local and national economy.  

Democratic Republic of Congo:Engaging Communities in Forest Management and Bringing Sustainable Benefits

Engaging Communities in Forest Management and Bringing Sustainable Benefits in DRC

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As one of the least developed countries in the world, economic development is a top priority and the country’s forests are under increasing threat. DRC’s loses almost half a million hectares of forest each year, putting it in the top ten worldwide in terms area lost (although the rate of deforestation is low compared to countries in the Amazon and Southeast Asia). The main direct causes of forest loss are slash-and-burn agricultural practices, artisanal wood production, wood energy and charcoal production, and mining. Underlying causes of deforestation are weak forest governance, rapid population growth estimated at 3 percent per year, land tenure insecurity, and lack of forest-smart land use planning.

FCPF AND FIP INVESTING IN DRC’S FORESTSThe DRC Government is committed to slowing, and eventually halting, forest loss. In 2012, it adopted a National REDD+ Strategy, supported by both FCPF and FIP, illustrating a vision for meeting its long-term development aspirations through a green economy. The strategy aims to stabilize forest cover on two–thirds of the country’s land area by 2030 and maintain it thereafter. The country has also developed a REDD+ National Investment Plan to support an integrated, multi-sector approach to address the direct and

indirect drivers of forest loss. DRC is integrating financing from FCPF, FIP, the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) and other sources to make progress on its REDD+ Initiative.

REDD+ is an opportunity for DRC to promote sustainable rural economies, reduce poverty and mitigate climate change at the same time. Since 2015, DRC’s FIP initiative has been working to address deforestation that results from demand for agricultural products and fuelwood around the capital, Kinshasa. FIP is working to reduce deforestation by improving community livelihoods and forest landscape management in the Plateau district of Maï N’dombe Province. In the Plateau district, local chiefs, women and other community members work together on participatory land use management plans that identify which areas will be protected and which can be used for sustainable production. Communities also are growing seedlings and generating income by planting them to restore degraded land. Payments for performance ensure that the timber seedlings are properly planted and maintained. These investments are building results toward a larger program of results based payments under the Maï N’dombe Emission Reductions Program.

The Maï N’dombe Emission Reductions Program is a first step in implementing the country’s National REDD+ Strategy at scale. It is designed to be a model for green development in the Congo Basin and an important test of climate action and REDD+ results-based payments. The Maï N’dombe program area is 12.3 million hectares covered by 9.8 million hectares of forest. The Program aims at implementing sustainable land use management practices, providing alternatives to deforestation, improving livelihoods, protecting biodiversity and rewarding performance. The objective is to provide benefits for local communities and Indigenous Peoples while also reducing carbon emissions from deforestation by about 29 million tons CO2 by 2021.

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGESThe Emission Reductions Program for Maï N’dombe provincial program is an opportunity and a test to learn more about how REDD+ can work in practice building on DRC’s genuine commitment for forest protection. Significant challenges remain and the DRC is committed to address them, among others with support from the CAFI. The provincial program in Maï N’dombe has the potential to result in a new forest-based development model providing lessons for other countries. The challenges are enormous and so are the opportunities.

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THE CONGO BASIN FORESTS IS ONE OF THE PLANET’S MOST DIVERSE ECOSYSTEMS

ROC’s forests cover over 65 percent of the country’s land area. The forestry sector contributes around 5 percent to GDP and about 575,000 Congolese people live in forested areas. Protected areas cover 13 percent of the national territory with potential for tourism development. ROC also has 2.5 million hectares of forest concessions certified under the Forest Stewardship Council, which is the largest area on the continent. Beyond timber, communities gain direct economic benefits from the forests, including food (bush-meat), fuel wood and charcoal for household cooking, building materials, and medicines – and these activities generate many informal jobs. While the deforestation rate is low compared to other countries, it has been rising rapidly in recent years.

In Sangha and Likouala in the North, the expanse of tropical forest covers an area nearly the size of Greece. Yet improving roads, a vital economic link for the 306,000 inhabitants of these two regions, are also a harbinger of recent increases in deforestation and forest degradation, plainly visible along the road network. While industrial agriculture, forestry operations, and mining all contribute to deforestation, the factor most closely intertwined with poverty is a growing population, estimated at 3 percent per year, that has few alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture to ensure its livelihood.

Republic of Congo: A balancing act: Exploring how the Republic of Congo can use forest resources sustainably for development

A balancing act: Exploring how the Republic of Congo can use forest resources sustainably for development

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INVESTMENT IN REDD+ AND FORESTSIn 2008, the ROC committed to REDD+ as a strategy to green its development path and joined the FCPF. REDD+ payments can assist Congo in the transition to a sustainable economy less dominated by oil without compromising the conservation of natural resources. The country’s REDD+ initiative is also helping to position its forests as providers of global ecosystems services, especially biodiversity and greenhouse gas emission reductions. The government is strategically aligning funds from FCPF, FIP, GEF, IDA, CAFI and other sources with the help of the World Bank and additional development partners to help address the drivers of deforestation.

ROC is also developing a National REDD+ Investment plan under the FIP, since 2015. FIP investments would support actions to reduce deforestation and thus help the country move along the path to performance based payments for emission reductions. Other development partner projects are supporting forest concession management, timber traceability and protected area management. The country is seeking financing from

the CAFI and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to further augment its REDD+ efforts.

ROC is advancing an Emission Reductions Program under the FCPF Carbon Fund. The program in Northern ROC addresses drivers of deforestation and degradation: industrial logging, agro-industrial production, slash-and-burn agriculture, and illegal logging. Interventions include reduced impact logging, setting aside areas for forests with high conservation value in oil palm and mining concessions, production of cocoa by smallholders through agroforestry systems, smallholder outgrower schemes, conservation agriculture, crop diversification and improved management of protected areas. The program supports the national vision for a green economy building on sustainable management of natural ecosystems, participatory management and poverty reduction.   

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGESForests are ROC’s second largest foreign exchange earner. However, the share of the forestry sector in the national economy remains relatively low. ROC needs development to reduce the deep poverty in its remote

areas while making use of its sizeable forest resources. The challenge is to identify pathways that marry development and forest preservation and contribute to environmental quality, rural livelihoods, and climate change mitigation. Plantation development – including mixed tree-food-crop systems – in non-forested areas could serve regional markets for charcoal and other wood products. These planted forests could also relieve pressures on natural forests, which are expected to grow as the economy develops and infrastructure and extraction projects grow. Another challenge is to create an enabling environment for private sector and small-holder investment and to ensure that local people have respect for their rights and share in the benefits. REDD+ provides an opportunity for forest-smart development in ROC.

ROC’s REDD+ programs are piloting approaches to address deforestation, but these need to be scaled up and replicated to promote a broader transformation toward sustainable management of its forests and protected areas. Focusing on the protection and sustainable use of natural resources is a way to ensure livelihood improvement for the communities and to bring a brighter future to the region, while also contributing to the global fight against climate change.

Mozambique’s forests and woodlands cover about 70 percent of the countries’ total area. Forests contribute about 2 percent of national GDP with 22,000 people directly employed in the sector. The country’s economy has experienced some of the world’s fastest growth rates since the end of its devastating civil war in 1992. Despite rapid recent growth, Mozambique is still one of the world’s poorest countries with more than half of its 25 million people living below the poverty line. Extreme poverty is concentrated in the central and northern regions, particularly among rural areas where many households get their income from agricultural and forest related activities.

Mozambique is also among the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Even now, increasing weather hazards (floods, drought) threaten efforts to meet national priorities, especially food security, which is essential to poverty alleviation. Changing climatic conditions also increase the frequency of forest fires and pest outbreaks. Forest degradation and deforestation including slash and burn agriculture, charcoal production, mining development and illegal logging also contribute to the increased vulnerability of rural communities.

Mozambique:

of the population living below poverty line.

25M I L L I O N

POPULATION

54%

MAIN DRIVERS OF DEFORESTATION

SLASH & BURNAGRICULTURE

65%URBAN

EXPANSION

12%EXPLOITATION OF FOREST PRODUCTS

8%CHARCOAL

FUEL

7%COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE

4%

Communities give hope for resilient and sustainable forests

Communities give hope for resilient and sustainable forests

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Every year Mozambique loses 0.58 percent of forests and 93 percent of its forest exploitation is illegal. The main drivers of deforestation are: forest conversion into agriculture, extraction of fuelwood for domestic use, commercial timber exploitation through illegal logging, urban and demographic expansion and mining. Mozambique now participates in international efforts to mitigate climate change and promote REDD+, while pursuing other national goals for society and the environment.

FCPF AND FIP INVESTING IN MOZAMBIQUE’S FORESTS Mozambique started developing a REDD+ program 2009 and joined the FCPF in 2012. The National REDD+ Strategy is informing approaches to target key drivers of deforestation and address institutional and capacity gaps. REDD+ goals in Mozambique are to significantly reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation by 40 percent over the next ten years. And to increase carbon sequestration capacity through industrial and small-scale forest plantations, including agroforestry systems and the restoration and rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems. These actions will improve people’s lives by adopting smart agricultural techniques and build resilience in the rural economy, while conserving biodiversity and fighting climate change.

Mozambique’s FIP project (MozFIP) supports the Government’s National Sustainable Development Program and is part of the World Bank’s larger integrated portfolio on forests and landscape management. MozFIP promotes the enabling conditions and practices for sustainable forest and land management, to generate economic opportunities for local, rural actors while conserving global environmental services. The integrated landscape management approach promotes activities and involves stakeholders across the agriculture, energy and forest sectors. MozFIP is being implemented in two landscapes, through the Cabo Delgado and Zambezia Integrated Landscape Management Programs.

MozFIP also finances implementation of the National REDD+ Strategy, providing upfront investments to address drivers of deforestation in concert with government other sources of financing. This provides the bridge from readiness to potential future payments for emissions reductions under the FCPF Carbon Fund in Zambezia.

The Zambezia Integrated Landscape Management Program (ZILMP) is an ambitious cross-cutting 4-million-hectare initiative to promote sustainable rural development in one of Mozambique’s poorest provinces. The first-of-its-kind in the country, the program aims to address weak governance, slash and burn agriculture plus agricultural expansion, removal of wood for domestic uses, and illegal logging. The program focuses on forest conservation and management, conservation agriculture, biomass energy management and land use planning. These activities will be implemented through a cooperative approach with multiple stakeholders: government, farmers, communities, private sector, NGOs – to maximize access to funds and institutional capacity.

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGESThrough REDD+ investments, Mozambique is improving agricultural practices and promoting tree planting for household energy needs, local economic uses and to act as barriers against erosion. These programs can improve rural livelihoods, reduce pressure on forests and reduce the causes of climate change. This in turn will increase agricultural productivity which is essential to conservation of forests for carbon, for biodiversity and for eco-tourism initiatives.

Forest and woodland based enterprises contribute to the nation’s economy and constitute an important source of work and pay in rural communities. However, the forest sector is also challenged by governance issues, widespread illegal logging, plus the low level of subsistence agriculture, where poor practices contribute to forest loss and degradation. While forest products, timber and other products offer huge potential for raising earnings and creating jobs at the community level, strategic changes are required to guarantee better assessment, control, monitoring and incentives toward sustainable forest management. The Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER) was set up in 2015 to enhance cross sectoral coordination and implementation.

RANKED 178 OUT OF 187 COUNTRIES ON LOW HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX

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1 78 179 180 181 182

#70% RURAL POPULATION

of Mozambique’s population live in rural areas and are heavily dependent on natural resources such as forests for their livelihoods.

Liberia:

Liberia is, by far, the most densely forested country in West Africa. Over 31 percent of its area is covered by the largest intact block of the lush Upper Guinean Forest, which is comparable to the forests of the Congo and the Amazon basins. Liberia has immensely rich biodiversity and many unique species, including over 2,000 species of flowering plants and the rare pygmy hippos, and is abundantly endowed with natural resources such as rubber, iron, timber, diamonds, and gold.

Forest Management by the people for local livelihoods and environmental services

Liberian communities depend on forests for their survival, from food and medicine to the wood they cook with and use for constructing their houses. Besides providing livelihoods, forests offer watershed protection, prevent soil erosion, provide habitat for flora and fauna and help mitigate climate change. Forests also provide the building blocks for economic activity – timber and fiber for construction, shelter, and furniture, as well as non-timber products, such as honey and resins. With so much directly or indirectly involving forests, their importance cannot be underestimated for the people and the economy.

From 1989-2003, devastating civil conflicts led to great losses of life, economic collapse, internal displacement, and the destruction of much of the country’s infrastructure. The

country’s forests were plundered to sustain the war. To date, more than half the forests have been degraded or lost.

Unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and the emerging impacts of climate change continue to threaten forests and the environment. Liberia’s forests are under threat from expanding agriculture and mining, as well as uncontrolled and illegal logging. The age-old methods of farming and hunting together with unregulated timber extraction continue to threaten biodiversity. Population pressures, especially the movement of displaced people and former refugees also contribute to deforestation. All these result in rapid deforestation (1-2 percent annually), erosion, and environmental degradation.

Forest Management by the people for local livelihoods and environmental services

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After the war, Liberia swiftly embarked on a green growth path, with the aim of reducing poverty and making social and economic improvements through sustainable development. The country also committed to tackling deforestation to meet internationally agreed targets for reducing the impacts of climate change. Liberia is moving away from pure commercial forestry towards sustainable forest management, including with communities and through establishment of a protected forest estate. These reforms follow a “Four C’s” approach that balances Community, Commercial, Conservation, and Carbon objectives. Liberia committed to conserve 30 percent or more of its forests as protected areas with the remainder to be used for sustainable forest management and community forestry.

REDD+ INVESTMENTS IN LIBERIA’S FORESTSLiberia’s REDD+ program aims to tackle the main drivers of deforestation: agriculture (slash and burn activities and larger scale plantations), charcoal production, illegal timber production, and mining while making communities partners in and beneficiaries of the forest protection.

In 2012, Liberia joined the FCPF and initiated a platform for bringing together mining, agriculture, land, forestry, and environmental sectors to work hand in hand to address drivers of deforestation and weak governance. The REDD+ program is a key step toward reform in the forest sector. In 2014, Liberia and Norway began a further partnership to work together with Liberia to improve the framework for forest governance, strengthen law enforcement and support REDD+ efforts. In a country where timber once helped to fuel civil war, this partnership is a major boost that holds promise to curb forest loss, facilitate growth and enhance livelihoods. This partnership supports the Liberia Forest Sector Project, among others, with implementation through the World Bank. The project aims to improve management

of forest resources and increase benefit sharing through investments in governance, capacity and institutional building, legal reform, support to land use planning, conservation forestry in protected areas, community forestry, and climate smart agriculture. In the medium term, Norway has committed to purchasing emissions reductions when these are generated and properly verified.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIESLiberia is still facing important challenges, notably in introducing good governance. Good governance (and security of investments) is critical for attracting foreign investors to the forestry sector. The successful transition to community forest management is critical to the forestry reform agenda.

The Liberia National REDD+ Strategy focuses on the sustainable management of forest resources to reduce direct pressures on forests and their biodiversity and promote sustainable use of resources. REDD+ also promotes awareness and encourages participation of communities in decision-making regarding forest management and community development, which further supports reforestation and afforestation and helps to fight poverty.

The REDD+ approach works to tip the economic balance in favor of sustainable management of forests. This benefits communities and the country with economic gains, environmental protection and biodiversity while also contributing to climate change mitigation. This offers a great opportunity to ensure livelihood improvement for the communities and bring a brighter future to the region, while also contributing to the global fight against climate change.

The preparation of videos was supported by the Global Environment Facility, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, the Forest Investment Program, and the BioCarbon Fund. The videos were produced by Centro de Alianzas para el Desarrollo (CAD), Center of Partnerships for Development, under supervision of the several governments and the World Bank.

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