The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank has approved Nigeria’s REDD Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP). The approval was made at the FCPF’s 16th Policy Council meeting that held a week ago in Geneva, Switzerland.
About $3.6 million will be allocated to Nigeria to implement the R-PP.
According to Salisu Dahiru, head of Nigeria’s UN-REDD+ Programme, the main objective of the R-PP is to further improve institutional capacity for REDD+ Governance at the federal level as well as expanding the scope of REDD+ activities to two additional states that hitherto were not part of the initiative.
He did not disclose the states involved.
A couple of years ago, Nigeria accessed a $4 million grant from the UN-REDD, giving birth to the nation’s first REDD+ Readiness Programme that is being implemented within a three-year span (commencing from late 2012), allowing Nigeria to craft the REDD+ mechanism through an innovative, two-track approach consisting of actions at both federal and state government levels.
At the federal level, the programme will create basic technical capacities, develop strategic and policy frameworks for REDD+, and support the alignment of the country with international climate change and environmental negotiations and agreements.
At the state level, the programme will conduct strategy-development and demonstration activities on REDD+ in Cross River State, which Dahiru said
has shown a determined political commitment for green development as well as being home to more than 50 percent of the tropical high forest remaining in the country. The best practice and lessons learned in Cross River will be used to roll out REDD+ in other states across the country.
Dahiru explained why the nation sought the FCPF financing: “In view of the scale of Nigeria and the complexity of developing a REDD+ system for the entire country, which has a federal structure with 36 states, the UN-REDD support needs to be coupled with additional financial and technical assistance, notably to reinforce the federal-level REDD+ capacities and to expand REDD+ to new states (using the best practice, models, policies and measures that Cross River State will develop and test). Nigeria is a member of the FCPF and FCPF co-financing seems necessary for the country to further its REDD+ process.”
REDD+ implies Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
Just like the UN-REDD (United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries), the FCPF is a window to finance the REDD+ programme.
The UN-REDD is a collaboration involving the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).
