Identifying best practises at Tanzania REDD+ workshop
Blue wildebeest in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Photo: Liv Jorunn Hind.
Nils Vagstad, acting CEO for NIBIO, yesterday welcomed close to 50 participants to a two-day workshop at Ås, which aims to further strengthen the ongoing development of the Forest Reference Emissions Level (FREL) for REDD+ in Tanzania.
The Department of Forest and Climate at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) in partnership Tanzania’s National Carbon Monitoring Center (NCMC), is organising a two-day workshop entitled “Forest Reference Emissions Level (FREL): Data, Methods and Experiences for Tanzania”, in Ås 16-17 June 2016.
Building national capacity
In January 2016, Tanzania launched a national carbon monitoring center (NCMC), though financial support from Norway’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs, and Climate and Environment. The funds are administered by the Norwegian embassy in Dar es Salaam.
The main purpose of the center is to build national capacity to measure, verify and report adequately on carbon emissions at national and international level. NIBIO is the major technical partner to assist Tanzania’s national carbon monitoring center, and has taken part in the development and establishment of the center.
Sharing best practise
Over the two days, up to 50 participants will be sharing their experiences in developing FREL for REDD+ while addressing current challenges. The main goal will be to identify best practices, data, method and relevant experiences that could be adapted in the forthcoming development of FREL for Tanzania.
The workshop follows on from NIBIO’s side event “REDD+ case studies: Seminar about Forest and Agriculture” at Oslo REDD EXCHANGE 2016 conference earlier this week. Close to 500 REDD+ policy makers and practitioners where gathered at the conference sharing perspectives on how to preserve and protect tropical forests.
Strong research environment
Nils Vagstad, who opened the workshop, said he hopes the collaboration between Norway and Tanzania would be a part of the strengthening of NIBIO’s international contribution to the ground global challenges.
Vagstad highlighted many of NIBIO’s research areas that can be beneficial in the further collaboration between the two institutions, such as NIBIO’s long history of forest inventory, the strong research environment in remote sensing, landscape monitoring, mapping and analyses of databases.
The NIBIO CEO hoped the collaboration would challenge, excite and inspire the delegates, as well as further enhance and strengthen collaboration.
Contacts
REDD+
REDD+ is an attempt to use economic compensation to save the rainforest from being cut. Several countries, including Norway, have pledged billions of dollars in order to support tropical countries that preserve their tropical forests from being cut. In Norway it is the Ministry of Climate and Environment that administer the REDD+ funds.