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Kenya to benefit from WB's
forest carbon partnership facility
22 07 2008
NAIROBI, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Kenya will be among 14 developing and
nine industrialized countries of an innovative partnership and
world financing mechanism to combat tropical deforestation and
climate change.
A statement issued Monday by the World Bank said the developing
countries will receive initial funding from the Forest Carbon
Partnership Facility (FCPF), an innovative approach to financing
efforts to combat climate change.
The FCPF aims to reduce deforestation and forest degradation by
compensating developing countries for greenhouse gas emission
reductions.
"Deforestation and forest degradation together are the second
leading man-made cause of global warming," said Joelle Chassard,
manager of the World Bank's Carbon Finance Unit.
"They are responsible for about 20 percent of global greenhouse
gas emissions, and the main source of national emissions in many
developing countries. For that reason, we have been eager to
initiate this partnership and assist countries while building a
body of knowledge on how best to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
by protecting forests and helping the people who benefit from
them."
The partnership, approved by the World Bank last year, became
functionally operational last month.
The 14 tropical and sub-tropical countries will receive grant
support as they build their capacity for REDD, a mechanism for
compensating countries for reducing emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation, and tap into future systems of positive
incentives for REDD.
The decision about which countries will receive initial funding
came at a two-day meeting in Paris of the FCPF Steering Committee.
The committee was made up of an equal number of developing and
industrialized countries, plus observers from international
organizations, non-governmental institutions, and forest-dependent
indigenous peoples and other forest dwellers.
The committee was assisted in its decision by an independent
technical advisory panel composed of experts in different
technical fields and different regions of the world.
The 14 developing countries include six in Africa (the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar); five
in Latin America (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Mexico, Panama);
and three in Asia (Nepal, Lao PDR, Vietnam).
Each of the nine industrialized countries that formalized their
participation in the partnership was present at the Paris meeting.
These countries are Australia, Finland, France (the French
Development Agency), Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Britain
and the United States.
Together, they have committed to contribute about 82 million U.S.
dollars to the FCPF. More contributions from the public and
private sector are expected in the coming months.
"The FCPF is an important mechanism for giving effect to what was
agreed at the Bali climate change meetings in 2007 -- that donors
and developing countries should work together to trial approaches
to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,"
said Robin Davies, Assistant Director General, Sustainable
Development Group, AusAID, representing Australia, the first donor
to the facility.
"The selection of this initial group of developing country
partners is an important first step in improving global
understanding of ways to reduce forest carbon emissions and lift
forest-dependent communities out of poverty."
The grant money being provided to the first 14 developing
countries in the FCPF will help them to prepare for future systems
of positive incentives for REDD, in particular by establishing
emissions reference levels, adopting REDD strategies, and
designing monitoring systems.
Developing countries have expressed a strong interest in
participating in the FCPF and it is expected that more countries
will receive support in the coming months.
"The FCPF has created a true partnership," said Gisela Ulloa,
National Clean Development Office Coordinator in Bolivia, "where
developing countries and developed countries, alongside the World
Bank, are working in a transparent and participative way to learn
and support each other in the readiness process for REDD."
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