Central African Republic workshop builds national capacity to design forest projects

This week, as part of the activities of the UNFF Global Forest Financing Facilitation Network (GFFFN), the UNFF Secretariat organized a capacity-building workshop on designing projects on sustainable forest management in the Central African Republic in Bangui from 9 to 13 July 2018. The workshop was opened by Mr. Christian Aimé Mayonga, Inspector-General of the Ministry of Water, Forests, Hunting and Fishing, and Mr. Jean-Alexandre Scaglia, Representative of FAO in the Central African Republic. It was attended by 33 participants from 12 Government Ministries, the University of Bangui, the Commission of Central African Forests (COMIFAC), FAO and civil society participants from 4 NGOs and one timber company. The workshop, held in collaboration with FAO and the Government of the Central African Republic, was organized in response to a request from the Government of the Central African Republic to receive support in mobilizing financing for SFM.

The aim of the workshop was to build capacity in designing project proposals on sustainable forest management with a focus on the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Participants covered a range of topics including stakeholder engagement, problem, and objective trees, the theory of change, logical frameworks, and modalities of accessing financing for SFM from the GEF and the Green Climate Fund. The workshop also laid the basis for close cooperation between the UNFF Secretariat and FAO in supporting the Government of the Central African Republic in designing a project for the Green Climate Fund. The project will focus on increasing the resilience and reducing emissions from agro-sylvo-pastoral systems in the Northeast and Southeast of the country. If approved, the project would mobilize US$40 million from the Green Climate Fund to restore forests landscapes across 40% of the country’s surface area, improving the livelihoods of millions of people.