26 April 2013: The Commission des Forets d’Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) convened a regional workshop to plan for the implementation of national forest monitoring in the Congo Basin.

The workshop was organized with three main objectives: planning for the first stage of the project; facilitating stakeholder engagement; and initiating contact between project staff, national REDD+ coordinators and climate change foal points. As such, the workshop introduced the project, including its budget and suggested indicators.

The workshop participants prepared a number of recommendations including the need to address countries with no national REDD+ strategy, including through building political support and assigning a budget for the development of a national plan. Participants also recommended that national REDD+ focal points feed the results of international decision-making into the project and ensure that national strategies don’t contradict the regional program.

The workshop also developed country-specific recommendations for: Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe. [Publication: Atelier de planification opérationnelle du Projet COMIFAC-FAO relatif aux systèmes de surveillance et de MNV nationaux avec une approche régionale pour les pays du Bassin du Congo] [Congo Basin Forest Partnership Press Release]