26 April 2013: Participants at a recent workshop in Kinshasa, assessed the total costs of REDD+ activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The workshop, which was attended by 24 people and convened from 22-26 April, was organized in collaboration with National Coordination of REDD and the Regional Post-graduate Training School of Integrated Management of Tropical Forests and Lands (ERAIFT). The event sought to train participants in a software tool designed to analyze total costs of REDD+ activities. On the last day of the event, results were demonstrated to the public.

Participants included representatives from civil society as well as ERAIFT, the Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism (MECNT), the Ministry of Planning, and the University of Kinshasa.

The software tool on which the workshop focused, called ‘REDD+ Cost Elements Assessment Tool’ (RCEAT), was developed jointly by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the World Bank Institute, and UN-REDD (UNDP), and is based on the Opportunity Costs of REDD+ Manual, derived from studies in the Congo, Tanzania, Columbia and regional workshops.

According to FCPF, RCEAT is designed as an economic tool to allow planners working on REDD+ projects or programs to assess all relevant cost elements on REDD+ activities, as well as reference emissions and REDD+ related emissions reductions consistently. The RCEAT tool and user manual will be available from FCPC in English and French. FCPF has made documents from the April 2013 workshop (in French) available on its website. [FCPF Press Release and Workshop Documents]