FCPF acknowledges sloth in disbursing funds

The Forest Carbon P a r t n e r s h i p Facility (FCPF) has acknowledged sloth in disbursement of funds from the facility. It noted that World Bank teams are working with govern-ment counterparts to ad-dress the issues and clear the way for disbursement of funds. FCPF chief, Inger Anderson, said the entity is keen to invite other de-livery partners, including multilateral development banks and UN agencies, to provide readiness ser-vices to countries under the FCPF. “REDD+ poses tre-mendous developmentchallenges and requires that the capacity of all partners be harnessed using common fiduciary and safeguard approach-es,” she added. These comments were outlined in the recently released FCPF Annual Report 2010. The FCPF is designed to set the stage for a large-scale system of incentives for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and for-est Degradation (REDD), providing a fresh source of financing for the sus-tainable use of forest re-sources and for biodiver-sity conservation. Guyana has expressed its disappointment at the sloth at which the REDD funding is being disbursed despite the country meeting all the requirements. At the FCPF/ World Bank meet-ing in Guyana in June, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said Guyana had met and, in some cases, surpassed the necessary require-ments. Guyana is to benefitfrom a US$200,000 for-mulation grant under the facility. This is to be implemented jointly by the Guyana Forestry Commission and the National Toshaos’ Council (NTC). The NTC will be raising the issue of climate change aware-ness among Amerindian communities. The formulation grant facilitates the execution of Guyana’s Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP), which outlines the country’s approach to creating a readiness framework to target a forest carbon financing scheme, and is part of the overarching Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). REDD+ Guyana had its R-PPapproved in June 2009; initiating the process of disbursement of the ini-tial US$200,000. The country is awaiting the release of the remain-ing US$3.4 million, and an FCPF source told Guyana Times earlier this year that there is a lengthy period of assess-ment by the World Bank before individual coun-tries receive their funds. Meanwhile, the Annual Report has stat-ed that progress on REDD+ will be stalled if it is cast as a way to solve all problems. According to the FCPF, experienc-es during this year have taught a number of les-sons which will certain-ly pave the way for better performance in 2011 and beyond, as countries con-tinue the momentum in preparation for REDD+. They will also play a key role in laying the founda-tion for activities under the Carbon Fund. “The cross-cutting na-ture of REDD+ presents new challenges in sec-toral coordination that may be solved by em-bedding REDD+ strate-gies in overarching policy frameworks (e.g. low car-bon development strate-gies),” the report said.Nonetheless, the re-port says, pioneering REDD countries have greatly advanced their in-dividually tailored readi-ness preparation strat- egies, guiding others in their own processes.The recently released document said the “par-ticipation, collaboration and leadership of the REDD country partici-pants are driving prog-ress toward the FCPF’s objective of building global capacity to make REDD+ a reality”. According to the re-port, political will is also required to create high-ly qualified cross-sec-toral teams capable of resolving competing in-terests into a coherent national plan for REDD+. “Countries are now grap-pling with how to ensure the inclusion of stake-holders in REDD+ poli-cy development and im-plementation, pointing to questions of control over resource manage-ment and the respective decision-making process-es,” the FCPF report add-ed. It lamented the fact that the wealth of expe-rience in managing for- est resources and land use change at the local levels, and REDD+ policy frameworks and incen-tive programmes at the national level is yet to be utilised. Meanwhile, the Carbon Fund, the sec-ond phase of the FCPF, which serves as a vehi-cle for implementing and evaluating pilot incentive programmes for REDD+, has also made significant progress over the past year. Participating coun-tries will receive perfor-mance-based payments for achieving verified emissions reductions. The structure of these payments will build on the options for REDD+, which are currently be-ing discussed with-in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or national systems, with payments made to help address the causes of de-forestation and degrada-tion.
଀࿐଒卢╴䩴㺀ଝÄ}兠ⱽ下ࠗ鼀ଔ吰ஜ

The Forest Carbon P a r t n e r s h i p Facility (FCPF) has acknowledged sloth in disbursement of funds from the facility. It noted that World Bank teams are working with govern-ment counterparts to ad-dress the issues and clear the way for disbursement of funds. FCPF chief, Inger Anderson, said the entity is keen to invite other de-livery partners, including multilateral development banks and UN agencies, to provide readiness ser-vices to countries under the FCPF. “REDD+ poses tre-mendous developmentchallenges and requires that the capacity of all partners be harnessed using common fiduciary and safeguard approach-es,” she added. These comments were outlined in the recently released FCPF Annual Report 2010. The FCPF is designed to set the stage for a large-scale system of incentives for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and for-est Degradation (REDD), providing a fresh source of financing for the sus-tainable use of forest re-sources and for biodiver-sity conservation. Guyana has expressed its disappointment at the sloth at which the REDD funding is being disbursed despite the country meeting all the requirements. At the FCPF/ World Bank meet-ing in Guyana in June, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said Guyana had met and, in some cases, surpassed the necessary require-ments. Guyana is to benefitfrom a US$200,000 for-mulation grant under the facility. This is to be implemented jointly by the Guyana Forestry Commission and the National Toshaos’ Council (NTC). The NTC will be raising the issue of climate change aware-ness among Amerindian communities. The formulation grant facilitates the execution of Guyana’s Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP), which outlines the country’s approach to creating a readiness framework to target a forest carbon financing scheme, and is part of the overarching Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). REDD+ Guyana had its R-PPapproved in June 2009; initiating the process of disbursement of the ini-tial US$200,000. The country is awaiting the release of the remain-ing US$3.4 million, and an FCPF source told Guyana Times earlier this year that there is a lengthy period of assess-ment by the World Bank before individual coun-tries receive their funds. Meanwhile, the Annual Report has stat-ed that progress on REDD+ will be stalled if it is cast as a way to solve all problems. According to the FCPF, experienc-es during this year have taught a number of les-sons which will certain-ly pave the way for better performance in 2011 and beyond, as countries con-tinue the momentum in preparation for REDD+. They will also play a key role in laying the founda-tion for activities under the Carbon Fund. “The cross-cutting na-ture of REDD+ presents new challenges in sec-toral coordination that may be solved by em-bedding REDD+ strate-gies in overarching policy frameworks (e.g. low car-bon development strate-gies),” the report said.Nonetheless, the re-port says, pioneering REDD countries have greatly advanced their in-dividually tailored readi-ness preparation strat- egies, guiding others in their own processes.The recently released document said the “par-ticipation, collaboration and leadership of the REDD country partici-pants are driving prog-ress toward the FCPF’s objective of building global capacity to make REDD+ a reality”. According to the re-port, political will is also required to create high-ly qualified cross-sec-toral teams capable of resolving competing in-terests into a coherent national plan for REDD+. “Countries are now grap-pling with how to ensure the inclusion of stake-holders in REDD+ poli-cy development and im-plementation, pointing to questions of control over resource manage-ment and the respective decision-making process-es,” the FCPF report add-ed. It lamented the fact that the wealth of expe-rience in managing for- est resources and land use change at the local levels, and REDD+ policy frameworks and incen-tive programmes at the national level is yet to be utilised. Meanwhile, the Carbon Fund, the sec-ond phase of the FCPF, which serves as a vehi-cle for implementing and evaluating pilot incentive programmes for REDD+, has also made significant progress over the past year. Participating coun-tries will receive perfor-mance-based payments for achieving verified emissions reductions. The structure of these payments will build on the options for REDD+, which are currently be-ing discussed with-in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or national systems, with payments made to help address the causes of de-forestation and degrada-tion.  ଀࿐଒卢╴䩴㺀ଝÄ}兠ⱽ下ࠗ鼀ଔ吰ஜ

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