Capacity Building

The REDD mechanism involves a broad range of stakeholders. Most of the actual and potential stakeholders are not yet directly involved in the REDD process, thus they rerquire knowledge on the background of REDD as well as on the different REDD strategies under negotiation. To enhance the knowledge of key stakeholders on the REDD process, REDD awareness modules have been elaborated. Major components of the modules include:

• Climate change mechanism and the role of forests in climate change
• REDD basics
• REDD policy context
• REDD implementation requirements
• Stakeholders and institutional framework for REDD
• Technical elements of REDD
• Accounting for greenhouse emissions
• Key drivers of deforestation and forest degradation

Activities to be undertaken:

• Information workshops
• Provision and dissemination of background reference documentation
• Provision of information sheets

Target audience:

• Governmental and forest/environment administrations
• Existing or planned National committees (coordination and technical levels)
• Representatives of the civil society and private sector

Capacity building modules for deforestation and degradation mapping range from basic Remote Sensing and GIS training to advance image interpretation techniques for forest cover and forest cover change mapping from satellite imagery (Optical, Radar).

The image interpretation module is coupled with field missions for ground truthing exercises. Open source software environments, in-house software and COTS products are introduced to users based on the level and the demand.

Other training requiring software applications include: land use change modeling and timber harvest modeling as proxy for forest degradation projections.

Workshops and on-the-job-training

• Remote Sensing & GIS training
  • general technical background on EO data and technologies
  • training sessions on the use of EO data and tools
  • training on spatial data acqusition, handling and recording
  • training sessions on mapping of carbon stock, degradation, deforestation, forest cover, land use etc.
• Training on ground truth data acquisition for image analysis

Potential target audience:

• Governmental departments monitoring and mapping forest cover
• Technical staffs from NGOs
• Academic and research institutions handling geospatial REDD related information

Considering that the different users find themselves at different REDD readiness levels, the training modules are designed such that they could be adapted easily to meet up with the needs of wide range of users.

We are offering our Capacity Building modules for Biomass Accounting through workshops, seminars and on-the-job-training.

Capacity building via workshops and seminars:

• Identification and definition of key categories
• Adjustments on biomass measurement protocol to reflect country specifics
• Adoption of a stratification approach
• Identification of input data/information for the stratification approach
• Design for a national biomass inventory

On-the-job-training:

• implementation of the biomass protocol
  • Biomass plot installation
  • Measurement of key parameters for assessing the different carbon pools; and establishing damage factors due to timber exploitation
• Assessing field data to evaluate biomass and damage factors

Potential target audience:

• Mapping and forest inventory/management units from forest/environmental administrations
• Technical staffs from NGOs
• Mapping departments from forest or geography university departments

Considering that the different users find themselves at different REDD readiness levels, the training modules are designed such that they could be adopted easily to meet up with the needs of a wide range of users.