Piloting REDD+ in the Bale Eco-Region of Ethiopia: Strengthening Community and Regional Level Institutional Capacity for Natural Resource Governance Project
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Oromia Forest and Wildlife Enterprise Piloting REDD+ in the Bale Eco-Region of Ethiopia: strengthening community and regional level institutional capacity for Natural Resource governance project Nine Months (January 01 –November 30, 2013) Activity and Financial Report FARM-Africa – SOS Sahel Ethiopia Participatory Natural Resource Management Partnership and Oromia Forestry and Wildlife Enterprise (OFWE), Bale and Arsi branch Enterprises Reporting to: The Royal Norwegian Embassy December, 2013 Addis Ababa Acronyms/ Abbreviations BERSMP Bale EcoRegion Sustainable Management Programme BOA Bureau of Agriculture CBO Community Based Organisation CCBA Climate Community Biodiversity Alliance CDM Clean Development Mechanism COP Conference of Parties CPA Cooperatives Promotion Agency CRGE Climate Resilient Green Economy CSA Carbon stock assessment DA Development Agent FCPF Forest Carbon Partnership Facility FMG Forest management Group FPIC Free, Prior, and Informed Consent IDESAM Institute for Conservation and Sustainable Development of Amazonas JFM Joint Forest Management MA&D Market Analysis and Development MOU Memorandum of Understanding NCRC Nature Conservation Research Centre NGO Non Government Organization NTFP Non Timber Forest Products OCAT Organizational Capacity Assessment tool OFWE Oromia Forests and Wildlife Enterprise PDD Project Design Document PFM Participatory Forest Management PNRMU Participatory Natural Resource Management Unit REDD Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation R-PP Readiness Preparation Proposal S&MFE Small and Medium Forest Enterprise SNNPRS Southern Nations Nationalities Peoples regional State TOT Training of trainers VCS Verified Carbon Standard Table of Contents 1. Project background information .................................................................................................. 4 2. Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... 5 3. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6 4. Major achievements of activities during the reporting period (January – September 2013) ......... 7 3.1. Outcome 1: Forest adjacent communities engaged and their actions and support for REDD+ practiced and sustained ............................................................................................................ 7 3.2. Outcome-2 Organizational and managerial capacity of community based organizations enhanced. ............................................................................................................................................ 23 3.3. Outcome-3 Small & Medium Forest Enterprises (S&MFEs) established. ................................. 26 4. Assessment of the efficiency of the project ............................................................................... 28 5. Assessment of the result/impact in relation to the planned purpose .......................................... 28 6. Constraints ................................................................................................................................ 28 7. BUDGET utilization ................................................................................................................... 29 8. Annex 1: Activities analysis – progress against plan (January 01, 2013 – October 30, 2013) ... 30 9. Annex 2: Financial Report (January 01 – October 30, 2013) and Liquidity forecast for Six Months (December 01, 2013 – May 30, 2014) .................................................................................. 33 List of Figures and Tables List of figures Figure 1 Location map of different divisions of BMERP ............................................................................. 6 Figure 2 OFWE DG presenting on Oromia REDD+ project & Workshop participants .............................. 10 Figure 3Trainees during theoretical session ............................................................................................ 14 Figure 4 Community during the experience exchange visit ...................................................................... 18 Figure 5 Community meeting for Bale REDD+ FPIC process ................................................................. 21 Figure 6 Sample community representative signature for positive consent .............................................. 22 Lists of Tables Table 1 Workshop Participants ........................................................................................................... 8 Table 2 Participants of Carbon stock assessment training ................................................................ 11 Table 3 Number of woreda development extension workers trained on FPIC ................................... 11 Table 4 Community members trained and Engaged on Carbon Stock assessment .......................... 13 Table 5Community training participants ............................................................................................ 13 Table 6 Participants of the Humbo CDM project ............................................................................... 15 Table 7 Kebele level community meeting participants for Bale REDD+ FPIC process ...................... 20 Table 8 Community & government staffs participated on FPIC training ............................................ 21 Table 9 Participants of FPIC second round training .......................................................................... 23 Table 10 Lists of JFM CBOs supported ........................................................................................... 24 Table 11 Participants of Adaba-Dodola experience exchange visit ................................................... 26 1. Project background information Project Name: Piloting REDD+ in the Bale Eco-Region of Ethiopia: strengthening community and regional level institutional capacity for Natural Resource governance project Project implementing partners FARM-Africa – SOS Sahel Ethiopia and Oromia Forestry and Wildlife Enterprise (OFWE), Reporting Period: January 01, 2013 – September 30, 2013 Donor The Norwegian Embassy Project duration: January 2013 – December 2015 Project Location: Oromia Regional State, Bale and West Arsi zones, 16 Woredas Project Partners: Council of the Regional State of Oromia, Oromia Forest and Wildlife Enterprise and Regional Bureau of Finance and Economic Development Project Goal: to make significant contribution to enable Ethiopia to realize its Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy at grassroots level Project Purpose: REDD+ scheme established in the Bale Mountains through institutional support to community and regional level bodies 2. Executive Summary 1. The Piloting Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in the Bale Eco-Region of Ethiopia: strengthening community and regional level institutional capacity for Natural Resource governance project has been developed to curb deforestation and forest degradation in the Bale Mountains Ecoregion of Ethiopia. Despite the delay in starting the implementation on the ground it has shown a significant progress over the last one year. 2. Capacity building support provided forest dweller communities and the government partners for the implementation of the future REDD+ activities. The capacity building was through on job training, classroom theoretical & field practical trainings, experience exchange visit to forest carbon project site in Ethiopia for local experts and community forest management cooperatives. The project also supported Oromia Regional state relevant officials to participate and learn more on different scales (national, Jurisdictional/sub-national and project) of REDD+ dynamics. Accordingly, Oromia Regional State Vice President & Bureau of Agriculture head, OFWE Director General and Deputy Director General) were supported to participate on Jurisdictional Nested REDD+ exchange workshop in Brazil and COP 19 in Warsaw, Poland. 3. As a social safeguard strategy, FPIC has been conducted in the Bale REDD+ project area. It was conducted in 62 kebeles of the Bale Ecoregion where ca 12,000 local community forest management cooperative members participated. During the discussion the detail nature of the project and the benefit sharing modalities were explained to the community and community raised many questions and concerns where detail explanation was given. Finally, the community have given their consent for the implementation of REDD+ project in the Bale Mountains’ forest. 4. Joint Forest Management CBOs in the Bale REDD+ project area/s were supported for institutional and managerial capacity enhancement. The supports were delivered with the initial organizational capacity assessment tool (OCAT) development through which the capacity gaps will be identified for future support strategy. The tool was developed to be used by the government and project staffs for the JFM CBOs capacity assessment. Trainings were also provided to government partners and project staffs on the how to use the tool. 5. Partnership with the Rainforest Alliance (RFA) was also established for Bale Forest Coffee certification and future collaboration on the sustainable marketing of the certified coffee. The RFA Ethiopia office has provided trainings to government and project staffs on the processes of coffee certification. 6. In spite of the delayed start of the project implementation on the ground, the current status of the activities