Summary

Capacity assessment for estimating emissions and removals in the land use, land-use change and forestry sector, including capacity-building workshops, training on the creation of a land representation framework for collecting data land area change data using remote sensing tools and tools and ground-truthing data from the national forest inventory to monitor stocks in the forestry sector.

Context

Côte d’Ivoire is suffering the effects of climate change. In particular, considerable disruption in priority sectors such as agriculture, water resources, health, coastal zones health, coastal zones and other land uses (Third National Communication 2018). Côte d’Ivoire created the National Climate Change Program in 2012, then joining the Climate and Clean Air Coalition in 2013, which aims to reduce short-lived climate pollutants. In addition, Côte d’Ivoire signed up to the REDD+ mechanism in 2011 and submitted a proposal for a forest reference emission level under the UNFCCC in 2017. The reference level aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and increase forested areas through afforestation programs.

The Paris Agreement has introduced a better system for tracking and reporting progress on climate actions, which requires countries to build new technical and institutional skills for monitoring greenhouse gases (GHGs). Côte d’Ivoire urgently needs to strengthen its ability to measure, report, and verify (MRV) emissions and track progress on its climate goals. A key challenge is the lack of reliable, up-to-date data on land use, land-use changes, and forest carbon stocks, which makes it hard to measure the impact of efforts to reduce emissions in the land-use and forestry sectors. Technical support is needed to address this gap.

CAA Technical Assistance

Under the contract, Landell Mills will provide technical assistance to the Government of Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Environment, Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition by:

• reviewing their current approach to monitoring of land and forest carbon stocks.
• assessing their current approach in relation to best practice.
• making recommendations and implementing training to enable key stakeholders in Côte d’Ivoire to pursue an accurate and well-governed approach to carbon stock monitoring.

This will support the country in gaining a better picture of its performance in relation to its Nationally Determined Contribution and facilitate the design of future projects in this field on a firmer evidence base. Landell Mills will work with a team of two local experts in Côte d’Ivoire, who will bring great knowledge of the institutional context, and remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping.

The deployment will produce:

1. Assessment of current data: A comprehensive assessment of trends in emissions and absorptions in the land-use and forestry sector, national capacities for carbon stocks, and tools to monitor and reduce emissions.
2. Evaluation of institutional structures: An evaluation of existing frameworks, a governance model, and recommendations to improve data collection on land use and land-use changes.
3. A workshop and training report: Practical tools will be proposed for collecting land-use data using remote sensing and national forest inventories.
4. Recommendations on technological options: Recommendations for creating a framework using remote sensing to track land-use changes, with a gender-sensitive approach to data collection.
5. A proposal for a monitoring system: A strategy to strengthen the capacity to monitor carbon stocks in forests and land-use sectors, integrated into the national forest monitoring system.

Expected Outcomes

The initiative aims to directly benefit Côte d’Ivoire by enabling the country to take full advantage of monetization of ecosystem services and the natural capital of forest services. Reducing emissions from the forestry sector will help the country overcome the Bonn Challenge and reach its socio-economic target of restoring 3 million hectares of forest by 2030. Ultimately, it will strengthen local livelihoods.