Action
Year
2011 – 2015
The project supported civil society and indigenous peoples’ organisations in the Republic of the Congo in setting up a platform to coordinate interests in REDD+. The coordination platform enabled members to influence and participate in the national REDD+ process.
Inclusive, active multi-stakeholder participation is key to good land-use governance and, as such, is both a prerequisite for the development and implementation of REDD+ and an important part of the process. The objective of the project was to cultivate broad, informed stakeholder participation, including by civil society and indigenous peoples, to ensure equity and ownership in REDD+ development and implementation in the Republic of the Congo.
Coordination platforms can be effective in organising and promoting the interests of civil society and indigenous peoples’ groups. However, a challenge for the stakeholders involved is to develop a representative platform that captures the interests of diverse members and communicates with a coordinated voice.
The Republic of the Congo began negotiating a FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the European Union in 2008. The two parties signed the agreement in 2010. Since then, efforts have focused on developing a timber legality assurance system (TLAS). The Plateforme de Gestion Durable des Forets is the coordination platform that follows negotiations and implementation of the VPA.
The coordination platform for the VPA is the model for the Cadre de Concertation des organisations de la société civile et des populations autochtones sur la REDD+ (CACO REDD) involved in developing a national REDD+ strategy. The CACO-REDD coordination platform faces certain challenges:
Local consultations in the Pool department, Republic of the Congo
Our approach to cultivating broad, informed stakeholder participation was to support civil society and indigenous peoples’ involvement in the REDD+ process. In 2012, the EU REDD Facility worked with Congolese and international NGOs to help national civil society and indigenous peoples’ organisations create the CACO REDD coordination platform, modelled on the FLEGT VPA coordination platform.
The Facility provided both technical and financial support to ensure that members of CACO REDD could influence and participate in the national REDD+ process. Support included: