The EU REDD Facility supported the Renovated REDD+ Climate Working Group (GTCRR) to strengthen civil society engagement in REDD+ in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It helped develop a guide on civil society consultations, which was used by the Congolese civil society to reach consensus on their contributions to the forest policy reform process.
In October 2022, the European Forest Institute (EFI) and the Provincial Project Management Unit of Lam Dong Province hosted a Land-use Planner training course in Da Lat City, Vietnam. The event welcomed 32 participants from Lam Dong and Dak Nong Provinces, including members from several People’s Committees, the Department of Agricultural and Rural Development and of Natural Resources and Environment, and non-governmental organisations.
The training course was participatory and trainee-centred, with participants encouraged to engage actively in learning activities using real-life situations. Three project teams shared their experiences in learning how to use the Land-use Planner to support sustainable agricultural and land-use planning.
A group of various actors from diverse sectors and fields, including local officials doing cadastral work at the commune level, joined the training from Dak Nong. They used official statistics and local knowledge from real experiences in their commune to develop different land-use scenarios. These included:
Some in the group spend most of their daily work carrying out on-site visits and communicating with local residents at those sites. Many noted the usefulness and practicality of the Land-use Planner as a tool to support better discussions with stakeholders in the field.
“This tool suits my work well and is helping to support farmers in my area.”
A cadastral official from Dak Nong
Source: Q-Huong Le, MDRI, 2022
Located in Quang Son Commune, Dak G’long District, Dak Nong Province, DANOFARM is a cooperative with members from diverse ethnic groups, many of whom are women. The cooperative aims to promote traditional handicrafts and local agricultural products like Robusta coffee.
As Ms Ta Thi Lien, Director of DANOFARM, explained, despite the high quality of their coffee products, it is hard for DANOFARM to find markets for their coffee. This is because the cooperative is limited in resources and technical capacity for market promotion and competition.
Ms Lien participated in the Land-use Planner training course and tested DANOFARM’s business data to develop some practical agricultural production scenarios. Based on DANOFARM’s current and prospective business practice, she tested three scenarios:
Her participation provided a practical perspective in discussions with participants from the public sector.
Apart from local stakeholders, the Land-use Planner training course also welcomed a technical expert from the Global Coffee Platform – Mr Mai Xuan Thong. Mr Thong has previously used the Land-use Planner and other similar modelling tools. Coupled with his rich experience in coffee production techniques, he offered valuable support and insights while facilitating group discussions.
During the training course, Mr Thong collaborated with a group of participants from Di Linh to develop scenarios for the district. Their scenarios explored increasing forest, rice and coffee plantation areas to exploit fallow and unused land areas.
From Mr Thong’s perspective, the Land-use Planner can be a valuable tool for a multitude of users, at diverse scales and with varying aims, from cooperatives or even family farms up to large-scale planning processes. The tool and its outputs can help stakeholders find a balance between agricultural production and forest ecosystem-based services.
Participants from the Central Highlands of Vietnam explored the various ways the Land-use Planner could support sustainable land-use planning in their areas and meet a range of needs. Bringing together a diverse set of stakeholders from the government, private sector and civil society, the training helped to establish a Land-use Planner community of practice in Vietnam, and users can continue to exchange on using data and modelling future scenarios to inform land-use strategies.
Nguyen Que Huong Le
Research analyst
Mekong Development Research Institute
The Congolese state’s spatial planning strategy is still very centralised and is organised around ministries which have some difficulty in coordinating their reciprocal interventions. In addition, there is a certain disparity in planning tools, the scope of application and linkages of which have not yet been clarified. There is therefore a need to bring together and decompartmentalise approaches in order to promote coordinated regional planning.
As the EU REDD Facility marks its 10-year anniversary, it has released a summation of key lessons learned in working to strengthen efforts to ensure tropical forests meet their potential to limit climate change. Over the last decade the Facility has worked towards empowering stakeholders to strengthen the rule of law, to promote sustainable land use and investment, and to enhance supply chain transparency.
These insights are shared as the 14th edition of the EU Development Days on the Green Deal for a Sustainable Future gets underway. The EU has a strong track record of global leadership in dealing with deforestation and forest degradation, and the European Green Deal commits to measures to support deforestation-free value chains. The Facility’s work is aligned with this ambitious response to the continued widespread destruction of the world’s forests.
“Significant progress has been made over the past few years towards ending deforestation and understanding the drivers and solutions to this complex problem,” said Christophe Van Orshoven, EU REDD Facility Team leader. However, he said it was necessary for “governments, the private sector and citizens all over the world to urgently step up action to protect and restore the world’s forests.”
The lessons that the Facility has learned over the past decade include the need for clear and well-enforced legal frameworks for land use, land-use planning that is participatory and collaborative, and partnership approaches that build an enabling environment for sustainable land-use.
“We hope that these lessons help to shape and accelerate future action”, said Van Orshoven. In years ahead, the Facility intends continued support to countries to find innovative approaches and solutions to their land-use governance and development goals, and opportunities for dialogue and partnership.
