01 Apr The Paris Agreement in Action
The conservation and sustainable utilization of natural carbon sinks, together with REDD+, and a specific window clearly focused on forest landscape restoration (FLR) is the foundation for achieving nationally determined contributions for the Paris Agreement, suggests Nicolas Picard from Silva Mediterranea.
At the 6th Mediterranean Forest Week which took place on the 1 st of April in Lebanon, Picard gave a presentation entitled: ‘The Paris Agreement in Action: Up-scaling FLR to achieve nationally determined contributions’. In his presentation, Picard gave an overview, objectives, and progress of current FLR projects in the Mediterranean region.
So how did FLR projects develop? Opportunity.
After the 5th Mediterranean Forest Week that took place in Morocco, the topic was discussed in December 2017 and finalized by the FLRM of FAO a year later. The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and FAO launched the project today.
The main objectives of the projects are:
- Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions;
- Conservation of carbon stocks;
- Biodiversity sustainability;
- Adaptation to climate change, and
- Sustainable urban development.
The FLR is a four-year project where national launching events and activities will continue until June 2019. Furthermore, as a global project, it mainly focuses on three targeted regions: Mediterranean, Asia-Pacific, and Africa.
This project consists of two main outputs: Output 1, which deals with regional activities; and Output 2, which deals with large scale national FLR plans. The FLMR approach in Lebanon refers to Output 2 which is related to the local activities that will be implemented in the country.
The FLMR project in Lebanon has three main targets:
- Promotion of intersectoral coordination and relevant policy for better national FLR actions;
- Implementation of restorative actions with high carbon and non-carbon benefits, and
- Enhancement of national monitoring capacities of FLR actions.
The project has a target of restoration of up to 1000 hectares of degraded forests and is still in the process of selecting sites.
The forest landscape restoration project is an initiative towards the custody of our natural resources for us and for future generations.
However, needless to say that though FLRM in Lebanon falls within the same scope, its management and approach need to be customized to local conditions based on prevailing conditions, mainly climate threats, relevant indicators, and biodiversity.
Blogpost by Ghewa Ghtaimy.
Watch also this video interview (in French) with Nicolas Picard, recorded at the 6th Mediterranean Forest Week.