Date: Wednesday 23 September 2020

Time: 14:30 - 15:30 CEST

Registration here

Languages: French and English

French version of the announcement: bit.ly/CBIT_DRC_fr 

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as in many other African countries, the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is a major national strategic priority. Previously, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has had limited technical capacity to produce and utilize data necessary for monitoring forest cover and changes. Since then, the country has established a national forest monitoring system (NFMS) to promote sustainable forest management practices and to take informed policy decisions on reducing forest loss. The FAO elearning Academy webinar “Forest Data and Transparency: ‘Zoom in’ on the Experience of the Democratic Republic of the Congo” will highlight the country’s experience in establishing NFMS, and explore the various ways it has been upscaled and widely used, as a basis for satellite land monitoring systems, in other countries in the region and globally.

This international technical webinar is part of the series organized by the FAO eLearning Academy, Agreenium (l'Institut agronomique, vétérinaire et forestier de France) and UN-ESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific). These webinars are an opportunity for all of us to share experiences and lessons learnt, discuss challenges, and propose innovative solutions and models. They aim to provide a holistic and comprehensive view of current trends in thematic areas related to global challenges, by combining development research and innovation perspectives.

This webinar will have simultaneous interpretation into French and English.

OBJECTIVES

• Give a general overview of the ongoing work being done in the African region on forest monitoring and climate action;
• Present the “Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency – Forest” (CBIT-Forest) project and its support to the Paris Agreement goals; and
• Present the work being done in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in relation to transparency in the forest sector.

SPEAKERS

This technical webinar will be delivered by Mr Rémi d’Annunzio (FAO), Ms Rocío Cóndor-Golec (FAO), Mr Benjamin Toirambe Bamoninga (Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Democratic Republic of the Congo), Mr Julian Fox (FAO) and moderated Emily Donegan (FAO) and by Ms Cristina Petracchi, Leader of the FAO eLearning Academy.

• Rémi d’Annunzio is a FAO Forestry Officer, coordinating the REDD+ and National Forest Monitoring work for the Africa region. He provides technical support to FAO capacity building program, to improve forest and land use data analyses and reporting, and to enhance understanding and action needed to address drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. He is actively supporting the development of free and open-source solutions for earth observation and monitoring, contributing to modules within the OpenForis initiative and the SEPAL platform. Remi is a civil engineer with a major in Mathematical Morphology and holds a PhD in Forest Sciences.
• Rocío Cóndor-Golec is leading the "Building global capacity to increase transparency in the forest sector (CBIT-Forest)” global project of the FAO financed by the CBIT trust fund of the GEF. She is coordinating activities to make forest data more transparent, accessible and available and helping developing countries meet the Paris Agreement's enhanced transparency framework (ETF), in collaboration with key international stakeholders. Rocío has 20 years of experience working at the national and the international level on measurement, reporting and verification under the UNFCCC and currently supporting the ETF implementation at the FAO. Rocio holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Science and a PhD in Forest Ecology.
• Benjamin Toirambe Bamoninga is Secretary General at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2017. He coordinates the conception and elaboration of policies, strategies and programmes. He has two specializations in Ecology, and in Plant and wood biology, from the Universities of Kisangani in the DRC and Gent in Belgium. Since 1991, he has held several positions of responsibility in various fields (Botanist, Prospecting, Pedo-botanical and Fauna Studies, biodiversity, Nature conservation, Environmental Services, REDD+). Since 2002, he has been a teacher at the University and a national and international expert with several organizations (IUCN, WWF, CIFOR, WB, FAO, EU) on various themes.
• Julian Fox has accrued 20 years of experience in forest assessment as a manager of international and national projects, researcher, teacher, and technical specialist. He also has 7 years of experience living and working in developing countries managing international forestry projects in Papua New Guinea and Zambia. Mr Fox is currently holding the position of Team Leader, National Forest Monitoring (NFM), Forestry Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As Team Leader NFM, Julian coordinates global normative NFM work, global NFM tools (Open Foris), and a significant portfolio of country support activities of the NFM team (active in forty-five countries).
• Emily Donegan joined FAO in 2013. Her work focuses on forest monitoring, REDD+ and climate change. She is currently working on the CBIT-Forest project to deliver knowledge and training materials such as the e-learning course “Forests and Transparency under the Paris Agreement”. Emily is interested in climate action, biodiversity, research and communicating science and promoting knowledge exchange. She holds a master’s in Environmental Sciences with a focus on soils and a bachelor’s in Plant Sciences. She is from Northern Ireland.
• Cristina Petracchi heads the FAO eLearning Academy. She manages and coordinates the design, development, delivery and language adaptations of an extensive portfolio e-learning courses and blended learning programmes for the benefit of FAO member countries, and is responsible for the creation of University Masters' and Post Graduate Degree Programmes. She engages actively in consolidating partnerships across United Nations agencies, academic institutions and universities, regional organizations, CSOs and NGOs, for capacity development initiatives. In addition to a University Degree in Biological Sciences, Ms Petracchi holds a PhD in Nutrition and Food Science, and has several years of experience of capacity development activities, in a number of countries.

FAO elearning Academy webinars

The main objective of these technical webinars is to give practitioners the opportunity to interact with international experts, United Nations officers, University professors, researchers and fellow participants, throughout the world. Webinars can be attended as interactive online sessions on Zoom, where sharing perspectives and asking questions to experts is encouraged. These sessions are also recorded and therefore available at any time, through the FAO elearning Academy: elearning.fao.org.

Please visit the FAO elearning Academy www.elearning.fao.org, which offers free multilingual courses on the thematic areas covered in the Technical Webinar.

Also explore the Digital Catalogue at www.fao.org/elearning/catalogue

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