Silva Mediterranea

Over 90 years of Mediterranean forest management

Scaling up Forest and Landscape Restoration to Restore Biodiversity and Promote Joint Mitigation and Adaptation Approaches in the Mediterranean

During the 6^th Mediterranean Forest Week (1-5 April, 2019), the project “Scaling up forest and landscape restoration in order to restore biodiversity and promote joint mitigation and adaptation approaches in the Mediterranean” funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) was launched.

The IKI is an initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) financing climate and biodiversity projects in developing and newly industrializing countries, as well as in countries in transition. IKI supports the conservation of natural carbon sinks with a focus on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) with a specific window on Forest and Landscape Restoration as one of its four priority areas.

The project supports reaching these objectives and aims at strengthening regional and national capacity for the implementation of large scale Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) programs in the Mediterranean region. FLR would be implemented as a key option to achieve the National Determined Contributions (NDCs) that governments have submitted in the context of the Paris Agreement. This project is part of a wider, global project called “The Paris Agreement in Action: up scaling forest and landscape restoration to achieve nationally determined contributions”, that includes countries in Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Mediterranean.

This project will be implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN and it was labeled by the 43 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in 2018, since it is in line with the key priorities of the 2014 UfM Ministerial Declaration on Environment and Climate Change.

The side event dedicated to the project was the perfect opportunity to share with other countries from the region the different activities that will be carried out at regional and national level. Pilot activities to be conducted in pre-selected sites in Morocco and Lebanon were presented by the country focal points. Morocco highlighted the revision of the NDC to be made in order to better consider the forest sector and the implementation in the Maâmora forest of a practical guide on participatory approaches to enhance restoration alongside the improvement of the monitoring system - ultimately emphasizing the carbon stocks estimation. On the other hand, Lebanon underlined the finalization of the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) for the forestry sector, the implementation of restoration interventions in rangelands, and the improvement of monitoring capacities to estimate damage and recovery of forests and rangelands.

The regional activities will include the organization of different capacity building events focused on Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR), cost-benefit analysis of FLR investments, and monitoring FLR impacts. Furthermore, during the event, a call for Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) eligible to Ministries of Agriculture/Environment hosting the Forestry Administration and/or GCF/FLR Focal Points or counterparts of all Mediterranean countries was also launched. The TAF will provide a specialized technical support to integrate FLR/ Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) in investment frameworks of the NDCs and to build capacity on the preparation of concept notes/projects proposals for dedicated land degradation and climate financing instruments (e.g. GCF, LDN Fund etc.). Countries were very interested in this means of support and the regional call was really welcomed.

 Carolina GalloGranizo - FAO