Steps towards Blue Carbon mitigation under NDCs in Latin America and the Caribbean – Center for International Forestry Research

CIFOR, in the frame of its SWAMP program and in collaboration with INTE-PUPC, CATIE and CINVESTAV, organizes two webinar sessions to support the Latin American and Caribbean countries on their steps forward to develop self-standing Blue Carbon programs that are connected with countries commitments on REDD+ and their FRELs. These sessions aim at 1. Reinforcing the development of national and jurisdictional Blue Carbon programs that support mitigation targets in the frame of the UNFCCC, the Paris Agreement and its National Determined Contributions (NDCs), 2. Offering options for developing jurisdictional Blue Carbon initiatives under VERRA, and their differences with the UNFCCC.

Audience: due to its technical character around UNFCCC-COP decisions, IPCC Guidance and UNFCCC reporting requirements, these webinars target Governmental officers with competence on developing Greenhouse Gas Inventories (GHG); Officers involved in the formulation of the REDD+ mechanism and FREL/FRL; and/or Officers responsible for the 2020 resubmission of countries NDCs. This webinar also targets researchers and land managers with interest on better understanding how reporting under the UNFCCC conditions the planning and development of Blue Carbon jurisdictional programs.

Language: the webinar will be in English

How to join: Through a registration link, from which confirmed participants will receive further information about access.

Register

Time reference: 9.00am Costa Rica, 10.00am Lima/Bogota/Panama, 11.00am Guyana, 12.00pm Suriname, 17.00pm Bonn

09:00-10:00 AM

CST/GMT-6

Date: week of the 20th of July, day and hour to be confirmed.

Justification: mangroves offer fundamental ecosystem services to society. This webinar particularly targets their roles as carbon storage (mitigation) and as adaptation to climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Countries are requested to submit their national targets on adaptation and mitigation under their National Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement of the UNFCCC. While most countries in the region already include mangroves adaptation roles such as protection against Sea Level Rise, hurricanes and storm surges; LAC governments are not yet quantifying nor including GHG mitigation of mangroves into their NDCs. A significant part of this omission relates to the technical complexities of creating self-standing Blue Carbon programs and GHG reports that are connected but independent from current REDD+ and FREL commitments. It also relates to difficulties deciding on which IPCC guidelines to follow for this process depending on whether mangroves are defined as forests or as wetlands (e.g. wetland supplement vs AFOLU guidelines). The other part naturally deals with limited data and the logistic complexities of measuring and monitoring these ecosystems.

This webinar will offer insights on UNFCCC and VERRA (voluntary market) steps forward for reinforcing national and jurisdictional Blue Carbon initiatives, with special interest on reinforcing Blue Carbon mitigation targets under NDCs-UNFCCC. This initiative builds upon a CIFOR-USFS SWAMP regional workshop held in Merida in 2019, in collaboration with CATIE, which supported Latin American and Caribbean governments on ways to include Blue Carbon commitments within their NDCs.

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Steps towards Blue Carbon mitigation under NDCs in Latin America and the Caribbean - Center for International Forestry Research