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FAO First Entity to Be Accredited Through Fund’s ‘Fast Track’ Process
Washington, D.C. (July 1, 2020) — The Adaptation Fund expanded its potential reach to identify and develop further tangible adaptation projects in vulnerable countries with the Board’s approval of a new implementing partner in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in late June through a remote intersessional decision.
FAO becomes the Fund’s 13th multilateral implementing entity and 51st overall implementing entity to be accredited to develop and implement adaptation projects.
It also marked the first time the Fund has applied its ‘Fast Track Accreditation’ process for the accreditation of a new implementing entity. This process enables potential national, regional or multilateral implementing entities already accredited by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to more quickly and efficiently become accredited to the Adaptation Fund. There is further a reciprocal process in place for the GCF.
The GCF accredited FAO as an international implementing entity in 2016. The Adaptation Fund had previously used the fast track process for the reaccreditation of certain implementing entities, but this is its first application of the policy to a new accreditation.
FAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations focused on hunger eradication, poverty elimination, and sustainable management of natural resources. It includes 194 member states.
It has a long history of engaging on climate change issues, and since 2018 has had projects financed or co-financed by GCF in Paraguay, El Salvador, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Chile and Cuba. It was also accredited previously as an executing agency by the Global Environment Facility in 2002.
FAO additionally has prior experience working with the Adaptation Fund, including as an executing entity on its regional project implemented by the World Meteorological Organization to enhance resilience of small farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
“FAO’s official accreditation to the Adaption Fund is a significant step forward in our work to promote food security and nutrition in countries particularly affected by climate change,” said Ms. Maria Helena Semedo, FAO’s Deputy Director General. “It will help boost the efforts of the Organization to enhance the resilience of rural communities to build back better in times of changing environmental conditions, degrading ecosystems, and increasing water scarcity.”
In becoming accredited, FAO showed it is in strong compliance with the Fund’s fiduciary, legal and ethical standards, as well as policies that foster environmental, social and gender principles, and has solid capacity to identify and develop effective adaptation projects.
“We are very pleased to have the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization join the Adaptation Fund’s growing comunity of implementing entities, which now numbers more than 50,” said Mr. Ibila Djibril, Adaptation Fund Board Chair. “We look forward to FAO developing new adaptation projects that will serve the most vulnerable countries to climate change.”
“This is further an excellent example of the Adaptation Fund enhancing synergies and complementarity with the Green Climate Fund, as FAO marks the first implementing entity to be accredited with the Fund through the Fast Track Accreditation process,” said Mr. Mikko Ollikainen. “It showed it is in strong compliance with the Fund’s stringent accreditation standards, and we look forward to working with FAO to continue to grow our portfolio of adaptation projects on the ground.”
Upon attaining accreditation, FAO took an additional step to establish a dedicated unit within its Land and Water Division to provide immediate assistance for the development and implementation of climate change adaptation projects in countries that might otherwise not have access to these climate-financing mechanisms.
“FAO is committed to support countries to unlock their growth potential and promote climate change adaptation for rural development and environment sustainability,” said Mr. Eduardo Mansur, Director of FAO’s Land and Water Division, adding that the new accreditation to the Fund is a highly significant step ahead in its work to promote food security in countries particularly affected by climate change. “It well aligns with the efforts of the Organization to enhance the resilience of rural communities in times of changing environmental conditions, degrading ecosystems, and increasing water scarcity.”
As part of the ECOFAC 6 capitalization program, and in order to help improve the sharing of information between researchers, policy makers and protected area managers in central Africa, we propose that you answer a questionnaire on the usefulness of research for conservation.
The JRS Biodiversity Foundation is pleased to announce Matthew Cassetta as its new Executive Director. Cassetta brings over two decades of diverse experience in international diplomacy and project management, much of it focused in Africa on capacity-building and development partnerships.
Wildlife: during the month of March, the UICN publicly announced two decisions concerning forest elephants. The first one was declaring the forest elephant (Loxodonta Cyclotis) an altogether different species, as until recently it was merely considered a subspecies. The second decision was declaring this species critically endangered.
The EU is the world’s largest aid donor and a major political actor with a strong influence over global policies. The EU recognises civil society as an essential actor in policy making and implementation, specifically in the development sector.
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March 2021 Highlights: Rescued 1 Black-bellied pangolin; Released 1 Black-bellied pangolin back into the wild; Released 19 African grey parrots into the wild; Finished maintenance of Gorilla group 1 night den; Completed phase 1 of the Gorilla re-enrichment project…
Read: Position of European Partners on SIGIF 2 in Cameroon; Only few days left to register for the webinars "The Role of Forest Certification in the EUTR"; ATIBT technical data sheet : quality of plantation species for timber use; "Choosing tropical woods to fight climate change" says Timber Trade Federation...
Read: FLEGT ‘Fitness Check’: Abandoning FLEGT licenses would harm forest governance and the legal timber trade; EU Law on deforestation: Key land rights risk being ignored in DG Environment’s proposal; Could the palm oil arrangement between Indonesia and Switzerland offer lessons for EU and Indonesia free trade agreement negotiations?
The co-facilitators for the negotiated outcome of the 2021 UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development have issued an outline for consideration. The proposed structure includes sections on: the impact of COVID-19 on the 2030 Agenda; progress towards the SDGs under review in 2021; and accelerated actions to achieve the SDGs.
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Environmental issues affect us all. As is it, the planet is moving towards a global warming of 3°C by 2100. This is not the future we want. Forests, our first carbon sink within submerged land, are however in critical danger, with the possible savannahisation of the Amazon and tropical forests that could eventually turn into proper CO2 emitters. Faced with these projections, that involve unimaginable socio-economic consequences, our absolute priority can be summed up in a single word: reduction. Reducing our carbon footprint. Reducing deforestation. Reducing the degradation of forests. Reducing them increasingly and continuously.
The world is facing unprecedented economic and environmental challenges. While climate change increasingly poses risks to macroeconomic and fiscal stability, deforestation and forest degradation impair the ability of forests to act as carbon sinks and reduce the resiliency of local communities to climate damages. The loss and decay of forests also threaten global biodiversity, the provision of ecosystem services, and other core ecological functions that economies worldwide rely on.
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As indicated on the Fordaq website, Hans Fahrni, CEO of FACO Construction, is pleased with the effects of the log export ban on the timber industry in Gabon, where the majority of the forest area is FSC-certified (the government's goal is to certify all of them within 4 years).
The ATIBT and the Malaysian Timber Council (MTC) have recently held several online meetings to clarify their common issues for the development of a responsible tropical timber sector. These meetings have been preceded in recent years by annual meetings.
REN21’s Renewables in Cities Global Status Report (REC) series provides an overview of the status, trends and developments of renewable energy in cities, using the most up-to-date information and data available. The REC’s neutral, fact-based approach documents in detail the annual developments in policies, markets, investments and citizen action, with a particular focus on renewables in public, residential and commercial buildings as well as public and private urban transport. This report aims to inform decision makers and to create an active exchange of views and information around urban renewable energy.
The price of deforestation and degradation is enormous, said Robert Nasi, director general of CIFOR and managing director of CIFOR-ICRAF, speaking at the Global Forest Summit.
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The UK and Norway launched an initiative on sustainable finance that will serve as a platform for British and Norwegian financial institutions to share knowledge and best practices focused on actionable climate solutions in the financial sector and explore the regulatory frameworks and investment decisions that would be necessary to achieve a zero-emissions economy.
The post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF) took center stage at the informal meeting in preparation for the third meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI-3), convened by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
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The Green Climate Fund (GCF) and its partners have signed implementation agreements for two new climate finance projects only hours after they were approved by the GCF Board.
Elon Musk tweeted earlier this year that he would be "donating $100 million towards a prize for best carbon capture technology”. Out of 600 thousand likes and retweets, twenty thousand corresponded to a brilliant solution: “A tree”. The Tesla boss responded that trees were, indeed, part of the solution, but that we may require something that is “ultra-large-scale industrial in 10 to 20 years”. The sense of acting ‘urgently’ and at ‘scale’ are clearly central to the concepts of innovations announced in his offer.
19. February 2020 | In the past, Germany has been among the more ambitious providers of financial assistance to developing countries’ efforts to adapt to a changing climate and cut or avoid greenhouse gas emissions.
The findings and recommendations in this Toolkit were identified based on a meta-review of program evaluations and scholarly research in French and English, supplemented by a series of key informant interviews with program implementers. The Toolkit was validated through review by an Advisory Council of external civil society practitioners and researchers as well as practitioners from Search for Common Ground’s field offices across the Sudano-Sahel (Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, South Sudan, Sudan).
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day of Forests, observed on 21 March: Humanity’s well-being is inextricably linked to the health of our planet. Forests play a crucial role.
February saw the 13th session of our Advisory Board meeting, held in Brazzaville, where our workplan and budget for 2021 were finalised and approved. This year will see a whole host of developments from the park - from new construction, including schools, markets and clean-water pumps, to new projects, such as the Makao community pharmacy, due to be launched in March 2021. We here at the park look forward to getting stuck into these challenges.
The following projects are relevant to the Congo Basin: (1)USD 29 million for PREFOREST CONGO - Project aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from forests in five departments in the Republic of Congo with the FAO (FP159) – (2) USD 280 million for Sustainable Renewables Risk Mitigation Initiative (SRMI) Facility with World Bank in Botswana, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Mali, Namibia, Uzbekistan (FP163) – (3) - USD 82.8 million for The Africa Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme: Building resilience of smallholder farmers to climate change impacts in 7 Sahelian Countries of the Great Green Wall (GGW) with IFAD in Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal (FP162).
large numbers of elephants, chimpanzees and gorillas, as well as numerous other species and habitats. The area covers some 178,000 square kilometres, 97 percent of which is forest, making it a large and productive carbon sink. Illegal logging, large-scale mining, poaching, and forest conversion for commodity crops has made the area vulnerable and is threatening its ecosystem. A comprehensive effort is underway to combat wildlife crime, designate protected areas and institute sustainable forest management. The World Bank Carbon Fund has earmarked $280 million in climate finance to reduce forest emissions in the area.
The African Adaptation Initiative and GCA consolidated their partnership with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to support African leadership to accelerate climate change adaptation across the continent.