FCPF CAPACITY BUILDING ON REDD+ FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, CIVIL SOCIETY AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN LAC PROJECT

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The Third Phase of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Capacity Building Program (CBP) on REDD+ for forest-dependent indigenous peoples (IPs), Southern Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and other forest dwellers (OFDs; in the REDD+ context, OFDs are often referred to as local communities, LCs) in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region aims to strengthen the engagement of targeted forest-dependent peoples and Southern CSOs around REDD+ at the country and regional levels. The project will be financed through US$ 1,990,000 Recipient Executed (RE) grant funding and will be implemented by Asociacion Sotz’il, which is based in Guatemala, and Asociacion Coordinadora Indigena y Campesina de Agroforesteria Comunitaria de Centroamerica (ACICAFOC), which is based in Costa Rica, as a single project, but with two separate Grant Agreements. These same organizations served as implementing organizations (IOs) for Phase 2 of the FCPF CBP in the LAC region, which wrapped up at the end of June 2020. For Phase 3, Asociacion Sotz’il will continue to focus on implementing REDD+ capacity building activities among forest-dependent IPs, while ACICAFOC will maintain the same focus on in-country CSOs and local communities.The FCPF CBP in the LAC region Phase 3 project consists of three components, as follows:Component 1 will support REDD+ capacity building and awareness raising sub-projects for forest-dependent IPs, civil society, local communities and their representative organizations and networks in FCPF Carbon Fund countries. Eligible organizations in Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala will be able to obtain sub-grants to undertake awareness raising activities on REDD+ in general, and on environmental and social sustainability issues in jurisdictional Emission Reductions Programs (ER-Ps) in those countries in particular. The project will make a concerted effort to include women, youth and Afro-descendants as beneficiaries of activities under Component 1. It will also cover identification and production of studies, analytical reports and learning materials to inform the aforementioned knowledge and awareness raising activities, including among other things: (i) incorporation of the traditional knowledge of forest-dependent indigenous peoples and other forest dwellers into ER-Ps; (ii) operationalization of effective and transparent Benefits Sharing Plans (BSPs); (iii) engagement of women and Afro-descendants in the conservation and sustainable management of forests; and (iv) linkages between livelihoods support efforts and poor or otherwise vulnerable forest dwellers within ER-Ps.Component 2 will finance workshops, South-South exchanges, and publications on current REDD+ topics to enhance the regional-level dialogue on REDD+, promote networking and integration, and facilitate cross-national learning. REDD+ topics may include: (i) benefit-sharing; (ii) participatory forest management; (iii) IPs/civil society–based conservation; (iv) the economics of REDD+ and livelihoods linkages and impacts related to IPs and OFDs in LAC; (v) analysis of legal and policy gaps in selected countries; (vi) analysis of tenure rights in selected countries; and (vii) training on fiduciary management, negotiations and resource mobilization. While studies will be largely developed and/or commissioned by Sotz’il and ACICAFOC separately, workshops and training will be carried out by them jointly and adapted to abide by public health recommendations and legal restrictions in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The main beneficiaries of these knowledge exchange products will be organizations representing IPs and OFDs from all FCPF member countries in the LAC region and, ultimately, in other regions where the FCPF is active, including Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific.Component 3 will finance the overhead costs of project management by Sotz’il and ACICAFOC, including in connection with sub-project selection and oversight, and all regional workshops and events. Each of IOs will have a management team for the project that will carry out procurement, financial management, environmental and social (E&S) risk management and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for the proposed activities, including biannual reporting and preparation of annual work plans and budgets carried out jointly by the two organizations. Component 3 will also finance annual audits of the project accounts by external auditors and any costs related to the coordination of the project-specific Grievance Redress Mechanisms (GRMs).