News
High-integrity REDD+ projects are a critical tool for channelling international finance to communities living in and around carbon- and biodiversity-rich forests. When well implemented, REDD+ supports the effective protection of priority forest areas and creates benefits for local people, nature and climate.
Fauna & Flora is working with the government and communities in Liberia to establish a high-integrity REDD+ project model to resource the long-term protection and sustainable management of forests in the Wonegizi Landscape, and that can ultimately be replicated in other highly biodiverse and carbon-rich areas across the country.
Our work in the Wonegizi proposed protected area
The Wonegizi forest area is extremely biodiverse, home to a wide variety of species, many of which are endemic or endangered. Wonegizi is also a very high carbon stock forest and its protection is therefore critical in the fight against climate change.
Fauna & Flora is collaborating with the government of Liberia and communities living in and around Wonegizi proposed protected area to establish a REDD+ mechanism that enables the protection of the forest area and tackles the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, while supporting livelihoods and respecting land rights.
Essential to this project is the people, and the recognition of their land rights is vital to underpin land use planning and conservation efforts, and to ensure the financial benefits channelled through REDD+ are distributed equitably. We have been engaging with Wonegizi communities for many years to support the development of sustainable livelihoods strategies that are compatible with maintaining the forest and the ecosystem services that it provides. We are also working with the communities to clarify land tenure rights in and around Wonegizi, in accordance with the Liberian Lands Act, which is a progressive legislation introduced in 2018 and the first to recognise customary ownership of land in Liberia.
This project aims to secure the long-term protection, and the sustainable and collaborative management of, this key forest area. It aims to lay the foundations for nesting of landscape-level projects with the wider jurisdictional REDD+ programme, with communities at the centre of long-term forest stewardship.
Our aim is to take this approach beyond Wonegizi; creating a toolkit of what really works on the ground that can be replicated in other forest areas across Liberia.
Caught on camera in Wonegizi
A chimpanzee in Wonegizi, the first time chimps have been photographed in the region. © Fauna & Flora
Chimpanzee
A chimpanzee in Wonegizi, the first time chimps have been photographed in the region.
Pygmy hippo. © Fauna & Flora / Bucknell University
Pygmy hippo
Pygmy hippo captured by a camera trap in Wonegizi.
African forest elephants captured by a camera trap in Wonegizi. © Fauna & Flora
African forest elephant
African forest elephants captured by a camera trap in Wonegizi.
A chimpanzee in Wonegizi, the first time chimps have been photographed in the region. © Fauna & Flora
Chimpanzee
A chimpanzee in Wonegizi, the first time chimps have been photographed in the region.
Pygmy hippo. © Fauna & Flora / Bucknell University
Pygmy hippo
Pygmy hippo captured by a camera trap in Wonegizi.
African forest elephants captured by a camera trap in Wonegizi. © Fauna & Flora
African forest elephant
African forest elephants captured by a camera trap in Wonegizi.
Our impact
While this work is ongoing, we are making important progress. We played a critical role in bringing together key stakeholders to sign the Gbehzohn Declaration, a pivotal agreement that supports the government’s ambition to increase its protected areas, in a way that conforms with the Land Rights Act and in recognition of customary land.
We are now working closely with rights-holders, civil society, NGOs and the government in key forest areas in the northwest and south-east of Liberia to put the Gbehzohn Declaration into action.
Project partners
Community Rights Support Facility (CRSF)
We4Self implementing the Village Saving Loan Association (VSLA)
Skills and Agricultural Development Services (SADS)
Government of Liberia, notably the Forestry Development Authority, Land Rights Authority, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Donors
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) – until 2020
USAID through the West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emissions Development (WABiLED) Program
Halycon
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