This week, PRESA is training over 20 site partners and ICRAF staff on outcome mapping. The training will help each site partner to define goals at their sites while empowering them to contribute to the PRESA workplan and budget for 2010.

Outcome mapping training for PRESA staff and partners is underway in Limuru, Kenya. At right is lead facilitator, Julius Nyangaga, from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

The training in outcome mapping began on Monday, 1st March, 2010 at the Brackenhurst Conference Centre in Limuru, Kenya. It will run until Saturday the 6th of March. The training coincides with the annual meeting of the PRESA International Advisory Committee, scheduled for Thursday, March 4.

“We thought that the making of the 2010 PRESA workplan and budget should be a participatory process,” says Thomas Yatich of ICRAF, “that is why we are training our partners in outcome mapping.”

Is outcome mapping a new buzz word among development workers? What exactly does it mean?
(more…)

The Advisory Committee of the Pro-poor Rewards for Environmental Services in Africa project (PRESA) will hold its fourth meeting on 4th March 2010 at the Brackenhurst Conference Centre, just outside Nairobi, Kenya.

Scene from the 2009 PRESA IAC meeting. Front row, left to right: Biryahwaho Byamukama (Uganda), Ilaria Firmian (IFAD representative) and Thomas Yatich (ICRAF).

At the meeting, the International Advisory Committee will review PRESA’s achievements in 2009. Committee members will discuss and refine PRESA strategies for 2010 as the project gets into the second half of its four year life.

The PRESA International Advisory Committee advises and provides strategic direction in the planning, implementation, communication and evaluation of the project. The committee consists of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), ICRAF, representatives of landscape and national contact organizations, representatives of the private sector, key donor agencies and other international organizations involved in the project.
(more…)

It is now possible for PRESA site partners to have profile pages within the PRESA website. Apart from describing partner organizations, the profile pages will make it easier for visitors to find out specific activities that each partner is implementing at PRESA sites.

The profile pages will contain the details of each partner, the people behind the organization and the activities they are carrying out. Research work emanating from site activities will be a useful feature in the profile pages. The work can be posted either in part or in whole, depending on the preferences of each author.

The PRESA website gets over 1,000 visitors a month and some of these could visit the websites of site partners through links that will be provided in their profile pages.

In order to build the partner profiles, it will be necessary for link persons in each organization to send us details that they feel will boost their presence on the PRESA website. The PRESA communications team can assist partners in building their profile pages using the information that they submit.

Having profile pages will certainly boost partner organizations’ visibility.

Cheque presentation. Left to right: Mr Benson Jambo (Ecobank), Mr. Vilipo Munthali (Financial Controller, Ecobank), Mr Henry Kwavale (ICRAF) and Mr. Mdowoka (District Commissioner and Guest of Honour)

Ecobank Malawi, a pan African Bank present in 31 countries, has pledged continued support to over 170 small holder farmers to plant trees in Ntchisi District, central region of Malawi. The project, where farmers will be receiving cash in exchange for investing land and labor, is aimed at promoting the planting of the indigenous M’bawa trees – one of Malawi’s flagship species – on half an acre of their land.

The program will capture and store harmful carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Together with similar programs all over Africa, this initiative will help slow down the rate of climate change across the globe. The trees will eventually serve as a source of fuelwood and timber for these rural families.

Ecobank has pledged $2,500 a year for the first three years of the project. The first Ecobank-supported payment to farmers was made in December 2009. The small incentive payments are based on the number of surviving trees and will encourage farmers to invest the necessary energy into protecting and nurturing the trees while they are young.
(more…)

Conserving natural ecosystems is one of the most cost-effective and equitable measures for fighting climate change and ensuring the resilience of rural livelihoods. This was a key message at the “Landscape approaches to mitigation and adaptation” learning event at Forest Day 3 on 13 December 2009. While Forest Day aimed to ensure forests are high on the agenda for future climate outcomes, and making these outcomes work beyond Copenhagen, panelists and participants in this learning event called for a broader, “whole-landscape” approach to ensure carbon, biodiversity, water, food and income benefits.

The learning event, which was co-hosted by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), The Nature Conservancy, and the World Bank, brought together tools and experiences for ecosystem management that can be applied in the context of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), a hot topic at the Copenhagen climate conference.

Meine van Noordwijk presenting PRESA research at Forest Day 3, Copenhagen, December 2009

(more…)

These are selected news items discussing the outcomes of the United Nations climate change conference held at Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.

Hope and funding for saving forests around the world

In the months leading up to the U.N. sponsored climate talks, there was one thing observers said with confidence: Any final outcome would establish global guidelines for paying poor countries to preserve their tropical forests.

That almost happened. The fact that it didn’t may pose a slight glitch, but is unlikely to halt the proliferation of such projects around the world. The talks did produce concrete short-term financial commitments to fund the effort, with $3.5 billion pledged by Norway, Japan, the United States, Britain, France and Australia. Read more.

Copenhagen was more than the accord

Many are disappointed with COP15’s main output. However, the summit did not only introduce the Copenhagen Accord but also a new kind of dynamics in global climate policy.

The very struggle to reach agreement at Copenhagen (…) demonstrates that climate policy has finally come of age. The negotiations at Copenhagen were so contentious because of the very real impact the proposals will have, not only for the environment, but also on national economies. Read more.

The essentials in Copenhagen

Rather than getting every small detail of a new global climate treaty done in Copenhagen, United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer hopes the conference will reach agreements on four political essentials.

The four essentials are:

1. How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?
2. How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions?
3. How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?
4. How is that money going to be managed? Read more here.

For more information on the Copenhagen conference (COP 15), please visit the following websites:

Website of the United Nations Climate Change Conference:  http://en.cop15.dk/

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: http://unfccc.int/

Farmers (ecosystem stewards) prepare Napier grass seed cane for planting in the upper catchment. PHOTO/CARE Kenya staff

The Lake Naivasha basin is located in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya and has a total area of 1,700 square kilometers, with altitude ranging from 1,887 to 3,906 metres above sea level. The lake is one of the few fresh water lakes in Kenya’s Rift Valley as most of the rest are saline.

Economic activities around Lake Naivasha include small scale agriculture, horticulture, ranching, tourism and geothermal power production. Over 50 square kilometers of land around the lake is under large scale commercial horticulture and flower farming. These activities are a livelihood for over 500,000 people living within the basin.

Major threats to ecosystems in the Lake Naivasha landscape emanate from watershed environmental degradation, unregulated and excessive water abstraction for domestic and agricultural use, poor land use practices, weak policy enforcement, water pollution and high poverty prevalence. The trend leads to significant environmental degradation, biodiversity losses, economic losses and worsening poverty.
(more…)

The products of PRESA research activity are now publicly available on this website.

The page titled, “Research outputs,” contains the results of surveys and assessments carried out at various PRESA sites. The research can provide useful lessons to other organizations interested in setting up payments for environmental service schemes within Africa.

The availability of research work on the PRESA website is aimed at building a community of practice in payments for environmental services.

To view PRESA research work, go to the top menu on this webpage, then follow the path: Rewards for ES >> Research Questions >> Research outputs

Serge Ngendakumana of ICRAF (standing at left) making a presentation on pro poor reward mechanisms for ecosystem services in Africa. Serge is the PRESA site co-ordinator at the Fouta Djallon highlands.

The Fouta Djallon highlands are a core site of PRESA. Critical environmental services offered by the Fouta Djallon ecosystem are water quality and quantity for more than eight countries, biodiversity conservation and trees for carbon sequestration.

For the past two years, ICRAF has been involved with other key stakeholders in advocating policy related issues in the sub region. Working with the ICRAF office in Guinea, PRESA organized a multi-stakeholder meeting to analyse payments for environmental service issues and develop a road map for future developments in the areas of ecosystems.
(more…)

Esther Mbugua (right), a researcher at the Kapingazi survey, interviews a farming couple in October 2009. PHOTO/M. Makela

PRESA is currently evaluating data from the Kapingazi River Basin, following a socio-economic survey done in October 2009.

The survey will contribute to the design of a river care programme that will enhance watershed services from the upper Tana River basin. The Tana, Kenya’s largest river, powers a series of hydro electric power stations as well as supplying towns and farms with fresh water.

“From the survey, PRESA and partners will facilitate a negotiation support mechanism between sellers and buyers of environmental services and help them reach a compromise,” says Thomas Yatich of ICRAF.
(more…)