Minutes of the meeting - REDD - VietNam

Minutes of the 5 th Local Implementation Sub-technical Working GroupTuesday, 31 May 2011, 15:00 - 17:00Venue: SNV Viet Nam office; 6th Floor, Building B, La Thanh Hotel; 218 Doi Can; Ba Dinh, Ha Noi.Key outcomes and actions1. Agreed the next STWGLI meeting will focus on the lessons learnt from project REDDactivities thus far. This is in direct response to the call for STWGs to begin to summarise thelessons learnt and draw recommendations from these lessons for the consideration of theTechnical Working Group (TWG). The meeting will give individual organisations the chanceto present on project activities. Lessons will then be consolidated and organised into areport to deliver to the TWG.2. Comments on the National REDD Program document to be sent to Adrian ataenright@snvworld.org by Friday 10 June. These will then be delivered to UN-REDD by COBMonday 13 June.3. Phuc and Josh to decide on an approach for further discussions around the Nested Approachidea and the provision of advice to the TWG on this issue.4. Support given to the idea of creating a ‘Library’ for electronic copies of reports, conceptideas and other material on the Viet Nam REDD website. Agreed the ExtraNet idea hasmerit, but concerns that it would not be used very often.Summary of agenda item discussionsOverview of the REDD Working Group meeting (Adrian/SNV)Key outcomes from the REDD Working Group held on 10 May 2011, included:Agreement that the STWGs should communicate ideas to TWG through concise writtenreports rather than through Minutes. Reports must provide clear recommendations to Govton the National REDD Strategy and should be delivered at the TWG meetings alongside of apresentation.Agreement that Mr Cuong will design a template for reports and circulate this to the STWGs.Agreement that the National REDD Network Meeting to be held on June 21 in HanoiUpdates from fieldSNV (Steve Swan)1

First technical working group meeting was recently held in Lam Dong to introduce SNVsapproach to coordinating its 5 projects (4 REDD specific) in the Province. For more details onSNVs project activities, please see:http://www.snvworld.org/en/regions/asia/ourwork/Pages/REDD.aspxThe meeting included a discussion of Participatory Forest Monitoring (PFM) against carbonand biodiversity indicators and the role of local actors in generating information for MRV orsafeguards.JICA (Eiji)Provided an overview of the draft activities and outcomes planned under the 2 year DienBien REDD+ pilot project. Three key project objectives were identified:o Formulation of Provincial REDD+ Program, and REDD+ action plan in the pilot areaso Develop (Provincial) MRV and BDS optionso Feeding back results to VN-REDDKey challenges identified included ensuring the process linked to the development of NRP,access to carbon credits, such as the VCS whilst also keeping other financing options open,and building on a limited existing capacity amongst the local authorities.CERDA (Giap) Made note of the draft BDS paper which is available on the UN-REDD website -http://vietnamredd.org/Web/Default.aspx?tab=news&zoneid=108&subzone=113&child=150&lang=en-USNori (JICA/VNFOREST)Gave a brief discussion on some of the key findings as part of the report – Forest CarbonTrade Activities in Vietnam.Phuc (Forest Trends)Currently trying to consolidate a list of what money is being spent in Viet Nam on variousREDD+ activities. Will continue to work alongside of key people in each organisation tocomplete this list.Nested Approach (Phuc/Forest Trends and Josh/ FFI)There exists issues between the accountability of REDD achievements at the sub-nationaland National level which can be addressed through the nested approach.The nested approach aims to create a consistent national level system of carbon accountingwhich avoids issues of double-counting of national and sub-national achievements. It can dothis in many ways, one in which is to allocate the number of credits from a sub-nationalactivity by correcting it on the basis of the overall national performance.The nested approach idea is an issue that is particularly relevant in Viet Nam where thereare many different organisations conducting different, though connected activities in REDDat the same time that the National REDD Program is being developed.2

Josh provided a summary of activities under the Kon Tum Province project and suggestedthere is a strong private interest in REDD in Viet Nam. He highlighted the need to create arobust legal framework which clearly defines the tenure of carbon itself to provideconfidence and clarity to investors.Rules also need to be developed to create consistent accounting systems for upward feedinginto the National accounting system. The key question is how to get Government involved inthis process and how to best create this accounting mechanism.Other areas of the REDD readiness process are dealing with similar sub-national and nationalconsistency issues, such as BDS. The nested approach to carbon accounting should be dealtwith in a similar way.More action was identified as being needed to develop a clear transition mechanism forNGOs to integrate into the nested system, and for an improved type of information sharingbetween MARD and MONRE.The nested approach idea should be addressed further through the SWGLI and could bedeveloped into a report to be delivered to the TWG.Comments on the National REDD Program DocumentA brief discussion was held on the NRP. Each organisation will provide formal comments through theSTWGs, however some preliminary issues were identified, including;Only 5 pilot areas were recognised in the document, whereas 6 UN-REDD pilot areas havebeen noted in all other communications. Pilot activities planned by other partners shouldalso be represented.Confusion was raised as to whether this document stood as a VN-REDD strategy or that ofthe UN-REDD strategy. Issues were also raised as to the exact intention of this documentand what it will be used for.It was noted that a full version of the NRP is yet to be released and the presented versionwas a shorter version of another currently being drafted. Despite this, comments on thecirculated version are important.Consultation on specific issues raised in the document will commence soon. VNFOREST will aim for Government approval of the NRP by the end of 2011.List of participants: Pham Thanh Nam (UN-REDD consultant) Noriyoshi Kitamura (JICA/VNFOREST) Josh Kempinski (FFI) Eiji Egashira (JICA) Nguyen Van Nhuan (SRD) Nguyen Viet Dung (PanNature) Tore Langhelle (UN-REDD) Do Trong Hoan (ICRAF) Gabriel Meranze Levitt (Pact) Nguyen Xuan Giap (CERDA) Xuan To Phuc (Forest Trends) Steve Swan (SNV) Morten Fauerby Thomsen (Care) Adrian Enright (SNV)3