Economic and Financial Challenges to Scaling Up Sustainable Cocoa Production in Côte d'Ivoire - Executive Summary

Agroforestry can play a key role in addressing the critical situation of Ivorian forests. It would also ensure the future of cocoa farming, a key sector of the country’s economy. To that end, a national agroforestry definition including quantitative elements is needed to guide investments consistently with national policy objectives. It would also harmonize socio-economic and environmental objectives. This study highlights several elements that can guide the development of this definition. The latter should consider the factors that influence cocoa yields in the arbitration between environmental and economic costs and benefits for the different actors in the cocoa value chain.

Using Spatial Analysis to Support REDD+ Land-Use Planning in Papua New Guinea: Strengthening Benefits for Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Livelihoods

Some of the analyses presented here were developed by national technicians in joint working sessions. This contributed to building national capacity in spatial analysis, access to relevant datasets and the use of decision support tools. As more and better data becomes available, the analyses presented here could be updated to provide better support for planning, including at a sub-national scale. We encourage follow-up work to build on the analyses presented here and to capitalize on the enhanced in country capacity for spatial analysis for evidence-based decision-making.

Côte d’Ivoire has one of the fastest rates of deforestation in the world and the fastest in Africa. The most promising solutions to decouple agriculture from deforestation would be to increase agricultural productivity with improved plant material while making use of good practices (intensification) and to plant associated trees in cocoa plantations (agroforestry). 

In 2016, the Permanent REDD+ Executive Secretariat at the Ministry of Environment mandated a framing study on the private investment opportunities in Côte d’Ivoire. The main goal of this study on economic and financing models is to provide the government with useful information to assist ongoing private sector commitments, and to bring strategic data to other related initiatives (including the Cocoa and Forests initiative, the working group Environment and Climate Change from the cocoa sector Private-Public Partnership Platform or the Green Climate Fund). UN Environment is partnering with the European Forest Institute to design tangible financing models for deforestation-free cocoa agriculture by the private sector, in cooperation with the Ivorian state and its partners. The successful uptake of agroforestry in the cocoa production chain is a major component of the analysis.

Forestry and Macroeconomic Accounts of Uganda: The Importance of Linking Ecosystem Services to Macroeconomics

The purpose of this study is to analyse the economic value of Uganda’s forest resources, where possible, and demonstrate some policy instruments that would alleviate pressure on these natural forest systems.

Integrated Analyses for a REDD+ Strategy in Nigeria with Focus on Cross River State: Report on Private Sector Engagement Status in REDD+ and Recommendations

Nigeria's forests, which currently extend over 9.6 million hectares, have been rapidly declining over the past decades. The current deforestation rate, estimated at 3.7%, is one of the highest in the world. The REDD+ Strategy for Nigeria intends to enhance the value of standing forests and to incentivize sustainable forest management through a multi-stakeholder approach and a green development perspective.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the economic value of Nigeria’s forest resources, where possible, placing added focus on resources found in the CRS, and demonstrate some policy instruments that would alleviate pressure on these natural forest systems. 

The purpose of this study is to analyze the economic value of Nigeria’s forest resources and demonstrate some policy instruments that would alleviate pressure on these natural forest systems. The results show a rapid and severe rate of deforestation, results from a range of cumulative effects fundamentally driven by the immediate availability of woody biomass in the form of timber, fuelwood and construction timber; and the opportunity to acquire land for significantly higher agricultural returns. Together, these drivers comprise a considerable economic incentive for deforestation.

The total value of forest ecosystem services based on valuations done between 2000 and 2015 is approximately 1,000,000 Naira/ha. Although value is derived through forest use, the unsustainable exploitation thereof and subsequent deforestation results in a net loss to the economy of Nigeria. 

These losses will continue for as long as there is a disconnect between the cost-benefit decisions made by land holders, users and other indirect role players, where the net benefit of deforestation is highly positive; and the cost-benefit ratio at a national scale, which, as demonstrated above, is highly negative.

Thus, to address the unique deforestation challenges faced by Nigeria, this study not only uses accounting and valuation of natural capital, but also makes significant progress towards designing and testing policy instruments that goes to the heart of the country’s deforestation problem

The analysis shows that the contribution of forests to the economy of Nigeria is underestimated in the national accounts.

Furthermore, the study demonstrates three economic policy instruments that seek to incentivise landholders to pursue sustainable forest management. These proposed policy options are not intended to be a comprehensive final set of options for Nigeria, but are rather used to demonstrate how these options could work, what they would cost, to what extent they would curb deforestation and what the relative costs and benefits to the economy of Nigeria would behe three preliminary policy options tested are: (i) Carbon trade; (ii) Certified plantation forestry and (iii) Agroforestry.

Amharic version: https://www.unredd.net/documents/global-programme-191/multiple-benefits/studies-reports-and-publications-1364/16533-the-contributions-of-forests-to-national-income-in-ethiopia-and-linkages-with-redd-amharic.html 

OBJECTIVES:

In 2014, the Government of Ethiopia requested the UN-REDD Programme to
support the country in assessing the contribution of forest ecosystems to national
income in the context of the national REDD+ process. The primary objective of the
project was to establish the contribution of Ethiopian forests to national income3
(GDP) by assessing the following.
◾ Value added of the forestry sector: The annual contribution of the production
of forest ecosystem goods and services to GDP attributed to the forestry industry in the Ethiopian System of National Accounts (ESNA).
◾ Contribution of forest ecosystems to other sectors: The annual contribution of the production of forest ecosystem goods and services to GDP attributed
to other industries in the ESNA (for example, the contribution of forest-based
insect pollinators to the value added of the agriculture industry or the contribution of protected areas to the tourism industry).
◾ Non-market benefts: the annual contribution of forest ecosystems to
non-market income in Ethiopia (which is conceptually beyond the scope of
national accounting and therefore not included in GDP).
The contribution of forest ecosystems to national income is seen as a vital element
of the case for forest conservation in Ethiopia. Prior to this study, no full assessment of the income derived from forest-derived goods and services had been
undertaken in the forestry sector or other sectors. The only fgure available had
been the offcial ESNA estimate (MOFEC, 2015) of the contribution of the forestry
industry to GDP (3.8% in 2012-13). By assessing the full contribution of forests to
market and non-market income, a more complete picture of their economic importance emerges.