Cross River secures new funds to reduce carbon emission

CROSS River Government has secured $65,000 from the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force’s Funds for the strengthening of forest carbon assessment and monitoring system in the State.

The Cross River State Forestry Commission (CRSFC) in collaboration with Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) facilitated the funds.

The project seeks to, among others, develop forest monitoring plan and establishment of a sufficient number of sample plots to estimate carbon stocks to an uncertainty level of 10percen of the mean at a 90percent confidence interval.

Through the funds, the state will install and assess supplementary Permanent Sample Plots (PSPs) in Cross River State; Carry out research of wood density data and production of database for Nigerian species and identify the most appropriate biomass equations, including validation of existing regional “Allometric Equations” (AEs) and conversion of existing volume of AEs to biomass functions.

It also seeks to produce standard operations manual, based on initial manual developed by Winrock International and Cross River State Forestry Commission and train staff on carbon stock sampling, Permanent Sample Plots establishment and monitoring including data analysis The Director General (DG), NCF, Adeniyi Karunwi, said the goal of the project is to improve Forest Carbon Enhancement (FCA) and other low carbon emission pathways and monitoring in Cross River State in compliant with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) decisions.

The Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF) is a unique sub-national collaboration between 29 states and provinces from Brazil, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Spain, and the United States.

The GCF seeks to advance jurisdictional programs designed to promote low emissions rural development and reduced emissions from deforestation and land use (REDD+) and link these activities with emerging greenhouse gas (GHG) compliance regimes and other pay-for-performance opportunities”, he said.

According to him, the GCF focuses on all aspects of efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and establish lasting frameworks for low emissions development.

It facilitates the exchange of experiences and lessons learned across leading states and provinces; synchronizes efforts across these jurisdictions to develop policies and programs that provide realistic pathways to forest-maintaining rural development; supports processes for multi-stakeholder participation and engagement; and seeks financing for jurisdictional programs from a range of sources, including pay-for-performance public finance, emerging carbon markets, and ongoing efforts to de-carbonize agro-food supply chains.