The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, convened an online meeting with experts and stakeholders on the carbon market.
The meeting was held under the theme, "Making Carbon Works for Forest Communities in Liberia," and was intended to prepare Liberia for effective engagement with carbon markets.
Louis Kuukpen, UNDP's Deputy Resident Representative, highlighted the urgent need to scale up solutions that support forest communities to effectively protect and sustainably manage their forests.
According to Kuukpen, Liberia has a total forest cover of approximately 6.6 million hectares, which is approximately 69 percent of the country's total landmass, with 153.45 tons per hectare of carbon.
"We must scale up efforts to ensure that the livelihoods of communities are protected and that they can become viable agents for biodiversity and forest area conservation and protection".
In April 2022 the Government of Liberia reached out to UNDP requesting support for enabling the country to engage in carbon markets.
"UNDP accepted to support Liberia in developing a carbon readiness roadmap that would help Liberia achieve the twin objective of reducing emissions from forest loss, sustainable management and protection of forests thus contributing to climate action while at the same time enabling access to carbon finance to expand Liberia's fiscal space and accelerate inclusive and sustainable Development," said Abraham Tumbey, UNDP Programme Coordinator.
He thanked the World Bank, the UK Embassy in Liberia, the Embassy of Sweden in Liberia, the West African Alliance on Carbon Market and Climate Finance, and USAID for their support, interest, collaboration, and partnership.
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Throughout this process, UNDP has consistently made it clear that Liberia has great potential for accessing carbon markets but there are requirements for dedicated institutional arrangements, legal
national frameworks, and strategies to improve conditions for carbon market operations.
Lawrance Sherbo, who is the District Commissioner in Kangba district in Gbarpolu County, noted that it is important to engage with forest communities and respond to their questions explaining the importance of carbon and what development benefits are for them as communities.
The UNDP Climate and Forest Technical Specialist, Wahida Sha, echoed Shaebo's views stating that when projects are identified, communities must be informed on how they will benefit and what are their expectations for participation in such projects. She said more trust is built on how the carbon trust markets should work in communities taking into consideration the traditional knowledge of forest communities.
