The Climate Change Directorate (CCD) of the Forestry Commission (FC) in collaboration with the Architecture for REDD+
Transactions (ART) and the REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standards (TREES), has organized a 4-day engagement for stakeholders.
The workshop was to help prepare Ghana for the third-party verification and validation process and to also educate stakeholders on the modalities of TREES.
Ghana has submitted the TREES Registration and Monitoring document to ART under the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Programme. This covers the 10 southern regions of Ghana, excluding Oti.
Mr.Thomas Yaw Gyambrah, Manager, MRV and Programs of the Climate Change Directorate, gave a presentation on Ghana’s REDD+ process leading into ART/ TREES. He mentioned that since Ghana joined the REDD+ mechanism in 2008 through the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, they have made impressive progress in implementing the components of the Warsaw Framework. They have developed a REDD+ Strategy, established a safeguard system, created a Forest Reference Level, and implemented a National Forest Monitoring System.
He also stated that Ghana has a REDD+ Strategy with 5 programs with 2 of them under implemention: the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme (GCFRP) and the Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project (GSLERP).
Madam Christiana Magerkurth, Managing Director, ART Secretariat, Winrock International, gave a presentation on the verification and validation process and how the ART Secretariat functions.
She stated that, ART requires independent third – party validation and verification of all
participant programs by accredited Validation and Verification Bodies (VVBs). No TREES Credits will be issued without having successfully passed a rigorous validation and verification process to ensure the program meets the requirements of TREES, including all safeguards. She added that, all validation reports, verification reports, and verification opinions will be publicly posted in the ART Registry following ART review and acceptance. The ART Board will then review and approve all verifications and TREES Credit issuances, after which ART will issue serialized TREES Credits to the participants’ accounts upon request.
The meeting was climaxed with a question and answer session.