Staff from RCMRD participated in the Regional Forest Observatory in Eastern Africa (OFESA) Project Kick-off Workshop held at World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), Nairobi,

Kenya from 16-17 February, 2017. The objective of the project is to develop a model of a Regional Forest Observatory that will comprise a database, website and report on the state of forests and REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) activities in East Africa i.e. Kenya, Tanzania Uganda and Mozambique.

The ‘Regional Forest Observatory’ will provide a platform for sharing, exchanging and accessing data and information related to regional forests and REDD+. It will support the countries in the implementation of forest monitoring and reporting in the context of REDD+ and strengthen existing institutions and networks in the tropical regions in their capacity to report on their mitigation actions in the forest sector in the context of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in developing countries) for policy makers to use in their policy and strategy development.

The project will be managed by the Center for International Forestry Research (“CIFOR”), in close collaboration with RCMRD and Centre de cooperation international en recherché agronomique pour le développement (“CIRAD”) as a consortium. RCMRD’s role in the project will be to develop a regional database containing information relevant for the monitoring of regional forest cover change and for reporting in the context of REDD+; and a website for accessing the database and serving as the main interface of the Regional Forest Observatory.