SDI provided analysis, strategic planning, and training services to forest Trends as part of its work in the USAID funded TRANSLINKS Project in central Africa. The emphasis was on identifying opportunities for Forest trends and partners to fill key gaps in REDD+ programming. Social feasibility, social impact, social sustainability, and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) needs and opportunities were highlighted.
SDI continues to develop a concept in concert the InterAmerican Development Bank for assessing the feasibility of carbon farming in Haiti that involves both improved and sustainable agriculture as well as criteria that fall under Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use (AFOLU) as part of REDD+. The focus is on identifying social feasibility for program interventions that can serve as a model for Haitian farmer buy-in while also being acceptable to both official development assistance (ODA) and potential private sector investors in carbon farming in Haiti.
SDI’s Congo Basin Technical Director Zephirin Mogba is preparing to participate in The Forest Dialogue’s field workshop on Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) in Bas Congo in May 2012. FPIC is pivotal to achieving social feasibility in REDD+, and SDI specializes on how analytical and decision making capacities can be strengthened at community levels to enhance the probability for genuine FPIC to be achieved.
SDI is preparing to provide technical assistance to the Bonobo Conservation Initiative to develop a monitoring and evaluation system for its work funded under the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF). The work will last from 2012-2014.
SDI President Michael Brown is completing a book manuscript on REDD/REDD+ for publication envisioned in late 2012.
