Participatory Management for Community-based Avoided Deforestation in São Tomé Obô Natural Park

Main Objective

To strengthen community participatory management in the Obô Natural Park and its buffer zone in São Tomé island, through sustainable financing for a low carbon development.

Specific Objective

To increase social, environmental and financial benefits of the protected area and to contribute for the REDD+ process in São Tomé.

Methods

To achieve the objectives, a REDD+ pilot project is being implemented at a local level (VCS – Verified Carbon Standard) to account for carbon stocks that can be used to obtain tradable premium credits (Verified Carbon Units with social and environmental benefits verification).

EXPECTED RESULTS

Project Document (PD) | Activities to produce a carbon emission reference level caused by deforestation and forest degradation for subsequent audit and validation.

Stakeholder consultation and sensibilization | Development of a consultation and sensibilization plan and implementation of the activities at a central, regional and local level. The participatory discussion aims to contribute to the production of a benefit-sharing mechanism and a social and environmental safeguards system.

REDD+ Capacity Building | Technical training carried out with local technicians and training sessions with the communities.

Meetings with Stakeholders and Project Launch | 2018

In August of 2018 a mission took place in Sao Tome in order to perform:

Meetings with Stakeholders | The international team along with DF and ADAPPA presented the project and gathered information from several national institutions and organizations - projects or work in progress that might be related to OBO-CARBONO project - and to share knowledge that might favour the results.

Field Visit | Landscape recognition (Sao Tome island).

Project Launch | The project launch counted with the participation of official entities and civil society organizations. A discussion with the objective of sharing various perspectives on forest issues was promoted, thus creating greater public awareness and also facilitating the cross-checking and clarification of information gathered at bilateral meetings. This event was well widespread by the local media.

Fieldwork and Capacity Building | 2019

In 2019, two fieldwork campaigns took place in Sao Tome in order to develop activities related to:

Forest Inventory | Accounting of forest biomass (emission factors), on-the-job training provided to local technicians in forest inventory and training sessions with a number of selected communities.

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) | Characterization of deforestation and degradation activities in rural communities and on-the-job training provided to local technicians in PRA.