Training on Carbon Balance Appraisal of Agriculture Forestry and Land Use (AFOLU) projects and policies

Kyrgyzstan, World Bank 23-25 June 2015

Kyrgyz Republic is one of the developing countries in the Central Asia region. It is partially

dependent on wheat imports from Kazakhstan and global food price shocks are quickly

transmitted to Kyrgyz Republic.

Forests cover less than 6% of the area of the Kyrgyz Republic they play a vital economic, social

and environmental role and are especially important for the livelihoods of rural communities.

The forest area now extends to an area of just over 1.1 million hectares.

Livestock numbers are increasing, which in turn has heightened demand for land for grazing and

fodder production. This increasing demand is putting further pressure on the already limited

forest cover and is leading to subsequent degradation as a result of grazing inside forests in

combination with the unregulated removals of firewood and timber.

The Integrated Forestry Ecosystem Management Project (IFEMP) aims to support an ecosystem-

based approach to the improved management of the area controlled by the leskhozes including

forested lands, pasture, and unproductive or marginal lands. This will be done through support

for institutional reform and capacity building, the introduction of participatory management

planning at the leskhoz level and support for the implementation of those plans in pilot areas.

The project aims to harness the potential of forests to reduce poverty; integrate forests in

sustainable economic development; and protect vital local and global environmental services and

values.

This training course will be held based on bilateral cooperation between Environmental

Management and Sustainable Development (EM&SD) Program and Ex-Ante Carbon-balance

Tool Development Group of UN FAO Organization.

The Ex-Ante Carbon-balance Tool (EX-ACT) is an appraisal system developed by FAO

providing ex-ante estimates of the impact of agriculture and forestry development projects on the

carbon-balance. The tool helps project designers to estimate and prioritize project activities with

high benefits in climate change mitigation terms whenever they are achievable in synergy with

other development goals. The amount of GHG mitigation may also be used as part of economic

analyses as well as for the application for additional project funds. EX-ACT has been developed

using mostly the Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC, 2006)

complemented with other methodologies and review of default coefficients for mitigation option

as a base. The tool and user’s manual are available to be loaded on web:

http://www.fao.org/tc/exact/carbon-balance-tool-ex-act/en/

Training Purpose and Objectives

i) To enhance capacity base of National Experts from Ministry for Agriculture and

Amelioration of Kyrgyzstan and Ministry of environment, University professors and

students, FAO GEF experts, World Bank Technical staff to appraise mitigation impact of

AFOLU projects and policies using EX-ACT;

ii) To provide an overall knowledge of utility and implication of appraising of investment

projects and the methods of economic analysis to be applied.

The training course will be held at American University in Central Asia (AUCA) on 23-25th of

June. AUCA is a host university for this training course.

Additional information will be provided by Dr. Zheenbek Kulenbekov, EM&SD Program Chair.

E-mail: kulenbekov@gmail.com. Tel: 0778 599278