In addition, the German (BMZ) and Dutch (DGIS) Cooperation attended the meeting represented by the Regional Amazon Program from the GIZ Agency.
The III PSC was convened to comply with ITTO requirements in order to evaluate the Monitoring Project progress from its inception in mid-2011 to the present date, as well as its schedule until the end of 2017. During the opening ceremony, the Ambassador Jacqueline Mendoza Ortega, ACTO Secretary General, stated as the project main objectives, those “to contribute to the improvement the countries forest management on issues related to deforestation, land tenure, changes in land use and sustainable forest management”. She also referred to ITTO’s support in the Monitoring Project and others ACTO forestry initiatives.
Then, Gerhard Dieterle, ITTO Executive Director, highlighted the goals of its Organization; while the representative of ABC, Tania Jardim, welcomed the participants. Gerhard Breulmann, ITTO Operations Director, and SP/ACTO Executive Director, Cesar De las Casas, and its Administrative Director, Antonio Matamoros, also participated at the opening with comments related to the implementation of the Monitoring Project.
Following up on the agenda, the Monitoring Project Regional Coordinator, Carlos Salinas, presented the Technical Progress Report (TPR) for the period 2011-2017, together with the last approved Work Plan until December 2017. For its part, the Project’s Financial Manager, Kelly Nishikawa, presented the Financial Report (FR) together with the corresponding budget. The detailed TPR highlighted, among others, the importance of the project’s operational structure, both at national and regional levels, facilitating the joint work among the countries in preparing the regional maps on Amazon Deforestation for the years 2000-2010, 2010-2013 and 2013-2014; and at the maps on Land Use and Land Cover for 2000 -2010 and 2010 -2012.
About the regional maps, the head of INPE Amazon Regional Center, Alessandra Gomes, informed that the maps are prepared in INPE/CRA from the national data delivered by the countries themselves with the support of the Project Observation Rooms that after a consultation process with the countries these maps are published. “By the end of 2017, INPE will work with the data sent by the countries and will finish the Deforestation Maps 2015-2016 and the Coverage and Land Use 2012-2010 maps”, she said.
One issue that received special importance was the sustainability of the monitoring actions at the national level because of the project closing next December 2017. The ITTO Director pointed out that the assessment of this sustainability and the continuity of the established structures have a particularly importance for which the project impacts ideally should be assessed based on a baseline.
Finally, SP/ACTO reported of the ACTO Member Countries interest that, within the framework of a new South-South Cooperation and with the support of the Amazon Fund/BNDES/Brazil ABC, a new project proposal is been prepared. The latter will take into account the progress of the Monitoring Project in order to incorporating climate change effects, including degradation, forest recomposition and warning systems, in the context of mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
On this topic, ITTO Executive Director had previously emphasized at the meeting that forests degradation is closely related to the productive forests restoration, and therefore proposed that this should be considered in any following proposal submitted to the funding agency by ACTO. He also highlighted the potential role of productive forests in mitigating climate change.
The meeting was closed by the General Secretary of SP/ACTO, Ambassador Jacqueline Mendoza Ortega, who thanked the participants for the effort made during the III PSC.
