Last April, a team of CAD Productions went to Mozambique to document the various initiatives that are promoting REDD + in the region of Zambezia. The project’s goal is to document REDD + initiatives in several African countries, including Ghana, Congo, Madagascar, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Liberia and Mozambique.

REDD + is a mechanism for climate change mitigation financed by the World Bank and developed under the UNFCCC. The initiative creates financial incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conserve forest carbon stocks, sustainably manage forests and enhance forest carbon stocks.

Currently the REDD + mechanism includes 5 activities:

1. Reduction of Deforestation

2. Reduction of Degradation

3. Conservation

4. Sustainable Forest Management

5. Increase of forest carbon stocks

In Mozambique, the main objectives are:

•  Agriculture: to promote alternative practices that generates higher productivity of subsistence and commercial farming;
• Energy: increase access to alternative sources of energy in urban areas
• Conservation Areas: to strengthen the system of conservation areas and find alternative options to the people living in those areas.
• Sustainable Forest Management: to promote forest concessions that add value to non-timber forest products.
• Forest plantations: to improve the business climate for planted forests and to improve the relationship between rural communities and forestry companies.
• Inter sectorial activities: to create a legal and institutional platform for inter sectorial coordination for land use activities.

Currently, the country has completed the first preparatory phase of the project and is in the process of developing a series of pilot projects to demonstrate the potential of the program and promote its replication in other regions of the country.

Our team composed of Fernando Casado Cañeque, Gemma Solés and Sebastian Ruiz conducted interviews with various public representatives and community leaders. Several initiatives were documented such as:

• Women’s cooperatives working for the promotion of economic projects that have a more sustainable impact on forest management
• Cooperative associations that protect mangroves in the area of Quelimane
• Private initiatives which aim at promoting the production of nurseries for reforestation
• Public policy programs which strengthen forestry taxation and regulation of illegal logging.