4th Moabi Project Consortium

The fourth meeting of the Consortium took place in the hall of the Arche at Clinique Ngaliema in Kinshasa, on 25 February 2015. About eighty participants heard of the progress made over the last six months by the Moabi Project.

In addition, the consortium was marked by three major announcements:

• The winners of the Moabi mapping competition were awarded!
• A new project named “Open Mai Ndombe” was launched. The objective is to identify possible synergies between the Independent Monitoring of REDD and FLEGT processes.
• The foundations of the development of Moabi after 2015 were presented.

Moabi Mapping Competition

The results of the 1st edition of the mapping competition were announced at the Consortium Project, February 25, 2015.

The contest brought together 44 Congolese participants ! 7 maps were hand-drawn and 37 maps were made using GIS software. The maps will be soon available on the Moabi platform in the section blog post: http://rdc.moabi.org/blog/en/.

Identity of the GIS contest winners and theme of their maps

• 1st Prize MIALA MIANSA Timothée Estimation of the above-ground biomass in the forest cover of the “Message de Graal concession”.
• 2nd prize ATUM OKWOLAT’S Aimé Drinking water supply network in the neighborhood of SALONGO and LODJA in the town of KASA-VUBU
• 3rd prize NKAMBU MATOKO Grace Soil erosion of the island of Mateba in Bas Congo.

Identity of the hand-drawing contest winners and theme of their maps

• 1st prize MAVAKALA Antoine et AMISI BIN Leonard Community forests in the area of Ekonda / Bikoro in the Equateur Province
• 2nd prize MBUYI MUCCICI Pax Localization of community forest management in the area of Lubankani in the Equateur Province
• 3rd prize NLONGO NSEMI Jean National parks and natural reserves in the DRC

The launch of the next edition of the mapping competition will be held on Tuesday 31 March. We will send you the terms of reference of the new edition. We invite all the Congolese experts or not to prepare for the competition. We particularly encourage all women to apply as there were too few in the last edition!!

Launch of the Funding Facility

The role of the Funding Facility is to involve civil society in collecting data on REDD+ implementation and monitoring. It is implemented by Professor Raymond LUMBUENAMO but administratively and financially run by OGF.

A regional and international experts committee is currently being created to finalize the terms of reference of this funding facility, examine the received projects and monitor their implementation. A grant of up to $ 10,000 will be awarded to each of the 5 best projects we will receive.

Deadlines of the Funding Facility :

• 1st week of April – Launch of the call for proposal
• May : Signature of a partnership agreement with the selected CSOs and launch of the activities

Moabi Training

The Moabi training sessions are organized on a monthly basis at the OSFAC office. They are designed with the view to develop a system of data collection and sharing, about REDD+ issues and the management of natural resources. These sessions are specifically designed to:

• train members of civil society on how to the use the Moabi reporting tools;
• enhance civil society activities;
• strengthen the Moabi platform through reports publication.

To date, 5 sessions were provided to 21 CSOs and 19 reports have been published! They are available on the following link: http://rdc.moabi.org/reports/fr/.

We invite interested CSOs in publishing their reports to make themselves known so they can take part in the training!

IM-REDD : Publication of the 1st technical report !

Since the launch of its 2nd phase in July 2013, the Moabi project has conducted several field missions, ranging from the identification of local observers to data collection on REDD + activities and compliance with national Environmental and Social Safeguards.

The overall aim of this first technical report is to enhance the collected data.

The specific objectives are to:

• Provide a synthesis of the field work ;
• Use the collected data in the design of the monitoring tools;
• Draw lessons from the field experience and make recommendations for the development of OI-REDD and the Moabi platform ;

Launch of the Open Mai Ndombe Project

This is a FLAG (Field Legality Advisory Group) project funded by EFI (European Forest Institute). The aim is to explore the synergies and the complementarities between Independent Monitoring (IM) of the REDD+ and FLEG processes to ensure the transparent implementation of the forest law and the respect for the REDD+ standards in the DRC.

The specific objectives are to :

• Develop and test of a joint methodology for the independent monitoring of REDD and FLEG processes as part of the Mai Ndombe emissions reduction program ;
• Select IM-FLEG data that is relevant to IM-REDD and integrate it in the Moabi platform ;
• Produce recommendations for the future development of IM FLEG-REDD as part of the ER Mai Ndombe program and at the national level.

Beside, a joint IM methodology of these two processes would help achieve economies of scale and thus maximize the available resources for the IM implementation.

Moabi from 2016

Over the past four years, Moabi has developed partnerships to collect a large amount of data on the drivers of deforestation. Furthermore, Moabi has been contributing to the design of an IM-REDD method. As part of the national REDD+ strategy, Moabi is now recognized as a critical tool for improving governance in the DRC. Given that the current funding from NORAD is coming to an end in December 2015, a new phase of the project is being designed.

It is in this context that at the last Consortium BOTTRILL Leo, Director of Moabi project, announced the creation of the international NGO MOABI.INC headquartered in Washington. It will specifically dedicate to the general administration of the NGO’s activities, the development of technology (Moabi platform, smart phones, etc.) and communication activities with the international partners.

A local branch will be created in the DRC responsible for the deployment of operational activities, such as monitoring grievances (which is a mechanism that must be implemented as part of REDD +).

Up coming events

• 23-27 March : GIS Training
• 31 March : Launch of the 2nd edition of the Moabi mapping competition
• 16 April : Moabi training
• April : Call for proposals from the Funding Facility
• May : Experimental IM-REDD & FLEG missions (Open Mai Ndombe Project)
• 14 May : Moabi Training
• Mid-June : GIS Training
• 18 June : Moabi Training
• 30 June : Closure of the 2nd edition of the Moabi mapping competition