2009 Katoomba Meeting XV

INVITATION TO KATOOMBA XV
Over the past 15 years, West Africa has lost 1.4 million hectares (26%) of its ‘old growth' forest, leaving only about 1.5% of the area under primary forest cover. The failure of more traditional policies, projects and strategies to slow down the degradation of the nation's natural resources has strengthened the interest in mechanisms such as payments for ecosystems services (PES) and environmental markets. This is particularly relevant in areas of biodiversity conservation, carbon markets and avoided deforestation (REDD), sustainable agroforestry and marine and coastal ecosystems.

Join us for discussions with leading global PES experts to explore the potential and challenges of how to develop effective and equitable PES mechanisms in the region, including detailed analyses of the following topics:
MEETING TOPICS:
• The policy, legal and governance framework for PES
• Biodiversity offsets from industrial natural resource extraction, and conservation banking as a potential biodiversity offset mechanism
• PES mechanisms for compensating marine and coastal ecosystem services
• Opportunities for measuring and recompensing the hydrological benefits of forests
• Progress and challenges in the development of national REDD programs, including how to achieve "pro-poor REDD"
• Tree crops as well as cocoa and carbon finance with a view to promoting sustainable agroforestry systems, particularly shaded cocoa and coffee systems
• The role of soil carbon in promoting sustainable agriculture and poverty reduction
• Analysis of the PES potential of mangroves and wetlands
Please visit katoombagroup.org/event_details.php?id=32 to register for this event today! For further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Christina Swan at 202-298-3000 or at cswan@forest-trends.org