Project News

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been providing support to the forestry sector in Laos PDR. Since 2014, the Sustainable Forest Management and REDD+ Support Project (F-REDD) has supported a wide range of initiatives with synergistic effects, from the central government to local governments, and from policy support to forest information management and field-level activities.

In February 2022, the Project for Enhancing Sustainable Forest Management in Collaboration with REDD+ Programs and REDD+ Funds (F-REDD 2) was launched to support access to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the implementation of the fund, to strengthen the capacity for sustainable forest management through the implementation of the Forest Strategy 2035^[1], which is a future priority for the Lao PDR forest sector, and to promote the implementation of REDD+^[2] actions.

On March 17, the first Joint Coordination Committee (JCC)^[3] Meeting was held as the kick-off meeting for F-REDD 2. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Sousath SAYAKOUMMANE, Director General of the Department of Forestry (DOF) and Mr. Toshio NAGASE, Chief Representative of the JICA Laos Office. It was attended by 22 participants, representing JCC members and concerned agencies such as the DOF, other line ministries and institutes, the Provincial Agriculture and Forest Office of Savannakhet, JICA Laos Office, Embassy of Japan (online) and the F-REDD Project (with some international experts joining online). At the JCC Meeting, the outline of F-REDD 2 was presented, followed by a question and answer session and discussion, then JCC members agreed to start the implementation of F-REDD 2.

It was decided to have regular quarterly meetings in the future to share progress and issues of F-REDD 2 between related parties. The first quarterly meeting was held on June 13, 2022.

The 1st JCC Meeting in Vientiane