GAF Awarded Contract for GIZ-SADC REDD Project

GAF AG in a partnership with Deutsche Forst Service (DFS) has been awarded by GIZ, a newly conceptualised REDD Project for the southern African region. The counterpart is the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate (FANR). The project will add to the already well-established portfolio of REDD services that GAF offers. The current project aims to design a SADC regional Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system which can be used by the Member States; in order to do this a prototype design will be tested and implemented in at least three SADC countries.
The main project activities will be based on the four main building blocks which are:

• Developing a Regional MRV System
• Pilot Implementation of the Regional MRV System
  in (at least three) Pilot Countries
• MRV Capacity Building in SADC Pilot Countries
• Support of a MRV Pre-audit

The technical activities for these building blocks include the application of Earth-Observation (EO) based forest assessment methods for historic and current epochs using optical and radar data; the implementation of a terrestrial inventory for biomass accounting; the comparative calculations of carbon stocks and emissions and publication of the results. An important contribution of the project is the knowledge transfer via capacity building to the counterparts which is a pre-requisite for sustainability of the REDD+ activities to be implemented in the region. It is envisaged that the project will provide the SADC region with a uniform MRV system for the quantification of emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation that conforms to IPCC requirements and is supported by all Member States.
The valuable experience gained from the REDD Pilot projects being implemented by GAF and partners in the past 4-5 years in the Congo Basin countries such as Cameroon, Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic form an important basis for developing the regional REDD MRV for SADC.
About GAF AG
GAF, an e-Geos/Telespazio company, is an international consulting company with leading competence and expertise in applied earth observation and spatial information consultancies. GAF has worked in the last 25 years in more than 100 countries throughout Europe, Africa, South-America and Asia. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of services ranging from supply of geo-data (e.g. satellite and aerial imagery, digital elevation models), and geo-services (e.g. image processing, thematic mapping, GIS/DBMS applications and software development). GAF has a proven track-record in performing complete technical assistance projects in the natural resources and environment sector including dedicated capacity building and institutional support.