The expected funding of $8,371,060, or approximately 5 billion FCFA, is intended to reward Congo for its efforts in forest conservation and reduction of carbon emissions. This carbon credit should be distributed to designated beneficiaries, in accordance with the Benefit Sharing Plan.
The amount of $8,371,060 corresponds to 1,674,212 tCO2 that the country was able to store in 2020. These figures are contained in the verification and validation report of the Aenor firm, which carried out the audit between November 2023 and last July. After several months of investigations and discussions with the management team of the Sangha Likouala Emission Reduction Program (PRE-SL), the independent auditor will make his report public on August 26.
Indeed, the publication of the audit should conform to the report on the reduction of emissions achieved by the PRE-SL and especially the payment of the carbon fund supposed to be distributed to the beneficiaries of the program. This is the very first payment of the carbon fund that Congo will receive as financing based on the results related to the reduction of verified emissions, in accordance with the contract for the purchase of emission reduction credits.
Designed by the government and the World Bank, PRE-SL is a jurisdictional program to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation that integrates sustainable forest management, biodiversity conservation, and increasing forest carbon stocks in the departments of Likouala and Sangha, in order to produce emission reduction credits. The program has already had highlights with stakeholder awareness-raising activities, community consultations to update environmental and social safeguard instruments, and the collection of activity data in forest concessions.
This field work resulted in the development of the Emission Reduction Monitoring Report according to the model set by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, one of the World Bank entities. The PRE-SL management team has finalized and submitted its report to the World Bank since June 30, 2023. This report was then forwarded to the independent auditor.
