USAID and the US Forest Service team up to promote low emission development pathways in the Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use (AFOLU) sectors

Bangkok - July 3-5, 2012 - The USAID-funded Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (LEAF) Programme, with support from the US Forest Service (USFS), brought together stakeholders in and outside of Asia for a workshop in Bangkok: “Low Emission Land Use and Forest Planning in Southeast Asia.” 

More than 30 government officials, NGO representatives and project implementers from Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Indonesia and the United States gathered to discuss emerging regional best practices and tools on land use planning where carbon emission factors have been incorporated.  Participants also examined challenges and opportunities for carbon sensitive land use planning in Southeast Asia. 

"This has been a fantastic opportunity to learn about what other countries in the region are doing regarding land use planning at the sub-national level.  These findings will be brought to our technical working group and used in developing a framework,” said a participant from Papua New Guinea.  Additionally, the LEAF country teams from Vietnam and Lao PDR took the opportunity to work with the 6 USFS participants to refine and operationalise individual country workplans.  The workshop culminated in participants planning to develop a comprehensive synthesis paper that will capture key themes and messages from the workshop.  Participants also agreed on the need for continued regional dialogue on carbon-sensitive land use planning via existing regional platforms. 

For further information on the workshop and the LEAF Programme, please contact Ly Thi Minh Hai, LEAF Country Manager for Vietnam, at HLyThiMinh@snvworld.org