Kathmandu, July 15

Stakeholders in the forestry sector have accused the government of giving least priority to REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) Implementation Centre for carbon trade in Nepal.

Speaking at a programme ‘Enhancing capacity building and awareness of REDD among stakeholders’ here today, chief of REDD Implementation Centre, Dr Sindhu Prasad Dhungana said the government had given least priority to the centre.

Dhungana  added that the government had started receiving climate change aid after the centre came into operation.

According to him, the centre, which was under the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, was never an attractive destination for forest bureaucrats.

Similarly, former director general of Department of Forests Resham Bahadur Dangi accused the government of curtailing the powers of the centre instead of empowering it.

“Every year officials from different countries gather for carbon trade discussion, but not from Nepal,” he said. The centre under the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation is the lead institution to undertake REDD readiness activities in Nepal.

The REDD readiness activities for Nepal are guided by the Readiness Preparation Proposal.

The Readiness-Preparaion Proposal was approved by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility of the World Bank in 2010, providing Nepal with a grant to implement the activities outlined in the proposal.

The vision for Nepal’s REDD strategy is reducing gas emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation through forest conservation by addressing the livelihoods concerns of poor and socially marginalised forest dependent people, and by establishing effective policy, regulatory and institutional structures for sustainable development of the country’s forests under the forthcoming new constitutional framework.