The main green house gas that leads to climate change is carbon in the form of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide produced by the burning of fuel. These gases can easily be absorbed by large vegetation such as trees, but deforestation reduces the quantity of carbon that can be absorbed.
REDD+ is the reduction of carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation of the land plus an emphasis on sustainable livelihoods for the 20% of the world’s population that depend directly on forests. REDD+ would therefore become a global mechanism to entrust both the care and benefits of the forest to a system of co-management between people and governing authorities.

This was the explanation from the Austrian Federal Forest Organization Consultant, Greg Hiemstra Van der-Horst, who described his work as a scoping exercise to develop a pre-feasibility study for the implementation of REDD+ in Sierra Leone. He was addressing senior Forestry Officials, representatives from the Office of National Security, The United Nations Environment Program and conservationists at a REDD+ inception workshop. This would hopefully prepare Sierra Leone for a REDD+ presentation at this year’s climate change conference in Durban, South Africa.
If climate change talks lead to an international agreement on REDD+ more developing nations could be forced to comply with developing nations to protect forests such as the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve. Experts say this may not happen until 2017 when issues such as Monitoring, Reporting and Verification have been agreed.

Prior to such an official commissioning of the international REDD+ agreement, Mr. Van der-Horst described several positive indicators for the Western Area Forest Reserve.

One of these indicators is the presence of the Conservation of the Western Area Peninsula Forest Reserve and its Watershed known as the WAPFOR Project, which is tasked with finding a way to fund future conservation efforts after the project’s duration ends.

Project Manager Jochen Moninger from the German NGO Welthungerhilfe said the project must also raise awareness about REDD+ and suggest a way to provide a caretaker body for the Western Area Peninsular Forest Reserve, National Policy and Institutional Framework for REDD+.

Director of Forests Sheka Mansaray led discussions on REDD+ as a form of Payment for Ecosystem Services because developing countries would buy the carbon stored in developing countries forests. But other payments for Ecosystem Services can be realized without REDD+ such as a levy on users of the forest as a tourist attraction or for the extraction of water.

There is also a large market for voluntary purchasing of carbon by large industrial firms in developed countries. But before any carbon is sold in the form of carbon credit from the Western Area Peninsular Forest Reserve, it must be assessed in terms of quantity, potential for growth and ownership.

Free, prior and informed consent must be obtained from all stakeholders in the protection of the forest and the status of buffer zones, agricultural landscapes and marginal forest must be analyzed for inclusion or exclusion from the package. The WAPFoR Project will finance some of these costs, thus giving Sierra Leone an edge in the investment process. The REDD+ consultant said “Africa is underrepresented in the carbon markets” and the 40,000 acres of forest in the Western Area is relatively small but highly manageable.

To qualify the Western Area Peninsula Forest for the eligibility of funds as a standing pristine forest, the problems which must be overcome include fuel wood extraction, charcoal burning, shifting agriculture, stone mining and disputed land tenure.