GFA team leader honored with award in Laos

On the occasion of a handing over ceremony on 12 Jan, 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) in the Lao Peoples’s Democratic Republic honored GFA Teamleader Dietmar Bräutigam with an award for his outstanding performance in supporting the implementation of the Climate Protection through Avoided Deforestation (CliPAD) project since 2011.

The project is a REDD initiative supported through technical and financial cooperation by GIZ and KfW. It addresses the loss and degradation of natural forests, which causes high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and aims at improving the livelihood of rural communities while conserving precious biodiversity. GFA Consulting Group in association with Indufor Oy from Finland collaborate with the Wildlife Conservation Society to supporting the Lao government in implementing the financial cooperation module in the Houaphan Province. At a total budget of eleven million Euros, the project started in April 2011 and will be concluded in 2018. While 10 million Euros are provided by the German Government through KfW, one million Euros are contributed by the Lao government.

Up to January 2015, the project has been implemented by the Department of Forestry (DoF) at MAF in close cooperation with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) and relevant authorities at the national and sub-national level as well as other organizations and local communities including 70 target villages. Due to the restructuring of the forestry sector and related changes of REDD responsibilities, the project was recently handed over from DoF at MAF to the Department of Forest Resource Mangement at MoNRE.