An Integrated Approach to Capacity Development in Forestry and Climate Change in West Africa

The BIODEV capacity development programme (BCDP) uses forestry, agroforestry and trees to derive a broad range of development and environmental outcomes (high-value biocarbon) while strengthening the capacities of local and national institutions to be able to sustain the benefits. The BCDP conducted 40 long and short-term training activities in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone across the following categories: (i) Short-term in-country trainings and regional training e.g. support to UNFCCC negotiators running from 2-4 and 6-8 days and implemented using the Harvard Case and the Socratic Learning Methods; (ii) Short-term training abroad for three weeks on Managing Sustainable Forest Landscapes, and (iii) Long-term training abroad e.g. PhD study on forest governance and climate change. The success of BCDP is largely influenced by (i) the effectiveness of coordination and planning amongst trainers; (ii) the content, format, depth, focus and duration of the training vis-a-vis the needs of the trainees; and (iii) the strengthening of existing local and national decision making and implementation platforms for up-scaling high value biocarbon development approaches.