Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to express my gratitude to our esteemed moderator, panelists and audience for accepting our invitation, especially given your demanding schedules. Today marks a significant step forward as we embark on an inclusive process of listening to various perspectives on how we can make the carbon market work for Liberia but more importantly, the forest-dependent communities.

Let me acknowledge the UK and the Federal Government of Germany for their support to the UNDP Climate Promise initiative in Liberia, including Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) coordination and stakeholder engagement.

We are immensely grateful for the support received thus far from the government and our development partners. I also wish to extend gratitude to the forest communities of Liberia who are the custodians of Liberia’s rich forest and biodiversity for several generations.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is important to reflect that Liberia has a total forest cover of approximately 6.6 million hectares, which is approximately 69% of the country's total landmass with 153.45 tons per hectare of carbon. Interestingly, these forests are managed by indigenous peoples, local communities, and smallholder forest communities. To address the climate and biodiversity crises, we must urgently scale up solutions that support these forest communities to effectively protect and sustainably manage their forests. We must scale up efforts to ensure that the livelihoods of communities are protected and that they can become viable agents for biodiversity and forest area conservation and protection.

Ladies and gentlemen, the forest people and their representatives demand that all policies, funding, and initiatives to address the climate crisis must respect and protect their rights, cultures, livelihoods, and knowledge. They deserve a seat at the table, to be treated as central actors – and as rights holders – in the design and implementation of climate solutions.

As we convene here today, local forest people and communities are already engaged by carbon market actors in their communities and are demanding that they need more information on this topic to understand what these markets might mean for them. As you would all appreciate, the technical and complex language often used in discussions around these markets is not helping to have them actively involved.  We must, therefore promote broad-based inclusion and citizen participation in national and global conversations on carbon markets and in the management of the forestry sector to ensure that the carbon market works for the communities.  This can be guaranteed through several measures including advocating for and promoting the principle of “Free, Prior, and Informed Consent” (FPIC) through agreements and safeguards to strengthen social equity in resource management by requiring consent from local communities before actions (such as forest-related carbon market) that affect their land and resource rights, are taken. We can avoid conflict and foster social cohesion if the dividends of peace are shared.

Ladies and gentlemen, for us as UNDP and our partners, we find it compelling to step up the carbon dialogue by providing space where we can gather various perspectives that can contribute to the carbon readiness framework to ensure that people who live within – and rely upon forest resources earmarked for carbon credits are protected from unintended negative outcomes that can worsen existing widespread poverty and gender inequalities, affect people’s rights, livelihoods, or culture. We look forward to having further conversations and capacity-building engagement with civil society, community forest management bodies, and other representatives of forest communities.

In its engagement with the government, UNDP has consistently made it clear that Liberia has great potential for accessing carbon markets but the institutional requirements for engaging need to be set up, including dedicated institutional arrangements, legal national frameworks, strategies, and safeguards to make carbon market operations feasible in Liberia. 

As a development partner, UNDP acknowledges the gravity of the challenges in putting together a carbon readiness framework for Liberia and embraces our collective responsibility to act, innovate, collaborate, and build partnerships. Civil society groups, NGOs, and community-based organizations are enablers of progress on the SDGs, as partners working directly with and from within communities. All of us, including the UN and Government, rely on these partnerships to translate plans and programs into action.

It is quite evident from the last 3 years that this journey toward carbon readiness won't be devoid of obstacles, yet I want to call on the government and partners to strengthen collaboration, including with the communities and other actors. The path to a sustainable future is the path to progress. It signifies sustainable financing that can drive forest conservation, inclusive growth, and national development. It is the route to Liberia becoming a global leader in the fight against climate change.

Ladies and gentlemen thank you for your participation and contribution, and let us together, hand in hand, lay the foundation for an inclusive and sustainable future of the carbon market in Liberia.

Thank you once again for your participation in this dialogue.