Live & Learn Environmental Education – Vanuatu Extension & Outreach Consultancy Report

Summary

The Government of Vanuatu began the development of a REDD+ Readiness Preparation Proposal (RPP) in October 2011. The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) has been supporting this process. A core element of the R-PP is the Consultation and Participation Plan. Fundamentally, the plan details how the National REDD+ Technical Committee, on behalf of the Government of Vanuatu, will communicate with stakeholders and the people of Vanuatu with regards to the implementation of the R-PP and ongoing management of REDD+.

Given the potential impacts of REDD+ on a wide range of stakeholders, in particular, custom landowners, the designers and implementers of the Consultation and Participation Plan must commit to ensuring effective participation in strategy development and the implementation of a REDD+ program. As per the guidance provided by the FCPF, “The Consultation and Participation Plan should be designed to increase inclusion of different social groups (including women, men, youth, indigenous peoples etc), transparency, and accountability of decision-making over the lifetime of the preparatory work leading to REDD+ readiness.”

The Government of Vanuatu, through its National REDD+ Technical Committee, decided in late 2012 to outsource the development of its Consultation and Participation Plan to an in-country consultant, Live & Learn Environmental Education - Vanuatu (Live & Learn Vanuatu). Live & Learn has been engaged in community development in the Pacific since 1995. Live & Learn Vanuatu is part of an Asia-Pacific wide learning network of locally registered non-governmental organisations. The Live & Learn network has a mandate to support indigenous staff as key agents of positive environmental and developmental change.

Live & Learn Vanuatu is undertaking a regional REDD+ pilot program with communities in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Fiji. Part of the pilot program includes developing educational resources to assist communities in realising Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for REDD+ activities. The resources developed include: a Facilitator’s Guide on Climate Change and REDD+, two animations and a REDD+ Business Manual for community-managed REDD+ projects. 

During January 2013, Live & Learn Vanuatu facilitated focus group discussions and interviews with government and non-government stakeholders and conducted community consultations with rural Ni-Vanuatu communities on the major islands of Efate, Santo and Tanna. These consultations sought to obtain information from stakeholders on their experiences of government consultation on land use issues and their advice for effective consultation in the future. Live & Learn engaged 273 stakeholders during this round of consultations. A list of these stakeholders can be found in Section 5 of this report.