The FFEM presents its latest capitalisations: overviews of nature in a Latin American city, and the forests of Central Africa

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The importance of these capitalisations lies in their ability to bring real answers to current environmental challenges. By combining expertise, analysis, evaluation, and the capitalisation of knowledge, the FFEM aims to stimulate innovation and steer policies and action in favour of the environment. As part of its strategy, the FFEM adopts a diversified approach to capitalisation, implementing a number of formats such as cross-capitalisation drawing on several projects or programmes, capitalisation in itinere obtained during the course of projects, and capitalisation ex-post conducted after their delivery. These novel approaches enable vital learnings to be drawn out of the projects undertaken, and disseminated at large-scale.

In the course of her opening remarks, Clémentine Dardy, Head of Evaluation-capitalisation and Territorial Approaches at the FFEM, underlined the importance of evaluation-capitalisation in the FFEM’s work.

“For us, evaluation is the point at which we undertake project reviews and evaluate their coherence and relevance with respect to the global picture. Capitalisation is another process where we try to consider the review, the learnings and the lessons to be drawn”, Dardy explained. She also underlined the importance of communication on the impact of projects financed and the importance of collective learning throughout the process.

Following this, the round table split into two themed sessions, structured around presentations and discussions concerning the results from the two latest capitalisations led by the FFEM.

The first part of the round table addressed the capitalisation of knowledge, with the accent on the Central African forests. These tropical forests, which extend over more than 200 million hectares, represent one of the world’s largest continuous massifs of dense rainforests, second only to the Amazon. They play a critical role as both carbon and biodiversity reservoirs, supporting the livelihoods of 60 million people and making a significant economic contribution in terms of generating wealth, jobs and tax revenues for the states.

Aurélie Ahmim-Richard, Head of forests and sustainable agriculture at the FFEM, highlighted the FFEM’s commitment to promoting the sustainable management of the Central African forests. She stressed that sustainable forestry represented the best balance between preservation of the forests, meeting populations’ needs, and economic development.

“For many years, in collaboration with the AFD and other funding partners, the FFEM has supported policies for the sustainable management of forests in several Central African countries. However, the norms governing their operation were established at a time when knowledge of the forests’ ecological functioning was limited. In order to better manage these forests, it is increasingly necessary to properly understand this functioning” Ahmim-Richard remarked.

The second part of the event was dedicated to the topic of nature in a Latin American city, with the accent on two projects in Santa Fe and Guatemala City. Guillaume Josse, urban planner and Project Director at Groupe HUIT consultancy, emphasised the importance of capitalisation in facilitating discussions around the specific context of each city against the backdrop of mutual urban challenges. For Josse, “working on nature in the city means working on the whole of the city, touching upon every sector; health, economy, regulation, policy etc. That involves moving from urban engineering to urban ecology.”

He also stressed the challenge of reconciling the protection or integration of nature in the city with the prevailing economic dynamic.
The round table was wrapped up by Sébastien Treyer, Director of the French Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) and President of the FFEM’s Scientific Committee. Treyer underlined the importance of capitalisation in the FFEM’s new strategy for the coming years.

“At the FFEM what interests us is the ability to capitalise on innovations generating co-benefits for climate, biodiversity and development that would not be explored elsewhere, to draw out the lessons enabling the transition to be triggered in other regions, other sectors or on a sector-wide scale. That’s the whole point of the capitalisation element in the projects we’ve heard about today” explained Treyer. “Everything that’s been discussed on the forests, biodiversity and nature in the city are important building blocks in the international negotiations to which the FFEM is party” he stated.

For the FFEM, innovation in methods for onward knowledge transmission is also a strong indicator of capitalisation. Project sponsors are directly involved in the process, permitting a participative approach and the best ownership of the outcomes. This approach seeks to maximise the impact of projects and encourage their reproduction in other contexts.

Moderated by Anna N’Diaye, journalist and film-maker, the round table brought together experts, researchers, and representatives from the public and private sectors, together with some of those involved on the ground in the two projects; nature in a Latin American city and sustainable management of Central African forests.