These are the main outcomes of two workshops held on June 22 in Rabat and July 3 in Tunis, both led by the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (IUCN-Med) and IDDRI (The Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations). The workshops were organized in collaboration with the Moroccan High Commission for Water, Forests and Desertification Control and the Tunisian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.  

The working groups consist of key relevant administrations and civil society representatives. The proposed roadmaps will guide working group activities until the end of 2018, when a concept note for recommended ongoing actions will be drafted after approval from the working group and a non-objection from the Designated National Authority.

The first phase of work in 2016-2017 allowed participants to reflect on the place Nature-based Solutions (NbS) occupy in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in Morocco and Tunisia. Ecosystem-based climate actions contained in the NDCs were listed and classified according to their degree of potential synergy with biodiversity protection. IUCN-Med and IDDRI already proposed the start of the second phase of work to Moroccan and Tunisian authorities in 2018.

This second phase consists in identifying, on the basis of the work already carried out during the first phase, focused on the actions contained in the NDCs that may seem more interesting from a climate change and biodiversity perspective. Content and political backing at the national level will then have to be specified in order to mobilise international cooperation and fund these actions.

During the workshops in Rabat and Tunis, participants discussed possible financing options for the implementation of the NbS contained in their NDCs, according to the opportunities identified by national actors. A chance quickly presented itself: to include NbS in the country programme that will very soon be submitted to the Green Climate Fund.

Participants also analysed how to select projects and which ecosystem types should be considered a priority. In order to assure coherence and facilitate face-to-face communication with donors, Morocco and Tunisia decided to focus on the actions contained in the NDCs and limit themselves to “Type 1” actions, namely those that already seem to show strong potential synergies with biodiversity objectives.

For more information: Lourdes Lázaro