Forest Carbon, Markets and Communities Program: Semi-Annual Report (May 2012 – October 2012)

The program was awarded to Tetra Tech in late March 2011 by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The FCMC Program has two major intermediate results (IR), focusing on building shared understanding and technical capacities on REDD+ tools and methodologies, and working with countries on REDD+ readiness activities. The program consists of four technical areas: Social and Environmental Soundness (SES) for REDD+, Finance and Carbon Markets (FCM), Low Emissions Development Strategies (LEDS), and Forest and Terrestrial Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV). A fifth element, Cross-Cutting, was introduced in April 2012 to integrate work between the thematic areas and undertake activities that are clearly cross-cutting in nature. During the first half of the FCMC Program's second year, from April 16, 2012 through October 15, 2012, significant progress was made in developing the Cross-Cutting position and function. The Task Lead for the Cross-Cutting issues, Stephen Kelleher, made significant progress in developing the post and function. Additionally, the FCMC LEDS Task Lead, Tim Killeen, left the project in June to take employment with another international NGO, and the Cross-Cutting Task Lead assumed the role of LEDS focal point. FCMC also saw the departure of Gabriel Thoumi, the FCM Task Lead, in July, and the hiring of an interim Task Lead, Arjun Patney, to support ongoing activities. In the final weeks of this reporting period, FCMC hired a new full-time Task Lead for the position, Robert O'Sullivan. The program began the process of increasing staff capacity to address emergent staffing needs by developing scopes of work and recruiting for various positions to be based at the FCMC office in Arlington, VA. Among the positions being recruited is a Deputy Task Lead for SES, which was considered of immediate importance due to the rapidly growing scope of SES activities. Janis Alcorn was recruited to fill this role. Additional needs for which staff are being recruited include a dedicated MRV specialist, a program support specialist, as well as positions on communications and knowledge management, research, budgets and contracts, and office management and workshop logistics. The FCMC Website was officially launched in May and has seen a fair amount of use and traffic during its initial phase. This is expected to increase with additional communications and knowledge management support. The website has been used to post official deliverables and products and to disseminate basic knowledge about FCMC and its work.