Coffee Agroforestry and Forest Enhancement for REDD+ (CAFÉ-REDD)

The Coffee Agroforestry and Forest Enhancement for REDD+ (CAFÉ-REDD) will reduce deforestation and forest degradation by addressing the conversion of forest to agriculture in a priority conservation landscape – The Lang Biang landscape (comprising Bi Doup Nui Ba National Park and Buffer Zone). CAFÉ-REDD is funded by the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety, and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and will run from 2018 to 2024, with the total funding budget of approximately EUR 2.8 million

The Lam Dong Provincial REDD+ Action Plan (PRAP) acknowledges that the principal driver of deforestation is the conversion of forests to agriculture (>70% of GHG deforestation-related emissions). This is a mixture of direct conversion of forests for commodity crops such as coffee, tea, rubber and cashews, as well as conversion of subsistence agricultural lands to these commodity crops causing displacement of poor households (often ethnic minorities) relying on shifting cultivation towards the forest margins. By 2020 Lam Dong aims to implement agroforestry or plantation development over 11,450 ha of forest land currently used for perennial agriculture.

CAFE-REDD will support this target, reducing deforestation by supporting the development of improved institutional capacity, improving mechanisms for public-private coordination around shared interests and visions for sustainable climate smart landscapes. The project will employ an effective model which has been applied in the aquaculture sector in the Mekong Delta, but which is new for this province and these commodities.

The project has the following specific result areas:

1. Developing a multi-stakeholder public-private partnership for forest landscape conservation and restoration and strengthened institutional capacity for climate smart landscape governance;

2. Engaging the private sector in monitoring and traceability systems to promote deforestation-free coffee supply chains, and;

3. Working with local ethnic minority communities and smallholder farmers to promote sustainable coffee production, including reduced coffee expansion and the promotion of coffee-agroforestry models and the development of alternative livelihood opportunities for young people.

The project seeks to broaden its impact through the development of high quality knowledge products and by hosting (sub-)national and regional learning events on REDD+, sustainable agriculture and deforestation-free supply chains. By addressing deforestation, forest degradation and forest landscape restoration, the project also indirectly contributes to strengthening biodiversity conservation in a priority ecoregion.

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