USAID RDM/A Regional Environment Office Weekly Report Week Ending May 23, 2008

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Announces Landmark Pilot Payment for Forest Environmental Policy. On May 18, 2008, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai and Vietnam's Government Office convened a high-level national meeting to begin implementing the landmark Pilot Policy on Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PES). Based on U.S. and Latin American models, Vietnam’s national pilot PES policy is the first in Southeast Asia. Vice Minister Hua Duc Nhi led the process of building consensus and identifying realistic implementation strategies, drawing on input from the Ministry of Finance and key Vietnamese buyers of environmental services. Other national agencies and the pilot provinces of Lam Dong and Son La expressed public support for the policy in recognition of its important contribution to the national economy. The meeting organizers thanked the USAID-funded Asia Regional Biodiversity Conservation Program (ARBCP) for its strong and consistent support throughout policy development. The meeting outcomes have been widely reported in the Vietnamese press.

Partners Develop Sustainable Finance Mechanisms for the Biodiversity Conservation Corridor Initiative. On May 19, 2008, a joint ARBCP and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) workshop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia strengthened the development of sustainable finance approaches for the Asian Development Bank’s Biodiversity Conservation Corridor Initiative (BCI). The sessions resulted in practical strategic outcomes in support of the BCI and its partners in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, including Conservation International, Flora and Fauna International, Wildlife Alliance, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and WWF. ARBCP introduced the steps taken to identify and then implement sustainable finance mechanisms in its Dong Nai River Basin pilot site. The ARBCP also facilitated a gap analysis, and the BCI participants developed simple logframes for sustainable finance activities in their own pilot sites.

Indian States Announce Plans to Develop Energy Conservation Funds. By law, all Indian States are now mandated to establish State Energy Conservation Funds (SECF) that support public and private sector energy conservation projects through a variety of debt, equity, and risk-mitigation instruments. As part of the U.S. participation in the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP), USAID's ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program (CDCP) agreed to a strategic partnership with the State Governments of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh to provide technical assistance for establishing SECFs. ECO-Asia CDCP experts will help structure the funds, assess investment opportunities, and develop protocols for financing conservation projects. They will also help develop monitoring, verification, and reporting schemes for the resulting energy savings. Technical support to the Government of Madhya Pradesh will be delivered through a partnership with the Asian Development Bank. As a first step, in July 2008 the Government of Kerala’s Energy Management Center and ECO-Asia CDCP will jointly host a one-day workshop in Tiruvananthapuram to discuss results from the market assessment and develop preliminary options for structuring Kerala’s SECF. The assistance to both States is ultimately intended to contribute to significant energy efficiency gains and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.