[{"bbox": [96, 163, 1135, 432], "category": "Text", "text": "Following the 2020 ND Gain Index²⁴, Liberia is the 6th most vulnerable country worldwide. Climate variability and change are expected to manifest in higher temperatures, more extreme weather events such as heavy rains, and rising sea levels with floods. Climate change is also expected to increase risks and severity of natural disasters in Liberia, through more intense temperatures as well as rainfall patterns, increased temperatures, and prolonged heat waves. Liberia's high vulnerability is linked to its high dependence on 'climate sensitive' sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and energy and mining²⁵. Additional contributing factors to the country's vulnerability to climate change conditions include mal-adapted agricultural activities, unsustainable logging practices, and an overdependence on wood biomass leading to high levels of deforestation. Following Climate Watch Data²⁶, Liberia GHG emissions are mainly driven by the Land-Use Change and Forestry (almost 86% of total emissions²⁷), followed by energy (almost 7%) and agriculture (almost 4%)."}, {"bbox": [96, 442, 618, 470], "category": "Text", "text": "Link with European and Liberian policies and strategies:"}, {"bbox": [96, 480, 1135, 721], "category": "Text", "text": "The action aligns with several EU policies/legislations and the EU is committed to helping partner countries achieve the same objectives through its external policies and instruments, including: the European Green Deal²⁸ in its external dimension, the new EU forest strategy for 2030²⁹, the FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs), the new regulation on the making available on the Union market of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation³⁰, the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030³¹ (in particular the NaturAfrica component), the EU Adaptation Strategy³² and the EU's Gender Equality Strategy and Gender Action Plan 2021-2025 (GAP III)³³. In addition, the 2021 EU Country Action Plan (CLIP) for Liberia underscores that by creating investments in the agricultural, fishery and forestry sectors, a boost of Liberia's economy and of job creation opportunities across sectors is foreseen, particularly for Liberia's women and youth."}, {"bbox": [96, 732, 1135, 1211], "category": "Text", "text": "Liberia submitted its Nationally-Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2016 and its Second National Communication to the UNFCCC in 2021. Liberia has also embarked on a Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) target setting process under the UNFCCC's LDN Target Setting Programme³⁴. These documents provide the platform to integrate its Low Carbon Development Strategy into the country's long-term sustainable development Vision by 2030. Forestry, together with agriculture and fisheries, is instrumental to Liberia's inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction goals. Liberia is also partner of the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD+) and presented its Liberia's Forest Reference Emission Level to the UNFCCC. In its 2021 NDC, Liberia proposes numerous actions to strengthen the forestry and biodiversity sectors in mitigation and adaptation. Envisaged actions include, amongst others, the strengthening public entities' capacities, the implementation of afforestation/reforestation actions in degraded areas, the development of watershed management, the development of alternative livelihoods and the establishment of five new Protected Areas. Liberia is part of the UN-REDD initiative since 2008 and has completed important phases of its readiness phase. While largely yet driven by a donor-driven process, Liberia has realised a National Forest Inventory (2021), a National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS), a Forest Reference Level (FREL), and a national REDD+ Strategy that was adopted in 2017. Liberia is also realising efforts to map and account for biodiversity, forest carbon, and non-timber forest products (including bushmeat), implemented via its new action plan on natural capital accounting (NCA) and including its participation in the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa."}, {"bbox": [96, 1222, 1135, 1278], "category": "Text", "text": "In 2012, the government of Liberia developed a Climate Change Gender Action Plan (CCGAP) to provide a framework for enhancing gender equality in both climate adaptation and mitigation. The CCGAP considers gender"}, {"bbox": [85, 1307, 1143, 1356], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁴ The ND-GAIN Country Index summarises a country's vulnerability to climate change and other global challenges in combination with its readiness to improve resilience (https://gain-new.crc.nd.edu/country/liberia)."}, {"bbox": [85, 1355, 1143, 1428], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁵ According to 2020 data, the country's GDP is dominated by the agriculture sector (inclusive of fishing and forestry), which accounts for 42.6% of GDP and the industry sector (including mining, construction, electricity, water and gas), which contributes 11.7% of GDP (Source: World Bank, 2021 Climate Risk Profile)."}, {"bbox": [85, 1428, 476, 1452], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁶ Climate Watch Data Country Profile Liberia"}, {"bbox": [85, 1452, 1077, 1477], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁷ Following data from the Global Forest Watch, in 2020 Liberia listed as the 23rd most deforested country in the world."}, {"bbox": [85, 1477, 293, 1500], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁸ COM(2019) 640 final."}, {"bbox": [85, 1500, 293, 1524], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁹ COM(2021) 572 final."}, {"bbox": [85, 1524, 740, 1549], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁰ https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-16298-2022-INIT/en/pdf"}, {"bbox": [85, 1549, 293, 1573], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³¹ COM(2020) 380 final."}, {"bbox": [85, 1573, 283, 1597], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³² COM(2021) 82 final."}, {"bbox": [85, 1597, 293, 1621], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³³ SWD(2020) 284 final."}, {"bbox": [85, 1621, 435, 1645], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³⁴ Liberia LDN TSP Country Report 2019"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1680, 1143, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 33"}]