The start-up workshop of the Regional Cooperation program for new indicators of ecosystem accounting of natural capital in Africa - COPERNICEA, will be held in Tunis, at the OSS premises, from March 18, 2020. Despite the travel difficulties linked to the corona virus, the officially designated focal points as well as the representatives of the various partner institutions of the project (Burkina Faso, Guinea, Morocco, Niger, Senegal and Tunisia) have met virtually this morning. The works will take place over 2 days and will make it possible to plan the priority activities to be carried out for 2020-2023. The opening was secured by Mr. Khatim Kherraz, OSS Executive Secretary, the AFD representative, Mr. Emmanuel Fourmann, and Mr. Hedi Chebli, representative of Tunisia.
This workshop is convened following the signing, on February 26, 2020 in Paris, of the 2M€ AFD-OSS funding agreement of the COPERNICEA program. This program will support six French-speaking African countries (Burkina Faso, Guinea, Morocco, Niger, Senegal and Tunisia) in the preparation of environmental accounts according to the ENCA method (Ecosystem Natural Capital Accounting) for the implementation of the SDGs. COPERNICEA will be implemented over a four-year period by the Sahara and Sahel Observatory to face major challenges: water, climate, land use and biodiversity loss.
For the targeted countries it is a matter of helping better assess the natural capital of the country and to enlighten the agricultural, infrastructural or tourist investment choices from the point of view of their impacts on (i) ecosystems, (ii ) water resources, (iii) changes in carbon stock, (iv) and land use.