Annual meeting of the PAPFor Steering Committee

The regional programme’s steering committee held its last meeting on Thursday 12 December 2024 to take stock at the end of the programme.

Progress and objectives

This fourth and final session of the Steering Committee was attended by nearly 40 participants, who examined the progress made and the results achieved in relation to the indicators in the PAPFor funding agreement. As this was the last regional meeting of the programme, work focused mainly on the final report of the programme and the capitalisation of PAPFor.

After words of welcome from the European Union Delegation in Burkina Faso, participants were given a presentation on the capitalisation of the programme, following a detailed study and numerous interviews. More than 450 PAPFor ‘products’ (inventories, evaluations, maps, plans, communication products, etc.) were collected and organised. Most of these are already online on the www.papfor.org website and will also be placed on the OBAPAO website www.obapao.org and other platforms.

Progress on communication elements was also shared, as was the document on the State of Guinean Forests and Forest Protected Areas in West Africa, as you will read elsewhere on our website and in the newsletter.
The Regional Coordinator also presented an analysis of the programme’s performance. Of the 25 expected results, 19 were achieved and largely exceeded and 4 partially exceeded, which represents a particularly high level of performance.

All the participants recognised and appreciated the good spirit of collaboration between the Regional Coordination and the implementing agencies, as well as with the authorities in charge of protected areas in the five countries, and are counting on the new NaturAfrica programme to build on the achievements of PAPFor.