The Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia (EPA) and the Operational Focal Point for the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Dr. Emmanuel Urey King Yarkpawolo, is currently attending the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Joint Constituencies meeting, which brought together West African Coastal and Sahel Countries in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire from May 20 to 21, 2024.

The Joint Council Meeting is designed to review important documents and assess Liberia’s country programs/projects in preparation for the GEF Council Meeting in Washington, DC, USA in June.

During the GEF Abidjan Meeting, Dr. Yarkpawolo is expected to present Liberia’s update on the Global Environment Facility (GEF) – 8 Programming. The GEF 8 Programming Replenishment Cycle has allocated 8.5 million dollars to Liberia under the System for Transparent Allocation of Resources (STAR) to address key environmental challenges in the country, such as biodiversity, climate change, and land degradation. Currently, Liberia has endorsed the following projects for possible funding under the GEF 8 Country’s Portfolio. These projects are:

• Increasing Smallholders’ Productivity, Strengthening Resilience, and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Climate Smart Agriculture Practices
• The Liberia Guinean Forests Child Project: Strengthening Conservation and Effective Governance of Liberia’s Critical Forests in the Northern Landscape
• Strengthening Agricultural and Ecotourism Resilience Through Transformational Adaptation in Liberia
• Liberia Urban Resilience Project

Dr. Yarkpawolo is expected to report on Liberia’s progress in acceding to the instrument under the Convention on the Law of the Sea regarding the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) during the meeting.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) provides funding to help developing countries, including Liberia, achieve the goals of international environmental conventions. The GEF acts as a “financial mechanism” for five conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Minamata Convention on Mercury.