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TERMS OF REFERENCE (ToRs) WWF Cameroon PARTICIPATORY ASSESSMENT OF THE VULNERABILITY OF TRIDOM COMMUNITIES TO CLIMATE CHANGE 1. Introduction Central Africa boosts more than 2.87 million km2 of forest ecosystems, comprising both humid and dry forests. However, the most dominant feature of the region is the 2.27 million km2 of closed canopy tropical forests that are home to endemic and emblematic species, including Great Apes (chimps, bonobos and gorillas) and forest elephants. The Congo Basin forests provide vital regional and global ecological services as carbon sinks, basin catchments, and regulators of climate. The forest ecosystems also provide livelihoods and services to over 60 million people who live in or near the forests and fulfil social and cultural functions essential to local and indigenous populations. Climate change has emerged as a major threat to ecological and evolutionary processes, biodiversity and dependent communities. Climate variability and change, combined with anthropogenic factors will affect the capacity of forests to deliver a wide range of products and services and sustain livelihoods, hence compromising conservation gains and the ability of dependent populations to escape the poverty trap. The available data suggest a statistically significant warming over Central Africa with an increase in warm extremes (e.g. warmest day increased by about 0.25°C per decade) and a decrease in the occurrence of cold spells. Countries in the region are considered to be among the most vulnerable due to high dependency on rain-fed agriculture, poor socio-economic indicators, lack of governance framework and low levels of infrastructural development. As part of the Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI), TRIDOM landscape via WWF Cameroon Country Program Office (WWF CCPO) has secured funds to undertake a comprehensive climate change assessment of the 178,000 km2 shared TRIDOM transboundary landscape. The TRIDOM landscape covers nearly 10% of the Congo Basin rainforests in Cameroon, Gabon, and …