Environment, Carbon and Forests

UN-REDD, 22 May 2013 | Information on benefits (as well as risks) that REDD+ might bring remains scant. A recent article is trying to fill the knowledge gap through a review of initial outcomes and early lessons of 41 REDD+ related projects in Africa, Asia and the Pacific and South and Central America. In terms of opportunity benefits, which the authors define as jobs, payments, education and infrastructure, projects make only a modest contribution. The ways the benefits are provided also don’t appear much different from any integrated conservation and development project.

Climate Focus, 21 May 2013 | Climate Focus, in cooperation with the Moore Foundation and the Climate Land Use Alliance, is helping to catalyze new subnational partnerships in support of international forest protection and the Governors’ Climate and Forest Task Force (GCF). As part of an outreach effort to European subnational entities, Climate Focus together with the Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg (FVA) co-hosted a workshop “International Forest Protection and REDD+ Partnerships”. The workshop offered an opportunity for representatives of German states, researchers and private sector to discuss options for cooperation within the institutional framework provided by the GCF, and to develop concrete ideas for cooperation and partnerships. Discussions were focused on the potential role the German state (“Land”) Baden-Württemberg could play within the GCF. The event took place on 22 April 2013 in Freiburg, Germany.

By Alex Newman, The New American, 22 May 2013 | A former insider at the World Bank, ex-Senior Counsel Karen Hudes, says the global financial system is dominated by a small group of corrupt, power-hungry figures centered around the privately owned U.S. Federal Reserve. The network has seized control of the media to cover up its crimes, too, she explained. In an interview with The New American, Hudes said that when she tried to blow the whistle on multiple problems at the World Bank, she was fired for her efforts. Now, along with a network of fellow whistleblowers, Hudes is determined to expose and end the corruption. And she is confident of success.

By Chip Fay, Jakarta Post, 23 May 2013 | Hundreds of customary communities have already submitted maps to BPN totalling millions of hectares. While these maps identify traditional lands and forests, BPN seems either unwilling or incapable of dedicating themselves to developing and administrating a process of registering these maps and building a national program around issuing ownership certificates to customary communities as a collective. When this happens, local government will be provided a framework for recognition and can proceed in a more systematic way to accelerate the recognition of customary rights to forest that is now firmly enshrined in Indonesian law.

China has unveiled details of its first pilot carbon-trading program, which will begin next month in the southern city of Shenzhen.

 

The trading scheme will cover 638 companies responsible for 38% of the city’s total emissions, the Shenzhen branch of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on Wednesday. The scheme will eventually expand to include transportation, manufacturing and construction companies.

 

Shenzhen is one of seven designated areas in which the central government plans to roll out experimental carbon trading programs before 2014.

 

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With one indigenous language dying out every two weeks, with indigenous livelihoods under threat and with indigenous children being routinely excluded from school, the Africa Caucus of indigenous peoples has appealed to UN member states to take concrete steps to promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples.

 

In particular, the Africa Caucus used the 12th session of the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) to urge countries around the world to promote more culturally sensitive education and better access to schooling for indigenous peoples – as well as safeguarding traditional knowledge rights.

 

One of the main threats to traditional livelihoods is the continued loss of land through dispossession by extractive industries, deforestation and conservation policies. The Caucus called for action to ensure that “indigenous peoples’ rights to their lands, territories and resources are respected and protected” as outlined in the UNDRIP.

 

The statement also highlighted the need for research into the diversity and importance of gender relations in indigenous communities – and for such research to draw on active community input.

 

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The Centre for People and Forests (RECOFTC) recently organised an expert seminar on Gender, Forestry, Climate Change and REDD+ (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) in Hanoi.

 

This activity is part of a project concerning capacity building for grassroots forestry stakeholders in order to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. On the sidelines of the seminar, Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Mr Nguyen Ba Ngai, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Forestry Administration (VNFOREST) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, on this issue.

 

According to him this seminar is an opportunity for professionals to exchange and discuss policies, plans and programmes on the improvement of gender equality in forest management, REDD+ initiatives and climate change, while identifying problems, challenges and gaps in mainstreaming gender issues into forestry solutions on climate change mitigation and adaptation in Vietnam.

 

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In order to be effective, the programme needs to be able to communicate effectively with a broad range of stakeholders both within and outside of the government and internationally. The same applies to other programmes developing REDD+ readiness in Cambodia supported by multinational and bilateral development partners, NGOs and others. Effective and efficient REDD+ readiness requires open communication of all information related to the process.  All of these initiatives are contributing to implementation of the Cambodian REDD+ readiness roadmap.

 

Therefore, in May 2013, a website of the Cambodia REDD+ National Programme was established and launched. With support from the UN-REDD Programme, the website was designed to incorporate key content and functions to ensure easy access to information on the REDD+ National Programme. It is an essential tool to help communicate progress on REDD+ readiness with stakeholders, inform them of events and upcoming developments, and to gain feedback on specific issues.  The website constitutes an important tool for the Royal Government of Cambodia in its efforts to get ready for REDD+.

 

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ABC Radio Australia, 24 May 2013 | An illegal logger in Cambodia has dropped an address book during a bust, leaving behind details of corrupt government officials and spying rangers. An illegal logger in Cambodia has dropped an address book during a bust, leaving behind details of corrupt government officials and spying rangers. The man fled after being intercepted by police over an illegal haul of rare rosewood in Koh Kong province earlier this month. Beth Eisenstaedt from Wildlife Alliance helped coordinate the bust and has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia the perpetrator left behind an address book of his clients and an accounts book including details of bribes. "We were able to confiscate the wood, and we stumbled upon this treasure trove of names and pay off amounts of all the people he had been dealing with, including some government officials," she said.

This side event on government and private sector efforts to scale up to first-of-their-kind integrated jurisdictional REDD+ programs will be held at the Carbon Expo.

 

Jurisdictional REDD+ programs present a major opportunity for governments to dramatically increase the scope of forest conservation in a region, while simultaneously unlocking the economic power of carbon finance. This panel will discuss new examples of implementing integrated REDD+ programs with those who are on the front lines, featuring expert representatives from some of the private businesses, project developers and NGOs who helped develop the VCS Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+ Requirements. 

 

The panel will focus specifically on how leading national and subnational jurisdictions, as well as forward-thinking project developers and funds, are collaborating on the development of jurisdictional REDD+ programs. These efforts include applying the VCS Jurisdictional REDD+ (JNR) Framework as well as the CARE/CCBA REDD+ Social & Environmental Standards to quantify carbon benefits of innovative forest practices while ensuring safeguards are enforced and multiple benefits are delivered.

 

Date: Thursday, 30 May 2013

Time: 15:30 CET

Where: Side Event Room 8, Carbon Expo

Who: David Antonioli, Chief Executive Officer, Verified Carbon Standard Association

 Kevin Brennan, Portfolio Manager, Terra Global Capital

 Joanna Durbin, Director, Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance

 Ludovino Lopes, Ludovino Lopes Lawyers

 Mike Korchinsky, CodeREDD+

 

Comments or questions about the side event may be sent to Garrett Russo at grusso@v-c-s.org.

By Thomas Hubert, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 22 May 2013 | As the world grapples with implementing a U.N.-backed scheme aimed at slowing forest loss and degradation (REDD+), new research from Cameroon shows that the complexity of the scheme demands expertise from a variety of players within and outside government. “The variety of aspects covered by REDD+ means the Ministry of Environment can no longer be expected to lead the way on its own,” says Denis Sonwa, scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research and co-author of REDD+ policy strategy in Cameroon: Actors, institutions and governance. “It is critical that the state reinvent itself as a learning organization that takes advantage of the expertise offered by other actors in global networks so that it can perform the required leadership and coordination role in designing a national REDD+ strategy.”

By Ana Madigibuli, Fiji Times, 23 May 2013 | Fiji is looking at ways it could improve its logging practices so less harm is done to its forests. This was highlighted during the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) plus strategy workshop in Suva last week. "The workshop is to largely develop the Fiji REDD plus strategy which started in 2011," said Christina Fung, the German Technical Co-operation landuse planning and facilitation specialist, during the REDD plus stakeholders workshop in Lami last week. REDD is a concept that links financial incentives to forest conservation, sustainable management, and enhancing and increasing carbon stocks for credits for carbon emissions avoided and or carbon sequestered.

Unconfirmed reports that China is preparing to cap its greenhouse gas output has raised hopes among observers worldwide that the planet’s biggest emitter will act to break a stalemate in global climate negotiations, despite widespread caution that any limit Beijing sets will be too high to prevent damaging warming.

 

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Many of the trees planted under the government’s reforestation programme are dying because there is insufficient funding to maintain them.

 

The Forestry Department has observed that of the trees planted by people and the government, about 65-70 percent have survived, department Deputy Director General, Mr Thong Eth Phayvanh, told Vientiane Times yesterday.

 

In contrast, commercial tree growers are seeing survival rates of between 80-100 percent as their budget covers post-plantation support, according to the department.

 

This year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is planning with various government departments and companies to introduce different species of native trees to about 30,000 hectares of land, Mr Thong Eth said. However, he believes they will achieve only 30-40 percent of this target because some provinces have limited space available due to land allocation issues.

 

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The opening of the International Hydropower Association (IHA) World Congress in the Malaysian state of Sarawak was marred by indigenous protests and controversy after a local indigenous leader was barred from attending a pre-conference workshop. Over 300 people from local indigenous people protested the ongoing construction of around a dozen mega-dams in the state that threaten to flood traditional lands, force villages to move, and upend lives in the state. The Sarawak hydropower plans are some of the most controversial in the world—making the choice of Kuching, Sarawak for the IHA meeting an arguably ironic one—with critics contending that the dams are have been mired in political corruption, including kickbacks and bribes. IHA brings together dam builders, banks, and various related organizations worldwide every two years.

 

“We were not given a voice inside the congress so we are using our voices here in the form of a protest,” said Mark Bujang, Secretary with the SAVE Rivers network, a coalition of indigenous leaders and groups opposed to the hydropower plans in Sarawak.

 

Even before the conference started, Peter Kallang the chairman of SAVE Rivers, was barred from attending a pre-conference workshop despite paying $1,750 to participate. According to a Kallang he was not allowed to attend due to letters he wrote criticizing the IHA for excluding affected indigenous people and cooperating with the Sarawak government.

 

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Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah on Wednesday defended his plan to clear the province’s protected forests, saying it is necessary to develop the province and that it would not affect the 1.2 million hectares of forests that some environmentalists have claimed it would. “We have to clarify that the amount of 1.2 million hectares is not true,” Zaini told reporters following a meeting with a number of environmentalists at the Norwegian Embassy in Jakarta on Wednesday.

 

The governor said that the spatial planning bylaw draft proposed by his administration said that it would only convert 119,202 hectares of the nature sanctuary area (Kawasan Suaka Alam), nature preservation area (Kawasan Pelestarian Alam), protected forest, production forest and limited production forest areas, into other utilization areas. The Forestry Ministry, however, only recommended a conversion of 79,850 hectares for other utilization areas, he explained.

 

Kiki Taufik from Greenpeace Indonesia said that he appreciated the governor’s clarification but that some areas,including the primary forest and peatlands in the forest-clearing moratorium map, overlapped with other utilization areas, as stated in the map released by the Aceh administration.

 

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A training workshop on Social and Environmental Soundness of REDD+ Programming and Implementation was conducted from November 5 to 9, 2012, at the USAID Asia Regional Training Center (ARTC) in Bangkok, Thailand. The workshop was organized by USAID, through its Forest Carbon, Markets, and Communities (FCMC) and Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (LEAF) programs, with support from USAID’s Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDMA), as well as USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3) and Global Climate Change Unit.

 

The workshop goals and objectives were:

• To improve the social and environmental soundness (SES) of the work of USAID and partners in Southeast Asia on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancements of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) and related USAID Sustainable Landscapes (SL) programs:
• To integrate into these programs key principles, approaches, applications, experience and lessons for social and environmental soundness in relevant natural resource management (NRM) sectors, as well as decades of relevant experience and lessons learned;
• To identify and work on key social and environmental soundness issues related to REDD+; and
• To apply these principles, issues, lessons, approaches and applications to country-specific situations and actions.

 

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At the Global Land Forum meeting held in Antigua, Guatemala, from 23-27 April 2013, members of the International Land Coalition (ILC) agreed to a series of commitments in the ‘Antigua Declaration’ related to securing tenure for responsible land governance.

 

The Antigua Declaration advocates for the inclusion of a sustainable development goal on governance of land tenure as well as targets related to secure and equitable land rights in the post-2015 development agenda. 

 

At the meeting, the members of the ILC also approved a proclamation on people-centered land governance.

 

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The Amazon rain forest, popularly known as the lungs of the planet, inhales carbon dioxide as it exudes oxygen. Plants use carbon dioxide from the air to grow parts that eventually fall to the ground to decompose or get washed away by the region’s plentiful rainfall.
Until recently people believed much of the rain forest’s carbon floated down the Amazon River and ended up deep in the ocean.

 

University of Washington research showed a decade ago that rivers exhale huge amounts of carbon dioxide, though it left open the question of how that was possible, since bark and stems were thought to be too tough for river bacteria to digest.

 

A study published this week in Nature Geoscience resolves the conundrum, proving that woody plant matter is almost completely digested by bacteria living in the Amazon River, and that this tough stuff plays a major part in fueling the river’s breath. The finding has implications for global carbon models, and for the ecology of the Amazon and the world’s other rivers.

 

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Laos is examining the conditions necessary to enforce international rules on the timber trade and the sourcing of wood products, which will ensure effective and sustainable forest management. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Dr Phuangparisak Pravongviengkham, revealed the progress made at a workshop held yesterday in Vientiane to enhance and understand the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, which is Europe’s response to the illegal timber trade.

 

With the support of the European Union representative office in Laos and the European Forest Institute, the Department of Forest Inspection began information studies for the introduction of FLEGT in Laos in 2010. The Base Line Study was completed in 2011 and the Lao Timber Flow Study was finished last year.

 

Laos and the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development signed an agreement which sees 5.8 million euro given to Laos for the support and development of law enforcement programmes, wood management policies, trade systems and negotiation procedures for joining the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the country and the EU, for acceptance into FLEGT.

 

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