A round up of the week’s news on REDD, in chronological order with short extracts (click on the title for the full article). REDD-Monitor’s news page (REDD in the news) is updated regularly.
By V. Robiglio, G. Lescuyer and P. Cerutti, Small-scale Forestry, 2012 | This article focuses on timber sourced from the agricultural areas in the shifting cultivation landscapes of the Central Region of Cameroon. Data about volumes marketed in urban centers, harvesting operations and on-farm timber management are used to discuss the ecological impact of small-scale logging and its sustainability in the long term. An opportunistic association exists between small scale logging and agricultural land uses, determined mostly by the abundance of valuable species in fallows and on cocoa farms, their easy accessibility and the low price of farmland timber. Farmers apply various strategies to the management of tree resources in fallows and cocoa agroforests, with most felling authorized in fallows and most trees preserved on the cocoa farms.
By P.A. Minang, and M. van Noordwijk, Land Use Policy, July 2012 | Reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) is widely accepted as a land use policy objective for mitigating climate change, but the ways through which REDD+ can provide incentives to simultaneously conserve forest and reduce poverty remain uncertain. The experiences of integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) have shaped initial pilots of landscape level REDD+ action. Yet, little thought has been given to the design challenges that need to be overcome in multi-scale REDD+ programs, where local shifts of behavior need to be connected to international finance and investment. This paper highlights and discusses emerging design challenges for REDD+ at multiple levels in two distinct circumstances.
UN-REDD Newsletter 30 –Go-REDD+
UN-REDD, July 2012 | The latest issues from the UN-REDD Programme Asia-Pacific listserv take a closer look at UNFCCC decisions on forest monitoring for REDD+ and participatory approaches to designing REDD+ benefits. The Go-REDD+ issue entitled, Deciphering UNFCCC Decisions on National Forest Monitoring Systems for REDD+, translates the complex meaning of UNFCCC decisions on national forest monitoring systems for REDD+ and why comprehending the complex UNFCCC decision texts should be first and foremost important to developing countries, which aim to develop their national forest monitoring systems for REDD+.
16 July 2012
CERs plunge to new low, eye test of 3 euros
Point Carbon, 16 July 2012 | CER prices sank to a new low on Monday within touching distance of 3 euros as traders continued to offload the offsets amid plentiful supply of cheaper ERUs, which can also be used for compliance in the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme. [R-M: Subscription needed.]
Is REDD+ a risky, uber-complex business?
By Ciara Shannon, CleanBiz Asia, 16 July 2012 | Over the last five years, REDD+ has grown increasingly broad and multifaceted in many unpredicted ways, according to Analysing REDD+: Challenges and Choices (CIFOR 2012). This is partly due to a lack of reliable long-term financing and the need to cater for huge diversity of interests, institutions, ideas and information. In addition, many of the first REDD+ projects were established with development funds and getting countries “ready” for REDD+ and ensuring projects are properly designed, funded and implemented has been slower and more complex than expected. Significant financial resources have already poured into REDD+ to develop readiness programs at the national and sub-national level. For example, the Norwegian Government has pledged USD2.8 billion to support the development of REDD+ and emissions reductions interventions in several countries, including Indonesia, Guyana and Brazil.
What is a carbon price and why do we need one?
By Grantham Research Institute and Duncan Clark, The Guardian, 16 July 2012 | Ideally, there should be a uniform carbon price across the world, reflecting the fact that a tonne of carbon dioxide does the same amount of damage over time wherever it is emitted. Uniform pricing would also remove the risk that polluting businesses flee to so-called “pollution havens”‘ – countries where a lack of environmental regulation enables them to continue to pollute unrestrained. At the moment, carbon pricing is far from uniform but a growing number of countries and regions have, or plan to have, carbon pricing schemes in place, whether through cap-and-trade or carbon taxes. These include the European Union, Australia, South Korea, South Africa, parts of China and California.
UN Proposes $400 Billion Tax to Finance Global Development
Individual.com, 16 July 2012 | Financial needs of developing countries have long outstripped the willingness and ability of donors to provide aid. The United Nations (UN) is proposing an international tax, combined with other innovative financing mechanisms, to raise more than $400 billion annually for development and global challenges such as fighting climate change. In its annual report on global development, World Economic and Social Survey 2012: In Search of New Development Finance, (WESS 2012) launched last Thursday, the UN says, in the midst of difficult financial times, many donor countries have cut back on development assistance. In 2011, for the first time in many years, aid flows declined in real terms.
UN extends carbon trade ban against Lithuania
ICIS Heren, 16 July 2012 | The enforcement branch of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) declined to lift its suspension of Lithuania from trading carbon credits on Saturday. The continued suspension is a blow to Lithuania, as it blocks the transfers of assigned amount units (AAUs) and emission reduction units (ERUs), issued by the Lithuanian authorities under the UN’s JI track I process. The decision, which marked the last day of the enforcement branch’s 20th meeting on 9-14 July 2012 in Bonn, Germany, was made after the branch decided that the “question of implementation” regarding Lithuania’s adherence to Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gas reporting rules remains open.
To Achieve Scale, REDD Must Embrace Satellite Technology
By Jim Lynch, Ecosystem Marketplace, 16 July 2012 | Carbon projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) can save rainforests and slow climate change by keeping carbon locked in trees, but this mechanism and its sibling, REDD+, can only scale up if investors will know how many trees there are, and how much carbon is stored within them and whether this carbon is staying put, year on year. Current methodologies being advocated within the United Nations require the use of forest audits based on traditional forestry management methods of the developed world, but these are simply too expensive to work in the developing world. The Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, has more than 100 million hectares of inaccessible rainforest, and the country doesn’t have the resources to survey this from the ground in a cost-effective manner, let alone quantify the results into a standardised format to be cross-checked against forest stocks elsewhere.
[Australia] Pro-active approach needed for forestry debate
Donnybrook – Bridgetown Mail, 16 July 2012 | The forestry debate is currently verging on the ridiculous. One side claims forest preservation will attract carbon credits by locking up carbon in the forest, while the other refutes this and claims logging helps to lock up carbon through promoting new growing forests. Both arguments appear to hinge on the dollar value of forests and ignore the wider complexity of the issue – such as the fact there is much more at stake than carbon pollution and a few dollars. The two basic facts are that we need to preserve forests for the sake of the air we breathe and we need to maintain forestry industries for the sake of a significant proportion of livelihoods and to provide us with certain needs. Wrangling endlessly over the question of to log or not to log and becoming entangled in specious arguments about carbon credits and profits, is inevitably going to get both sides of the debate nowhere.
Deforestation from mining in the Congo more than ‘a hole in the canopy’
By Melati Kaye, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 16 July 2012 | Seen from the sky, a mining pit might look like ‘a small hole in the canopy’—visually a smaller footprint than the effect of other primary commodity production processes – such as plantation agriculture, CIFOR researcher Louis Putzel concedes. However, in terms of total forest loss, a mine can cause far greater damage by bringing in a large workforce and support infrastructure, according to a recent CIFOR working paper on Chinese Trade and Investment in the Congo Basin. “The roads to reach the mine open up access to the forest,” says Putzel, who is lead author of the working paper. “Then there are the people that come because of the opportunities. This human migration can have an effect on forests at the mine site and also at the villages nearby because of the new demand for agricultural land and fuel-wood.”
Orangutan Foundation UK and Forest Carbon press release, 16 July 2012 | Orangutan Foundation have partnered with Forest Carbon to assess orangutan habitat in Central Kalimantan. To support this effort, the French based Planet Action Foundation has provided high-resolution satellite imagery as well as image and spatial analysis software that will allow the group to monitor forest cover in the Lamandau and Belantikan Hulu river watersheds in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia on the island of Borneo… The Lamandau-Belantikan Hulu landscape in Central Kalimantan is home to an estimated 6,000 orangutans comprising one of the largest remaining wild populations in the world. Image and spatial analysis will be undertaken to determine habitat conditions, threats to the forest and orangutans, and prioritize conservation areas. The results of the imagery analysis will allow a more accurate assessment of both orangutan populations and forest conditions in the area.
Case Study: An Assessment of Gender and Women’s Exclusion in REDD+ in Nepal
WOCAN, 16 July 2012 | Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) has published the first of their new case study series entitled An Assessment of Gender and Women’s Exclusion in REDD+ in Nepal. This assessment was conducted by WOCAN and the Himalayan Grassroots Women’s Natural Resource Management Association (HIMAWANTI) Nepal in February 2012 to provide a review of the current REDD+ policy, processes and pilots in Nepal from a gender perspective, and to highlight the extent to which these have included or excluded women at the national and local levels. It also provides recommendations for how REDD+ initiatives can more effectively include women and attend to gender issues.
17 July 2012
Cameroon to protect forests with satellite monitoring
By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame, AlertNet, 17 July 2012 | Cameroon has joined a Congo Basin initiative that uses satellite imagery to monitor changes in forest cover in an effort to curb deforestation and help Central African countries access carbon finance. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo and Central African Republic (CAR) signed an agreement with the French government and geo-information provider Astrium Services ahead of U.N. climate talks in South Africa late last year. Cameroon followed this June, gaining a license to use images from the SPOT satellite Earth Observation System which could assist in protecting its rich forest reserve. Pierre Hélé, Cameroon’s environment minister, said the collaboration “underscores the government’s commitment to the fight against climate change through forest conservation”.
[Indonesia] APP – Making friends in high places
RISI, 17 July 2012 | Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) continues on its active mission to make friends in high places and to engage with public policy makers in an effort to achieve its ambition to be the No 1 pulp and paper maker on the planet. Last month APP held an event in Jakarta where it launched its Roadmap to 2020 and Beyond, which was launched and attended by senior Indonesian government ministers as well as prominent foreign ambassadors. Recently it was also announced that prominent former European politician, Lord Mandelson (also known as Peter Mandelson) and his team are advising APP on its trade with Europe through Global Counsel.
[Indonesia] Charred Footprints
By Untung Widyanto, Jajang Jamaluddin, and Gita Lal, Tempo, 17 July 2012 | The Tripa peat swamp, one with the largest capacity to store carbon in Aceh, is near complete ruin. Investigations carried out by a joint team continue to scour for criminal violations that destroyed the once rich peatland forest… Ground checks and investigations carried out this year by a joint team from the Ministry of Forestry, REDD+ Task Force and the Ministry of Environment found evidence that Tripa had not just been cleared out and replanted with palm oil plantations, it had been burned, slashed and thoroughly drained, thus gradually releasing carbon dioxide. This joint team first flew into Aceh for the Tripa investigation on May 4. They had been accompanied by investigators from the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office.
Sumatran Tiger Kills Plantation Worker in Indonesia
Jakarta Globe, 17 July 2012 | A Sumatran tiger attacked and killed a palm oil plantation worker in Indonesia, a conservation official said Tuesday, underlining the growing problem of human-animal conflicts. Animals including tigers and elephants are coming into closer contact with people in Indonesia as forests are destroyed for timber or to make way for crops such as palm oil. The 18-year-old female worker was killed Friday in the village of Indragiri Hulu, Riau, said provincial conservation agency chief Bambang Dahono Aji. “Some of her co-workers were there when the tiger attacked the worker and tore her apart,” he said. He added that about two weeks ago a Sumatran tiger was killed in the vicinity after getting snared in a trap villagers set to catch wild boars. Estimates of the number of Sumatran tigers remaining in the world range from 300 to 400. Several die each year as a result of traps, poaching or other human actions.
[Malaysia] Industrial logging leaves a poor legacy in Borneo’s rainforests
By Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com, 17 July 2012 | For most people “Borneo” conjures up an image of a wild and distant land of rainforests, exotic beasts, and nomadic tribes. But that place increasingly exists only in one’s imagination, for the forests of world’s third largest island have been rapidly and relentlessly logged, burned, and bulldozed in recent decades, leaving only a sliver of its once magnificent forests intact. Flying over Sabah, a Malaysian state that covers about 10 percent of Borneo, the damage is clear. Oil palm plantations have metastasized across the landscape. Where forest remains, it is usually degraded. Rivers flow brown with mud. But if you travel far enough in Sabah, some of Borneo’s most treasured forest does still exist. Beyond the oil plantations and logged-over zones there remain patches of stunning lowland and montane forest.
By Zachary D. Liscow, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 17 July 2012 | Many policymakers argue that property rights decrease deforestation. Some theoretical papers also make this prediction, arguing that property rights decrease discount rates applied to a long-term investment in forestry. However, the effect is theoretically ambiguous. The paper takes a novel instrumental variables approach based on Nicaragua’s agrarian reform to test for the effect, using a new dataset—Nicaragua’s 2001 agricultural census. It finds that property rights significantly increase deforestation. The model, supported by the data, suggests a likely mechanism for this relationship: property rights increase investment, increasing agricultural productivity and therefore the returns to deforestation.
18 July 2012
UN-backed carbon offsets hit fresh record low
By Jeff Coelho, Reuters, 18 July 2012 | Benchmark carbon credits backed by the United Nations plunged 11 percent to a fresh record low on Wednesday, taking a cue from a sharp drop in European Union emissions allowances amid uncertainty about an EU supply curb plan, traders said. The front-year certified emissions reductions (CERs) hit a record low of 2.92 euros ($3.57) in early trading, down nearly 11 percent from Tuesday’s close. In the EU carbon market, the benchmark emissions allowance was trading down 6.4 percent at 7.19 euros at 0642 GMT. Traders attributed the fall in carbon prices to news late on Tuesday that the European Commission will not provide detail about the number of allowances that could be withheld from the oversupplied market when it unveils a set of proposals on July 25.
Ecosystem Marketplace Forest Carbon News Brief
Ecosystem Marketplace, 18 July 2012 | REDD drew flak last week as 30 California-based organizations wrote to Governor Jerry Brown, protesting the potential use of international forest carbon offsets in California’s cap-and-trade scheme on grounds of additionality and safeguard gaps. Just days before, Liam Bartlett’s latest 60 Minutes footage of David Nilsson’s escapades in the Peruvian Amazon served to demystify the “carbon cowboy” as he continues to seek out carbon contracts at the expense of indigenous rights and livelihoods… In Latin America, Patagonia Sur received VCS validation for its native-species reforestation project in Chile, while Asorpar found fresh support for its VCS/CCB-certified reforestation and habitat restoration project in Colombia from German parcel delivery firm DPD as it embarks on its new Total Zero program.
By Erica Bramlet, Indiana University Office of Sustainability, 18 July 2012 | Check out the United Nation’s REDD+ program idea, which is trying to account for all the aforementioned negative externalities of deforestation by selling forest carbon credits in the market. As planting trees is one of the only ways to take carbon dioxide out of the air, individuals and companies are offsetting their own emissions all over the world by purchasing optional forest carbon credits… Save money on your energy bills by following the tree-planting guidelines here. The USA, followed by China, imports the most timber in the world. Let’s make an impact, and keep my favorite quote by Aldo Leopold, a famous environmental ethicist, in mind: “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
Borneo’s forests face dire future from global warming
mongabay.com, 18 July 2012 | Already wracked by extensive deforestation and forest degradation, the future looks grim for Borneo’s tropical rainforests, reports a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences. Combining historical records with field observations and global climate models Tomo’omi Kumagai and Amilcare Porporato of Duke University find that an sharp increase in drought conditions — a product of warmer temperatures in the Indian Ocean and higher frequency of el Niño events — will make it more difficult for Borneo’s rainforest tree species to survive. “As El Niño events become more frequent in the future in response to warming in the tropical oceans, even the species of trees that can adapt to drought conditions will be at increased risk of dying off,” stated a press release from the American Geophysical Union (AGU). “The small number of species that cannot adapt well to drought conditions will be at even greater risk of dying off.”
Average Chinese person’s carbon footprint now equals European’s
By Duncan Clark, The Guardian, 18 July 2012 | The average Chinese person’s carbon footprint is now almost on a par with the average European’s, figures released on Wednesday reveal. China became the largest national emitter of CO2 in 2006, though its emissions per person have always been lower than those in developed countries such as Europe. But today’s report, which only covers emissions from energy, by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and the European commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) show that per capita emissions in China increased by 9% in 2011 to reach 7.2 tonnes per person, only a fraction lower than the EU average of 7.5 tonnes.
What’s gender got to do with it? Bush meat consumption in the Congo Basin
By Babatope Akinwande, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 18 July 2012 | While bush meat consumption as a driver of deforestation has received international attention, understanding the roles played by women and men in the consumption of wild terrestrial or semi-terrestrial animals will be vital if the trade is to continue sustainably, said a CIFOR scientist at a recent conference. “To develop alternative measures that will bring bush meat hunting to a sustainable level, it is imperative to understand the complex socio-economic and cultural drivers of the bush meat hunting, trade, and consumption particularly the roles of men and women who are involved for different reasons”, said Robert Nasi, CIFOR Scientist and Leader of the CGIAR Research Programme on Forest, Trees, and Agroforestry, at the first Africa Congress of the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO) and the Forestry Network for sub-Saharan Africa (FORNESSA).
REDD Task Force urges Aceh Government to take further action on Rawa Tripa case
The Head of the Presidential Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight (UKP4) and Chairman of the REDD+ Task Force, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, continues to follow up and monitor authorities in Aceh with concrete measures on developments related to his letter dated 3 July 2012 to the Governor of Aceh requesting the revocation of the licenses and permits of two companies whose activities are found to be in violation of several legal provisions. UKP4 has been leading the strong government initiative since April 2012 in investigating the case of illegal land clearing through systematic and deliberate forest fires by two companies in the area of Rawa Tripa, close to the globally renowned Leuser Ecosystem Area and home to protected peat lands and endangered bio-diversity. Several NGOs as well as members of the public had also raised this issue and petitioned the government to take appropriate action.
Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), 18 July 2012 | Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), the largest landowner in the state of California settled a lawsuit for negligently causing a fire in 2007 that burned over 65,000 acres, including public lands in the Plumas National Forest. The Moonlight Fire started on Labor Day, September 3, 2007, near Westwood in Lassen County. According to the authorities, SPI’s contractor caused the fire as result of negligent logging operations on SPI’s lands southeast of Mountain Meadows Reservoir… It is clear that SPI got off cheap. The U.S. Attorneys were seeking compensation in excess of $700 million, and SPI will get out of it for roughly one-sixth of that amount, a good deal by any measure. As part of the $122.5 million settlement, SPI will transfer 22,500 acres of land to the U.S. Forest Service. In addition, and probably more important, SPI will avoid the negative publicity and attention of a contentious public trial.
19 July 2012
UN sees future for carbon scheme despite price drop
By Nina Chestney and Jeff Coelho, Reuters, 19 July 2012 | The United Nations’ carbon offset market has a long future in helping the world curb man-made greenhouse gas emissions, even with carbon prices at record lows, the executive chairman of the U.N. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) said on Thursday. U.N-backed carbon credits, called certified emissions reductions (CERs), have plunged around 70 percent over the past 12 months as a massive supply of credits has built up because of a drop in demand due to a slowing economy. The benchmark CER contract hit record lows below 3 euros this week.
Experts: sustainable logging in rainforests impossible
By Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com, 19 July 2012 | Industrial logging in primary tropical forests that is both sustainable and profitable is impossible, argues a new study in Bioscience, which finds that the ecology of tropical hardwoods makes logging with truly sustainable practices not only impractical, but completely unprofitable. Given this, the researchers recommend industrial logging subsidies be dropped from the UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program. The study, which adds to the growing debate about the role of logging in tropical forests, counters recent research making the case that well-managed logging in old-growth rainforests could provide a “middle way” between conservation and outright conversion of forests to monocultures or pasture.
mongabay.com, 19 July 2012 | NASA satellites picked up extensive signals of potential deforestation across large parts of the tropics between April 1 and June 30, according to the latest update on Mongabay.com’s Global Forest Disturbance Alert System (GloF-DAS). Areas with a particularly large number of potential deforestation signals include Colombia, Ecuador, and Paraguay in Latin America; Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon in Africa; and Russia, India, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia in Asia; and northwestern North America.
[Cambodia] Terra Global Recognized as Pioneer in REDD Finance
Terra Global Capital press release, 19 July 2012 | Terra Global Capital, LLC receives Environmental Finance’s “Sustainable Forestry Deal of the Year” Award for its work with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to develop innovative financing structures that promote private investment for forest conservation in developing countries. Terra Global worked with OPIC to structure and underwrite the world’s first political risk insurance contract for a Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project, protecting Terra Global’s investment in the Oddar Meanchey REDD project in Cambodia. Environmental Finance also recognizes the Terra Bella Fund, managed by Terra Global Investment Management, as having secured OPIC board approval for an investment of up to $40 million by being one of six funds selected from a record 88 responses to OPIC’s competitive impact investing call-for-proposals.
Overseas Private Investment Corporation press release, 19 July 2012 | The first political risk insurance contract for a Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project, provided by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to Terra Global Capital for a project in Cambodia, has been awarded the Sustainable Forestry Transaction of the Year by Environmental Finance magazine… Leslie Durschinger, Founder and Managing Director of Terra Global Capital, said, “Through our commitment to creating forest and agricultural carbon assets with environmental integrity and our ability to use financial innovation to attract capital and reduce risk we are creating investment opportunities in the sector.”
[Pakistan] KP forest cover growing, claims minister
Dawn.com, 19 July 2012 | In contrast to the general perception of massive deforestation, the forest cover in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has increased from 17 per cent to 19 per cent, according to provincial environment and forest minister Wajid Ali Khan… Mr Wajid said a few months ago, the government had signed a memorandum of understanding with a private firm under Redd (reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation) mechanism and had been taking practical steps to decide about other terms and conditions… Safi president Riaz Mohammad Khan said due to certain bureaucratic hurdles the stakeholders had often not been taken into confidence before making any major decisions or formulating policies regarding forests. He said Redd might be a good program but before entering into final contract with a private firm, the government should take all stakeholders into confidence about the positive and negative aspects of the deal.
United Nations project to revive Zambia’s forest
By Doreen Nawa, Zambia Daily Mail, 19 July 2012 | Monitoring forestry losses in Zambia and the effects that the loss has on the environment can be a challenge because of lack of technical know-how. Following the effects that deforestation has on the environment in relation to climate change, the situation in Zambia is rather a hopeless case for the lack of expertise in monitoring and managing forestry countrywide. Environmental advocates say that forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change through the confiscation and storage of carbon in woody perennial biomass and soils. Unfortunately, deforestation and forest degradation account for approximately 18 percent of annual global carbon dioxide emissions.
20 July 2012
Greenhouse Projects Watch as EU Polluters Profit: Lobby
By Matthew Carr, Bloomberg, 20 July 2012 | Developers of United Nations- sanctioned emission-reduction projects say they are “bitter” as polluting factories in Europe may be making more money buying their credits than they can by selling them. ThyssenKrupp AG (TKA), Germany’s biggest steelmaker, and Tata Steel Ltd. (TATA) can profit from emissions trading at a time when share prices for two publicly listed project developers, Camco International Ltd. (CAO) and Trading Emissions (TRE) Plc, are slumping amid last year’s record oversupply in the European Union market. And the economy slows. The euro region will contract 0.4 percent this year, according to the median of 43 forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.
Advocates: Asia won’t achieve climate, poverty goals unless women’s rights are recognized
Rights and Resources Initiative press release, 20 July 2012 | New research released today by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) shows that despite more understanding, more resources, and policy recommendations, women continue to be largely marginalized and ignored or exploited in resource management processes throughout Asia – to the detriment of global climate and poverty reduction goals. This suite of analyses, released today at the International Workshop on Gender and Forest Tenure in Asia and Collective Forest Tenure Reform in China, demonstrate that exclusion and inequality on gender grounds are still rife and complicated by the intersection of cultural and social norms, economic pressures, and inadequate legal and institutional frameworks. Authors of the studies call for emerging programs and policies to combat climate change or encourage sustainable development to incorporate lessons learned.
[Indonesia] Social assets and social hazards shape adaptive capacity in Setulang
By Emilia Pramova, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 20 July 2012 | It is not hard to feel the magic in the village of Setulang. Nested between virgin lowland Dipterocarp forests in the district of Malinau, East Kalimantan, it is home to a vibrant Dayak community with strong traditions, knowledge and culture. Many who have visited this village call it the magic village. The people of Setulang have been preserving their sacred pristine forest, Tane’ Olen, for decades, fighting off logging concessions with remarkable unity and cohesion, and managing it sustainably through their prominent Tane’ Olen governance agency. They value their social and human assets highly.
Carbon payments to communities from Nepal’s pilot REDD+ Forest Carbon Trust Fund
ICIMOD, 20 July 2012 | During a REDD+ Seed Grant Distribution Ceremony in Kathmandu, Nepal, 18 July 2012, Mr Resham Bahadur Dangi, Joint Secretary of Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation Nepal, handed out checks worth US$ 44,188, US$ 26,122, and US$ 24,691 to REDD networks in the Chanarwati watershed (Dolakha), Ludhikhola watershed (Gorkha), and Kayerkhola watershed (Chitwan) respectively. These seed grants, which will end up in the hands of 105 community forest user groups (CFUGs) from the three watersheds, are carbon payments for contributions to sustainable conservation and management of forests as part of a Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) funded pilot REDD+ project which began in 2010.
21 July 2012
22 July 2012
PHOTO credit: Image created using wordle.net.