REDD-Monitor’s weekly round up of the news on REDD, forests and climate. The links are organised by date (click on the title for the full article). REDD-Monitor’s news links on delicious.com are updated regularly. For past REDD in the news posts, click here.
25 January 2016
EU Market: Carbon sinks 7.1% to back below €6 as warm weather weakens power prices
By Ben Garside, Carbon Pulse, 25 January 2016
EU carbon prices dropped back below €6 on Monday to hit a 20-month low, wiping out late last week’s ‘relief rally’ that had given brief respite to this month’s steep losses. The Dec-16 EUA futures on ICE fell to a session low of €5.72 before climbing back to settle at €5.91, a 45-cent or 7.1% daily loss. Volume on the benchmark contract was very heavy at 29.3 million units including a rare 5 million gone EFP, in what was one of the busiest trading days seen so far this year. The loss reversed the recovery posted late last week, when prices climbed back from their previous low of €6.87 touched on Thursday to hit an intraday high of €6.55 on Friday, before settling at €6.36 – a weekly loss of 5.4%. Near-term German baseload power prices sank back on Monday as forecasts for a much warmer week cut demand to heat homes, putting pressure on prices further along the curve.
[Guyana] Norway team due for talks on forest pact
Stabroek News, 25 January 2016
A team from Norway is due here this week for talks with Guyana on the five-year forest protection agreement which ended last year with mixed results. A release from the Ministry of the Presidency yesterday said that the team headed by Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway to Brazil and Guyana, Aud Marit Wiig, is expected to hold a series of meetings and field visits to project sites, which Oslo has supported through the Guyana-Norway Agreement. [R-M: Subscription needed.]
[India] Watershed project conserves Himachal’s ecology, boosts economy
daijiworld.com, 25 January 2016
The World Bank-funded Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project in Himachal Pradesh has helped preserve natural resources and prevent soil erosion besides ensuring substantial improvement in the local economy… Around 70 percent area was covered under plantations which remarkably contributed to conserve the environment, the spokesman said… He said 3,219 hectares was covered under plantation during 2013-14. The verification of bio-carbon plantation by independent agencies was got done and report has already been accepted by the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The state received carbon revenue of Rs.1.63 crore which has been transferred to the divisional watershed development officers for further distribution among the panchayat beneficiaries. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Bio-Carbon Project, a major component of this project, is being implemented over 4,003 hectares in 177 panchayats.
PFES and REDD+ in Vietnam – A two-pronged approach to forest conservation
By Adinda Hasan, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 25 January 2016
Vietnam is no stranger to forest conservation payment schemes. Its national Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) program offers incentives to communities who sustainably manage and protect their forests, by compensating them for their efforts. REDD is another performance-based scheme that aims to reward and compensate communities and governments for protecting forests and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Now Vietnamese officials are considering how the two approaches can be combined, linking REDD to the existing PFES system. But while REDD and PFES are similar in their goals of protecting forests and supporting local livelihoods, experts caution that they should not be viewed as one and the same. Everyone’s looking at how to make REDD a reality, especially in terms of distribution of payments and benefits.
[UK] David Cameron announces crackdown over NSPCC and Oxfam ‘boiler room’ tactics
By James Slack, Daily Mail, 25 January 2016
Charities exposed by the Mail for preying on the old and vulnerable have one last chance to put their house in order, MPs warn today. In a devastating report, they will say the well-paid bosses of some good causes have been ‘incompetent or wilfully blind’. And they call for jail terms of up to two years for fundraisers who routinely abuse personal data. The MPs insist statutory regulation will be needed if the charities cannot restore public trust. The report by the public administration committee says the Mail’s charity investigation last summer reached the ‘highest standards of ethical investigative reporting’. After weeks of undercover work, we disclosed how the NSPCC, the British Red Cross, Oxfam and Macmillan were using outrageous ‘boiler room’ tactics to raise cash.
[UK] Mercuria shutters London-based emissions trading desk -sources
By Mike Szabo, Carbon Pulse, 25 January 2016
Swiss trading house Mercuria has shut down its London-based emissions trading desk, Carbon Pulse has learned, though the company said it remains active in the market. Traders Benedikt von Butler and Ed Cook, who made up Mercuria’s London-based carbon desk, both parted ways with the company late last year, sources said late last week. Jean-Francois Steels, the company’s head of emissions and biomass trading based out of the company’s Geneva office, has turned his main focus to crude oil but still looks at carbon, they added. “We can confirm that Mercuria is still active in carbon markets … [but] we are responsive to the supply and demand dynamics and as the market dictates, we are adjusting our strategy and resources dedicated to this area,” a Mercuria spokesman told Carbon Pulse. Mercuria was once one of the largest players in the European and international carbon markets…
26 January 2016
World’s largest palm oil trader criticised for lack of progress on deforestation
By Tess Ryley, The Guardian (supported by RSPO), 26 January 2016
However, campaigners and industry experts say the company is yet to prove that its suppliers are not responsible for clearing forests or abusing human rights. Glenn Hurowitz, senior fellow at the Centre for International Policy, who wrote an introductory commentary for Wilmar’s progress report, told the Guardian that being able to measure progress is key: “Among the large agribusiness companies, Wilmar is leading the way in many areas, from supplier engagement to transparency to rapidly responding to grievances filed by civil society … But no company is providing comprehensive information about whether [its suppliers] are clearing forests or abusing human rights – the metrics that really matter.”
The Carbon Chronicle
Ecosystem Marketplace, 26 January 2016
While many of us were still celebrating the Paris Agreement, UN climate boss Christiana Figueres was telling business leaders in Davos that getting the agreement was the easy part. The hard part is implementing it. Nowhere is that more true than in Article 6, which added yet another acronym – ITMOs, or “internationally transferred mitigation outcomes” – to the alphabet soup. ITMOs are essentially tradeable emissions reductions – the units that could be exchanged if, say, Canada wanted to finance an emissions reduction in Uganda. Though there is no specific mention of carbon markets in the text, experts have been weighing in over the last few weeks on what market-based mechanisms for trading ITMOs could look like. The Paris Agreement leaves the door open for two possible paths, which could develop simultaneously.
Untangling terminology: the importance of equity for REDD+
By Sasa Danon, Global Landscapes Forum, 26 January 2016
Phil Franks, Senior Researcher with IIED, explained to the participants of the Global Landscapes Forum that their framework consists of three principles: recognition (of rights, knowledge and institutions), procedure (which requires inclusive decision-making processes) and distribution (of benefits and costs)… IIED suggests ten building blocks for equitable REDD+ programs. This includes recognising stakeholders’ group characteristics, stakeholders’ rights to ensure active participation, designing and implementing community monitoring.
[Brazil] Having your oil palm, and forests too
By Tara Lohan, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 26 January 2016
You might not believe this from reading the news, but the oil palm industry isn’t necessarily synonymous with environmental destruction. At least, not everywhere. That’s the conclusion of a recent report from the Center for International Forestry Research by Frederico Brandão and George Schoneveld that takes stock of the oil palm industry in Brazil. “The oil palm sector is known worldwide for having tremendous negative environmental impacts, but the Brazilian case shows that oil palm does not necessarily mean deforestation,” said Brandão. Oil palm on a large scale is still emerging in Brazil.
EU Market: Carbon rises as oil lifts energy complex
By Mike Szabo , Carbon Pulse, 26 January 2016
European carbon prices rose on Tuesday afternoon after hitting a fresh 20-month low as crude oil climbed back above $30/barrel, pulling the rest of the energy complex higher. Front-year EUA futures on ICE closed up 19 cents or 3.2% at €6.10, a cent below their intraday high. The benchmark contract fell to €5.61 in the first few minutes of trade on brisk selling. That was the lowest level seen since June 2014. Volume on the Dec-16 EUAs was heavy today at more than 22 million units changing hands.
Sir David King: EU and Chinese carbon markets will ‘join forces’
By Madeleine Cuff, BusinessGreen, 26 January 2016
The UK’s special representative on climate change, Sir David King, has revealed that the UK government is working “very closely” with the Chinese government to design a carbon cap-and-trade system for China that is compatible with the EU’s Emission Trading System (ETS). In an exclusive interview with BusinessGreen on the sidelines of a Carbon Trust event in London last week, the UK’s former chief scientist said the Chinese system is being specifically designed so it could “join forces” with the ETS after 2020 to create the world’s largest carbon market. “The British government is working very closely with the Chinese government in developing their cap-and-trade process. It will be capable of being matched into the European Union,” he said.
[Indonesia] Beware the Burning Beard
By Erik Meijaard, Jakarta Globe, 26 January 2016
Past severe El Niños like those in 1982-83 and 1997-98 all initially had a long drought with associated fires, approximately until November of the first year, then a brief few months of wetter conditions, and then a return to drought conditions from about March in the second year. If the past guides the future, Indonesia is now heading into the second drought phase of the 2015-16 El Niño. Whether or not the government recognizes the risk of another fire event is, however, unclear. In a recent government meeting about the fires, the consensus from the state weather agency BMKG seems to have been that it is now raining a lot in Indonesia, and therefore there is not too much to worry about. This is slightly alarming, because the same BMKG was accused by Luhut Panjaitan, the coordinating minister overseeing the government’s response to the fire crisis, for not accurately forecasting the severity of the 2015 El Niño in the first place.
[USA] California’s ARB to test lighter-touch offset auditing for farming offsets
By Ben Garside, Carbon Pulse, 26 January 2016
California regulators will trial lighter-touch auditing methods for rice farming offset projects in a move that could eventually make it easier for such initiatives to earn carbon credits. Under California’s pilot programme, the state government will pay auditors to conduct alternative verifications during the first two reporting periods of participating rice farming offset projects, as well as the regulatory verification, ARB said in an emailed notice. The trial aims to “compare the rigor” of alternatives to determine whether “less comprehensive verification methods may be incorporated into a future version of the Compliance Offset Protocol Rice Cultivation Projects”.
27 January 2016
A successful climate summit, but no progress for climate justice?
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 27 January 2016
The answer to question of whether the climate summit was a success or failure largely depends on the perspective from which one assesses its results. The fact that German civil society and the majority of the media largely describe the deal as ‘historic’ and ‘successful’ is due to their strongly process-immanent perspective, a perspective that analyses the results of the summit through the prism of the framework laid out by the UN climate convention. From this point of view, the summit achieved much more than has otherwise been accomplished during the last 20 years and far more than most observers had expected. For the first time, 195 states, some with highly contradictory interests, have jointly adopted an international climate agreement. Many people were surprised that the agreement includes the 1.5-degrees-target. Seen in this light, the Paris Agreement is indeed a great success…
[Fiji] Workshop to discuss action plans
By Losalini Rasoqosoqo, Fiji Times Online, 27 January 2016
The National REDD Planning Workshop hosted by the Ministry of Fisheries and Forests got underway at the Southern Cross Hotel in Suva today. The two-day workshop’s main focus is to discuss actions plan for the Fiji REDD program that would ultimately strengthen the regulatory functions of the country’s forests and the multiple benefits that could be realised. REDD is a global mitigation initiatives under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to fight climate change. Locally, REDD is an incentive mechanisms for sustainable forest and land management, which align and fit in well with the 2005 Rural Land Use Policy, the 2007 National Forest Policy, the 2014 National Green Growth Framework and even the Sustainable Development Agenda 2020.
[Madagascar] Climate compensation schemes ‘failing to reach poorest’
By Mark Kinver, BBC News, 27 January 2016
Remote communities are not receiving the compensation they are entitled to from schemes designed to conserve tropical forests, a study suggests. People who depend on being able to harvest forest resources should receive payment under the schemes. But researchers say there is a “reality gap” between safeguards designed to help affected communities and who actually receives the compensation. The findings have been published online in Global Environment Change… “We have shown that, yes, they have gone out there and identified households that they think are affected negatively by conservation and have delivered compensation.” However, she added, the compensation was not reaching those most affected by the project. “We have mapped every single household that should have been covered by the compensation and have shown that… the process had some very serious biases in it,” she said.
Ukraine environment minister, two senior officials fired over Kyoto cash corruption charges
By Mike Szabo, Carbon Pulse, 27 January 2016
Ukraine’s acting minister of environment and natural resources Serhii Kurykin and two senior officials have been fired for allegedly attempting to embezzle 550 million Hryvnia ($22 million) in Kyoto Protocol revenues, the government said on Wednesday. Ukraine’s director of the environment ministry’s climate policy department Vladyslav Vezhnin and the CEO of state-run green investment firm Ukrekoinvest SE Oleksii Koval were also sacked following an investigation, according to a government news website. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has urged the chief of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) “to bring this high-profile corruption case to an end, and to sentence officials responsible for this crime,” the statement said. The men are accused of corruption relating to a scheme that involved Ukraine using the proceeds of Kyoto emissions rights sales to install energy efficient LED lighting on streets…
28 January 2016
Global Carbon Market Faces Diplomatic Minefield in Oil Slump
By Matthew Carr, Bloomberg, 28 January 2016
After 195 nations agreed to develop the first truly global greenhouse-gas market last month, climate diplomats from China to Brazil must now haggle over how the program will work against a backdrop of the cheapest oil in more than a decade. Negotiators have given themselves less than a year to agree on rules for a universal market-based emissions-reduction system under the Paris climate pact. To get there, they have to overcome any objections from nations reliant on fossil fuels and create a framework that covers an unprecedented range of national emissions targets. To make the market, climate diplomats will have to convince nations they need to consume less fossil fuel amid a commodity slump that has pushed crude to a 12-year low and left coal prices at the weakest since at least 2007.
Landscape restoration could be a cash cow for finance
By Birgit Ladewig, Global Landscapes Forum, 28 January 2016
One of the cases presented at the Global Landscapes Forum was the Athelia Climate Fund (ACF). Sylvain Goupille, Founder and Managing Partner of Althelia Ecosphere and Althelia Climate Fund GP, discussed the private equity fund operating in Latin America. Goupille explained how the ACF aligns financial performance with environmental and social development. The fund uses REDD+ mechanisms for eco-investments in landscape conversation and management. The results are commercial land-use projects enhancing sustainable livelihoods, surrounding biodiversity and ecosystem services. “The need for finance in sustainable land use is huge,” said Goupille. Fortunately, the opportunities are equally huge. In his presentation, Goupille showed the example of a successful eco-investment project based on sustainable cattle in Brazil. The project focused on cattle intensification and degraded land restoration through agroforestry.
Breakthrough in mapping tropical forests reveals broad extent of tree loss
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 28 January 2016
New advanced satellite maps of tropical countries reveal that more than 90 percent of recent tree cover loss took place in natural forests rather than plantations, threatening ecosystems and biodiversity, research shows. The maps mark a breakthrough in forest monitoring that allows researchers to distinguish between natural growth and oil palm, rubber, timber and other plantations, according to Transparent World, a Russian non-profit organization, and the U.S.-based World Resources Institute. The data found that in Brazil, Colombia, Liberia and Peru, more than 90 percent of tree cover lost in 2013 and 2014 was natural forest, they said. “It’s surprising and a little bit disturbing and shows us how much is at stake in those four countries, where most of the forest being lost is natural,” Rachael Petersen, WRI analyst, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Wednesday.
Taking Stock of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change
Climate Change Policy & Practice (IISD), 28 January 2016
On the positive side, many view the preamble as “modern,” as it includes references to human rights, intergenerational equity, climate justice, Mother Earth and the right to health. Although these terms are included, some have said the Agreement is limited because it does not operationalize these rights and omits references to gender responsiveness or a global carbon budget in line with historical responsibilities.
Farms vs. forests? A more nuanced look at agrarian change
By Samuel McGlennon, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 28 January 2016
Forests are being converted into agricultural land throughout the tropics, from Borneo to the Congo Basin. But this process – called agrarian change – can bring communities benefits as well as consequences. Questions about the benefits and trade-offs of agrarian transitions are too often reduced into a simple debate over how best to increase agricultural production while minimizing deforestation. “When you’re looking at patterns of agrarian change you need to consider all kinds of other things, not just agricultural production, but livelihoods, diets, ecosystem services,” said Terry Sunderland, a Principal Scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). Sunderland and his colleagues lead the Agrarian Change in Tropical Landscapes project, which aims to get a more comprehensive understanding of the social and economic consequences of the agrarian transition.
[Australia] All at risk of being lost forever
By Rob Blakers, The Mercury, 28 January 2016
On January 13, in the midst of the driest summer ever recorded in western Tasmania and at the end of the hottest year ever recorded globally, lightning strikes in dry storms ignited scores of fires in remote Tasmanian wilderness and World Heritage areas. At the time of writing, two weeks later, a 60km fire front extends south and west from Mawbanna in the North-West of the island, raging unchecked through heathland, woodland and rainforest at the very edge of Australia’s largest rainforest wilderness in the heart of the Tarkine. At Lake Mackenzie and Lake Bill on the Central Plateau ancient pencil and King Billy pines have been burnt and fire threatens the last remaining large stand of pencil pines, a majestic forest at Dixons Kingdom in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park.
EU Market: EUAs lifted by bullish auction, crude oil jump
By Mike Szabo, Carbon Pulse, 28 January 2016
European carbon prices climbed back above €6 on Thursday following a very bullish EU auction, rising by as much as 5% at one point on the back of a surge in oil. The front-year futures on ICE rose by as much as 30 cents to an intraday high of €6.23, jumping along with crude oil and other energy prices on reports that Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said OPEC and other oil producers were considering meeting next month to discuss a possible reduction in output. The benchmark EUA contract eventually settled up 16 cents at €6.09 on strong volume of 26.9 million units changing hands. Front-month Brent jumped by almost $3 to a session high of $35.84/barrel on the news, but slid back after it emerged that there were no such plans for talks. Several traders have noted that carbon has become more closely correlated with oil prices, a trend that has not been widely observed in the EU ETS since the late 2000s.
[New Zealand] NZ could be leader influencing carbon trade best practice
By Carla Green, Otago Daily Times Online News, 28 January 2016
New Zealand had a world-leading emissions trading scheme until it went off the rails in 2012, and we can have one again, environmental economist Dr Suzi Kerr says. Dr Kerr, a senior fellow at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research in Wellington, was ‘‘heavily involved” in the design of New Zealand’s initial carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS). She was in Dunedin yesterday as a visiting lecturer for a University of Otago summer law course on the international response to climate change. New Zealand’s ETS has been the subject of criticism by some local academics after the price of carbon credits – the currency of an emissions trading system – dropped to a $1 per tonne of carbon by December 2012
UK climate policies inadequate for 2C limit, say government advisors
By Ed King, Climate Home, 28 January 2016
UK climate targets represent a “minimum level of effort”, according to the government’s official advisors. In a letter to energy and climate chief Amber Rudd, the Committee on Climate Change argues the country should not take unilateral steps to tighten greenhouse gas cuts in light of December’s Paris climate deal. But they stress existing proposals to slash fossil fuel use and boost energy efficiency are insufficient, urging the government to “prepare properly” in light of the UN deal and release new plans and policies to meet legally binding climate goals. The UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act is geared towards a global warming ceiling of 2C above pre-industrial levels, with four-year carbon budgets calibrated to reduce emissions 80% by 2050.
29 January 2016
Paris Climate Deal Seen Costing $12.1 Trillion Over 25 Years
By Alex Morales, Bloomberg, 29 January 2016
If the world is serious about halting the worst effects of global warming, the renewable energy industry will require $12.1 trillion of investment over the next quarter century, or about 75 percent more than current projections show for its growth. That’s the conclusion of a report setting out the scale of the challenge facing policymakers as they look for ways to implement the Paris Agreement that in December set a framework for more than 195 nations to rein in greenhouse gases. The findings from Bloomberg New Energy Finance and Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of investors and environmentalists, show that wind parks, solar farms and other alternatives to fossil fuels are already on course to get $6.9 trillion over the next 25 years through private investment spurred on by government support mechanisms. Another $5.2 trillion is needed to reach the United Nations goal of holding warming to 2 degrees Celsius…
Marching Orders from Paris
By David Simpson and Jane Lapiner, Counter Punch, 29 January 2016
With some significant variants, COP 21 held truer to UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) form than we had hoped: hammer out a modest agreement favorable to the richest countries and their economic interests, provide sufficient inducements or threats to convince the poorer nations to go along, call it an incomparable victory, chortle about it before the world press and then go home. Go home, that is, if you’re home is still standing and unflooded.
Low prices raise concerns for China carbon market
By Megan Darby, Climate Home, 29 January 2016
The development of a national carbon market in China is perhaps the biggest single tool for slashing greenhouse gas emissions in the world. According to UK envoy Sir David King, who recently returned from Beijing, it could ultimately link up with the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS). But recent data from China’s seven regional pilots shows a surplus of allowances is depressing the carbon price – as happened in Europe. That makes it a weak signal for investment in clean technology. The decisions the world’s top carbon polluter makes in the coming months about the design of a national market, due to open in 2017, are critical. On Monday, Carbon Pulse reported allowances in Beijing and Shanghai were trading at record lows, of US$4.92 and $1.37 a tonne of CO2 respectively. Prices across the seven pilots are forecast to remain low. “China’s seven pilots are very likely oversupplied,” says Point Carbon analyst Emil Dimantchev.
EU Market: EUAs post 4.6% weekly slide as selling subsides
By Mike Szabo, Carbon Pulse, 29 January 2016
European carbon prices ended little changed on Friday, retreating from a four-day high touched early in the session to post a 4.6% weekly drop – the smallest posted so far this year. Front-year EU Allowance futures trading on ICE closed down 2 cents at €6.07 after trading as high as €6.28 in the first hour of trade. “A lack of follow through in either direction points to a dazed and confused market but, for the first time this year, a relatively stable one,” said Redshaw Advisors in an emailed note. Volume on the bellwether contract at 23.2 million was modest compared to recent activity. More than 25 million EUAs changed hands in the form of block trades across the spot, Dec-16, 17, 18 and 19 futures. The majority of this volume appeared to be linked to spread trades.
German CO2 brokers Advantag see 2015 revenues collapse by 99%
By Mike Szabo, Carbon Pulse, 29 January 2016
German carbon broker Advantag AG posted a stunning 99% drop in annual revenues last year, it said on Friday, reflecting the tough time faced by dealers in the European carbon market. Advantag recorded turnover of €2.18 million in 2015 through trading 410,008 carbon units, a steep decrease from the €234 million it earned in 2014 from handling volume of more than 40 million. “[The drop] was due to both the low price level for fossil fuels, a wait-and-see attitude with regard to political developments, as well as the fact that customers in the previous year have built up substantial inventories,” Advantag said in its full year earnings report. The company added that for 2016 it would focus on attracting new customers while taking care of existing ones in order to reignite growth.
[Indonesia] Jokowi asked to push indigenous rights through reluctant parliament
By Fidelis E. Satriastanti, mongabay.com, 29 January 2016
On Tuesday, a proposed bill on the rights of indigenous peoples was excluded from Indonesia’s 2016 legislative agenda. Its frustrated supporters are now calling on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to throw his weight behind ensuring the bill is prioritized by the nation’s parliament. “There is still time to push the bill into the 2016 legislative agenda,” Luthfi Mutty, a lawmaker from the National Democrat (NasDem) Party, told Mongabay. The national alliance of indigenous peoples, known as AMAN, “needs to aggressively lobby the government” to do so, he added.
[Malaysia] Swiss go nuclear – AG says “US$4 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB”
Sarawak Report, 29 January 2016
Well after normal office hours on Friday the Swiss Attorney General’s Office detonated the diplomatic equivalent of a nuclear bomb under the attempts by Najib and his own Attorney General to bury the scandal around 1MDB. Responding to the Malaysian AG Mohammed Apandi’s surprise announcement this week that Najib had been “cleared” of any wrongdoing by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigation, the Swiss Attorney General Michael Laubersaid has issued a media statement of possibly unprecedented bluntness from the traditionally low-profile Swiss authorities. The devastating one page document, delivered in the form of a public request for Malaysia to assist in Switzerland’s own criminal enquiries into 1MDB, has blown the whistle on the entire case and laid out in astonishing terms the key aspects of the Swiss investigation’s findings so far.
30 January 2016
[Fiji] Program engages forest owners
By Losalini Bolatagici, Fiji Times Online, 30 January 2016
Identifying landowners who are committed to the Ministry of Fisheries and Forests’ REDD program was one of the key issues discussed at the Fiji National REDD Program Planning Workshop on Thursday. The workshop heard the need to have genuine landowners understand their ecosystem and to conserve it for the future of their children. Facilitator Christine Fung of German Agency for International Co-operation (GIZ), Fiji, reminded the participants that planning how to identify potential sites and having them mapped was one of their priorities for this year. She also told participants they needed to find ways to raise awareness and to reach out to the landowners around the country. Fiji has one REDD program site in Emalu, Navosa which was piloted in 2012. According to REDD website, REDD provides an alternative to income generating activities that may harm or destroy valuable forests.
31 January 2016
PHOTO credit: Image created using wordle.net.