REDD-Monitor’s round-up of the week’s news on forests, climate change, and REDD. For regular updates, follow @reddmonitor on Twitter.
26 December 2016
2016 Editors’ Picks: Best Features
By Leona Liu, CIFOR Forests News, 26 December 2016
2016 was an exciting year for Forests News, with the unveiling of a new website design to better showcase visual assets in the form of photo essays and interactive maps.
Topics covered on the site this year ran the gamut, from wild honey harvesting in West Timor, Indonesia, to the state of the world’s wetlands, as our editorial team covered the breadth of the forestry sector and explored its impact on human well-being, equity and the environment.
Below is a list of this year’s top features, based on page views from Forests News’ readers.
27 December 2016
[Indonesia] Kudos and cooperation to combat climate change
By Nirarta Samadhi and Simon Tay, Jakarta Post, 27 December 2016
United States presidentelect Donald Trump may have labeled climate change a “hoax”, but that has not stalled the momentum behind last month’s Conference of the Parties (COP 22) in Marrakech, Morocco.
Less than one year after its adoption, the Paris Agreement has entered into force, with some 175 countries already on board. The next step will be to begin implementing the commitments each country has made. In Southeast Asia in particular, a great deal of international cooperation will be required to address certain issues that transcend national boundaries.
One of the largest obstacles to climate change efforts in Southeast Asia remains Indonesia’s forest and peatland fires. Though these fires are perhaps most notorious as the source of the annual haze that blankets our region, the issue is not only about regional air pollution, but rightly framed as a global concern about carbon emissions.
Vietnam to run carbon market to improve quality of green growth
Vietnam Net, 27 December 2016
Vietnam has submitted INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) to the UNFCCC (the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change), committing to a GHG reduction of eight percent compared to the BAU (business as usual) scenario by 2030.
The reduction could be up to 25 percent if Vietnam receives international support.
According to Nguyen Quang Huy from MONRE, with funding by the World Bank, Vietnam has built a project to get ready for the carbon market (Partnership for Market Readiness – VNPMR).
28 December 2016
29 December 2016
[Indonesia] Homework abound for environment in 2017
By Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta Post, 29 December 2016
The year 2016 has been marked with progress in how the Indonesian government has managed the environment for economic development while at the same protecting it following the disastrous year for the environment that was 2015, when the country suffered from one of the worst forest fire seasons in its history.
[USA] Carbon cutters on edge, hoping California’s cap-and-trade program survives
By Julie Cart, The Davis Enterprise, 29 December 2016
Salmon — made possible by the rivers they run in and the forest canopy above them — are the lifeblood of the Yurok Tribe. The native word for salmon, Ney-puy, means “that which is eaten” and the iconic fish and its habitat sustain California’s largest tribe in ways that are both literal and metaphorical.
How this tribe, from its rugged stronghold on the redwood coast of Humboldt County, became an early adopter of California’s cutting-edge carbon offset trade program speaks to the tribe’s ambitions for its future and the state’s ambitions for its signature environmental policy.
In 2014 the state’s Air Resources Board awarded the Yurok the first certified forestry carbon offset credits in California, after they placed more than 8,000 acres of Douglas fir and hardwood into the state’s carbon bank and pledged to leave the mature forest to absorb and sequester carbon for 100 years.The tribe’s 836,619 offset credits could earn the Yurok as much as $7 million annually.
30 December 2016
Brazil Pledges the ‘Largest Restoration Commitment Ever Made by a Single Nation’
By John C. Cannon, Pacific Standard, 30 December 2016
Brazil will restore 22 million hectares of land in what’s being called “the largest restoration commitment ever made by a single nation.”
“We are a country of forests,” says Rachel Biderman, director of the World Resources Institute in Brazil. “The national strategy for the restoration of forests and degraded areas positions Brazil as one of the global leaders in the development of a forest economy.”
[Indonesia] Conservationists aghast at scheme to degrade ‘heart of biodiversity’
By Bill Laurence, ALERT, 30 December 2016
In Indonesia, local environmental groups are beside themselves, appalled at a proposed energy project that would tear the heart out of the world-famous Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra — a World Heritage Site and the last place on Earth where tigers, rhinos, elephants, and orangutans still live together.
In northern Sumatra, a consortium of local environmental groups has just issued a press release calling on Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and Environment to immediately reject the scheme.
A Turkish Corporation, Hitay Holdings, proposes to develop a major geothermal plant in the core of the World Heritage site, along with roads and other infrastructure needed for the project. In the past such roads and developments have led to major increases in deforestation and illegal poaching, mining, and logging.
[Indonesia] Govt grants people’s rights in nine forests
By Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta Post, 30 December 2016
After being denied for decades, indigenous peoples’ fight to have rights to manage their own land finally gained momentum as the government granted rights to nine indigenous communities.
The nine customary forests are Amatoa Kajang (313.99 hectares) in South Sulawesi, Wana Posangke (6,291 ha) in Central Sulawesi, Kasepuhan Karang (485.386 ha) in Banten, Rantau Kermas (130 ha) in Jambi…
31 December 2016
Indonesia’s forest concessionaires required to restore peatland
Jakarta Post, 31 December 2016
The Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG) will require forest concessionaires to restore 1.4 hectares of peatland starting in January 2017.
The move is set to affect 650,389 hectares managed by 36 forest concessionaires in five provinces, namely South Sumatra, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Riau and Jambi, BRG head Nazir Foead said.
“The areas to be restored are equivalent to 26 percent of the total peatland restoration target,” he said on Friday as quoted by Antara.
Jokowi grants forest rights to indigenous peoples
By Ina Parlina, Jakarta Post, 31 December 2016
Native hospitality: Indigenous people from North Sumatra give President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (right) an ulos traditional garment as Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto looks on during a ceremony to officially grant the indigenous people custody of customary forests at the State Palace on Friday.
This report paints an optimistic picture for wildlife and forests in South America and South-east Asia. Thank God there is a vibrant, intelligent and ethical world wide concern for the natural environment, and who outcry against the criminal and “legal” excesses of industrialists and resource seekers, who have no thought for present and future generations. Even in the UK, we have a hierarchy whose intent for the natural environment, is one of exploitation and extermination of any creature that affects their interests. What we need, is greater effort to inform and to inculcate the ethics of being a compassionate and proactive human being, in the service of saving as much of the wonderful life forms we have on Earth. Perhaps the strong and kind meek shall eventually inherit the Earth, and help it heal. Up to the near present, the human race just did as it pleased, thinking that every other living thing had been put here for its purpose, but an awakening has occurred, and it will not go to sleep, to join the raging nightmare that many creatures, including humans, are facing.
@Greer Hart, senior – Thanks for this comment. REDD-Monitor’s weekly “REDD in the news” posts provide links to the week’s news about forests, climate change and REDD.
I agree with you that this week’s news articles are generally optimistic. For a less optimistic view, you could read through some of the previous posts on REDD-Monitor (click here for a handy guide). A few suggestions might include the posts tagged Deforestsion, Indonesia and Brazil.