REDD-Monitor’s round-up of the week’s news on forests, climate change, and REDD. For regular updates, follow @reddmonitor on Twitter.
NOK 10.5 billion in Norwegian climate forest aid remain unspent
Development Today, March 2017
Development Today has scrutinised five of the largest recipients of Norwegian climate forest aid spending and found that only a small part of these funds have actually been disbursed on forest-saving projects. DT estimates that at least NOK 10.5 billion remain unspent.
Critics question whether the scheme has impact, but Political Advisor at the Climate Ministry Jens Frølich Holte says Norway “will continue to maintain results as the primary focus, not the rapid spending of money.”
REDD+ Monitoring Mission to Bhutan: Steps to calculating the carbon stock of Bhutan’s forests
ICIMOD, March 2017
Bhutan has achieved very good results in the REDD+ Himalaya programme. This mission will validate them and see the results first hand. The country is mature in terms of programme implementation and has moved swiftly to use its budget. The mission will discuss further collaboration between ICIMOD/GIZ and the Royal Government of Bhutan in publication and knowledge management for South-South learning.
The primary objective of this visit is to monitor project progress toward calculating carbon stock in Bhutan’s forests.
20 March 2017
Linkages Within Article 6 of the Paris Agreement
By David Hone, The Energy Collective, 20 March 2017
National negotiators are in the process of getting their thoughts together on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, both in preparation for the next round of negotiations in Bonn in May, but also for submissions to the UNFCCC in preparation for the Bonn meetings. Article 6 is a key provision of the Paris Agreement in that it encourages cooperative action between parties through approaches that are compatible with carbon pricing and carbon market development.
While much has been written about the use of Article 6 in the context of linking between national emissions trading systems, it is perhaps the linkages within Article 6 itself that are the ones that really need to be thought through.
The Women on the Front Lines of Climate Change
By Kate Wheeling and Ted Scheinman, Pacific Standard, 20 March 2017
At the United Nations climate talks in Marrakech, Morocco, last November, Kayla DeVault, a delegate from Window Rock, Navajo Nation, felt an immediate kinship with the women of Imider, a municipality in the Atlas Mountains where locals have long protested a nearby silver mine. They say it has depleted and polluted their water supply without creating any jobs for them. (The mining company denies outright that it is harming the environment or the community.)
Splitting hairs over splitting wood
By Peter Holmgren, CIFOR Forest News, 20 March 2017
The past month has seen a fierce international and academic debate flare up again over the large-scale use of wood to produce energy, notably in Europe. When we agreed on “Forests and Energy” as the theme for this year’s International Day of Forests on 21 March, we had no idea that there would be such a timely opportunity to share how forests and biomass can deliver crucial energy to support the livelihoods of billions of people, and at the same time provide major opportunities for our climate-smart future.
Tenure reform: Lessons from the Global South
CIFOR Forests News, 20 March 2017
Over the past two decades, a global trend has seen increasing recognition of the rights of communities and local governments to manage their own resources, particularly in developing countries. An ongoing study by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has followed this process across Asia, Africa and Latin America, finding key lessons for successful tenure reform.
The latest findings and their implications will be discussed this week at a South-South Policy Dialogue held on the sidelines of the World Bank Land and Poverty Conference in Washington, DC. Ahead of the event, Forests News sat down with Anne Larson, a Principal Scientist at CIFOR and team leader of the Global Comparative Study on Forest Tenure Reform, to hear her thoughts.
IBM Goes Live With First Commercial Blockchains
By Michael del Castillo, Coindesk, 20 March 2017
Tech giant IBM is set to unveil what it’s calling the first “commercial application” of Hyperledger’s open-source Fabric codebase.
Previously released in beta and scheduled for official release today, the offering – dubbed “IBM Blockchain” – is formally debuting in front of a group of 20,000 developers at the Interconnect conference. There, its first two major deployments will also be detailed.
One of those is a blockchain identity solution built with SecureKey, in which it will power a public-private partnership that saw six Canadian banks invest $27m. In addition, it will be revealed that a Chinese energy company is using the IBM Blockchain to create an exchange for trading carbon credits.
The era of U.S. climate leadership is officially over
By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, 20 March 2017
At the request of the United States, any mention of financing action on climate change has been dropped from the draft statement created by finance ministers at the annual G20 finance meeting, according to a Reuters report.
This signals a marked break from 2016, when finance ministers called for all signatories of the landmark Paris climate agreement to ratify the agreement and bring it into force as soon as possible.
Since that meeting in July of 2016, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States and has set about swiftly reversing years of climate and environmental policies enacted by his predecessor President Barack Obama.
21 March 2017
Climate breaks multiple records in 2016, with global impacts
World Meteorological Organization press release, 21 March 2017
The year 2016 made history, with a record global temperature, exceptionally low sea ice, and unabated sea level rise and ocean heat, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Extreme weather and climate conditions have continued into 2017.
WMO issued its annual statement on the State of the Global Climate ahead of World Meteorological Day on 23 March. It is based on multiple international datasets maintained independently by global climate analysis centres and information submitted by dozens of WMO Members National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and Research Institutes and is an authoritative source of reference. Because the social and economic impacts of climate change have become so important, WMO partnered with other United Nations organizations for the first time this year to include information on these impacts.
Don’t link carbon markets
By Jessica F. Green, Nature, 21 March 2017
Carbon trading programmes are proliferating. These allow companies to buy and sell the right to emit carbon dioxide. The European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) is the largest, covering 11,000 emitters across all EU member states, as well as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. California and Quebec share a market, which Ontario, Manitoba and provinces in Brazil and Mexico plan to join. China is due to launch its national cap-and-trade system later this year, comprising 7,000 emitters. Around 100 nations have stated that they are planning or considering carbon pricing to reach their emissions-reduction goals in the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change1. These pricing plans include carbon taxes and trading schemes (see ‘Carbon pricing: A quick guide’).
In defining plantations as forest, FAO attracts criticism
By Benji Jones, Mongabay, 21 March 2017
Nearly 200 organizations have signed an open letter to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), calling for the agency to change how they define “forest” – the very landscape honored today on International Day of Forests. FAO’s definition is too inclusive, writes the World Rainforest Movement (WRM), the non-profit that authored the letter.
“There is an urgent need for the FAO to stop misrepresenting industrial tree plantations as ‘planted forests’ or ‘forestry’… This deliberate confusion of tree plantations with forests is misleading people, because forests in general are viewed as something positive and beneficial,” WRM writes.
Forests and energy: What’s the connection?
CIFOR Forests News, 21 March 2017
What connects forests and energy? Forests News Editor Leona Liu put the question to Peter Holmgren, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), and Himlal Baral, a Scientist in CIFOR’s Forests and Environment Program in celebration of the United Nations International Day of Forests, marked on 21 March 2017.
Forests and Energy: Using Wood to Fuel a Sustainable, Green Economy
By Eva Müller, IISD, 21 March 2017
The next time a sleek sports car streaks past you on the highway or a jet aircraft roars overhead, think about this: a world where these are fueled by wood.
Wood and energy are a natural match, and as we mark the International Day of Forests on 21 March, even the sky holds no limits when we imagine a future powered by woodfuel. In fact, late last year, one North American airline laid claim to launching the world’s first commercial flight using jet fuel made from tree stumps and branches left over from wood-processing – one example of how forestry by-products and residue are being recycled into different forms of wood energy.
Forests working for people, nature – and climate
By Alistair Monument, WWF, 21 March 2017
Forests are essential to life – our life – on Earth, providing vital ecosystem services like clean air, water, food, timber, medicine and much, much more. Did you know that after oceans, forests are the world’s largest storehouses of carbon? In tropical forests alone, a quarter of a trillion tonnes of carbon is stored in above and below ground biomass. With climate change rising on the global environmental agenda, the way we value forests needs to be taken seriously too.
We must act urgently to halt deforestation and degradation of forests to ensure they continue providing essential ecosystem services.
The rich-country roadmap to halting deforestation, enabling development and meeting climate commitments
By Frances Seymour, Devex, 21 March 2017
An area of tropical forest the size of Austria is cleared every year, releasing into the atmosphere vast amounts of carbon previously locked up in trees and soils. The good news is that dozens of developing countries have committed to reduce deforestation as part of their contributions to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change. But as described in our new book, Why Forests? Why Now?, those efforts need support from rich countries to align incentives for governments and private companies alike to turn away from deforestation-as-usual.
Driven by heat and high winds, wildfires are 10 times worse this year than average
By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, 21 March 2017
Wildfire season, or the period between spring and late fall when dry weather, heat, and ignition sources make wildfires more likely, is already off to a devastating start, with fires already burning through a combined 2 million acres across the country — ten times the average for mid-March. According to data from the National Interagency Fire Center, more acreage has already burned in 2017 than burned during the entire fire season in 1989, 1993, and 1998.
Record-high temperatures combined with low humidity and high wind have created the ideal environment for wildfires throughout much of the Great Plains and into the West, destroying homes and property and resulting in several deaths.
The World’s Appetite for Coal Is Shrinking. That’s Raising Hopes for Climate Progress
By Joe McDonald and Katy Daigle, Time, 21 March 2017
Led by cutbacks in China and India, construction of new coal-fired power plants is falling worldwide, improving chances climate goals can be met despite earlier pessimism, three environmental groups said Wednesday.
A joint report by the groups CoalSwarm, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace follows a warning this week by two international agencies that the world needs to shift quickly away from fossil fuels to curb global warming. Environmentalists were dismayed by President Donald Trump’s U.S. government budget proposal last week that would cut spending on renewable energy.
Ship Owners Save $3 Billion of Fuel with Biocide-Free Marine Coatings
By Jessica Lyons Hardcastle, Environmental Leader, 21 March 2017
Ship owners and operators have saved $3 billion of fuel and 32 million tons of CO2 by using AkzoNobel’s biocide-free marine coatings, according to the paints and coatings company.
AkzoNobel says these combined total savings, achieved since the Intersleek technology was first introduced 21 years ago, were calculated by comparing the fuel saving performance of Intersleek to each vessels’ previous hull coating system. They estimate fuel cost at $300 per ton.
More than 5,500 vessels have been coated with Intersleek products over the past two decades.
In 2014, AkzoNobel launched a carbon-credits system — the shipping industry’s first — that financially rewards ship owners and operators for generating less CO2 emissions by using biocide-free hull coating such as Intersleek. The program awards ship owners one carbon credit for each ton of CO2 saved.
[DRC] Guardians of the forest
By Marc Ngwanza, UNDP, 21 March 2017
“The forest is depleted. The game is becoming scarcer, fish are disappearing from the ponds, and our children are malnourished,” explains an indigenous woman from Momboyo in Equateur Province in the west of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Unlike the Bantu, who have mostly settled in villages, the Pygmies derive their livelihood mainly from hunting and harvesting in the forest. However, with the increasing use of slash-and-burn cultivation by villagers, their nurturing land is deteriorating at an alarming rate. This is compounded by discrimination and exclusion of indigenous peoples.
Hard exit from EU emissions trading could damage global climate action, experts warn
By Madeleine Cuff, BusinessGreen, 21 March 2017
MPs have today heard stark warnings of the risks associated with withdrawing the UK from the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), with one expert arguing continued membership of the scheme post-Brexit is crucial to global efforts to tackle climate change.
Hitting back at suggestions the UK should withdraw from the EU ETS as part of the Brexit negotiations, Michael Pollitt, professor of business economics at the University of Cambridge warned of the potentially damaging impacts of such a move.
Environmental Damage, Social Conflicts Overshadow Future of Indonesia’s Palm Oil Sector
By Ratri M. Siniwi and Muhamad Al Azhari, Jakarta Globe, 21 March 2017
Palm oil is an important commodity for Indonesia’s economy, contributing $17.8 billion, or about 12 percent, to its export revenue.
While this year the production of crude palm oil is likely to increase 16 percent, to up to 33 million tons, with expected conducive weather conditions, environmental issues and social conflicts continue to overshadow the sector’s future in the world’s biggest palm-oil producing country.
Just earlier this month, the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) approved a set of recommendations to the European Commission, which will phase out the use of palm oil as a component of biodiesel by 2020 and require exporters to prove responsible cultivation practices on their plantations.
A report prepared by the European Commission says that as the demand for palm oil is estimated to double by 2050, it poses severe environmental damages to oil-producing countries such Indonesia, Malaysia and others in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
[Indonesia] Green economy becomes more concrete in Sumatra
By Tertiani ZB Simanjuntuk, Jakarta Post, 21 March 2017
There is an urgent need to stop deforestation in Sumatra.
Plagued with illegal logging, forest fires, the uncontrolled development of plantations and mining sites, as well as human settlement, forested areas on the island of Sumatra have been in rapid decline, shrinking to 10.5 million hectares as of last year from 15.8 million ha in 2000.
The habitat losses have affected wildlife, including the Sumatran tiger population, which has dwindled to the current 371 from 400 in 2015, according to the latest data from WWF Indonesia.
The government’s intervention in 2012 by setting up five so-called essential ecosystem corridors on the island was widely applauded, but cooperation among the regional authorities involved is still lacking and the policy alone is considered ineffective in identifying problems and finding solutions.
“An integrated solution is paramount in the management of these ecosystem corridors to prevent more devastating ecological disasters,” said Tri Agung Rooswiadji of WWF Indonesia.
Nepal’s REDD+ readiness
By Ananta Bhandari, The Kathmandu Post, 21 March 2017
Forests provide integral ecosystem services and are an essential part of life support systems. Although forests contribute to the well-being of humans via environmental, socio-cultural and economic values, their importance is often inadequately recognised.
Carbon sequestration is one such prominent ecosystem service provided by forests; however, it has been debilitated by deforestation and forest degradation. It is estimated that 32.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) was emitted from the forest in the Tarai Arc Landscape between 2004 and 2014. As a sustainable solution to reduce carbon emission and improve forests’ carbon stock, REDD+ Readiness Package is being developed by the government with the assistance of WWF-Nepal.
Only 67 groups of trained firefighters for 19,000 community forests in Nepal
Himalayan Times, 21 March 2017
Nepal is grossly ill-equipped to deal with forest fires, with only 67 community forests having trained forest fire management groups out of 19,000 community forests in the country.
During a discussion programme held here today on the occasion of International Day of Forest, Coordinator of UNISDR-Regional South Asia Wild Fire Network Sundar Prasad Sharma said, “Progress at the field level with regard to forest fire management is dismal. In the 10 years that we have been attempting to develop scientific forest fire management in the country, we have only succeeded in producing 67 groups of trained forest fire managers.”
Four forestry initiatives Pakistan is taking to fight climate change
By Syed Muhammad Abubakar, The Express Tribune, 21 March 2017
Pakistan is home to some of the world’s most unique forests, including juniper, deodar, oak, chilgoza pine and mangrove forests. Unfortunately, it is also a country with low forest cover – only 1.9% – and high rate of deforestation – up to 2.1% from 1990 to 2015.
According to some estimates, the rate of deforestation is estimated to be 27,000 hectares per year at the national level and mainly occurs in private and community-owned natural forests. The reasons are increase in population, demand for firewood, grazing pressure, land conversion for agriculture purposes and illegal logging. A serious environmental issue, deforestation leads to soil erosion, land degradation, loss of biodiversity and worst of all, increase in the impacts of extreme weather events.
22 March 2017
Results-based payments to reduce deforestation
By Frances Seymour, Guardian Labs, 22 March 2017
If tropical deforestation were a country, it would rank third after China and the US as a source of emissions. Currently a large part of the problem, forests can be an even bigger part of the solution because trees offer the potential to achieve negative emissions. For example, ending tropical deforestation and allowing damaged forests to recover could reduce global net emissions by up to 30%.
The 2015 Paris agreement recognises the importance of forests in achieving climate goals. The agreement incorporates a framework of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (Redd+). The “plus” connotes the enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
Investing in Sustainably Managed Forests Offers Energy Solutions Now and in the Future
By Manoel Sobral Filho, IISD, 22 March 2017
Forests and trees populated our planet long before we came into existence. At the end of the last great ice age 10,000 years ago, forests covered 6 billion hectares — or 45% of the Earth’s land area. In the last five thousand years, 1.8 billion hectares of forests have disappeared from the face of the Earth. The majority of this loss — about 1.4 billion hectares — has occurred in the last 300 years.
Over the centuries, the world’s forests have provided vital resources to meet the growing needs of human populations. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes this important role of forests in supporting global sustainable development, in particular through Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15, which aims to sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation, as well as halt biodiversity loss by 2030.
Indonesia’s new ally on war against haze – tribespeople
By Beh Lih Yi, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 22 March 2017
Indonesia is recruiting tribespeople to help fight outbreaks of haze which shroud Southeast Asia every year with a government deal designed to tap into traditional ways of containing forest fires.
The region suffers every dry season from a haze caused by smouldering fires, often set deliberately to clear land for pulp and paper and palm oil plantations on Sumatra and Borneo islands.
Most of the fires are on peat land which are highly inflammable and often cause fires to spread beyond their intended areas, sending smoke across to neighbours Singapore and Malaysia.
For the first time, the Peatlands Restoration Agency – set up by President Joko Widodo in 2016 to fight the fires – has struck a deal with indigenous groups in a bid to tap their traditional knowledge in managing lands and fires.
Towards a solution to South East Asia’s annual forest fires
La Croix International, 22 March 2017
During the drier months of the last two decades, parts of Southeast Asia have regularly become shrouded in a gray haze.In response, people in affected areas have walked around with masks while medics noted a rise in respiratory ailments.Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore are the hardest hit by the haze, which is the result of fires lit for land clearing. The haze frequently reaches unhealthy levels and is usually followed by public announcements to remain indoors. Schools close and flights get delayed.This annual nightmare could end this year. Two years after the ASEAN agreement on trans-boundary haze pollution was ratified by Indonesia, the last of the 10-member states to do so, results in the battle to end the haze are overdue.
[Pakistan] South Punjab Forest Company, WWF sign MoU to improve forest cover
Pakistan Today, 22 March 2017
The South Punjab Forest Company (SPFC) and World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance the forest cover in Punjab by promoting commercial and corporate social responsibility initiatives with respect to forestry in South Punjab.
The MoU was signed at the SPFC office by company CEO Tahir Rasheed and WWF-Pakistan DG Hammad Naqi Khan. The heads of both organizations pledged to play their roles in improving forest cover in the assigned riverine, arid, and irrigated areas of South Punjab, promoting forestry by engaging multinational companies through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, and protecting existing tree cover.
23 March 2017
Halve carbon emissions each decade to combat warming: study
By Alister Doyle, Reuters, 23 March 2017
Scientists proposed on Thursday a legislative and economic framework to halve the world’s carbon dioxide emissions every decade from 2020 and combat climate change, by issuing hefty penalties on carbon emitters.
The proposal, published in the journal Science, outlines a “carbon law” policy, seeking to accelerate a global shift already under way toward clean energies such as solar and wind power.
Its concept is similar to a carbon tax, which charged on businesses and households for every tonne of carbon emitted.
The policy is envisaged by its authors as a mechanism for countries to enforce the 2015 Paris agreement. Almost 200 governments agreed to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions in the second half of the century by shifting from fossil fuels.
Release of Arctic Methane “May Be Apocalyptic,” Study Warns
By Dajr Jamail, Truthout, 23 March 2017
A scientific study published in the prestigious journal Palaeoworld in December issued a dire — and possibly prophetic — warning, though it garnered little attention in the media.
“Global warming triggered by the massive release of carbon dioxide may be catastrophic,” reads the study’s abstract. “But the release of methane from hydrate may be apocalyptic.”
The study, titled “Methane Hydrate: Killer Cause of Earth’s Greatest Mass Extinction,” highlights the fact that the most significant variable in the Permian Mass Extinction event, which occurred 250 million years ago and annihilated 90 percent of all the species on the planet, was methane hydrate.
Scientists: protect vast Amazon peatland to avoid palm oil ‘environmental disaster’
By Joe Sandler Clarke (Greenpeace), The Ecologist, 23 March 2017
An area of recently discovered peatland in South America needs to protected from the region’s burgeoning palm oil sector if it is to avoid “environmental disaster”, according to a new study.
The peatland in Pastaza-Marañón Foreland Basin in northeast Peru – discovered in 2009 by Finnish scientist Outi Lähteenoja – is said to contain 3.14 gigatons of carbon, roughly equivalent to two years of CO2 emissions from the United States.
Scientists have said that economic development in the region, like road-building and the arrival of commercial agriculture threatens the important ecosystem.
Decoding deforestation in Brazil and Bolivia
By Pablo Pacheco, CIFOR Forests News, 23 March 2017
Recently, I came across a much publicized article in The New York Times about the impact of two of the world’s biggest grain traders, Cargill and Bunge, on deforestation trends in the agricultural frontiers of Brazil and Bolivia. Since we have entered an era of private commitments to deforestation-free supply chains, this article shows that there is still a way to go for some companies to improve their performance.
Deforestation estimates in 2016 from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) indicate a resurgence of deforestation in the Amazon, and deforestation hotspots identified by the Word Resources Institute suggest increasing pressure on the savanna forests in the Cerrado region, a biodiversity-rich ecosystem. Additionally, while there are no official deforestation estimates in lowlands Bolivia, it has remained at high levels, according to Terra-I. This suggests a need to examine the culprits.
Mozambique: Communities give hope for resilient and sustainable forests
By Magda Lovei, World Bank, 22 March 2017
Every year on the International Day of Forests, we celebrate the vital role of forests―their contribution to the air we breathe, to healthy water cycles, to soil conservation, carbon sequestration, and the provision of habitats. We are also reminded about the urgent need to halt deforestation, which is accounting for about 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Equally important is the need to get inspired by the people who depend on forests and natural resources, use them for their everyday livelihoods, and take action to protect and improve them.
[UK] Here’s the latest dodgy directors roll of shame, including the boss who exploiting the goodwill felt towards our Armed Forces
By Andrew Penman, The Mirror, 23 March 2017
Dodgy directors are a regular feature of my Mirror column and here’s the latest motely collection who’ve been barred from the boardroom for ripping-off innocent members of the public.
Nicole James, 40, Wrexham, and Jamie Moss, 36, Whitford, Cheshire, ten year ban each.
In December, I quizzed Nicole James about her string of supposed Armed Forces magazines that used cold callers to convince businesses to take out adverts. Her company, Spencer Farley, raked in more than £1million in ad fees for titles including Red Alert, In Force and Engage.
There was “absolutely no mis-selling”, she insisted.
24 March 2017
Scientists made a detailed “roadmap” for meeting the Paris climate goals. It’s eye-opening
By Brad Plumer, Vox, 24 March 2017
Back in 2015, the world’s governments met in Paris and agreed to keep global warming below 2°C, to avoid the worst risks of a hotter planet. See here for background on why, but that’s the goal. For context, the planet’s warmed ~1°C since the 19th century.
One problem with framing the goal this way, though, is that it’s maddeningly abstract. What does staying below 2°C entail? Papers on this topic usually drone on about a “carbon budget” — the total amount of CO2 humans can emit this century before we likely bust past 2°C — and then debate how to divvy up that budget among nations. There’s math involved. It’s eye-glazing, and hard to translate into actual policy. It’s also a long-term goal, easy for policymakers to shrug off.
Leaked paper exposes EU countries’ abuse of climate loophole
By James Crisp, Euractiv, 24 March 2017
European Union countries exploited loopholes in United Nations forestry rules to pocket carbon credits worth €600 million and the equivalent of global-warming emissions from 114 million cars.
European Commission analysis, obtained by EURACTIV.com, exposed how by overstating their logging targets, governments scooped up carbon credits. These can be used to offset emissions from polluting sectors under the UN’s Kyoto Protocol.
Forests remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Countries were rewarded for undercutting their exaggerated UN felling targets, which were reported to the European Commission.
Murder in Malaysia: how protecting native forests cost an activist his life
By Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, 24 March 2017
It was 8.20am on 21 June 2016. Bill Kayong, an up-and-coming political activist in Miri, a coastal oil town in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, was 15 minutes into his morning commute, waiting in his pickup truck at a traffic light across from a shopping mall. Suddenly, two bullets shattered the side window and struck him in the head, killing him instantly.
Kayong was one of dozens of people killed while defending environmental and human rights causes in 2016. His life was taken just one day after a report from the human rights group Global Witness revealed that the previous year had been “the worst on record for killings of land and environmental defenders”, with 185 people around the world killed while taking a stand against development projects ranging from dams, to mines, to logging, to agricultural plantations.
25 March 2017
26 March 2017