Ten days ago, REDD-Monitor sent some questions to Hicham Daoudi, project manager of WWF’s REDD project in Mai Ndombe, Democratic Republic of Congo. The questions were a follow up to a post on REDD-Monitor that was based on a critical report about the REDD project, written by LICOCO, a Congolese NGO.
DR Congo
There are 66 posts filed in DR Congo (this is page 2 of 5).
Response from Kevin Conrad: “Neither of the individuals you identify were authorized as advisors to the CfRN”
Last week, REDD-Monitor wrote about the Democratic Republic of Congo’s delegation to COP23 in Bonn. The questions in the headline pretty much sum up the post: “Why did the Democratic Republic of Congo send 340 delegates to COP23 in Bonn? And who paid?”
Why did the Democratic Republic of Congo send 340 delegates to COP23 in Bonn? And who paid?
According to the UNFCCC’s provisional list of registered parties, just over 19,000 people travelled to Bonn for this year’s climate negotiations, COP23. While that’s a huge number of people, it’s only about half of the number that travelled to Paris for COP21. Ovais Sarmad, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, says that 28,800 people took part over the two weeks of meetings in Bonn.
Some questions for Hicham Daoudi, project manager of WWF’s REDD project in Mai Ndombe, Democratic Republic of Congo
At the beginning of November 2017, REDD-Monitor wrote about WWF’s REDD project in Mai Ndombe province, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Response from Kevin Conrad: “The objective simply is to register a REDD+ logo to distinguish REDD+ actions that are compliant with UNFCCC decisions”
Earlier today, REDD-Monitor wrote a post about the Coalition for Rainforest Nations’ application to register “REDD+” as a trademark. The post ended with a series of questions for Kevin Conrad, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations.
Kevin Conrad, Federica Bietta, the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, and an application to register “REDD+” as a trademark
Kevin Conrad is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations. He’s currently in Bonn at COP23, the United Nations climate conference, as part of the delegation of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In May 2017, the Coalition for Rainforest Nations Secretariat put in an application to register “REDD+” as a trademark in the USA.
WWF’s REDD project in Mai Ndombe, Democratic Republic of Congo: No consultation, no transparency, and communities paid less than DRC’s minimum wage
WWF’s largest REDD project in Africa is in Mai Ndombe province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to WWF, the results so far are “very encouraging”. On its website, WWF states that, “The participatory approach through local development committees has proven to be a success with effective achievements.”
Is Wildlife Work’s Mai Ndombe REDD+ project “additional”?
For a REDD project to generate carbon credits, the project developer has to write a story about what would have happened without the project. This story, or baseline scenario, is crucial to REDD. As long as the actual deforestation is less than the deforestation in the baseline scenario, the REDD project can generate carbon credits.
“It is now time that performance-based payments start flowing to REDD+ actors on the ground, in DRC and other countries”: World Bank response to Rainforest Foundation UK and US
Last week, Rainforest Foundation UK and US wrote to staff at the World Bank, asking the World Bank not to approve the Mai Ndombe integrated REDD programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, because of the risks involved for local communities. Yesterday Laurent Valiergue, Senior Forestry Sepcialist at the World Bank, replied. His response is available in full below.
Mai Ndombe REDD programme in DRC poses serious risks to people living in the province – Rainforest Foundation UK and US letter to the World Bank
Tomorrow (28 August 2017), a meeting is planned at the World Bank. On the agenda is whether to give internal approval for the Mai Ndombe integrated REDD programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ahead of the meeting, Rainforest Foundation UK and US have written to the Bank asking that the programme not be approved.
Will Norway trigger a “carbon bomb” by supporting industrial logging in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
Rainforest Foundation UK has today written to Norway’s Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, asking her to prevent Norwegian funding for an industrial logging project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The proposed project would hand over 20 million hectares of forest to timber companies.
Forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo threatened by Norway-backed logging plans
Since 2002, a moratorium on new industrial logging concessions has helped protect the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now the government of DRC wants to open up its forests to more logging. As much as 35% of the country’s forest could be threatened with destruction.
WWF scandal (part 8): WWF and the loggers in the Congo Basin
“For WWF, partnering with Indigenous Peoples is an essential part of our conservation work.” This sentence comes from WWF’s latest newsletter from its international forest and climate team. The article is written by Jolly Sassa Kiuka and Flory Botamba who work for WWF in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Norway’s plans for Congo rainforests come under fire
Norway’s plans to save the rainforests in the Congo are coming under scrutiny in the Norwegian media.
Norway’s latest forest and climate shambles: the Central African Forest Initiative
In September 2015, Norway and a handful of European countries launched the Central African Forest Initiative. CAFI is aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo.