It’s the fire season in Indonesia. The haze is not as bad as last year, but once again Riau province in Sumatra was shrouded in smoke. Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency has set itself the target of putting out the fires by October.
Indonesia
There are 265 posts filed in Indonesia (this is page 2 of 18).
Illegal logging, palm oil and politics in Central Kalimantan
Last year, local elections took place in Indonesia. The vote for the governor of Central Kalimantan was delayed, and took place in January 2016. Sugianto Sabran, the candidate with the closest ties to the palm oil industry won – by a very narrow margin.
The Asian Development Bank on REDD: “Riddled with many complexities”
A few weeks ago, REDD-Monitor took a look at how the Asian Development Bank appears to have changed its tune on REDD. In 2010, the ADB was promoting the region’s “huge potential to benefit from REDD+”, but by 2015 the ADB acknowledged the “considerable uncertainty about the actual contribution that REDD will make”.
What does APP’s massive new pulp mill mean for the company’s “zero deforestation” policy?
On 5 February 2013, Asia Pulp and Paper announced a Forest Conservation Policy. This included an immediate stop to clearing forest in any concessions controlled by APP and its suppliers. It was a dramatic change in policy for a company that is responsible for destroying vast areas of forest in Indonesia.
SGS Malaysia’s RSPO accreditation was terminated because SGS Malaysia carried out audits while it was suspended
On 31 December 2015, Accreditation Services International terminated SGS Malaysia’s accreditation with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. REDD-Monitor wrote about this in February 2016: “Transparency and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil: Why was SGS Malaysia’s accreditation terminated?” Neither RSPO nor ASI were willing to explain why SGS Malaysia’s accreditation had been terminated.
Response from Siti Nurbaya, Indonesia’s Minister of Environment and Forestry: The Norwegian Government has apologised for its environment minister’s statement about “slow progress” on deforestation
Two days ago, REDD-Monitor wrote a post about a trip to Indonesia by Norway’s climate and environment minister, Vidar Helgesen. The trip took place in early February 2016, and Pilita Clark, a Financial Times journalist, accompanied Helgesen on his trip. In her article, Clark quoted Helgesen as saying, “We would obviously have hoped things would have progressed more quickly. We haven’t seen actual progress in reducing deforestation.”
Norway admits that “We haven’t seen actual progress in reducing deforestation” in Indonesia
Six years ago, Norway and Indonesia signed a US$1 billion REDD deal. This week the Financial Times published an article about how the attempts to preserve Indonesia’s forests are going. The only good news is that in more than 3,800 words, Pilita Clark, the FT journalist, doesn’t mention REDD once.
REDD is dead. What’s next?
A new paper in Conservation Biology starts with the following sentence: “Increasingly, one hears furtive whispers in the halls of conservation: ‘REDD+ is dead; it’s time to cut our losses and move on.’”
Land Grabbing: “Big, big problem”
“It’s very attractive. The earnings are very high and we’ve got hybrid material now. You harvest in the 24th month, and the repayment period is about seven years at the most… For the next 20 years it’ll be laughing yourself all the way to the bank.”
Communications: How indigenous communities have used radio, video and other communication strategies to defend their territories
Life Mosaic‘s video “Communications” takes a look at three communities that are successfully using communications strategies to organise in defence of their territories. It’s another video in the series “Territories of Life“.
Help LifeMosaic distribute its “Territories for Life” video series
Over the past few weeks, REDD-Monitor has featured an excellent series of videos by LifeMosaic. The video series, titled, “Territories of Life”, is produced for indigenous peoples and is about indigenous struggles relating to land and rights.
COP21 Paris snapshot #1: REDD
Last night at 21:00 a new version of the Draft Paris Outcome was released at COP21 in Paris. It’s down to 27 pages and has only 50 pairs of square brackets. That’s the good news. The rest is practically all bad news.
Per Fredrik Pharo: The “hopes raised for the future of Indonesian peatland management” are “very encouraging”
Yesterday REDD-Monitor wrote about the fires this year in Indonesia and the lack of any response from Norway. The post featured a comment from Per Fredrik Pharo, Director of Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative that Indonesia’s peatland management was “very encouraging”.
“Very encouraging.” That’s how Per Fredrik Pharo, Director of Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative describes Indonesia’s peatland (mis)management
The fires in Indonesia this year are the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st century (so far). An area of about 2.5 million hectares of forest and peatland burned. Visibility was reduced to 30 metres in places. At least 19 people died. By the end of October, there were 500,000 cases of respiratory tract infections.
I’m a GNU. How do you do? A REDD animal appears in Paris with a promise of US$5 billion
On the first day of the UN climate negotiations in Paris, the governments of Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom pledged US$5 billion for REDD, between 2015 and 2020. The GNU countries say they “have signaled they will increasingly target results-based finance for countries who deliver verified REDD+ emission reductions”.