By Chris Lang Welcome to this new look “REDD in the news” post. Instead of linking to a wide range of posts (many of which were only tangentially related to REDD – and some of which were pure REDD propaganda), I’ll look at a few news items from the previous week with some brief comments….
Category: Norway
Oil, corruption and lies in the Republic of Congo
By Chris Lang In September 2019, the President of the Republic of Congo, Dénis Sassou Nguesso, flew to Paris to meet Emmanuel Macron, France’s President. Macron signed a letter of intent committing US$65 million to the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) to protect the Republic of Congo’s forests.
The Swedish Energy Agency has stopped buying carbon credits from Green Resources’ destructive plantations in Uganda
By Chris Lang The Swedish Energy Agency has cancelled its contract to buy carbon credits from Green Resources. The Swedish Energy Agency has finally recognised the impacts that Green Resources’ industrial tree plantations have on local communities in Kachung in Uganda.
REDD in Guyana: Elite agendas, political temporalities, and the politics of environmental policy failure
By Chris Lang In 2009, Norway launched Guyana’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation programme. Back then, it was an amibitious US$250 million scheme. Ten years later Guyana’s REDD has been almost completely abandoned.
Gabon signs US$150 million REDD deal with Norway. Shhh… Don’t mention corruption
At a meeting on 22 September 2019 in New York, Lee White, who was recently appointed Forestry Minister in Gabon, announced a new US$150 million REDD deal with the Central African Forest Initiative. The meeting marked the fifth anniversary of the New York Declaration on Forests. The money will come, surprise, surprise, from Norway.