Since 2009, companies have announced new oil palm plantation projects in the Congo Basin covering a total area of 1.6 million hectares. Projects currently underway cover 500,000 hectares. A new report by Rainforest Foundation UK warns that vast areas of the Congo Basin forests are potentially threatened by the expansion of oil palm plantations.
Is the Knifton family behind Carbon Neutral Investments?
In November 2012, REDD-Monitor reported on a company called Enviro Associates. The BBC had secretly filmed Luke Ryan, a director of the company, making misleading claims about carbon credits as investments. Ryan said there was “serious money” to be made.
Indigenous rights and the Harapan Rainforest Project: A letter to PT REKI from the Bathin Sembilan of Simpang Macan Luar
Harapan Rainforest Project’s website states that, “The partnership between management of Harapan Rainforest and Bathin Sembilan Tribe who lives in the forest is going well from beginning.” But a recent letter from some of the Bathin Sembilan communities suggests that things may not be going as well as Harapan would like us to believe.
“If companies are stealing the timber, why should I be a bystander?” Notes from a visit to Ulu Masen, Aceh
Dusun Guhanaga is a village in Aceh in an area called Gunung Hujan (Rain Mountain). The road to the village is an ex-logging road built by PT Aceh Inti Timber. When the company was awarded the HPH (Hak Pengusahaan Hutan) Forest Concession, it immediately started logging the forest outside the concession area.
Time to scrap the EU Emissions Trading Scheme
In an attempt to revive carbon prices in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the European Parliament’s Environment Committee voted yesterday in favour of postponing the auctioning of 900 million pollution allowances. The market’s reaction to the vote? A 20% slump in the price of EU allowances.