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The Forestry Ministry says that women can play a major role in forest conservation efforts as they are now equipped with required skills.

 

The minister’s special staff Indriastuti said that with adequate training, women who lived in the conservation areas could live prosperously without having to go too far into the forest to make a living.

 

“There are at least 558 non-wood forest commodities that can be developed by women, such as silk, honey, bamboo, rattan and orchids that can help increase their income,” she said in a recent training session on forest conservation efforts by women in Bogor.

 

The four-day training was aimed to give proper skills to women who are involved in forest conservation efforts, skills that they could then pass on to their neighbors.

 

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The Paiter Surui have asked the National Indian Foundation (Fundação Nacional do Índio, “FUNAI”) and federal police to help them enforce a self-imposed logging moratorium after loggers ratcheted up threats against members of the tribe who tried to halt the illegal removal of timber from the territory. 

 

The moratorium is a cornerstone of the groundbreaking Surui Forest Carbon Project (SFCP), which is the first-ever indigenous “REDD” project designed to provide carbon income to tribes who act to save the rainforest.  The project’s methodology was validated last month under two leading carbon standards, and now it must enforce the moratorium and prove it is doing so.

 

“In these last few months, members of the Surui community have encountered severe pressure from illegal loggers operating around our territory, causing internal and external conflicts, including co-opting some of our community members who have been even been armed by those who want to destroy our way of life,” the tribe said in a statement signed by project partners and supporters.

 

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Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global should invest in agricultural land and forests as a hedge against any climate change policies that governments around the world may introduce, according to a report specially prepared by investment consultant Mercer.

 

The Nkr3.3 trillion ($550bn) fund, the second-largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, according to the SWF Institute, should invest in these commodities “as a ‘hedge’ against climate policy measures that are not fully anticipated by the market”, Mercer’s report said.

 

The consultant analysed the links between four potential climate change scenarios – regional divergence, delayed action, “Stern action” and climate breakdown – and asset classes in which the fund does not currently invest. Agricultural land and forests were identified as highly sensitive to each one.

 

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Developing countries will not be incentivised to change business -as- usual practices and invest in REDD+ schemes until there’s certainty that the financial rewards that have been used to promote the forest carbon mechanism will materialise in the future, said experts at the sidelines of the climate change talks in Bonn.

 

“Cash is king,” said Maria Brockhaus, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), at a side event held alongside the meetings of the UNFCCC’s Subsidiary Bodies. “The prospect of REDD+ financing is already a game changer, but if we want the change to be transformational and not just on the surface, there needs to be certainty on what forested nations will receive under REDD+.”

 

“What we need is the long term certainty that REDD+ will be funded; that is more important than the question of immediate funding needs” said Louis Verchot, CIFOR’s leading climate change scientist, in response to a participant at the event who raised concerns that developing countries were already struggling to spend the funds given to build capacity and the institutions needed to apply REDD+.

 

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It is heartening indeed to learn that Bangladesh has been nominated by the least developed countries (LDCs) to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to help vulnerable countries fight climate risks. This was disclosed by Dr Hasan Mahmud, Minister for Environment and Forests at a seminar on ‘Adaptation Programme to Face Climate Risk’ held in the capital recently. It is obvious that Bangladesh’s nomination to the GCF is the recognition of its role by the climatic vulnerable countries in the international forum. 

 

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was founded within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as a mechanism to transfer money from the developed to the developing world in order to assist the latter in its adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change. Its legal basis can be found in the Copenhagen Accord adopted during the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP-15) in Copenhagen in 2009. This decision was confirmed in paragraph 102 of the Cancun agreements in 2010 with the words: ‘The Green Climate Fund will support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing’ countries ‘using thematic funding windows’. The objective was to raise a fund of $100 billion per year by 2020. To kick-start environmental projects, a Fast Start Funding of the GCF was agreed, encompassing $30 billion for the period 2010-2012. In Copenhagen countries agreed that this money would be used for enhanced action on mitigation (including Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)), adaptation, technology development and transfer, and capacity building. Using the money in the right way in order to enforce actual change on the ground is one of the biggest challenges ahead. Many academics argue that in order to do this in an efficient way, all stakeholders should be involved with the process, instead of using a top-down approach. Moreover, projects often even miss out on their actual purpose.

 

Nomination of Bangladesh to the GCF has come at a critical time when apart from the insecurity of funding, differences of opinion among the developed and the developing countries on the very approach to negotiating the problem is growing. As for Bangladesh’s own requirement, there are some areas already identified by the government where funding is critically needed. One such is the reconstruction of about 700 kilometers of seriously affected costal embankments that threatens the lives of millions. As the focal point of the LDCs, Bangladesh will be required to intensively negotiate with the donors to prioritise the needs on both adaptation and mitigation practices to counter threats from climate change. 

 

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The World Bank released its annual book compiling environmental data, which includes information from more than 200 countries relating to agriculture, forests, energy, water, sanitation, and ocean health. The 2012 Little Green Data Book functions as a compilation of information allowing countries to value and organize their natural capital. The datasets include an Adjusted Net Savings indicator, which calculates savings considering factors such as natural resource depletion and pollution damage.

Main Topic: 

• Environment

thesaurus: 

• Environment
• Agriculture
• Forests
• Biodiversity
• Oceans and Seas
• Energy
• Sanitation
• Health
• India
• Global
• Water Resources
• Carbon Dioxide

Publisher : 

• The World Bank

Place of Publication: 

• Washington DC

Attachment(s):  ldb-green-2012.pdfMark Content Private(Internal): Email Alert: 254Publication Date: 01/05/2012

Over the past two years, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests have brought together regional experts to reflect on the outcomes of the 15th and 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The resulting booklets Forests and Climate Change After Copenhagen: An Asia-Pacific Perspective and Forests and Climate Change After Cancun: An Asia-Pacific Perspective were distributed widely and very well received.

 

In February 2012, RECOFTC, FAO, and CoDe REDD, with support from GIZ-BMU, REDD-net, NORAD, ASFN, and SDC, brought together 13 climate change and forestry experts in Quezon City, Philippines, to discuss the implications on the forestry sector in the Asia-Pacific region of decisions taken at COP 17, held in Durban, South Africa, in November and December 2011. This booklet summarizes their responses to a set of 13 key questions raised at the workshop.

 

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By William F. Laurance, mongabay.com, 14 May 2012 | It's tempting to think of illegal logging as an environmental crisis but it takes a serious human toll too. Just ask the wife and children of Chut Wutty, an environmental activist who was murdered last week for investigating rampant illegal logging in Cambodia. Wutty was far from alone. Criminal gangs increasingly control illegal logging, and don't hesitate to kill those who dare to oppose them. In the Peruvian Amazon, a community leader alerted police to a truckload of illegal logs. Within an hour he was dead from six gunshots. The American nun Dorothy Stang, who fought to protect local communities in the Amazon from illegal loggers and land grabbers, was executed by hired killers. The legendary Brazilian conservationist Chico Mendes was also killed in cold blood. These are but a few of the fallen. As documented in a 2012 report by the World Bank, Justice for the Forests, illegal logging is now a massive criminal enterprise...

The management of Asia’s forests affects diverse stakeholders and interests, inevitably resulting in conflict. This study focuses on conflicts between local communities and outsiders: the underlying causes, conflict management approaches, and eventual outcomes. Field data was collected through interviews and focus group discussions in seven community-outsider conflict cases across five countries. While many direct conflict triggers were observed, at least three underlying and interrelated factors enabled conflict: contested statutory and customary tenure, exclusionary conservation and economic development policies, and poor coordination between land use planning agencies. The range of observed conflict management techniques (negotiation, mediation, coercion, avoidance) reflected varying power relationships and political contexts. The techniques’ success in all cases was relatively low due to the complexity of addressing tenure and exclusion issues. The results underline the need to involve local people in the design of the evolving REDD+ mechanism, as well as to ensure their rights and benefits.

 

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This training manual has been prepared for national and district level facilitators who are willing to learn and share the knowledge about climate change and REDD+ to different stakeholders in order to build capacity and raise their awareness.

 

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International attention is focused on finding ways to reduce emissions from deforestation because of the emerging concerns over climate change. However the causes of deforestation are rooted in current economic and development paradigms. The causes of deforestation also vary across different geographical regions and have implications for the forest transition.

 

Attempts to reach an international agreement on curbing deforestation have achieved little success despite over 30 years of UN negotiations. New initiatives from REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) could provide financial incentives to curb deforestation. Hence, alternative development paths for forest cover changes and forest transition are analyzed for the REDD policy within the framework of an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for deforestation. The EKC models are estimated for geographical regions of Latin America, Africa and Asia.

 

The results based on the panel data analysis of 43 countries, covering the period 1970–1994, provides evidence that an inverted U-shaped EKC fits for Latin America and Africa, while a U-shaped EKC applies to Asia. The results also indicate that strengthening agricultural and forestry sector policies are important for curbing deforestation. The EKC models’ estimates could provide guidance for decisions on financing the REDD policy as specific to each region.

 

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This study provides preliminary information on the potential for REDD+ in Laos PDR by surveying forest cover change and carbon density. The method used in this report were to first study forest cover change and carbon density using coarse-resolution forest cover data available in the Vegetation Continuous Fields data product. This information was used to prioritise certain areas as having good potential for REDD+.

 

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SNV in collaboration with Rainforest Alliance and WWF carried out a study to evaluate the feasibility of developing a forest carbon project in Quang Tri Province following an Improved Forest Management project type and implemented by private smallholder farmers growing acacia plantations which could potentially be certified to FSC standards. The feasibility study: (i) determined the amount of carbon sequestered when rotation lengths for acacia plantations are extended and FSC practices adopted: (ii) analysed the potential of carbon credit generation from such a project with respect to the VCS and CCBA standards; and (iii) carried out a cost/benefit analysis for the plantations in earning FSC certification and also for earning FSC certification plus developing a carbon credit project. Recommendations on next steps are provided.

 

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Tropical peatlands are widely distributed throughout Indonesia, Malaysia and several other countries in South East Asia. They play an important role in stabilizing the ecosystem, particularly in regulating drainage, microclimate, and water quality and soil formation. In Vietnam, approximately 183,000 ha of peat swamps can be found, mainly located in the Lower Mekong Basin. There are two main areas of where peat remains: in Kien Giang and Ca Mau provinces. The peatland area found within U Minh Ha Nature Reserve and its buffer zone in Ca Mau Province are examined and documented as part of this study.

 

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As part of SNV’s REDD+ interventions in Vietnam, Nghe An has been identified as a important Province to work on REDD+. The Province has high forest cover, and is subject to deforestation and degradation. It is also home to many ethnic minority groups. In order to better understand and design possible REDD+ interventions a pilot study was carried to better understand the socio-economic conditions and drivers of deforestation and forest degradation with a number of identified districts within Nghe An Province.

 

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Recently in Vietnam, a coalition of international NGOs, donors and government officials have been promoting market-based forest conservation projects in the form of payments for environmental services (PES) as a win–win for both conservation and development objectives; Vietnam is now the first country in Southeast Asia with a national law on PES. 

 

This article provides a macro survey of how market-based instruments for forest conservation have expanded in Vietnam, particularly in relation to a long dominant state sector. Yet an assessment of Vietnam’s PES pilot projects indicates that they do not follow predicted orthodox “neoliberalization of nature” approaches in their use of market instruments, particularly in regards to privatization, retreat of the state, and capitalization of commodities.

 

The article explores how it is that a strong state role in forest management can continue to dominate even in more market-oriented approaches. Finally, the article analyzes PES’s potential for success or failure in tackling the underlying causes for forest degradation. Ultimately, the article argues that PES is likely to be unable to tackle several of the key underlying causes for deforestation, namely, uneven land tenure and a lack of participation by local communities in conservation, given that PES is unlikely to be considerably different than past attempts at forest management.

 

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The originality of the REDD proposal is its incentives-based mechanism designed to reward the governments of developing countries for their performance in reducing deforestation as measured against a baseline. This mechanism is founded on the hypothesis that developing countries ‘pay’ an opportunity cost to conserve their forests and would prefer other choices and convert their wooden lands to other uses. The basic idea is, therefore, to pay rents to these countries to compensate for the anticipated foregone revenues. The reference to the theory of incentives (in its principal–agent version) is implicit but clear. In this REDD-related framework, the Government is taken as any economic agent who behaves rationally i.e. taking decisions after comparing the relative prices associated to various alternatives, then deciding to take action and implementing effective measures to tackle deforestation and shift the nation-wide development path.

 

Such an approach ignores the political economy of the state, especially when dealing with “fragile” or even “failing” states facing severe but chronicle institutional crises, which are often ruled by “governments with private agendas” fuelling corruption. Two assumptions underlying the REDD proposal are particularly critical: (i) the idea that the government of such a state is in a position to make a decision to shift its development pathway on the basis of a cost–benefit analysis that anticipates financial rewards, and (ii) the idea that, once such a decision has been made, the “fragile” state is capable, thanks to the financial rewards, to implement and enforce the appropriate policies and measures which could translate into deforestation reduction.

 

The first sections of the article discuss the pertinence of applying such a REDD version of the theory of incentives to Governments, and particularly to Governments in fragile states, with respect to the historical patterns and the practical way those states work. The last sections discuss the possibility of alternative architecture for REDD, focusing on policies and measures targeting the drivers of deforestation, and investments for intensifying agriculture, reforming land tenure and enhancing the functioning of the judicial system. Authors will show why incentive mechanisms should be used at another scale, for the benefits of local economic agents (companies, rural households, communities, etc.), and how a scaling down is likely to alleviate some of the constraints faced by incentives when dealing at Government level.

 

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By Bustar Maitar, Greenpeace International, 15 May 2012 | The news initially sounded intriguing : Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) was inviting journalists in Jakarta to the launch of what the company grandly dubbed its “greatest commitment to natural forest protection.” Discarding the PR gloss, however, leaves an announcement that exposes glaring gaps in APP’s ‘new’ policy and demonstrates that the company is still not serious about reform. APP, which has been linked to illegal logging and the clearance of Sumatran tiger habitat, unveiled in in its press conference on Tuesday what it claimed were new measures to protect high conservation value forests (HCVF) in Indonesia. Starting from June 1, the company said it would “suspend natural forest clearance while HCVF assessments are conducted” in areas “owned” by the company. That of course sounds good on paper. The problem is, however, we’ve heard that before from APP.

By Stephen Stock, Liza Meak, and Jeremy Carroll, NBC Bay Area, 18 May 2012 | California's new Cap and Trade program has been hailed as the gold standard in environmental law for the entire world. Not only are other states looking to the law but other countries, too, are watching to judge its effects on the global economy and environment. Now, NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit has learned of questions surrounding fundamental issues about how the new law is applied and who benefits from it that could undermine the entire program's credibility... The Investigative Unit spent the last four months researching California's new Cap and Trade program. At 262 pages, the law is as difficult to get your arms around as a giant Sequoia. The first 44-and-a-half pages alone are dedicated to spelling out definitions in the law.