| Recent events or conferences: The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań |
WWF ends contentious debate, will now support effort to fight climate change 2008-10-02
WWF, one of the world's largest environmental groups, says it will now support policy mechanisms that would compensate tropical countries for reducing carbon dioxide emissions generated by deforestation and forest degradation, according to remarks by the group's president and CEO at an "avoided deforestation" meeting in New York.
More Bank pushes ahead on forest carbon market 2008-09-30
In July, the Bank named the first 14 countries for the controversial Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF, see Update 60): six in Africa (DRC, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar); five in Latin America (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Mexico, Panama); and three in Asia (Nepal, Lao PDR, and Vietnam). The 14 countries will pilot programmes aimed at "reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation" (REDD). Indonesia had refused participation in the scheme, and Brazil did not apply.
More UN Admits Its Climate Change Program Threatens Indigenous Peoples 2008-09-30
An estimated 60 million indigenous peoples are completely dependent on forests and are considered the most threatened by REDD. Therefore, indigenous leaders are among its most prominent critics. The International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change declared that: ...REDD will steal our land… States and carbon traders will take control over our forests.
More U.N. Program to Fight Deforestation 2008-09-30
Last week the United Nations launched a program by which developed nations will pay poorer nations to preserve their forests and plant new trees. The goal of the program, called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Program, or UN-REDD, is to slow global climate change by reducing deforestation in developing countries like Bolivia, Indonesia and Zambia.
More International Climate Negotiations Criticized by Indigenous Peoples 2008-09-24
When the Kyoto Protocol was first introduced back in 1997 it was deemed that forests were not carbon sinks. Whether this was an oversight or a severe lack of scientific knowledge I’m unsure. However with negotiations moving on for a successor to the Protocol, forests are back in for consideration as useful carbon sinks.
More Africa: The Potential And the Challenges of Forest Carbon Finance 2008-09-23
The first paper - 'Forest Carbon Finance: Potential and Challenges for Commonwealth Countries' - addresses the potential of Sustainable Forest Management by Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).
More FSC stakes out its REDD role 2008-09-23
There is now strong and broad international support for formal incentives for a global financing mechanism for preserving forests, or what’s become known as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). The REDD initiative would see payments from the developed world to governments and communities in the developing world, particularly those in which tropical rainforests lie.
More REDD in the USA: Feds Grapple with Forest Carbon Offsets 2008-09-23
Senate Republicans shot down the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act in June, but remnants of that ambitious bill – which described an intricate system for coordinating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to a cap 70 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2050 – are still kicking around both chambers of Congress, along with scores of other proposals expected to show up in bills later this year.
More EU carbon trading: tropical forests poised to win credits 2008-09-23
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee’s review of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is scheduled to discuss the inclusion of forest-related credits on October 7. Forest conservation groups and forest-rich developing countries are lobbying for forest-based carbon credits. They already scored an early success when the Parliament’s Industry Committee gave its support for such credits early in September.
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