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Three straws in the wind: Two pieces of policy news and a new piece of research. Two weeks ago, a leaked document from the EU revealed that the European Commission and some member states hope to include oil palm plantations in the definition of forests. Yesterday, the Jakarta Post reported that Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry is drafting a decree to reclassify oil palm plantations as “forests”.
If you read nothing else this week, read these three articles: MPs propose carbon tax; Finnish research shows a flaw in climate models; and City Dwellers Drive Deforestation in 21st Century. Where does this leave REDD? Carbon markets fail to deliver green investment; emissions from soils in a warmer climate will be way higher than previously thought; and new research indicates that urban consumption is driving deforestation (not the rural poor).
Last month, Ecosystem Marketplace published a report on the state of the forest carbon market. The report, “State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009: Taking Root & Branching Out“, provides a fascinating glimpse into the upside-down world of carbon trading. This week’s round up of the last seven days’ news on REDD, in chronological order with short extracts (click on the title for the full article). For those who can’t wait until Monday for last week’s REDD news, REDD-Monitor’s news page is updated daily: “REDD in the news“.
On 4 December 2009, Guyana’s President, Bharrat Jagdeo, was interviewed on the BBC programme “Hard Talk“. At one stage, the presenter, Zeinab Badawi, asks Jagdeo about REDD. What Jagdeo doesn’t say in response is more interesting than what he does say. He doesn’t mention the logging companies already logging Guyana’s forests. He doesn’t mention mining. He doesn’t mention road-building. He doesn’t mention the risks of corruption. REDD in the news: a round up of last week’s news on REDD, in chronological order with short extracts (click on the title for the full article). For those who can’t wait until Monday morning for last week’s REDD news, REDD-Monitor’s news page is updated daily: “REDD in the news“.
FERN has produced a special report on the UN negotiations in Copenhagen, as part of the January 2010 issue of Forest Watch. The report concludes that “While references to safeguards and indigenous peoples rights undoubtedly have improved the negotiating text, such changes could be undermined if the underlying assumption remains that funding for REDD will come from offsetting carbon emissions.” A round up of media coverage of REDD over the past seven days. The Rights and Resources Initiative released an important report: “The End of the Hinterland: Forests, Conflict and Climate Change”. The report warns that “the failure to set legal standards and safeguards for a mechanism to transfer funds to forest-rich nations may trigger a sharp rise in speculation and corruption, placing unprecedented pressures on tropical forest lands and the communities that inhabit them.”
The UN-REDD programme in Papua New Guinea has been very quiet about the on-going controversy involving carbon trading and REDD in the country. REDD-Monitor asked UN-REDD some questions in an attempt to find out what the UN-REDD programme has been doing to address the problems. Unfortunately, UN-REDD remains very quiet on the subject.
The Ulu Masen project covers an area of 770,000 hectares in Aceh province in the north of Sumatra. The project aims to generate 3.3 million carbon credits a year to finance conservation and development projects for local communities. To find out more, REDD-Monitor interviewed Joe Heffernan of Flora & Fauna International and David Gaveau of the University of Kent in England. |
 
 
 
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