Durban feedback #1: Saving the market, not the climate

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Durban feedback #1: Saving the market, not the climate

Over the next few weeks, REDD-Monitor will post a series of reports from participants at the UN climate meeting in Durban (COP17). The first comes from Kate Dooley of FERN and Kate Horner of Friends of the Earth US. Their report is extremely critical of what came out of Durban on REDD and in general on addressing climate change.

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Alternatives to carbon markets to finance REDD

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Alternatives to carbon markets to finance REDD

At the beginning of the UN climate negotiations in Durban (COP17), FERN published a short report looking at carbon markets as a means of financing REDD. The briefing, which was signed on to by 28 organisations explains why carbon markets will not deliver for southern governments, forests and people.

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Dutch TV programme on CO2 offsets (part 2): “I can fly to America with a clear conscience, because someone in Africa has a biogas plant for cooking.”

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One cent per square metre: Dutch TV programme finds out the cost of Brazil's rainforest

Last week, REDD-Monitor posted episode one of Keuringsdienst van Waarde’s investigation into carbon offsetting. In case you missed it, here it is: “One cent per square metre: Dutch TV programme finds out the cost of Brazil’s rainforest.” Last week, we saw the Dutch TV consumer programme buying a plot of rainforest in Brazil. This week, the Keuringsdienst team looks deeper into the implications of CO2 offsets.

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Smoke and Mirrors: A critical assessment of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility

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Smoke and Mirrors: A critical assessment of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility

A new report from FERN and the Forest Peoples Programme concludes that the safeguards put in place by the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership (FCPF) are inadequate. The report looks at eight Readiness Preparation Proposals (R-PPs) submitted to the FCPF and finds that FCPF safeguards are not clear and do not conform to the World Bank’s own safeguards.

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FERN report on REDD in Cancun: “increased risk that REDD activities will fuel conflict, undermine forest peoples’ rights and fail to reduce deforestation”

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FERN has released its analysis of the UN climate negotiations in Cancun, COP 16, as part of the January 2011 issue of Forest Watch. A year ago, in its report on the REDD text from the Copenhagen meeting, FERN pointed out that “The safeguards are undermined … by the strong opposition of some countries to monitor and report on these. Without such reporting there would be, in effect, no safeguards.”

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It’s Groundhog Day, again. This time in Cancun…

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It's Groundhog Day, again. This time in Cancun...

In the film Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, a weatherman who finds himself living the same day over and over again. The UN climate negotiators have developed a variation on this theme. Once a year they meet and fail to agree on a binding deal that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The variation on Groundhog Day is that they meet in a different city each time.

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What to do with REDD? A manual for indigenous trainers

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What to do with REDD? A manual for indigenous trainers

What is REDD” and “What to do with REDD?” are two booklets produced for indigenous peoples. The first provides a detailed overview of what REDD is and the second is a training manual for indigenous trainers to facilitate a training on REDD for indigenous peoples.

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NGO statement raises concerns about Democratic Republic of Congo’s Readiness Preparation Proposal

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Forest on the banks of the Congo river system, DR Congo. PHOTO: Greenpeace

The Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP) for the Democratic Republic of Congo is to be considered at the UN-REDD Policy Board meeting 17-19 March and at the FCPF 5th Participants Committee meeting 22-25 March. Global Witness, Greenpeace, FERN, Rainforest Foundation Norway and Rainforest Foundation UK have produced a joint statement about DR Congo’s R-PP.

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Urging recognition of Forest Peoples’ Rights

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“REDD proposals will only lead to forest protection if needs and rights of local communities are being effectively addressed,” wrote FERN in a report released in November 2008. Continuing the theme, FERN’s EU Forest Watch this month comments on the importance of forest peoples’ rights. FERN highlights the case of Indonesia, where the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has raised concerns about the country’s draft regulation on REDD.
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“Cogiendo atajos”: FERN/FPP report available in Spanish

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cogiendo_atajos
 
The November 2008 report, “Cutting Corners; how the FCPF is failing forests and peoples” is now available in Spanish. The report, produced by FERN and Forest Peoples Programme looks at nine country concept notes presented to the World Bank (so called R-PINs) to get REDD money and finds that none of them has been developed in a proper consultative process, nor do they address issues as rights and governance and the whole process has been in violation of the Bank’s own procedures and guidelines.

The Spanish translation of the report can be downloaded here (pdf file 0.8 MB) and a Spanish description of the report is below. The English version of the report is available here.
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FERN-Forest Peoples Programme Special report on Poznan

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FERN and the Forest Peoples Programme have produced a “Special report on Poznan”, focussing on what happened (and what went wrong) in the negotiations on REDD. The report is reproduced in full below and can be downloaded here.
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Forest offsets remain excluded from ETS – for now

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FERN‘s EU Forest Watch reports on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme directive, which was adopted on 17 December 2008. Forest credits are excluded from the ETS until at least 2020. This is good news, although they should be excluded after 2020 as well. The EU’s target of 20 per cent emission reductions by 2020 is already too weak. The EU needs to reduce dramatically its greenhouse gas emissions, not use the offsets scam to allow industry to continue polluting.
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An overview of REDD proposals, and some history…

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A new report from the NGO FERN provides a very helpful summary of some of the main proposals that have been offered, mostly by governments, for how REDD should work. The proposed schemes covered in the report include those from the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, Tuvalu, Brazil, COMIFAC, India, the Latin America Nested Approach, the European Union, New Zealand and Norway.
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World Bank FCPF: NGOs say it’s “failing forests and peoples”, indigenous leader calls for suspension of REDD activities

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A new report from Belgium and UK-based NGOs FERN and the Forest Peoples Programme casts a heavy new shadow over the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). Based on a assessment of nine FCPF ‘Readiness Plan Idea Notes’, the groups conclude that the Bank has been cutting corners, failing to consult properly, and has ignored its own internal safeguard policies. In a joint press release, given in full below, Marcial Arias, from the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change also called for the “suspension” of all REDD activities and carbon market initiatives in indigenous areas until such time as the inhabitants’ rights were recognised.
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NGOs welcome European Commission decision to keep forests out of the carbon market

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NGOs welcome European Commission decision to keep forests out of the carbon market

As REDD-Monitor reported last week, the European Commission has decided not to include forests in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). FERN and Global Witness released the following press release praising the Commission’s decision.

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