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Earlier this week, Greenpeace activists blockaded a Chinese logging ship, the Fu Tian, that was exporting timber from Papua New Guinea. The ship was docked near the village of West Pomio, where villagers are protesting the operations of Malaysian logging company Rimbunan Hijau and its subsidiary, Gilford Limited.
A new manual by six Europe-based NGOs calls for an end to forest offsets. The report argues that there are two motivations for forest offsets: “reducing the pressure to do something about fossil fuel emissions and the short term profit motive”.
Two pieces of depressing news from the Amazon. First, the price of gold has increased, leading to increased mining and increased deforestation. Second, Brazil is planning to invest US$120 billion in large-scale infrastructure projects in the Amazon region.
Last week, Forest Peoples Programme, together with local partners released a series of briefings about REDD in Indonesia. Five briefings look at REDD developments Aceh, Riau, Central Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi, Papua and West Papua and a sixth looks at REDD at the national level. Villagers respond to REDD in West Kalimantan: “We need to be recognized as legitimate carbon owners”
Last year, Sébastien de Royer spent six weeks in two Dayak communities in West Kalimantan researching his MSc thesis. Based on this research, he concludes that “secure tenure is a key underlying issue for REDD in order to limit risk for local communities”.
Yesterday, Indonesia’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, promised that he would “dedicate the last three years of my term as President to deliver enduring results that will sustain and enhance the environment and forests of Indonesia”.
A report released yesterday by Oxfam International documents how more than 22,000 people in Uganda were evicted to make way for a carbon offset tree plantation established by a London-based firm called New Forests Company. While this is not a REDD project, it provides an early warning of how “standards” and “safeguards” can be willfully ignored.
Via Campesina recently put out a statement about the next round of UN climate negotiations (COP-17), which will take place in Durban, South Africa. The statement points out that the climate negotiations have become a market place where the issue is not reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but doing business with transnational corporations.
The Global Justice Ecology Project’s Jeff Conant and Orin Langelle visited the community of Amador Hernandez in Chiapas, Mexico in March 2011. They were there to investigate the relationship between the threatened forced relocation of the community to REDD proposals.
The Odzala-Kokoua National Park, in the northwest of the Republic of Congo, was declared a National Park in 1935 when the country was a colony of France. In 2001, the part was increased in size to 1,354,600 hectares. It is currently managed by the African Parks Network, which describes itself as, “The business approach to management of protected areas”.
The Guaraqueçaba project, run by the Nature Conservancy and the Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education (SPVS) has been featured in the past on REDD-Monitor, after investigative journalist Mark Schapiro reported from the project area.
A recent paper published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management compares previous studies of deforestation rates in protected areas and in community managed forests. The research supports the authors’ hypothesis that community managed forests are at least as good, and sometimes better, at reducing deforestation than strict protected areas.
The role of women in protecting and managing forests is often excluded from discussions about forests. The Rights and Resources Initiative points out in the guest post below that the story of women of indigenous and forest communities, who continue to lag far behind in securing tenure rights, remains largely untold.
Recently, an Australian businessman, visited Peru and attempted to set up a REDD-type deal with the indigenous Matsés people. The Matsés rejected his approach and AIDESEP (Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon) demanded his expulsion from Peru. REDD-Monitor has (so far) written two posts about this story.
Last week, Australian ABC News’ Foreign Correspondent programme looked into Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd.’s operations on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The programme, titled, “Sumatra – Paper/Tiger“, gives a shocking view of the ongoing destruction of Sumatra’s remaining forests. |
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