REDD in the news: Poznan week two, 8-14 December 2008

REDD-Monitor, January 10th, 2009

REDD continued to be a main theme in the media coverage during week two at Poznan. The bad news was that the word “rights” was deleted from the negotiating text on REDD, as was the “s” in “Indigenous Peoples”. The issue of REDD and carbon trading remains one of the most contention issues in discussions on REDD.

 

8 December 2008

Preserving tropical forests also cuts emissions
Article in the Japan Times on the possibilities of REDD.

Meanwhile, the Australian government has pledged A$30 million as part of a project to protect 50,000 hectares of Kalimantan forest and rehabilitate at least 50,000 hectares of drained peat swamp, which could become a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions if it dried out and caught fire. These are promising projects not just for forest preservation in Indonesia but also for poverty alleviation and local empowerment — provided they are well-run and corruption kept is kept at bay.

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Talking Trees in Poznan: The Shape of Forests to Come
Ecosystem Marketplace reports on some of the tools, methodologies and reports about REDD that were launched at Forest Day 2 in Poznan. Includes a link to the Ecosystem Marketplace’s ForestCarbonPortal.com:

an online information clearinghouse for the terrestrial carbon markets. This satellite website to EcosystemMarkeplace.com includes daily news posts, original articles, a calendar of events, and a “tool box” of the latest intro guides, methodologies, software measurement tools and beyond. The site will also map projects selling land based carbon credits across the globe. Users can search for project sites by region, as well as by a variety of criteria such as project type, standard, registry, and credit prices. Projects are described in consistent ‘nutrition labels’ listing a range of criteria.

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EU delays decision on forest offsets
The Economic Times of India reports on the European Union’s delaying of a decision on whether to allow EU companies to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in tropical forest conservation,

The EU would publish detailed proposals in January on how to finance ways to slow deforestation in tropical countries, EU executive Commission official Juergen Lefevere said on the sidelines of U.N.-led climate talks in Poland.

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Forests Debate Dominates Talks
Wambi Michael reports for IPS about the REDD discussions in Poznan.

Murray Gauntlett, the Global Forest Coalition’s Oceania focal point person, says REDD must to be suspended until all stakeholders agree on how it will function: “The REDD initiative is very critical, especially for people coming from forested areas in the global South. In those areas the rights of our indigenous people have been violated.
“One of the concerns is that REDD is being fast-tracked by the World Bank through the UN bodies like UNFCCC here with no solid policies around consultations, without recognition of free and prior consent which was recognised by UN general assembly in 2007.”

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REDD hot forests
A guest post on Gristmill by Gustavo A. Silva-Chavez, international climate change analyst for Environmental Defense Fund, mainly about the US position on REDD.

Provisions of REDD were part of the major Senate climate bill discussed earlier this year. In November, many members of the House of Representatives released a draft set of principles for their version of climate legislation, and it also contained REDD provisions. This is important because in early 2009, at the request of President-elect Barack Obama, Congress will draft legislation to reduce U.S. emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. It is very likely that this new draft legislation will contain REDD provisions.

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In Poznan, France pushes initiative to save rainforests
According to this article on Mongabay, “the European Union Council, under France’s leadership, has proposed aggressive EU legislation to address deforestation and forest degradation. The EU council conclusions of December 4, recommend the inclusion of forestry projects in government compliance targets, the establishment of a Global Forest Carbon Mechanism (GFCM) and potential inclusion of forestry projects in the E.U.’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) after 2012.” The only quotations in the article are from Dr. Fred Boltz, Vice-President of Conservation International.

“The government of France and the EU are again demonstrating their commitment to lead the global community in aggressively tackling climate change with this proposal,” said Boltz from Poznan. “The EU has been a leader in developing policies and markets to mitigate climate change. This would be an important step in moving dialogue about forest-based solutions to real economic incentives and actions. Without forests in the solution, it will be impossible to avoid increases in atmospheric CO2 concentration that will put the Earth in jeopardy of catastrophic climate impacts.”

9 December 2008

CCB Alliance enhances carbon standard
Carbon Positive on the updated carbon project verification standards issued by the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA).

The CCB Standard remains a pragmatic verification tool for project developers, laying down a non-prescriptive, conceptual set of criteria, rather than a rules-based approach. There are few restrictions on the type of activity that can be covered, but the onus is very much on project owners to demonstrate the impacts and benefits in a transparent and consultative way.
Timber harvest plantations, for example, do figure in the projects currently validated and registered, and aren’t confined to native species. But they do have to show a net benefit to biodiversity and advantages in the use of non-native species over natives. “I think our standards are sufficiently strict to rule out monoculture plantations,” Durbin says.

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We need to turn carbon into gold
Article by Oliver Tickell on financing of initiatives to address climate change. The article starts with an understatement: “Progress at the UN climate summit in Poznan, Poland, appears to have ground to a halt.”

To persuade countries like Brazil and Indonesia to change their ways, we need to pay them more keep their forest than we are already paying them to destroy it.
Currently the main idea, which goes under the acronym of REDD, is to create carbon credits by reducing deforestation in poor countries, and selling the credits to rich countries so that they can let their industrial emissions rip.
But this suffers from the grave defect that we need to reduce emissions from both forests and industry at the same time, not trade one off against the other.

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Poznan climate change meeting to see REDD
Press Release by the University of Queensland about REDD programmes in the Mekong Region. Features an interview with UQ forestry researcher Dr Peter Dart who took part in a a symposium in Hanoi in October 2008: “Preparing for Mitigation of Climate Change” for 150 policy makers and representatives from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Nepal.

The symposium and workshops in Vietnam were conducted by UniQuest, UQ’s main commercialisation company, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The symposium and workshops are a component of a project to manage forests in Mekong countries for carbon sequestration and REDD, which is funded by the Australian Government’s Asia-Pacific Forestry Skills and Capacity Building Program. Other support came from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, German Technical Cooperation, the Community Forestry Training Centre for Asia and the Pacific, the Netherlands Development Agency and ITC University.

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No Rights, No REDD
Post on the Youth Climate Movement’s blog “It’s getting hot in here” about striking the word “rights” from the REDD negotiations in Poznan.

The issue really is simple. The primary supporters of REDD are the International Emissions Trading Association (an industry front group for basically every bad company you can think of) vs. Indigenous people and people standing in solidarity with them.
It is about basic human rights. It’s about an unequivocal reference to rights and the the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People being reinserted into the Draft COP14 Decision text on REDD.

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People the losers from tree politics
Richard Black, a journalist at the BBC, blogs about REDD in Poznan. Includes quotations from Andrew Mitchell of the Global Canopy Programme and Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environment Network.

“We are only asking for that the Redd text recognises the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” declaimed Tom Goldtooth, a US activist of Navajo and Lakota descent.
“We stand with our brothers and sisters in the forested regions in asking for a suspension of the Redd process.”

10 December 2008

Deal struck on forests in climate talks
Associated Press describes the SBSTA draft conclusions on REDD as breaking an “impasse” and says that “environmentalists” said it “was an important step that cleared the way to discuss politically sensitive questions on how countries will be compensated for protecting their woodlands.”

The draft text also made no mention of biodiversity, which could allow countries to uproot natural forests to plant palm oil or fruit plantations, said Nils Hermann Ranum, of Rainforest Foundation Norway.
“More than 50 percent of the planet’s species are found in tropical rain forests,” he said, and may not fall under the protection of the climate agreement.
[ . . . ]
“It is a good text to go forward, though we didn’t get everything we wanted,” said Gustavo Silva-Chavez, a deforestation specialist for the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund.

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Indigenous people win voice in climate negotiations
Rhett A. Butler at Mongabay repeats AP’s positive spin on the REDD negotiations at Poznan. He follows SBSTA’s example and doesn’t mention the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Negotiators at U.N. climate conference have struck a deal to give forest-dependent people a voice in determining the role forest conservation will play future agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reports the Associated Press (AP). The agreement clears a key obstacle that had been blocking progress on reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), a mechanism that would compensate tropical countries for protecting their forest cover.

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Climate change forum turns spotlight on Congo
Business Daily article (subscription needed) about REDD and the Congo Basin.

“Paying for carbon credits will not be the answer,” lamented Mr Samuel Nnah Ndombe, an Agricultural Economist with the Cameroon-based Centre for Environment and Development.
In an interview with the Business Daily, Mr Ndombe termed the Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) as a cash-for-environment quick fix that might in the end, not work.
“They go about it like it is all about money.” He nevertheless said that the approach resonates well with African bureaucrats and relevant governments who will end up with additional disposable income.
“But such money fixes have little to offer to indigenous groups who have managed relevant forests throughout history.”

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Praise for French forest proposals
Post on OneClimate.net based on a Conservation International press release.

The emissions reduction impact and cost-effectiveness of REDD is bolstered further by a new study released in Poznan by Conservation International, the Terrestrial Carbon Group, Environmental Defense Fund, University of East Anglia, and The Woods Hole Research Center. The “Collaborative Modeling Initiative on REDD Economics” demonstrates that a properly-designed REDD mechanism will result in substantial CO2 emissions reductions, that excluding any country from REDD will result in increased deforestation by that country, and that REDD is cost-effective relative to other policies. REDD is an immediate climate change mitigation option and a critical element of climate stabilization efforts long-term.

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Africa proposes its own solution to global warming
Mongabay on a proposal by 26 African governments calling for the inclusion of carbon credits generated through afforestation, reforestation, agroforestry, reduced soil tillage, and sustainable agricultural practices in future climate agreements.

The African Climate Solution — a partnership launched at the current climate talks in Poznan, Poland — seeks payments from industrialized nations for efforts by developing countries to sequester carbon through land use practices. The initiative goes beyond the proposed reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) mechanism that is currently under debate at the Poznan conference.

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Insurance: Facing the threats of rising natural disasters while driving solutions to the climate change challenge
UNEP press release about the insurance industry and climate change.

Paul Clements-Hunt, Head of UNEP FI, said: “Forests have so far made a totally insignificant contribution to the overall CDM projects despite the enormous potential to contribute to not only combating climate change, but triggering significant financial flows to developing economies”.
“Our new report and survey indicates that hybrid, public-private insurance solutions may well be needed to kick-start the forest carbon market and to support the multi-trillion dollar potential of the reduced emissions from deforestation agenda that may emerge in 2009″.

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REDD is not just about carbon storage
Post on the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies by Elise Rindfleisch, comparing presentations by Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment at Forest Day 2 and Peter Gardiner of Mondi .

Gardiner’s presentation also synced with the Forest Day message. He quoted a principle goal of the Forest Dialog, “for forests to achieve full potential, improve governance, and empower Indigenous People and Forest Dependent Communities.” I was glad to hear this incorporated into the presentation, as often the interests of indigenous communities and forest peoples are at odds with the corporate world. It is along these lines that I can’t help but questions, will true equity really be a prerequisite in a REDD deal? This sentiment was echoed moments ago by Bolivia in the REDD contact group: we must continue to work to incorporate equitable treatment of indigenous peoples in the REDD agreement.

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Indigenous peoples outraged at removal of rights from UNFCCC decision on REDD
Jasmeet Sidhu blogs from Poznan on thestar.com about the protests against the removal of the word “rights” from the draft REDD negotiating text.

“This is totally unacceptable for indigenous peoples, as the forests which are being targeted for REDD are those which indigenous peoples have sustained and protected for thousands of
years,” said Canadian Ben Powless, a young member of the Mohawk Nation.
“We’ve only started to see the basic dialogue of the human rights impact on climate change. This is something we take very seriously as indigenous peoples, we have enshrined rights to protect our culture, protect our lands and territories.”

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What to Expect from the UN Climate-Change Summit
Time Magazine overview of what happened (and what didn’t happen) in Poznan.

One of the real accomplishments of last year’s U.N. summit in Bali was an agreement to move forward on avoided deforestation, a system that would pay rain-forest nations to protect their trees in exchange for carbon credits. (Deforestation is responsible for at least 20% of global carbon emissions.) But at Poznan, negotiations have gotten muddy. Thus far, no one can agree on what the rights of indigenous people who actually live among the trees should be in a forestry carbon market, while Brazil — home to 40% of the world’s remaining rain forests — seems against the entire idea of avoided deforestation. (Brazil favors a plan that would have rich countries contribute to a global fund that would work to prevent deforestation, instead of using the carbon market.) There are legitimate criticisms of avoided deforestation — but something firm on forestry needs to come out of Poznan.

11 December 2008

Deal on forests falls short
Mongabay’s Rhett A. Butler decides that the REDD deal agreed in Poznan isn’t so good after all. He quotes Dr. Fred Boltz, Vice-President of Conservation International and this time he does refer to Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

In particular, the Poznan resolution fails to take a strong position on protecting biodiversity. It refers to “co-benefits” but Boltz says the statement “is much weaker than we would like.” The agreement also fails to explicitly mention “indigenous rights” or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — points that indigenous rights advocates have been rallying around leading up to, and throughout, the conference.

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REDD negotiations
According to Emily Brickell of WWF UK, the “s” that was deleted from “Indigenous Peoples” in the REDD negotiating text, almost made a comeback.

So after their heavy session, the open session was expected as just a rubber stamping of the text that had been agreed following the battles behind closed doors. Rights and the “s” were nowhere to be seen - or at least that’s what was expected - but somehow there the “s” was in the text. Before you could blink a delegate from a prominent developed country was seen approaching the Chair - what they discussed could have been anything - but this was swiftly followed by an announcement of a typing error in the text - and just like that once again recognition of indigenous peoples groups was wiped off the face of the climate change negotiations.

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“No Rights, No REDD!”
Blog post by Valerie Davis of EnviroMedia Social Marketing. EnviroMedia describes itself as “a bunch of bright, committed, business-savvy strategic and creative thinkers” - it’s an advertising and PR company.

According to EDF’s 1-p.m. press release, closed-door negotiations on Wednesday led to an agreement to give Indigenous Peoples “a voice.” The agreement will be handed off to government ministers arriving in Poznan today.
“This is a crucial step forward,” said Steve Schwartzman, EDF’s director for tropical forest policy. “Is it everything indigenous people want and deserve? No but it guarantees talks will advance and indigenous groups will be heard. If we can’t find ways to compensate nations that slow deforestation, then tropical forests will be gone. That’s bad for the climate and for the people who live in the forest.”

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As Rain Forests Disappear, A Market Solution Emerges
Mongabay’s Rhett A. Butler writes on Yale Environment 360 about “an increasingly popular, market-based program known as REDD”.

Research suggests that once a viable international carbon market exists, pure economics alone may boost REDD. In areas where infrastructure is poor and forests are abundant, REDD may offer attractive economic returns for rural communities. Several studies in Indonesia and Brazil have shown that locals could earn far more if they received REDD funds to support sustainable development than they would from conventional logging or conversion of forests to farming. The world’s only sizable carbon market, in the European Union, prices carbon at $20 per ton. If investors seeking carbon offsets were to pay even a fraction of that amount to help preserve tropical forests in Indonesia, for example, it would dwarf the financial benefits the country receives from forestry – currently only $0.34 per ton of carbon released, one study has shown. Further, because REDD is compatible with sustainable harvesting of forest products and low-impact ecotourism, it could become an integral part of rural development schemes.

12 December 2008

Draft Resolution On REDD Sails Through To Copenhagen
Pacific Magazine welcomes the draft conclusions of the SBSTA at Poznan.

After three years of scientific research and trials on reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), a draft conclusion introducing a possible draft text for a new carbon trading initiative has been endorsed in Poznan.

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Ottawa’s stand at climate talks hurting native rights, chiefs say
Article Canada’s Globe and Mail (subscription needed) about Canada’s negotiating team in Poznan.

Canada’s position on the rights of indigenous people at the UN climate-change talks in Poland led Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl to receive a public tongue-lashing yesterday as he appeared at a gathering of Assembly of First Nations chiefs in Ottawa.
The chiefs made Mr. Strahl wait nearly an hour before allowing him to speak, and scolded him on stage before and after his speech.
“The actions of Canada in Poland are designed to undermine the rights of indigenous people here and elsewhere,” said AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine, standing in front of the seated Indian Affairs Minister. “It’s completely unacceptable.”

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Climate change efforts woefully inadequate, says Guyana president
Article in Carribean Net News based on Guyanan president Bharrat Jagdeo’s speech on the last day of the Poznan COP.

Those negotiating around a REDD mechanism recognize that all forest countries share the same goal and that focus should continue to be placed on the ‘big picture’ instead of negotiators becoming obsessed with minute methodological and process issues. In this case he noted that all countries need to work together since if REDD mechanisms exclude any significant group of countries, REDD will fail.
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) which have advocated that forestry should not be part of a global deal as its inclusion will flood the carbon market, and enable Annex 1 countries to avoid taking the tough choices needed to reduce their emissions at the scale required should recognize that the overall global emission reduction commitments must be deep enough. If they are, it was noted that there will then be room in market mechanisms to effectively address deforestation, whilst at the same time ensure that badly needed capital flows go to some of the poorest countries in the world.

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Laos needs funds for climate adaptation programmes
Vientiane Times article based on Lao Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office, Khempheng Pholsena’s speech on the last day of the COP in Poznan.

Ms Khempheng, who is also Head of the Water Resources and Environment Administration, said a forestry strategy had been developed that included the conservation of 20 National Protected Areas equivalent to about 14 percent of the country’s total land area.
In addition it was anticipated that 500,000 hectares of new tree plantations would be established in degraded areas by the year 2020, increasing the ratio of tree covered areas to 70 percent of the total land area.

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UK promises £100m to help reduce tropical deforestation

Guardian article about a UK proposal which could “could help tropical countries access billions of pounds of funding under a new UN scheme to extend carbon trading to forests.”

At the UN climate talks in Poznan, Poland, Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, said: “The money we are putting forward is to hasten action with regards to deforestation, and looking at how the global carbon market can help give an incentive to forest countries to reduce their rates of deforestation.”

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Commission endorses Poznań declaration on reducing emissions from deforestation
EU press release about the Poznań Statement on REDD:

European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas endorsed a joint ministerial declaration launched today by like-minded countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation. The statement commits a number of developed and key tropical developing countries to take early action to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation - a process known as REDD - in the developing world.

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A Treaty to Slow Deforestation
Living on Earth radio programme from Poznan. Includes a quotation from Sunita Narain, director of the Indian Centre for Science and the Environment, warning that the very idea of a global market in forest carbon is a mistake.

NARAIN: Let us be very clear: We should not let the self interest of countries who could not reduce emissions at home, and wanted a cheap deal, consulting companies, banks, to do creative carbon accounting, to do what is today being called counterfeit carbon currency creations. Forests are about survival of large numbers of poor people. This is not a resource that we can allow the world to play around with.

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Climate woes demand top commitment
Stabroek News article based on Guyanan President Bharrat Jagdeo’s speech on the final day of the COP in Poznan.

On December 5 President Jagdeo unveiled Guyana’s position on avoided deforestation which he was to present to the Poznan conference. It argued that the REDD mechanism must back compensatory economic alternatives which, based on calculations, could be worth US$580M per annum to this country.
It added that any REDD mechanism “must support the creation of economic alternatives that exceed the economic value to a nation (EVN) generated by pursuing rational economic activities involving deforestation”. The glossy 33-page document then proceeded to lay out a methodology for estimating the EVN.
However, the vexed question of how to finance such a mechanism was not addressed.

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Accord on greenhouse gases eludes conference
Bangkok Post article about the failure to reach an agreement on REDD at Poznan.

Aree Watana Tummakerd, a key member of the Thai delegation from the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (Onep), said the REDD was a promising scheme to combat climate change. The scheme would be good for Thailand, where community forests were intact and ready to serve the scheme. However, she warned the principle of REDD could be distorted if it is overly based on market mechanisms.

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Light REDD: The Looming Tragedy of Carbon Markets Paying to Destroy Ancient Forests
Ecological Internet’s Dr. Glen Barry writes about the dangers of carbon trading supporting continued logging in old-growth forests.

REDD buys into the pernicious myth that low-impact, certified, sustainable, ecosystem based, socially responsible, pixie-magic-dust methods exist to acceptably log a sixty million year old sacred and ecologically precious ancient forest. The world’s remaining primeval forests are ecologically and evolutionarily perfect, and there is no industrial management needed or possible that does not release huge amounts of carbon initially, while reducing long-term carbon storage potential. Nor can any sort of industrial scaled logging avert dramatic destruction forever of ancient forests’ structure, composition and function.

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Liberia Statement at the UN Climate Change Summit
Full text of the speech by Ben Turtur Donnie, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Liberia, on the last day of the COP in Poznan.

We need funds for some pilot activities, especially for forest communities while the REDD discussion goes on. We reiterate that REDD should be pursued based on National Circumstances.
Carbon credits accrued from these efforts of pre-2012 must be taken into account during post-2012 in order to encourage investment in technological advancement and developments. We think the development of codes of ethics and conduct for dealing with local communities is crucial.

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