Latest Media Reports
Options on Negotiating a Legally Binding
Agreement on European Forests Forwarded to Ministerial Meeting
World Bank Signs First ERPA on Soil Carbon in
Africa
NOVEMBER 2010
Options on Negotiating a Legally Binding Agreement on European
Forests Forwarded to Ministerial Meeting
19 November 2010:
FOREST EUROPE released a media notice, on 19 November 2010, noting that
the FOREST EUROPE Working Group on preparing options for a decision on a
possible legally binding agreement on forests in Europe has finalized
its tasks. Documents prepared by the working group include: a non-paper
on a possible legally binding agreement on forests in Europe; technical
background for a ministerial decision on negotiating a legally binding
agreement on forests in Europe; draft Oslo decision on opening
negotiations on a legally binding agreement on forests in Europe; and
consideration of possible rules of procedure for the Negotiating
Committee to prepare a legally binding agreement on forests in Europe.
The documents have been distributed for national consultations, and will
be forwarded to the next FOREST EUROPE Ministerial Conference, which
will be held on 14-16 June 2011, in Oslo, Norway. [The
media release]
World Bank Signs First
ERPA on Soil Carbon in Africa
November
2010: The World Bank signed the first African Emission Reduction
Purchase Agreement (ERPA) on soil carbon for the Kenya Agricultural
Carbon Project, located on 45,000 hectares in the Nyanza Province and
Western Province of Kenya. Small-holder farmers and small-scale business
entrepreneurs are trained in cropland management techniques, which
increase the yield of the land and generate additional sources of income
for the farmers through the payment for environmental services in the
form of carbon credits. The World Bank-administered BioCarbon Fund will
buy the carbon credits, providing direct benefit to local communities of
over US$350,000 with an initial payment of US$80,000 to be made in 2011.
[World Bank
press release]
OCTOBER 2010
International
Forest Film Festival Calls for Entries
19 October 2010: As part of
the celebrations planned for the International Year of Forests 2011, the
UN Forum on Forests, with the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, is
organizing the International Forest Film Festival. The Festival's theme
is "Forests for People," and has as subcategories for awards: 360
Degrees on All Things Forest; Living Forests; Issues & Solutions; Forest
Hero; "This is my forest"; and Shorts. The Festival aims to raise
awareness on the importance of forests, and humanity's relationship with
them. The deadline for entry submission is November 30, 2010. Film
screenings will take place from 24 January-4 February 2011, at UN
headquarters in New York City, US. [Festival
website] [International
Year of Forests 2011 website]
World Bank receives
pledge from Norway for Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund
9 October 2010: Norway has
pledged US$30 million to the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF),
entrusted to the World Bank, with the aim of supporting Guyana's
policies for limiting greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation, and its progress in governance-related indicators.
Guyana will invest the payments it receives, and any income earned on
them, in its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). Norway's payments
to Guyana may amount to approximately US$250 million over the period to
2015, depending on Guyana's performance according to a methodology set
out by the two countries in November 2009. The partnership is based on
the concept of "payment for ecosystem services" and aims to contribute
to the creation of a global regime to assign economic value to standing
forests. [World
Bank press release]
SEPTEMBER 2010
Five New Countries Join UN-REDD as Partner Countries
3 September 2010: Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Central African Republic, Colombia and Guatemala have joined the UN-REDD
Programme as partner countries.
The Programme has nine pilot countries,
where reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in
developing countries (REDD)-readiness activities are taking place, and
now 18 partner countries, which can take part in the Programme's online
community of practice for sharing knowledge and networking. Partner
countries can also take part in global and regional workshops, including
technical workshops, and attend UN-REDD Policy Board meetings as
official observers. [UN-REDD
press release]
Global Mechanism Developing South-South Cooperation Web Portal
September 2010: The Global Mechanism of the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD) is developing a web-based, knowledge exchange
tool to strengthen the role of local stakeholders in decision-making
processes related to Sustainable Land Management (SLM). The scope|acp
project is a component of the UN Environment Programme's (UNEP) Capacity
Building related to Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in
African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries programme. The project
is funded by the European Commission (EC). The Global Mechanism is
currently developing the web portal's features, and is seeking feedback
regarding its content and structure through a survey. [scope|acp
web site]
JUNE 2010
EU Moves Towards Ban on
Importing Illegal Timber
The European Council and European
Parliament have signed a provisional agreement that would ban illegal
timber from entering the EU. The provisional agreement contains two key
provisions: the prohibition against bringing illegally logged timber
into the European market; and the obligation that timber and timber
products be traceable throughout the supply chain. It also includes a
due diligence system where the importer bringing the timber into the
European market must show that they have done everything possible to
ensure the legality of the timber source, including conducting risk
assessments based on all "relevant" information about the timber's
supply and source and attempting to mitigate those risks. The new
agreement will reinforce forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT)
efforts, including voluntary partnership agreements between the EU and
several countries. The Council and the Parliament have been negotiating
this agreement for two years. The Parliament is expected to vote on the
agreement on 7 July 2010. [ICTSD
news release, 25 June 2010]
UN-REDD
ACTIVITIES SUPPORT SAFEGUARDING MULTIPLE FOREST BENEFITS
7 June 2010: A recent editorial by the UN-REDD
Programme Officer, Wahida Patwa-Shah, and UN-REDD Natural Resources
Officer, Linda Rosengren, highlights activities supported by the UN-REDD
Programme in their efforts to ensure that biodiversity and social
safeguards are being met when implementing mechanisms for reducing
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing
countries (REDD+). Activities in this vein include: developing a draft
"do no harm" approach for minimal social standards related to
governance, stakeholder livelihoods and policy coherence, as well as an
accompanying risk assessment tool; developing maps that identify high
biodiversity and high carbon overlaps to allow for informed decisions on
the biodiversity benefits of prioritizing different areas for REDD+; and
assessing the real costs of alternative uses of forests, including
addressing who bears the cost of present or future changes in uses.
Link to further information
UN-REDD media release, 7 June 2010
MAY 2010
CAMEROON, EU SIGN TIMBER TRADE AGREEMENT
Cameroon and the European
Union (EU) have signed a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) that
seeks to ensure that only legally harvested timber from Cameroon enters
the domestic or EU market. The VPA, which will be implemented in 2012,
specifies that all wood products exported to the EU from Cameroon will
require a license verifying the legal origin of the timber as well as
proving that it was harvested in an ecologically-sound way that gives
benefits back to forest communities. Civil society groups have praised
the transparency of the negotiating process that led to the VPA. The EU
has signed VPAs with two other African nations: Ghana and Republic of
Congo.
Link to further information
ICTSD media release, 14 May 2010
UNEP-WCMC LAUNCHES CARBON AND CO-BENEFITS WEB SITE
The UN Environment Programme-World
Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC), with support from the German
Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), has launched a new website
highlighting the potential for actions on maintaining natural carbon
stocks to generate co-benefits, i.e. that are additional to climate
change mitigation effects. The new UNEP-WCMC website demonstrates the
utility of spatial analyses to assist decision makers in identifying
areas where high carbon, high biodiversity priority and ecosystem
service values overlap, in order to secure co-benefits. It showcases
UNEP-WCMC's recent work with in-country partners on developing such
analyses and includes an interactive mapping tool that allows users to
explore the spatial relationships between carbon and co-benefits.
Link to further information
Carbon, biodiversity & ecosystem services web site
APRIL 2010
DIALOGUE ON LARGE-SCALE INTERNATIONAL LAND
ACQUISITIONS INITIATED
A
partnership of civil society and intergovernmental organizations, the
International Land Coalition (ILC), along with three regional farmers'
organizations and an international NGO, have initiated an international
dialogue process on large-scale international land acquisitions. The
goals of the dialogue are to amplify the voices of affected peoples who
have been largely excluded from the discussions so far, and to widen the
debate on how the international community should respond to this growing
phenomenon. The global dialogue will have two stages: bringing together
excluded groups for information-sharing and discussion of various
possible responses; and broadening the dialogue with stakeholders
involving multilateral and governmental organizations and the private
sector. The dialogue will seek to enable a wider diversity of
stakeholder groups to influence the nature of global responses to
large-scale land acquisitions and to consider their alternatives. The
initiators will expand into a Convening Committee during May 2010, with
an aim to begin holding regional meetings, leading to a global dialogue
meeting by the end of 2010.
The regional
farmers' groups participating in the dialogue are the Asia Farmers
Association, Confederación de Organizaciones de Productores Familiares
del MERCOSUR (COPROFAM) and Réseau des organisations paysannes et des
producteurs agricoles de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ROPPA; Network of
Peasants' & Agricultural Producers' Organizations of West Africa). The
international NGO is ActionAid International (AAI).
Link to
further information
Announcement, 23 April 2010
UNICEF ISSUES WARNING ABOUT MALNUTRITION CRISIS IN
AFRICA DUE TO DESERTIFICATION
The United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that severe
malnutrition is affecting an estimated 859,000 children under the age of
five living in the Sahel region of Africa due to droughts and increasing
desertification. The UN agency indicated that Burkina Faso, Mauritania,
Mali, Niger, northern Nigeria and Chad are suffering from severe
malnutrition and will need support from donors to provide funds for
humanitarian programmes. UNICEF indicated that only half of the funds
sought to address the crisis have been raised. UNICEF spokesperson
Christiane Berthiaume stressed that the ongoing drought in the Sahel
region has created a food crisis that is already putting at risk the
health of the region's most vulnerable children.
Links to further information
UN News Centre, 9 April 2010
FAO: WORLD DEFORESTATION DECREASES, BUT
REMAINS ALARMING IN MANY COUNTRIES
The UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released the key findings of its 2010
Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA 2010). The report points out
that global deforestation rates have declined in the past decade, but
remain alarming in many countries. It states that 3 million hectares of
forests were converted to other uses or were lost through natural causes
each year between 2000 and 2010, with South America and Africa having
the highest net annual loss of forests during that time. With extensive
afforestation programmes in China, India and Viet Nam, the Assessment
notes that Asia registered a net gain of 2.2 million hectares annually.
It further notes that primary forests have decreased by more than 40
million ha since 2000, largely due to reclassification of primary forest
to "other naturally regenerated forests" because of selective logging or
other human interventions. The full report will be available in October
2010.
Links to further
information
FAO media release, 25 March 2010
Key Findings of FRA 2010
UN-REDD AND INDONESIA COLLABORATE TO CURB DEFORESTATION
Indonesia and the UN-REDD
Programme launched efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation in developing countries (REDD) in Indonesia by
supporting the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry in their preparations for
national REDD implementation. US$5.6 million, provided by the Norwegian
Government, was allocated to help with policy preparation, testing of
methodologies, and coordination between the different REDD
initiatives in Indonesia. In launching the initiative, Forestry Minister
Zulkifli Hasan highlighted the importance of local communities in REDD,
calling for REDD to help improve livelihoods of forest-dependent
communities, as well as preserve forests and biodiversity.
Links to further
information
Indonesian Embassy of Norway media release
UN-REDD News feed
MARCH 2010
FAO DIRECTOR-GENERAL
PLANTS TREES IN HAITI
Director-General of the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) Jacques Diouf launched, with the
Government of Haiti, the spring planting season by distributing seeds,
fertilizer and tools to farmers at a ceremony during a recent four-day
visit to Haiti. The Director-General also planted fruit trees with young
people in the community of Croix-des-Bouquets, outside Port-au-Prince,
and pledged FAO's support to the Government's campaign to plant 10
million trees, starting with fast-growing fruit trees that provide a
quicker return on investment, and later including other tree
species. The FAO had recently announced the launch of its "Fruit trees
for Haiti" initiative to raise funds for fruit trees in school gardens
and to build awareness of the role of trees in protecting the
environment and reducing risks from hurricanes, flooding and erosion.
Link to further information
FAO media release, 15 March 2010
UNECE AND FAO
COLLECTING DATA ON EUROPE'S FORESTS
The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have begun collecting
data on the state of forests and forest management in Europe. Data will
be collected from 46 countries in the European region, and will include
information on forest health and vitality, productive and protective
functions, biodiversity and social and economic dimensions of forest
management.
UNECE/FAO have invited national
correspondents to provide measurements of a variety of numeric data,
such as forest carbon stock, timber trade and employment, as well as a
description of policies, institutions and financial instruments.
The results of the data collection, which
is performed every four years and is based on the pan-European Criteria
and Indicators for sustainable forest management, will be presented in
the "State of Europe's Forests" report. This report will be released at
the sixth Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe
(MCPFE), which will be held in Norway in 2011.
Link to further information
UNECE press release, 11 March 2010
WORLD BANK ANNOUNCES FIRST LARGE-SCALE FOREST CDM PROJECT REGISTERED IN
AFRICA
The World Bank has
presented Africa's first large-scale forestry project to be registered
under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The Humbo
Assisted Natural Regeneration Project will bring environmental, economic
and social benefits to poor communities in Ethiopia and is expected to
cut an estimated 880,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere over the next 30 years. The sale of carbon credits under the
BioCarbon Fund will provide an income stream of over US$700,000 to the
local communities over a minimum of ten years.
Link to additional
information
World Bank press release, 3 March 2010
ITTO AND CBD SIGN
COLLABORATION AGREEMENT
The Secretariats of the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) and the International Tropical Timber
Organization (ITTO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to
enhance their collaboration over the four coming years. The MoU, based
on a request from the governing bodies of both secretariats, is aimed at
facilitating the implementation of activities linked to the conservation
and sustainable use of tropical forest biodiversity within the CBD and
ITTO work programmes. Concrete joint activities for 2010 and 2011
include collaboration on the seamless bridging of the International Year
of Biodiversity in 2010 and the International Year of Forests in 2011;
the organization of an International Conference on Biodiversity
Conservation in Transboundary Tropical Forests; the development, use and
dissemination of publications of common interest; and the development of
a support programme for the implementation of the CBD programme of work
on forest biodiversity in ITTO member countries.
Link to further information
CBD communiqué, 2 March 2010
FAO CALLS FOR
PROPOSALS FOR FOREST LAW ENFORCEMENT PROGRAMME
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
announced the second call for proposals for pilot projects and technical
assistance through the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade
Support Programme for African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP-FLEGT
Support Programme). The four-year initiative has two main components:
providing assistance to ACP countries in putting the European Union
FLEGT Action Plan into practice, and supporting the collection, analysis
and dissemination of FLEGT-related information and lessons learned among
stakeholder groups in ACP countries.
Link to further information
The
call for proposals
EIGHT COUNTRIES JOIN
UN-REDD PROGRAMME POLICY BOARD
Costa Rica, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, the
Philippines, Republic of Congo, Solomon Islands and Sudan have been
invited to join the UN-REDD Programme Policy Board. With these
additions, there are now 13 UN-REDD observer countries, along with 9
pilot countries. While UN-REDD funding is programmed for the pilot
countries, observer countries can take advantage of networking and
knowledge-sharing benefits facilitated by the Programme. The Programme
continues to consider requests from all countries.
Link to further information
UN-REDD media release
FEBRUARY 2010
UNCCD
NATIONAL REPORTING AND REVIEW SYSTEM UNDERWAY
Parties at the ninth Session
of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD), which convened in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from
21 September-2 October 2009, adopted a new performance review and
assessment of implementation system (PRAIS). To facilitate the new
system, parties also called for a comprehensive capacity development
programme. A large portion of the funding for the project was approved
by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council on 4 February 2010, and
the implementing and executing agencies have planned services to be
rendered to affected country parties and other reporting entities in
time for report submission scheduled for mid-July 2010, with a view to
having reports reviewed by the early November 2010 session of the
Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC).
Link to further
information
UNCCD PRAIS webpage
VCS AGRICULTURE,
FORESTRY AND OTHER LAND USE METHODOLOGY UNDER REVIEW
An
Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use methodology is being assessed
under the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) double approval process, and
has been posted on the VCS website for a 30-day public comment period.
This methodology is a "Baseline
and monitoring methodology for conservation projects that avoid planned
land use conversion in peat swamp forests,
Infinite Earth, Ltd."
Links to further
information
The
methodology
Full
list of methodology elements available for public comment
FAO PUBLISHES WEBSITE
ON ASSISTED NATURAL FOREST REGENERATION
The UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) has published a new website on assisted natural
regeneration (ANR) of forests. The website explains that ANR aims to
accelerate, rather than replace, natural successional processes by
removing or reducing barriers to natural forest regeneration such as
soil degradation, competition with weedy species, and recurring
disturbances. The website also lists benefits to ANR, including
providing job opportunities for communities, increasing biodiversity,
and increasing carbon sequestration.
Link to further information
The
website
JANUARY 2010
CLIMATE INVESTMENT FUNDS EXTEND FUNDS TO
EXPRESS INTEREST IN FOREST PILOT PROJECTS
The Carbon Investment Funds (CIF) have
announced the extension of a deadline, to 1 February 2010, for eligible
countries to submit expressions of interest to participate in the first
projects to be funded by the Forest Investment Program (FIP). An Expert
Group will be invited to recommend five pilots to the Sub-Committee and
a list of up to three additional countries to be considered should funds
become available to finance additional pilots or should some of the
selected pilots prove not to be feasible.
Link to further information
FIP
pilot programs
UNEP PUBLISHES ACP MEA PROJECT UPDATE
The UN
Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Commission have released a
newsletter on the Multilateral Environment Agreements in African,
Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP MEAs) Project. The newsletter
contains an article by the Managing Director of the Global Mechanism
(GM) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), describing
the GM's efforts to strengthen capacities of participating ACP country
stakeholders by building partnerships on key cross-cutting and
horizontal thematic issues that support the implementation process of
the UNCCD. The newsletter also provides information on upcoming
activities in the African, Caribbean and Pacific project hubs.
Link to
further information
African, Caribbean and Pacific Multilateral Environmental Agreements
website
UN DECADE FOR DESERTS
AND THE FIGHT AGAINST DESERTIFICATION COMMENCES
Following the December 2009 adoption by the
UN General Assembly (UNGA) of the related decision, the UN Decade for
Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification (2010-2020) commenced on 1
January 2010. The decision designates the Secretariat of the UN
Convention to Combat Desertification as the focal point for the decade,
in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme, UN Development
Programme, International Fund for Agricultural Development and other
relevant UN bodies. States parties to the Convention, observers and
other relevant stakeholders are encouraged to organize activities to
observe the Decade "with the aim of raising awareness of the causes of
and solutions to ongoing land degradation and desertification in the
framework of the ten-year strategic plan and framework to enhance
implementation of the Convention (2008-2018)."
Links to further information
Second Committee Decision A/C.2/64/L.67
UNCCD website
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