Australia and California have passed legislation allowing monetary value to be placed on carbon via the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). There are reports that these legislations have made private investors optimistic about investing in REDD+ projects.

Critics have often said the REDD+ mechanism is still evolving and there are not enough demonstrational activities that are suitable for private investment. Now with Australia and California legislating on the ETS, there is renewed hope that the REDD+ voluntary carbon market will also become more conducive to private investments.

REDD+ projects must provide the private sector with “very professional, very result-oriented opportunities” to be able to attract investments, said Virgilio Viana, CEO of Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS).

For now, the private sector must restrict itself to selling forest carbon in the voluntary markets and contributing funds to forest conservation or tree planting as part of corporate social responsibility programs.

“Until we start seeing that track record of success where the private sector can invest in demonstration projects, then it is hard to imagine a very fast scale up.” said Brer Adams Associate Director at Macquarie Global Investments.

Read more of THE PRIVATE SECTOR SEES OPPORTUNITIES FROM REDD + SCHEMES OF AUSTRALIA AND CALIFORNIA MARKETS here.

An outstanding tribute film to Wangari Maathai opened Forest Day Five of the UN Climate Change conference held on Sunday 4 December 2011 in Durban, South Africa. The film was commissioned by the World Agroforestry Centre, the Center for International Forestry Research and the United Nations Environment Programme on behalf of the Collaborative Partnerships on Forests.
 
Featuring Interviews from a host of prominent international figures in combination with archive footage of Maathai, the producers show the Nobel Laureate in her element as an environmental activist. The film is a call to action for every person involved in one way or another with forests.

Watch the tribute film here.

Forest Day 5 during the UN climate change meeting examined Africa’s declining forests, the status of REDD+ negotiations and new priorities for research into forests, trees and agroforestry

A new wave of deforestation is sweeping across Africa decimating wildlife and threatening the resilience of its ecosystems to withstand the effects of climate change—especially in the area of food security, experts said.

“Deforestation rates in Africa are accelerating,” said Helen Gichohi, President of the African Wildlife Foundation during a keynote speech at Forest Day 5 in Durban on the sidelines of COP17. “The disappearing forests, the overgrazed rangelands, and conversion to crop agriculture of grasslands and wetlands that had served as a refuge to drought have all diminished the resilience of ecosystems.”

She called for REDD+ funding to move more quickly to save the continent’s forest. REDD+ stands for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. It is a mechanism being discussed as part of the U.N. climate talks in Durban, which could see billions of dollars channeled to developing countries to protect their forests.

Gichohi’s message was echoed by fellow keynote speaker, Bob Scholes of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa, who said, “The next major wave of deforestation is already here and it is happening in Africa.

“If we can do something to influence deforestation we can have a greater effect on everything that has happened so far under the Kyoto Protocol,” he said. “This challenge is worth the effort.”

Scholes described the typical pattern for deforestation in Africa: loggers come into a forest, they chop the large trees and take out the valuable timber, then charcoal manufacturers remove a large proportion of the remaining trees, and then low-input, low-output agriculture arrives, which after a few cycles leaves the land degraded and of little value to anyone.

“It is urgent to safeguard Africa’s forests, not only because they slow climate change but also because they act as a final barrier to creeping desertification, underpin sustainable agricultural production, and support the livelihoods of tens of millions of rural poor,” said Frances Seymour, the Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

In her opening address, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said, “Climate change threatens to undermine many of the development objectives of countries in Africa and in the rest of the developing world, in particular in the areas of water, energy, health, agriculture and forestry.”

Scientists have warned that sub-Saharan Africa may be among the hardest hit regions by climate change. The continent has already been struck by a string of climate-related disasters, most recently the drought-induced famine in the Greater Horn of Africa. Experts say forest destruction and other forms of human-caused land degradation have transformed vast areas of once grazeable and farmable land into barren landscapes.

Gichohi said that 9 percent of forest cover has been lost between 1995 and 2005 across sub-Saharan Africa, representing an average loss of 40,000 square kilometres of forest per year. For example, Kenya has lost the majority of its forest cover to settlements and agriculture, leaving only 1.7 percent of its land still forested.

“Forests cannot be sustained if people are hungry or governance of natural resources is inadequate,” said Rachel Kyte, Vice President of Sustainable Development at the World Bank. “Hunger places a direct burden on forests when people are forced to push deeper into forested areas to grow crops… or resort to making and selling charcoal in order to buy food.”

With declining conditions in forests looming as a threat to climate health and the wellbeing of a billion impoverished people, the world’s largest consortium of agricultural researchers announced at Forest Day the launch of an ambitious global research program devoted to forests and agroforestry. The program will have an initial three-year budget of US$233 million. The CGIAR research program on Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry aims to reinvigorate efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and expand the use of trees on farms.

The initiative includes a focus on the critical importance of forests as natural “carbon sinks” that can help slow the pace of climate change and the need to conserve forest biodiversity. CGIAR experts believe that improved management of forests and trees can play a wider role in reducing risks for smallholder farmers and improving the well-being of forest-dependent communities, particularly women and other disadvantaged groups.

Current state of REDD+ and forests at COP17

The current state of climate negotiations, in particular around REDD+ and its implementation and the drivers of deforestation, were a major focus of discussions at the event. Although agriculture is acknowledged as a driver of deforestation in the current REDD+ draft text under discussion by the UNFCCC, more should be done to integrate agricultural and forest mitigation through a joint “landscape approach.”

Channeling the legacy of the late Wangari Maathai, Africa’s first female Nobel Peace Laureate and a champion for the environment, conveners screened a video challenging the global forest community to act boldly to diminish the threat of climate change.

“It is the people who must save the environment. It is the people who must make the leaders change. So we must stand up for what we believe in and we cannot be intimidated,” Maathai was quoted as saying in the film.

Photo: courtesy of the African Union
 

Ambitious 10-Year global research program aims to protect forest-carbon stocks, reduce risks for millions of farmers and forest communities.

With declining conditions in forests looming as a threat to climate health and the wellbeing of a billion impoverished people, the world’s largest consortium of agricultural researchers announced today an ambitious 10-year global research programme devoted to forests and agro-forestry.

The new 10-year CGIAR research program on Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry aims to re-invigorate efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and expand the use of trees on farms. The initiative is focused on the critical importance of forests as natural “carbon sinks” that can help slow the pace of climate change and the need to conserve forest biodiversity. CGIAR experts believe that improved management of forests and trees can play a wider role in reducing risks for smallholder farmers and improving the well-being of forest-dependent communities, particularly women and other disadvantaged groups.

The program will have an initial three-year budget of US$233 million. While US$90 million of that will come from the CGIAR, the balance will be raised through bilateral arrangements with donors.

“We urgently need a strong and sustained effort focused on forest management and governance, given the crucial role of forests in confronting some of the most important challenges of our time: climate change, poverty, and food security,” said Frances Seymour, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). “Otherwise we risk the further impoverishment of the billion people who depend on forests and trees for their livelihoods, continued carbon emissions from forest destruction and degradation that already are a significant source of greenhouse gases, and loss of ecosystem services crucial to sustained agricultural productivity.”

For example, deforestation and land use change contribute an estimated 12 to 18% of the world’s total annual carbon emissions, which are accelerating global warming. Large areas of forests are lost every day when trees are cleared to make way for food and biofuel production. In Sub-Saharan Africa, overharvest of trees for firewood and charcoal production is the most common driver of forest degradation. Unsustainable management practices are also a major contributor to the desertification of formerly forested areas and have played a role in the famine now plaguing the horn of Africa.

Rachel Kyte, Chair of the CGIAR Fund Council, and concurrently Vice President of Sustainable Development at the World Bank, said, “With this new research program we can create powerful collaborations to make a major contribution toward greater food security and climate stability.”

“We must be ambitious and drive innovation, adopt new methods, form new partnerships, and create more capacity if we are to close the time gap between research discoveries and their impact in real-world settings,” she said.

The new CGIAR forest program will involve the close collaboration of four of the world’s leading research centres: the Kenya-based World Agroforestry Centre, the Indonesia-based CIFOR, the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture (known by its Spanish acronym CIAT), and the Italy-based Bioversity International. In addition – and most important for impact – the programme will work with leading national research institutes and other organizations necessary to complement the core competencies of the CGIAR. It will partner with knowledge-sharing experts to maximize outreach and will engage policy and practitioner partners as the immediate clients for its research results.

The initiative will focus on areas where forests and agroforests that play a major role in local livelihoods and carbon sequestration (or other environmental services) are under severe pressure from timber extraction, agriculture expansion or other threats.

In many tropical countries in Asia, Africa and South America, vast swathes of forests are being lost to agriculture. There are certainly times when clearing forests for farms can improve local living conditions, but often such forest destruction intensifies poverty and does irreparable harm to valuable ecosystems.

While loss of forests to agriculture is a major concern, there are a number of CGIAR initiatives exploring the potential of cultivating trees on farms as a way to sustainably increase rural incomes.

“Roughly 10 percent of the world’s tree cover is found on farms—and the rate is increasing—making agro-forestry an important component of climate change mitigation and adaptation,” said Tony Simons, Director General of the World Agroforestry Center. “In developing countries, agroforestry systems also are providing cheap and nutritious fodder for animals along with non- timber forest products, like nuts and fruit, that boost farm incomes, particularly in households headed by women.”

Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, said that the program would also have a strong focus on biodiversity.

“The genetic diversity of the forest trees that people make use of is still barely understood,” he said. “We need to conserve tree diversity in the face of climate change, and ensure that forest dwellers continue to have access to the wide range of trees they need to support thriving communities.”

The five components of the research portfolio include:

• Smallholder production systems and markets, which will include a focus on boosting the productivity and sustainability of both forestry and agroforestry operations, increasing incomes in forested areas, and improving policies and institutions that affect land rights for the rural poor
   
• Management and conservation of forest and tree resources, which will involve research into threats affecting important tree species, conserving high-value tree species, improving silviculture practices, and developing ways to resolve conflicts over resource rights
   
• Landscape management of forested areas for environmental services, biodiversity conservation and livelihoods, which will explore the drivers and consequences of forest transition—in which deforested and degraded lands are restored—for environmental goods and services
   
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation, which considers how forests, trees and agroforestry can play a role in climate change mitigation and also how they can help people adapt to climate change
   
• Impacts of trade and investment on forests and people, which seeks to understand the effect of forest-related trade and investment and improve efforts to mitigate the negative impacts and enhance the positive impacts.

The new forestry program is one of 15 multi-centre programs to be developed and funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). To date, the CGIAR has approved a total of 9 programs, totaling US$2.27 billion, aimed at improving food security and the sustainable management of the water, soils and biodiversity that underpin agriculture in the world’s poorest countries.