News
Frances Davis 19 Jun 2013
Actions to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation lie at the foundation of efforts to address emissions from tropical deforestation and degradation, and are fundamental to achieving REDD+ [1]. But international climate change negotiations have so far failed to address the root of the problem.
Following the introduction of the issue of ‘drivers’ to the...
13 Jun 2013
The plenary session on REDD+[1] at the climate conference in Bonn this afternoon concluded with Parties congratulating one another on their cooperation, constructive discussions and overall progress made.
The text on REDD+ is to be finalised tomorrow morning, with expectations that three draft decisions will be taken forward for consideration at the next round of negotiations at the end of...
Matt Leggett 12 Jun 2013
What is the difference between a duck and the UNFCCC negotiations? So far, there seems to be none: both appear to be progressing smoothly on the surface and yet hide frantic paddling just out of sight. Or, as a negotiator this week quipped, ‘a duck floats’.
Attending the UNFCCC negotiations is increasingly an exercise in maintaining optimism in the face of all available evidence...
10 Jun 2013
A new policy brief from the Global Canopy Programme argues that negotiators at Bonn climate talks this June must address trade as a cause of deforestation. Without doing so, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) risks achieving nothing to avert deforestation as a source of carbon emissions.
In particular, GCP says that World Trade Organisation principles advocating liberal...
07 Jun 2013
The Natural Capital Declaration (NCD) has launched a new phase of action, during which signatory financial institutions will set about implementing the commitments laid out in the NCD. The news comes at the same time as two new signatories have been announced: Dutch bank FMO and Florida’s First Green Bank.
The NCD, a finance-led initiative committing banks, investors and insurers to...
Andrew Mitchell 03 May 2013
What do rainforests do for us?
Andrew Mitchell took a walk in Oxford’s Wychwood Forest looking for inspiration for his series of articles on rainforests in Resurgence and Ecologist. In his second article, he finds parallels in the story of how the Wychwood Forest lost its grandest trees, and the present day circumstances of deforestation in tropical regions.
“The parallels in...
Matt Leggett 16 Apr 2013
Matt Leggett’s comments were first published in the article UK backs corporate push to fight deforestation, by John Parnell, RTCC.
Last week’s announcement by the UK Government that it will join the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) 2020 is good news for efforts to strengthen public-private efforts to tackle unsustainable deforestation.
According to its goal statement, TFA...
Anna Bolin 14 Mar 2013
Pressure from the illegal cross-border timber trade with Thailand, Lao PDR and Vietnam has always been high on forests in Cambodia’s most remote north-east, east and western provinces. Additional pressures in these border areas stem from the activities linked to the military[1][i].
However, the strongest driver of deforestation in Cambodia is large-scale agribusiness, whose expansion is...
29 Jan 2013
The fourth annual Forest Footprint Disclosure (FFD) Report today revealed that 100 companies have voluntarily disclosed their forest footprint, an increase of almost 15% compared to last year; however, the gap between the leaders of the forest risk commodity sectors and their peers is ever growing.
The 100 companies that responded were among 450 global companies that received the Forest...
19 Dec 2012
The institutional and governance structure of Nepal’s successful community-based forest management regime may provide interesting lessons for national REDD+ implementation elsewhere in the developing world.
Nepal’s community forest management structures are arguably one of the leading models of community-based forest governance, with evidence showing that community forestry projects...