Many indigenous peoples have lived in the same place for centuries, but they do not have legal tenure. Forest peoples, who live in the rainforests of South America, Africa and south-east Asia, are particularly vulnerable. Their forests are often sold or leased to companies or foreign countries for farming, logging or mining. The local people are usually evicted.

The sheer scale of the problem is highlighted in a report from the Forest Peoples Programme in the UK. The FPP estimates that roughly 1.3 billion people – more than one-seventh of the global population – are directly dependent on forests.

At least 350 million could lose their homes in land grabs, says Sophie Chao of the FPP, because their rights to the land are not recognised under national law.

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On May 8^th, 2012, Provincial People’s Committee of Lam Dong province in cooperation with the Transparency International and UN-REDD Vietnam Programme hosted the workshop on “REDD+ and International requirements for REDD+ Development and Implementation” in Da Lat city. The objective of the workshop was to provide the general information on Forest, Climate change REDD+, international requirements for REDD+ implementation, transparent issues in REDD+ and experience sharing. 

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This is the latest in a number of clashes over land – last month environmental activist Chut Wutty was killed in a threatened forest region.

Authorities say the land in question is owned by the government, but activists argue villagers have been farming the land for many years and have nowhere else to go if it is developed by a private company.

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In the afternoon contact group, Co-Chair Peter Iversen (Denmark) underscored that Decision 2/CMP.7 (LULUCF) requires the SBSTA to address: more comprehensive accounting; possible additional LULUCF activities under the CDM; alternative approaches to addressing the risk of non-permanence under the CDM; and modalities and procedures for applying the concept of additionality.

Parties agreed to prioritize work and submit text, including on the first three areas of work with a focus on technical aspects and experiences.

Brazil drew attention to non-permanence under the CDM, in particular to issues such as liability for reversibility, consideration of buffers and insurance and its implications. Belarus elaborated on time necessary to consider that “permanence” is achieved. The EU suggested parties also consider how the issue of addressing non-permanence would work, inter alia, between different commitment periods.

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Daddy Ruchiyat, chairman of the DPPI, said that just five years ago the province was the bedrock of the country’s natural forests and helped minimize the impact of carbon emissions.  “Now, we are the third largest emitter because more and more forests are turned into mines and residential areas,” he said in Balikpapan on Monday.

Fathur Roziqin, director of East Kalimantan’s Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), said that carbon emissions had begun to create extreme weather and unpredictable changes in climate. Fathur said the government should enforce the law, and join forces with civil society groups and local communities to protect the forests.

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Papua New Guinea, for COALITION OF RAINFOREST NATIONS, stressed the importance of agreement on: a REDD+ mechanism by COP 18; finance for its implementation, including a dedicated REDD+ funding window in the Green Climate Fund; and a new market-based mechanism.

REDD+ (SBSTA): After a morning contact group, parties convened informally in the afternoon and exchanged views on guidance for national forest monitoring systems and measuring, reporting and verification (MRV). On national forest monitoring systems, some parties indicated that the information monitored should be selected by each country implementing REDD+. Some parties also underscored that information requirements should be coherent with those applicable to nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs). One party stressed that the monitoring system should be a process established in a gradual manner. Another party highlighted that non-market approaches should also be considered and that data on other issues, such as ecosystem services, should be included. A number of parties emphasized that the system should be built on existing national monitoring systems. While some parties supported inviting the IPCC to provide further information on methodological issues, others opposed, with one party suggesting that this could be useful at a later stage. Many underscored the relevance of capacity building for the preparation of a robust and transparent monitoring system.

On MRV for REDD+, delegates focused on possible interlinkages between MRV for NAMAs and for REDD+. The co-chairs will prepare a non-paper reflecting parties’ views.

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The 2^nd Ministerial Steering Committee (MSC) Forum on Transboundary Haze last week decided that there is a need for regulations and incentives to be put in place by governments in order to induce the market to respond.

Innovative approaches and projects which involve government officials and community groups, corporations and landowners, as well as utilising local knowledge and building linkages with local communities were also important.

These solutions were in response to concerns by government leaders and officials from the MSC countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, who raised concerns that land and forest fires will recur in 2012, despite continuing efforts by the MSC, ASEAN and Indonesia.

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The suspension would cover more than 50 percent of the concessions owned by APP, a total area of 1.08 million hectares, managing director of sustainability and stakeholder engagement Aida Greenbury said during the announcement in Jakarta.

In the past, APP’s operations have been criticized for forest clearance and the adverse impact on the environment, including the sanctuaries of endangered species.

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“Megaherbivores act as the ‘gardeners’ of humid tropical forests: They are vital to forest regeneration and maintain its structure and biodiversity”, as was explained to SINC by Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, the lead author of the study that was published in the ‘Biotropica‘ journal and researcher at the School of Geography of the University of Nottingham in Malaysia.

In these forests in East Asia, the large diversity of plant species means that there is not enough space for all the trees to germinate and grow. As well as the scarce light, seed dispersion is made more complicated by the lack of wind due to the trees that are up to 90 metres high. Plant life is then limited to seeds dispersed by those animals that eat pulp. They either scatter seeds by dropping their food, regurgitating it or by defecating later on. 

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REDD+ cannot wait for the new climate treaty that is scheduled to start in 2020 before receiving adequate funding to move past pilot projects, said Louis Verchot, leading climate change scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). “We’ve been talking about this (REDD+) since 2005. We can’t just be talking about it for 15 years and not actually get something going on the ground,” Verchot said yesterday. “Countries are going to have to commit money and commit much more money.”

Negotiators will also need to discuss the details of a robust measurement, reporting and verifying mechanism (MRV) agreed during the last round of talks in Durban, South Africa, said Verchot. This includes how to implement a “stepwise approach” used to set emission levels against which carbon cuts will be measured under REDD+ schemes (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation).

During the next two weeks of SBSTA meetings, parties of the scientific and technical bodies of the UNFCCC will shape a draft text to develop and move forward with the agreements reached at the Conference of Parties (COP) 17 in Durban into the next round of climate talks in Doha, Qatar.

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