Forest Carbon Asia

Bunge’s Brazilian REDD project to earn 800,000 carbon credits

Anuradha Vanniarachchy — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:47 +0000

Agribusiness giant Bunge expects its avoided deforestation project on private land in Brazil to be issued around 800,000 voluntary carbon credits by the second half of the year, the firm’s Brazil country manager said.

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Indian law resource center calls on UNPFII to improve World Bank safeguards policies

Anuradha Vanniarachchy — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:57:21 +0000

The Indian Law Resource Center has called on the UN Permanent forum on Indigenous Issues to ensure that the World Bank implements the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

At the 11^th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which is taking place this week in New York, Leonardo Crippa, a Senior Attorney with the Indian Law Resource Center made a statement pointing out that, “There is a need of stronger safeguard measures to protect indigenous peoples’ lands, natural resources and self-determined governing institutions, among other issues.” The statement was supported by the Mexico and Central and South America Indigenous Caucus as well as the Asia Indigenous Peoples Caucus.

Currently, the World Bank’s safeguard policy on indigenous peoples is weaker than the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. For example, the Bank’s policy requires free, informed consultation, but not free, prior and informed consent. The Bank’s claim that there is no universally accepted definition of FPIC is surprising, given the large amount of work that has been carried out on FPIC. And taking note of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is clearly not the same as implementing the Declaration.

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Land Use Planning for Low Emission Development Strategy (LUWES)

Anuradha Vanniarachchy — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:01:42 +0000

Land Use Planning for Low Emission Development Strategy (LUWES) is a framework that helps local stakeholders to design a development planning that can reduce green house gas emission from land-based activity while still maintained economic growth. This offers a set of principles, steps and tools (including a Java-based software, ABACUS SP) to help multi-stakeholders to negotiate the land use plans by entertaining scenarios that can be developed together.

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Defining REDD+ Success: Expert workshop on safeguard information systems and private sector engagement

Anuradha Vanniarachchy — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:39:53 +0000

Two critical determinants of REDD+ success moving forward are: (1) developing and implementing REDD+ safeguard information systems (SIS) and (2) fostering effective private sector engagement in the REDD+ value chain.

To explore these issues, an expert meeting was held in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 2–3, 2012, under the Building REDD+ Policy Capacity for Developing Country Negotiators and Land Managers project. The workshop was delivered by IISD and the ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins at the World Agroforestry Centre (ASB-ICRAF), with the generous support of the Government of Norway. Experts from government, the private sector and civil society from 18 countries shared information and lessons learned in order to build capacity on REDD+. This report provides a summary of the key messages and proceedings of the meeting.

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Building REDD+ Policy Capacity for Developing Country Negotiators and Land Managers Phase III: Lessons learned

Anuradha Vanniarachchy — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:34:39 +0000

This report provides a summary of the key messages and proceedings of the meeting. Please click here to download.

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The global land rush: What the evidence reveals about scale and geography

Anuradha Vanniarachchy — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:28:07 +0000

In developing countries, millions of people depend on land for their food and livelihoods. But a global ‘land rush’ — moves to acquire large tracts of land across the world — is increasing competition for this vital resource. A growing body of evidence points to the scale, geography, players and key characteristics of the phenomenon. Some of this is based on media reports and some on country level inventories. Much of the data cannot be compared due to variations in methodology, timescale and the differing criteria for what makes a land deal. Further improving data and analysis is critical. But while exact numbers will keep changing, all evidence indicates that land acquisitions are happening quickly and on a large scale. So we urgently need to get on with developing appropriate responses.

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Transnational Land Deals for Agriculture in the Global South: Analytical Report based on the Land Matrix Database

Anuradha Vanniarachchy — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:19:32 +0000

The 2007/2008 spike in the price of agricultural commodities was accompanied by a spike in media reports of huge transnational farmland acquisitions. Commentators were soon referring to “land grabbing”, or to a new “global land rush”. However, others have argued that the boom is really only a bubble which is driven by speculation and is thus not likely to materialize in real projects. While some have seen a major threat to the rights and livelihoods of the rural poor in the Global South, others have pointed to potential opportunities arising from new investment in a long-neglected sector. The real extent and the nature of this new phenomenon have been hard to assess, particularly because of the lack of reliable data.

The Land Matrix project was set up to respond to this gap. This report draws on the Land Matrix database to analyze and better understand the phenomenon of large-scale agricultural land deals. It focuses on:

land acquisitions or investments (“deals”) targeting the Global South and Eastern Europe, including only low and middle income countries;
transnational deals, excluding deals where only domestic actors are involved; and
deals where the envisioned land use is agricultural.

The Land Matrix figures confirm that there is a worldwide rush for land, although it has lost some of its initial pace. Many deals have been more than just speculation and strategic positioning. A large number of contracts have been signed and followed through by the implementation and start of operation of projects.

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Beauty and the Beast: Norway’s investments in rainforest protection and rainforest destruction

Anuradha Vanniarachchy — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:09:54 +0000

While the Norwegian government has been widely commended for its efforts to protect the world’s rainforests through REDD++, the report discloses lesser known facts about the same government’s massive investments in industries that drive forest destruction in developing countries.

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Report of the Eighth Policy Board Meeting

Anuradha Vanniarachchy — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:01:34 +0000

The eighth UN-REDD Programme Policy Board meeting was held in Asunción, Paraguay from 25-26 March 2012. There was also a joint meeting of the governing bodies of the UN-REDD Programme and the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility on 27 March 2012 at the Granados Park Hotel back-to-back with the UN-REDD Programme Eighth Policy Board meeting.

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Why New Zealand’s consultation process is important for REDD+ countries

Anuradha Vanniarachchy — Fri, 18 May 2012 02:19:11 +0000

As the first country to implement a national level emissions trading system (ETS) that also includes a forestry component as part of its climate change strategy and meets New Zealand’s obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, NZ’s experience in developing this system warrants close attention. In particular, NZ’s consultation with its Indigenous Peoples for the creation of their ETS is an important example that can provide valuable lessons for countries such as Colombia, Chile, and other countries as they begin constructing their own climate policies. In fact, NZ’s experience may be particularly useful to countries pursuing national strategies to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+).

This case study addresses the steps taken by the New Zealand Government to incorporate Māori interests in designing its 2008 emissions trading scheme (NZ ETS). It will explore the NZ ETS consultation design with respect to Māori inclusion and participation, determine which, if any, strategies should be replicated elsewhere, and identify ways to improve the consultation process in the future.

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