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ANNOUNCEMENT
Katoomba with us
Forest Trends is hosting two exciting Katoomba events in stunning locations this spring: Katoomba XIX in Iguazu Falls, Brazil from March 19-20 will look at scaling up sustainable commodity supply chains and Katoomba XX in Lima, Peru from April 22-25 will work towards aligning climate policy and finance with investments in forests and water. For 15 years, the Katoomba Group has convened global experts and leaders to advance the frontier of ecosystem services approaches. Our events convene government, industry, nonprofits, and communities – people who are not often in a room together, but should be – to solve problems on specific landscapes (and water-scapes!). To find out more about attending these exciting events, email Jennifer Baldwin ([email protected]) for Iguazu Falls or Gena Gammie ([email protected]) for Lima.
INTERNATIONAL POLICY
CDM knocking on death’s door?
The European Union could deal a death blow to the CDM market if it follows through on a proposal to ban the use of CDM credits in its emissions trading system. The offsets would only be allowed into the EU system if international negotiators reach a new climate agreement at the 21st Conference of Parties in Paris in 2015. The CDM market has been under significant pressure with prices dropping 98% in the past six years.
A marriage made in forest heaven
Quebec is going to eventually look to its new spouse California to supply carbon offsets, including forestry credits, to its cap-and-trade program, but demand from buyers in the Canadian province will be limited during the honeymoon phase of their linkage, listeners to a recent Climate Action Reserve webinar were told. Quebec’s compliance entities will ultimately turn to California to supply offsets as the three protocols so far approved by the province – livestock manure management, landfill gas capture, and destruction of ozone depleting substances – are expected to produce a finite number of credits, while California’s program has a greater reach since it also covers forestry offsets.
Jumping off carbon’s sinking ship
The likely dismantling of Australia’s carbon pricing scheme has claimed a major corporate casualty. Chief Executive Andrew Grant is leaving the CO2 Group, which blamed his departure and a plan to scale back the company’s carbon operations directly on the politically-charged decision by the new federal government to abolish the carbon tax regime, as well as the ongoing chaos in the carbon market. CO2 Group was the first company to generate carbon credits through creation of new forests under the Carbon Farming Initiative and to create credits from newly planted trees under the New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme.
NATIONAL STRATEGY AND CAPACITY
Burkina Faso is in!
Burkina Faso has officially been qualified as a REDD country after being awarded a US$3.8 million grant to put in place the necessary policies and systems needed to effectively reduce deforestation and forest degradation. This is a significant step forward for a country where forests cover approximately 43% of the total land area, and where high forest loss rates are driven by a combination of socio-economic, political, technological and cultural factors, among others.
Urgency and reality juxtaposed
The Indonesian government has appointed Heru Prasetyo as the head of its newly established REDD+ Agency. His mission will be reducing climate-changing emissions from deforestation, accelerating tree planting and reinforcing forest protection, as well as raising more funds for this work. The agency will look at urgent reforms to the ownership and usage of forests in Indonesia. Although changes are drastically needed, these cannot happen overnight, but gradually, according to Prasetyo.
Bolivia, Costa Rica REDD-y for their close-ups
Bolivia and Costa Rica have been added to the list of REDD Desk profiles. Bolivia has always been a good candidate for REDD given its high forest cover, high deforestation rates and low opportunity costs to reduce deforestation. Nonetheless, the country has publicly opposed the implementation of REDD+ since 2008. More recently, the Peruvian government started to realign its vision on sustainable forest management with UN-REDD. On the other hand, Costa Rica contains 4.8% of the global biodiversity in only 0.03% of the world’s landmass. Although the country experienced high deforestation rates until the 1980s, it is now a pioneer in the use of market mechanisms to reduce deforestation and is well known for its environmental policies.
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
Finite Carbon adds another notch
Finite Carbon and Potlach Corporation rang in the New Year by registering their improved forest management project in Arkansas with the California Air Resources Board (ARB). The Moro Big Pine project covers 15,809 acres of Red-cockaded woodpecker habitat (a federally protected species) and received an initial issuance of 220,208 ARB offsets for potential sale on California’s compliance market. The project joins the very first ARB-approved forest projects – the Farm Cove project in Maine, also developed by Finite Carbon, and the Willits Woods project in northern California – which both received credit issuances in November.
SOCIAL AND HUMAN DIMENSION
Wrongful evictions
Thousands of indigenous Sengwer people are being evicted from Kenya’s Embobut forest. Despite an appeal by more than 40 Kenyan and international human rights groups to stop forced evictions, the Forest Peoples Programme reported from the ground last week that Kenya Forest Service guards have burned as many as 1,000 homes, displacing thousands of people. The Kenyan government describes the Sengwer as ‘squatters’, though their ancestral land rights are written into the Constitution. Some Sengwer were offered money to move, but most did not want it. The evictions have been likened to a ‘fortress conservation’ approach that is now largely denounced by the international conservation community.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
It gets better with age
A team of 38 international researchers published in the journal Nature discovered that trees accelerate growth as they get older and bigger, actively fixing larger amounts of carbon compared to younger, smaller trees. Since trees lose carbon back into the atmosphere as they decompose after dying, the rapid carbon absorption rate of individual trees does not necessarily translate into a net increase in carbon storage for the entire forest. Yet these results have important implications for forest management because while they are alive, large old trees play a disproportionately important role in a forest’s carbon dynamics. The finding contradicts earlier assumptions that younger trees are growing more quickly and therefore sequestering more carbon.
Sometimes less is more
Restoring pastures and agricultural plots back into functioning forest ecosystems often involves high costs and time. Typically, trees are planted in rows and cover the entire restoration site. However, a recent study by researchers from Las Cruces Biological Station in Costa Rica and UC Santa Cruz showed that planting ‘tree islands’ – clusters of trees throughout a plot – may result in an equally effective and more economical reforestation strategy. As trees in these ‘islands’ grow, they shade out competitive pasture grasses, animals start spreading seeds, and the restoration process continues without further intervention. Soon the ‘islands’ begin to cover the entire plot, despite a much smaller upfront investment in tree planting. These results are promising, but there are still some logistical issues.
Oceans, the new climate change oracle
Scientists from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) found that by measuring sea surface temperatures off the shores of Brazil in the Atlantic Ocean, they could predict whether the dry season would be drier than usual in the Peruvian western Amazon. They also found that the greater the differences in temperature are between the sea surface in the northern and southern regions of the tropical Atlantic Ocean, the higher the likelihood of drought. These predictions could lead to better fire management programs during the dry seasons in the Amazon.
Too good to be true
Some doubters of the severity of climate change impacts have cited the fertilization quality of carbon dioxide (CO2) as evidence that higher concentrations of the stuff in our atmosphere will actually benefit forests by causing them to grow faster. But mounting research, including a recent study published in Nature, is showing that the negative effects of increased temperature and drought may outweigh any carbon-induced growth spurts. Compared to the same amount of warming in the 1960s and 1970s, a one-degree-Celsius rise in CO2 concentrations now releases about two billion extra tCO2e, the study found, using long-term atmospheric records from Mauna Loa and the South Pole.
STANDARDS AND METHODOLOGY
Lower-carbon logging
VCS’s new Reduced Impact Logging methodology is now up for public comment, through February 13. The methodology aims to reduce emissions around the three main logging activities that release carbon: felling, skidding, and hauling. For instance, a project might earn credits for reducing the number of trees cut and then abandoned or by narrowing logging roads. This is the first land use/forestry methodology to use a performance method, with the baseline set by region rather than by project. So far, a benchmark has been set for East Kalimantan, Indonesia. If logging operations are already meeting the additionality threshold, they can earn carbon credits.
Amazonian standard in the archipelago
The Rainforest Standard (RFS) launched in January at West Bali National Park in Indonesia. RFS is the first carbon credit standard to fully integrate the requirements for carbon accounting, sociocultural and socioeconomic impact, and biodiversity outcomes. Columbia University’s Center for Environment, Economy, and Society worked with national funds in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru to create the standard, taking into account the ecological conditions and social realities of the Amazon region. Adapted for Indonesia, the standard will be tested out at the West Bali National Park, which covers 190 square kilometers.
PUBLICATIONS
Highway through the forest zone
Economic growth is usually viewed positively, but not when it comes at the expense of the rainforest, as is happening in the Peruvian Amazon, according to a new CIFOR report. The country has a relatively low deforestation rate of 0.15% and the government has committed to achieving zero net deforestation, but deforestation currently accounts for nearly half of Peru’s greenhouse gas emissions. And the historical deforestation rates do not reflect the impact of new activities driving economic growth – a key priority for the poverty-stricken country – such as major road and energy infrastructure projects.
Landing on community chest
The REDD+ sector can learn a thing or two from those engaged in community forestry in Latin America, according to a new report called Lessons Learned from Community Forestry in Latin America and their Relevance for REDD+. Latin America is arguably the world leader in community forestry and offers multiple advantages for REDD+, according to the report. It makes a series of recommendations that REDD+ projects can build on, including supporting land tenure, reforming sectoral policies and stopping illegal activity, a major threat to community forestry activities in the region.
Blame it on the pine beetles
The government of British Columbia should take steps to reverse the trend of provincial forests emitting more carbon dioxide (CO2) than they absorb, according to the Sierra Club. Pine beetle infestation, slash fires, wood waste and clear cutting have all contributed to an alarming rate of CO2 emissions. The forest sector accounts for more than half of BC’s total official emissions, but that figure does not include forestry-related emissions beyond those associated with deforestation and afforestation. In November 2013, the BC government dissolved the Pacific Carbon Trust following a controversial report that questioned its support of forestry and other offset projects.
JOBS
Carbon Sourcing Manager – The CarbonNeutral Company
Based in London, the Carbon Sourcing Manager will source emission reduction projects from identification, evaluation, structuring and negotiation of ERPA through close; conduct technical due diligence on projects; and work closely with a sales team in London to source credits for client portfolios. The successful candidate will have a postgraduate degree, a minimum of two to three years of experience within primary carbon origination, and a strong working knowledge of carbon market standards: CDM, VCS, and Gold Standard.
– Read more about the position here
Campaigns Assistant, Forest Program – Environmental Investigation Agency
Based in Washington, DC, the Campaigns Assistant for the Environmental Investigation Agency’s Forest Program will support its work to document and expose illegal logging and associated trade and implement policy to stem the flow of illegal timber imports to consumer countries. The successful candidate will have excellent organization and time management skills, experience in advocacy and campaigns at the national or international level, and a strong interest in natural resource conservation.
– Read more about the position here
Director, CGIAR Research Program – CIFOR
Based in Bogor, Indonesia, the director will manage the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry (FTA): Livelihoods, Landscapes and Governance, which brings together several hundred scientists from across the organization. The director will provide intellectual leadership for the FTA, facilitate the delivery of research outputs, and coordinate work plans, budgets, and reporting.
– Read more about the position here
REDD+ Knowledge Sharing and Learning Consultant – World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Based in Washington, DC, the REDD+ Knowledge Sharing and Learning Consultant(s) will assist WWF’s Forest and Climate Programme to share knowledge about REDD+ through a regular webinar series, online community, and other platforms. The successful candidate will have experience in the field of development-based knowledge sharing, excellent communication skills, and experience working in an international, multi-cultural environment.
– Read more about the position here
Senior AFOLU Consultant – South Pole Carbon
Based in Zurich, Switzerland, the senior AFOLU consultant will generate business opportunities in the area of REDD monitoring, support South Pole Carbon’s forestry project department in technical work, and more. The ideal candidate will be well-networked with multilateral agencies, NGOs and donors in the REDD field; have at least five years of relevant experience in project management and consultancy; and an understanding of forest biometrics and monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV). English required; French, Bahasa Indonesia, Spanish or Portuguese would be an advantage.
– Read more about the position here
Malawi REDD+ MRV Specialist – Terra Global Capital
Based in Malawi, the REDD+ MRV Specialist will support the upcoming USAID-funded Malawi Integrated REDD Demonstration Program. Candidates must have an advanced degree in forestry, ecology or a related field and a minimum of eight years of relevant work experience, including at least five years of experience in Africa (preferably Malawi).
– Read more about the position here
Research Associate, Greenhouse Gas Protocol – World Resources Institute (WRI)
Based in Washington, DC, the Research Associate will join WRI’s GHG Protocol Corporate Team and be tasked with capacity building for Scope 3 accounting in the financial sector. The successful candidate will have two to four years of professional work experience related to the financial sector and/or corporate sustainability, preferably with a master’s degree in a relevant field, as well as experience with corporate GHG reporting and/or corporate value chains.
– Read more about the position here
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