BBC World Service: Climate Change and Community Forest Management in Kuna Yala, Panama
Jun05

BBC World Service: Climate Change and Community Forest Management in Kuna Yala, Panama

Mongabay SRI Fellow Ruxandra Guidi published a seven-minute segment on BBC World Service’s Science in Action program.  The piece focuses on the indigenous Kuna of Panama, whose livelihoods and homes are already being affected by sea level rise and climate change, and the ways in which they are adapting to it while trying to preserve their customs and sovereign control of their forests. Listen to the full segment...

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The Joint Declaration of Intent on REDD+ in the Congo Basin between Central African and Donor Countries: making history, déjà vu, and which way forward ?

Op-ed by Ngembeni Wa Namasso, special to mongabay.com The Declaration on REDD+ expected as part of ongoing climate talks in Durban, South Africa, by the Central Africa Commission on Forests (COMIFAC) and some donor countries, was released, Wednesday, December 07, 2011. To many observers this declaration is a ritual and therefore, expected after every meeting by ‘high-level’ decision-makers on forests from that part of the World....

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Picture: 3D mapping of rainforests

In 2009, researchers with the Carnegie Institution, World Wildlife Fund, Amazon Conservation Association, and the Ministry of Environment, Peru used satellite images and airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), together with field plots, to map aboveground carbon stocks and emissions at 0.1-ha resolution over 4.3 million ha of the Peruvian Amazon. To measure forest deforestation, degradation, and regrowth, the researchers collected 27 LiDAR survey areas covering a total of 514,317 ha were collected throughout the 4.3 million ha region, at a spatial resolution of less than one meter.

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Forest carbon offsets under California’s AB-32

The Tropical Forest Group, a forest policy organization, has released a briefing on California’s AB 32 Regulations, as it relates to the reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) mechanism. Briefing Note on Proposed CA AB 32 Regulations An editorial by John O. Niles of the Tropical Forest Group can be found at: Can RED Hot California Heat Up A Sedated Cancun? (12/07/2010) In his concession speech after the...

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Without oversight and safegaurds, REDD may be caught up in web of corruption

The issue of measurement, reporting and verification of carbon levels is set for the agenda at COP 16 in Cancun next month. Experts warn, however, that more attention must be given to the monitoring and reporting of REDD+ financial flows, which stand to be caught up in complex webs of corruption. There will be a lot at stake. In Copenhagen last year developed countries committed new and additional resources to forestry worth $30 billion for 2010-12, and set out to mobilise $100 billion annually from 2020 to address the needs of developing countries. If any of that money makes its way into bank accounts overseas, the money trail becomes difficult to follow.

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Liberally Green

Conservation is traditionally associated with left-wing politics. The distinction between left and right dates back to the days of the French revolution when those supporting radical changes in society where seated on the left side of parliament. Left-wing politics tend to strive for a more egalitarian society, achieved through cooperative, mutually respectful collaboration.Right-wing politics may see social and economic hierarchies...

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Chinese Whispers in Indonesian Conservation

Why do we measure deforestation rates in number of football fields lost? This is causing major confusion.

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Conservation Forestry Rule Engine Financed by the Carbon Markets and A Commodity Buffer Zone
Jan09

Conservation Forestry Rule Engine Financed by the Carbon Markets and A Commodity Buffer Zone

  Previously, we wrote “the land dictates the rules, and rural communities are the gatekeepers” [The Jakarta Post, December 2007] regarding how should the nascent forestry ecological service market develop. Essentially, this equates “avoided deforestation” best practices with best practices in natural resources management. To explain further, a successful avoided deforestation project is a subset of land use,...

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