GCP News

Richard Sandor has a new book out. He’ll tell you that markets are the solution before he hears the problem. Pollution? Climate change? Water shortages? Species extinction? Just create a new market and the problem will go away.

Or not. One of the markets that Sandor helped create is the carbon market. [...]

A recent report gives a critical view of the Clean Development Mechanism in Africa. The report, “The CDM in Africa: Can’t Deliver the Money”, draws together a dozen researchers under the guidance of Patrick Bond of the Centre for Civil Society in Durban, South Africa.

One of the chapters in the report, co-authored [...]

A new animated film about REDD was launched yesterday at the annual meeting of the Forest Movement Europe in Portugal. “This film attempts to explain the key issues in a simple to understand way,” says Wolfgang Kuhlmann of ARA, one of the seven NGOs that produced the film.

“Global deforestation cannot be solved [...]

The Phnom Penh Post has published another article in its investigation into corruption and illegal logging on a Conservation International project: “Rangers paid by an internationally funded conservation organisation have been directly profiting for years from the very trade they are supposed to be preventing in southwest Cambodia.”

Thap Savy worked at Conservation [...]

This film, produced by WALHI (Friends of the Earth Indonesia), starts with a villager in Aceh, Indonesia, explaining carbon trading. “I don’t really understand,” he says, “but I think it’s ‘cold air’ that may be sold to other countries.”

Later on in the film, we find out that Fauna and Flora International told [...]

Interview with Frank Momberg, Fauna and Flora International, in Jakarta, March 2012.

REDD-Monitor: Please start with some background about FFI and about FFI’s involvement in Indonesia.

Frank Momberg: FFI is the world’s oldest conservation organization, founded in 1903. It is based in the United Kingdom and works in 40 countries worldwide. We’ve been [...]

Carbon prices in Europe have crashed. Again. The most recent fall is a result of falling greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. In 2011, emissions fell by 2.45%. When the European Commission announced the reduction in emissions, the EU carbon price fell by 14%.

A total of 1.88 billion tonnes were emitted in 2011, [...]

Interview with Tejo Pramono, La Via Campesina and Elisha Kartini, Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI – Indonesian Farmers Union) at SPI’s office, Jakarta, February 2012.

REDD-Monitor: Please explain what Via Campesina and the Indonesian Farmers Union (SPI) are and how they work. What are the aims of the two organisations in Indonesia?

Tejo Pramono: [...]

In February 2012, REDD-Monitor wrote about a London-based company called Merlins Wood and its REDD-type projects in Pakistan. Sarhad Awami Forestry Ittehad (SAFI), a local NGO, rejected the agreements the company had made in Pakistan. SAFI has now produced a resolution about Merlins Wood.

Surriekha Khan, the owner of Merlins Wood responded at [...]

Celestial Green Ventures is a carbon trading company based in Dublin, Ireland. In November 2011, the company claimed to have “the carbon credit rights to an area of land in excess of 20 million hectares of vulnerable rainforest in the Amazon region of Brazil.” That makes it one of the biggest REDD companies [...]