February 21, 2012
Source: Jakarta Globe -- One of the key challenges facing REDD, as schemes to reduce forest carbon emissions are known, is poverty among communities living in and around forests, said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, a former minister who now leads the president’s REDD task force.The issue of poverty relates to a failure to recognize indigenous land rights, he said.
February 20, 2012
Source: Forest Peoples Programme -- From 8–11 February 2012, indigenous peoples’ representatives, civil society, NGO and state representatives gathered in Geneva to discuss the draft UN-REDD Programme SEPC and the draft UN-REDD Programme Guidelines on FPIC.
February 16, 2012
Source: Redd-standards -- Comments are invited on this document during a 60-day period from 9 February until 9 April 2012. The draft REDD+ SES Version 2 will be revised in response to comments received and a REDD+ second public comment period is planned for May and June 2012 before finalization of REDD+ SES Version 2. Specific comments about the content of the standards and suggestions for ways to clarify or improve the text will be much appreciated.
February 7, 2012
Source: AlertNet -- Today, a quarter of Nepal’s forests are managed by nearly 20,000 community forest user groups (CFUGs), the first of which were established by non-governmental organisations in the 1980s. The Nepalese government helped replicate the pioneering programme in areas where deforestation was taking place. Now more than a third of the population is now involved in the groups, which collectively manage 1.1 million hectares (2.7 million acres) of public land.
February 6, 2012
Source: IISD -- The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have released a working paper titled "Lessons for REDD+ from Measures to Control Illegal Logging in Indonesia," which examines the illegal logging context, including drivers, government regulations and moratoria, plantation development, certification options, and forest law enforcement and governance in Indonesia.
February 2, 2012
Source: NYT -- Early next month, the Obama administration will finalize important rules for the management of 155 national forests, covering nearly 200 million acres. The rules will guide individual forest managers as they decide which parts of the forest can safely be opened to logging, mining and recreation, and which parts must be set aside to protect wildlife and the health of the forest.
January 26, 2012
Source: NYTimes -- Brazil has made great strides in recent years in slowing Amazon deforestation and showing the world it was serious about protecting their rain forest. But since Dilma Rousseff was elected president in late 2010, there have been signs of a shift in the government’s attitude toward the Amazon.
January 24, 2012
Source: IISD -- Read the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Luc Gnacadja's, statement about sustainable forest management, sustainable land management and REDD+ at the African Forestry and Wildlife Commission (in French).
January 23, 2012
Source: CBD -- Read CBD's monthly compilation of REDD+ - related meetings, publications, and news.
Source: BBC -- A team of researchers says the standard cutting cycle of 30-40 years is too short to allow trees to grow to a volume required by commercial loggers.The scientists used logging on the Solomon Islands as an example because it was, in some respects, "a microcosm of the challenges facing sustainable forest management in the tropics".