Avoided Deforestation and Degradation

FERN’s aim is for an EU commitment to halting forest loss in a way that ensures forest peoples’ rights and is not based on carbon offsets.

FERN’s analysis: Initiatives which focus on reducing deforestation are rightly deemed as urgent, but there is a real danger that the focus on carbon will distract from dealing with the real drivers of deforestation. This is particularly true for Initiatives aimed at to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). They could easily end up delaying the necessary transition to low carbon economies if they allow for industralised countries to offset their own fossil fuel emissions with claimed reductions in deforestation elsewhere. FERN also shares the concern that as forests gain in monetary value as a result of the international REDD debates, forest peoples' rights are increasingly violated. Already incidents abound where private investors buy up forested land and national governments assert their perceived rights over forest lands to the detriment of local communities, in order to benefit from forest carbon cash.

What FERN is doing: FERN is campaigning for an EU commitment to halting forest loss in a way that respects indigenous peoples' rights, recognises the needs of forest dependent communities and where EU funding does not lead to the creation of carbon offsets. Without recognising forest peoples' rights, without improved forest governance and without addressing the drivers of deforestation - including overconsumption - it will not be possible to reduce forest loss.

Funding for schemes aimed at halting deforestation must not be generated through carbon offsets. Carbon trading will not provide money for those forest protection activties most needed, will lock Southern countries into expensive and futile exercises to 'accurately' meaure forest carbon, and will act as an excuse for industrialised countries to delay the necessary drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. FERN is therefore campaigning for industrialised countries to exclude carbon offsetting as a source of funding for activities to halt deforestation.

To learn more about this campaign read “walking the tightrope to success”, signed onto by more than 20 organisations.

Cutting corners; how the FCPF is failing forests and peoples

A FERN-FPP report analysing nine different country proposals (R-PINs) to get money from the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). The report concludes that both the process and the proposals adopted do not respect the Bank's own guidelines. The report also includes an annex which details the World Bank funded REDD process.

Documents	Size
OPEN in English	1.3 MB
OUVRIR en français	1.56 MB
ABRIR en espanol	818.92 KB

ForestWatch Issue 151 July 2010 and special update on Bonn UNFCCC meeting

Prohibition on illegal timber is here!
Bioenergy policy will lead to a carbon debt
More human approaches
Missing: political will to protect forests in the EU
Sweden’s unsustainable forestry
Ecolabel still endorses forest destruction

Documents	Size
FW 151 July 2010	192.76 KB
Bonn update.pdf	149.51 KB

Realising rights, protecting forests: An Alternative Vision for Reducing Deforestation

This report is intended primarily for opinion-formers and decisionmakers with a role in making and influencing national policy and legislation on REDD. The case studies show that respecting the rights and realities of indigenous peoples and forest-dependent communities is the only way to ensure that the forests remain standing.

The Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change is a network of southern and northern NGOs representing around 100 civil society and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations from 38 countries.

Documents	Size
OPEN	1.84 MB
ABRIR	1.4 MB

Français

Civil society response to draft Interim REDD+ Partnership Agreement

This response to the draft Interim REDD+ Partnership Agreement, as released by the Norwegian government on 28th April 2010 is an attempt to provide constructive input to the REDD+ partnership process. This was particularly difficult due to the timeframe for commenting on the draft Agreement being inadequate to allow for the full and effective participation of civil society.

Document	Size
Response to REDD+ Partnership Agreement.pdf	532.15 KB

Forestwatch Issue 145 and Copenhagen Special

EU Member States reject prohibition of the sale of illegal timber
NGOs reject Ecolabel for copying and graphic paper
Will Europe follow America’s ECAs in reducing GHGs
Integrated Product Policy and Beyond
Member States’ support binding biomass criteria
Copenhagen Update (Available in French and Spanish)

Documents	Size
FW 145 Jan 2010.pdf	184.82 KB
Copenhagen update.pdf	124.79 KB
Copenhagen update in French.pdf	189.37 KB
Copenhagen update in Spanish.pdf	132.46 KB

Gordon Brown’s post Copenhagen rhetoric likely to turn a tragedy into a catastrophe

Four days after the Copenhagen summit ended without an agreement, NGOs are warning that Gordon Brown’s finger pointing and the growing media hum about the need for ‘major reform of the UN process’ are the first steps in a process whereby wealthy nations can unilaterally come up with “solutions” that will condemn millions to death.

Document	Size
Tragedy into a catastrophe Press Release 23 Dec 2009.pdf	72.56 KB

Civil society concerned that REDD deal will not stop the forests from falling

On 17 December 2009, the penultimate day of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, over 100 civil society groups from all continents voiced their concern that the proposed deal on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) is likely to fail, despite being described as the most significant likely outcome of the conference.

Concerned about the repercussions of the UN climate negotiations on REDD, civil society organisations in India issued a Joint Statement on REDD Climate Schemes in December 2009, highlighting how government and corporate interests "use climate change negotiations to illegally and unjustly enhance their control over forests and forest dwellers' resource". In Brasil, social movements released an open letter in October 2009, calling on the Brazilian Government to reject the idea of using REDD as a carbon market-based mechanism and of accepting it as a means to compensate the emissions from Northern countries.

Documents	Size
Flawed REDD deal	72.72 KB

Why Congo Basin countries stand to lose out from a market based REDD

This briefing paper unravels the implications of setting a historical baseline with a correction factor for low deforestation countries. It also explains why carbon markets are unlikely to raise the anticipated funds for forest protection, due to the unsuitability of applying these policy mechanisms to forests, and why any funds raised are unlikely to reach Central Africa or other regions with low deforestation rates and weak governance. Wider institutional and policy reforms, which are crucial to tackling deforestation effectively, would be better addressed by a funding mechanism which does not involve the trading of carbon.

Document	Size
congo basin countries lose out.pdf	266.55 KB

Français

Forestwatch Issue 144 and update from Barcelona

Climate, energy and environment change
A binding forest agreement?
Biomass: binding sustainability criteria needed
FERN.org relaunched
First US illegal timber investigation
EU ratifies Ghana VPA
Palm oil funding frozen
Update from UNFCCC Barcelona meeting

Documents	Size
FW 144 December 2009	213.17 KB
Barcelona update	118.32 KB

Forestwatch Issue 143 November 2009

EU Council reaches a troubling conclusion
Flawed bioenergy policies will fail EU forests
CAR VPA negotiations calendar ambitious
CDM to open doors to large scale plantations

Document	Size
FW 143 Nov 2009.pdf	212.16 KB

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