Jakarta Globe, 18 May 2013 | Rudi Putra, an environmental activist, started another petition for the same cause on Avaaz.org, which has garnered more than 1.2 million signatures in its first 11 days. “Aceh rainforests, home to endangered animals like orangutan and Sumatran rhino, have been destroyed by illegal hunters and loggers, but this new exploration will be an ultimate disaster,” he said. Rights groups say the plan will allow around 1.2 million hectares that were previously protected to be cleared... “Yudhoyono has the options: to leave an important legacy to protect the rich natural resources or to trash his own track record by allowing this disaster,” Avaaz’ campaign director Ian Baasin said.

Gabon has agreed to help battle poaching in protected areas in the Central African Republic following an elephant massacre at a renowned World Heritage site, reports the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

RECOFTC, 16 May 2013 | REDD+ capacity building is fundamental to achieving REDD+ readiness, recognized as a priority area by the UNFCCC since COP 13 in 2007. There is little data, however, that describe the type of capacity building and the number of people that are reached with these initiatives in REDD+ countries. The lack of information makes it difficult to determine where additional investments in capacity building are needed. These reports are part of a multi-country assessment of REDD+ capacity building initiatives that were implemented in Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Indonesia, Liberia, Madagascar and Papua New Guinea (PNG) between September 2010 and June 2012. It was funded with a grant from the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) to the Alliance for Global REDD+ Capacity (AGRC), which is a partnership between 16 organizations, including RECOFTC, that are committed to enhancing the quality and availability of training on REDD+ worldwide.

World Resources Institute, May 2013 | Germany’s fast-start finance (FSF) contribution reflects a significant focus on financing climate action in developing countries. Germany exceeded its self-defined FSF pledge for the 2010-2012 FSF period, providing a total of EUR 1.29 billion, and also pledged to deliver EUR 1.8 billion in 2013. It is also one of the few countries to have published and adhered to a specific definition of what constitutes “new and additional” climate finance. This working paper provides policymakers and other climate finance practitioners with an assessment of German FSF project data. It examines characteristics of the finance such as channeling institutions employed and the extent of support for mitigation and adaptation activities. It also discusses innovative institutions for climate finance, Germany’s definition of additionality for FSF, and the degree to which the finance might be considered new and additional.

By Tom Woody, Quartz, 10 May 2013 | Urban trees in the US absorb 25.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually and help lower energy costs by shading the asphalt and concrete jungle. The US Forest Service estimates all that carbon storage is worth $50.5 billion and growing by $2 billion a year, according to a new study from the agency. That’s a lot of green. Just one problem—how do you profit from all that photosynthesis? Figuring out how to monetize the urban forest could be key to keeping it—and the planet—healthy. As urbanization continues—cities are expected to account for 8.1% of US land area in 2050, up from 3.1% in 2000—the population of street trees is falling by 4 million trees a year, the report says. That’s the equivalent of losing 20,000 acres (8,094 hectares) of trees annually.

By Thomas Hubert, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 16 May 2013 | Implementing a U.N.-backed scheme to slow forest loss in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be difficult, a new study says, until the government addresses corruption, a lack of state authority in some regions, and intermittent fighting between rebels and government forces in the country’s east. Despite these challenges, the authors say that the scheme could actually help improve governance in the country. The report, The context of REDD+ in the DRC: drivers, agents and institutions (publication in French), to be launched at a forestry conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon, this week, contains an in-depth review of the governance, socio-economic and environmental situation in the central African nation.

By Julie Mollins, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 13 May 2013 | The view that increased crop production is the strategy most likely to achieve global food security could in reality allow farmland to encroach on valuable ecosystems, have a disastrous impact on forests and might not solve food security and nutrition problems, scientists say. Further research is essential for understanding the full impact forests and tree-based agricultural systems have on dietary and nutritional needs for at least 1 billion people whose livelihoods are directly affected by forests, the scientists said in a discussion paper released ahead of the International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition hosted by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. “A rampant increase in agricultural production as global population increases could encroach on nutritional food sources found in forests,” warned Terry Sunderland, a scientist at CIFOR.

By Terry Sunderland, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 13 May 2013 | Recent news headlines, a plethora of scientific publications and the creation of new academic think tanks all reflect growing concerns over how to achieve global food security — a centerpiece of donor commitments and the focus of many research and development organisations. The renewed emphasis on global food security is stimulated by projections that show the global human population will grow from 7 billion to an estimated 9 billion people by 2050. Central to the current discourse on food security is the perceived need to increase food production to feed the 870 million people — one in eight worldwide, according to U.N. food agencies — who do not have enough to eat.

By Joshua Chaffin, Financial Times, 16 May 2013 | The surplus of permits in the EU’s carbon market more than doubled last year to 2bn, according to fresh data that Brussels hope will rally support for its controversial plan to boost carbon prices. The data – released by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm – reveal that free permits given over the past five years to makers of steel, glass, cement and other heavy industries exceeded their carbon emissions during that period by nearly 300m tonnes... The latest figures come amid a debate between Brussels and European industry about the merits of intervening in the carbon market – the world’s largest – to prop up prices that have fallen from more than €30 per tonne five years ago to less than €4 today. That price collapse has removed an incentive for companies to invest in clean technologies. It stems from a glut of free permits as well as an unforeseen economic crisis that has damped industrial activity across Europe.

By Denis Sonwa, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 17 May 2013 | Responses to climate change are grouped into two main categories: mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change) and adaptation (adjusting livelihoods and life styles due to the influences of climate change). Amongst adaptation strategies, ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) is an approach that promotes ways to use natural resources and biodiversity to help develop adaptation strategies for vulnerable communities. In this context, recent studies highlight the role that the Congo Basin forests play in generating rainfall, both regionally and in the continent as a whole. Rainfall in an ecosystem originates from three main sources: moisture that is already in the atmosphere, moisture from outside the region, and evapotranspiration from surfaces within the ecosystem (forests and other land uses).

By Thomas Hubert, CIFOR Forests News Blog, 17 May 2013 | There have been hunters and gatherers for as long as mankind can remember and members of many communities in the Congo Basin still extract their food, medicines, fuel and cultural artefacts directly from the forest. Should such long-established livelihoods be integrated into the modern economy? Abdon Awono, a Cameroon-based scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research, thinks so. “Can we recognise that local communities need things like televisions and modern healthcare? My answer is yes,” said the co-author of Guide for small and medium enterprises in the sustainable non-timber forest product trade in Central Africa. “If so, they need money. How can they get it? From their direct environment.”

By David Hill, The Guardian, 14 May 2013 | Peru has announced a bidding round for new oil and gas concessions but, contrary to what was initially expected, none of them are in the Amazon rainforest. Nine concessions are to be auctioned, state company Perupetro declared recently, but all of them are offshore along Peru's Pacific Ocean coast. This constitutes a significant change of plan by Perupetro which last September issued a statement that before the end of 2012 36 new concessions would be established. According to a presentation made to the World Heavy Oil Congress in Aberdeen in Scotland the same month, 27 of these concessions – totaling millions of hectares – would be in the Amazon.

By Kristi Foster, World Agroforestry Centre, 17 May 2013 | Agricultural carbon projects involving smallholder farmers can take up to 16 years to generate a profit from carbon credits. Meanwhile, farmers’ direct income from poles, timber and fuelwood could be 50 times higher than the value of carbon revenue. These statements are just a snapshot of the evidence presented in a new World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) policy brief, Climate Finance for Agriculture and Livelihoods, which calls for an innovative and integrated approach to financing sustainable smallholder agriculture. The policy brief is a collaboration between ICRAF, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and experts from the public sector, private finance and civil society that draws on evidence from project experiences to date.

By Heath Aston, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 2013 | Australia has all but dumped $75 million worth of projects regrowing forests in the developing world and shelved a $100 million forest carbon partnership with Indonesia... Aid/Watch spokesman James Goodman said it was a sign of ''bad faith'' for Australia's contribution to fall so dramatically even if other countries were backing away from climate change funding and a new global deal was yet to be brokered. ''Australia has the capacity to help others and we should,'' he said. Dr Goodman said funding for the ''forest carbon partnership'', signed by former prime minister Kevin Rudd and his Indonesian counterpart in 2008, had disappeared from the budget. According to AusAID, part of the program which has raised 2.6 million seedlings to plant has been discontinued and others are under review.

PSnews, 17 May 2013 | Changes to how land sector emissions are reported under the Kyoto Protocol are expected to benefit farmers and rural landholders who will gain greater access to Australia's carbon markets. The changes announced in the 2013-14 Budget will see the Government formally account for cropland management, grazing land management and revegetation in its national greenhouse gas inventory. Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation, Yvette D'Ath said the decision meant when a landholder stored carbon in soils or vegetation, their efforts would count towards Australia meeting its national greenhouse gas reduction target.

By Tracy Li, Ecology Global Network, 15 May 2013 | Efforts to thoroughly study the role that plants play in climate change mitigation are increasing. Most researchers focus on the promise of large, leafy forest trees to help remove carbon from the atmosphere; for example Lal (1998) in India, Chen (1999) in Canada, Zhang (2003) in China, and Monson ( 2002) in the United States. This is because, generally speaking, the bigger the plant, the more CO2 it absorbs - and trees are the most obvious large plant species. However, there are some very large non-tree plants in the world and increasing evidence points to a surprising grassy climate change warrior: bamboo. One species of bamboo, the guadua angustifolia, found in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombia, has been shown to grow up to 25 meters in height and 22 centimeters in diameter, with each plant weighing up to 100 kilograms (Rojas de Sánchez, 2004).

By Diana Parker, mongabay.com, 14 May 2013 | Pulp and paper giant Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) has launched a $7 million ecosystem restoration project to restore and protect over 20,000 hectares of peat forest in Indonesia’s Riau province, Mongabay-Indonesia reported last week. The company, through its subsidiary PT Gemilang Cipta Nusantara, has a 60-year ecosystem restoration license to carry out the project, which aims to restore and manage a 20,265-hectare degraded forest area on the Kampar Peninsula on the island of Sumatra. Restorasi Ekosistem Riau (RER), a non-profit organization started by APRIL earlier this year, will manage the Kampar Peninsula project in conjunction with international conservation group Fauna & Flora International; Bidara, a non-governmental organization focusing on social capital in rural communities; and Daemeter, a consulting firm that promotes sustainable management of natural resources in Indonesia.

The Star, 14 May 2013 | Malua’s large sprawl and extensive boundary have stymied anti-encroachment efforts. Although incidences of tree-felling, gaharu theft, illegal cultivation and hunting have declined following protection efforts, rangers are still discovering snare traps, human trails and signs of hunters, especially where the reserve borders plantations. This has prompted a unique public-private collaboration which kicked off last November. The Malua Wildlife Conservation Agreement sees Sabah Forestry Department and Sabah Wildlife Department teaming up with four oil palm companies (IOI Corp, TH Group, Kwantas Corp and Selangor Agriculture Development Board) and New Forests (which manages investments in sustainable forestry) to stem the illegal activities, as well as assist the plantations to improve their environmental management.

Vientiane Times, 13 May 2013 | A consultation workshop on REDD+ initiative was held in Vientiane recently to unveil the REDD+ country profile document, which was reviewed collectively. The workshop was held on May 7 in Vientiane, with about 40 participants in attendance, from institutions such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, National University of Laos (NUOL), National Economics Research Institute, National Agriculture and Forestry Institute, Souphanouvong University, Department of Investment Promotion and the Department of Forest Inspection. As part of the I-REDD+ project and in partnership with the Centre for International Forestry Research’s Global Comparative Study on REDD, the NUOL’s Faculty of Forestry has recently documented the progresses in REDD+ at the national level. This stock taking exercise led to a REDD+ Country Profile document that was reviewed collectively during the consultation workshop involving key national stakeholders.

Jakarta Post, 15 May 2013 | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia has welcomed the issuance of President Instruction (Inpres) No.6/2013 which continues the forestry moratorium for the next two years. WWF Indonesia’s CEO Efransjah appreciated President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s policy to improve forest and peatland management in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. “The most important thing is the need to set clear work targets, including to create a single, unified forest map; to accelerate the completion of spatial planning bylaws in areas targeted by the moratorium; and to synchronize the central and local government regulations on natural resource management,” said Efransjah in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.