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TIME magazine – Farms and Forests Are Compatible

TIME magazine has picked up on the new global assessment of trees on farms, released by the World Agroforestry Centre in August. The article makes the link between agroforestry and climate change mitigation:

Right now agroforestry isn’t a major part of international climate-change policy, but delegates at the U.N. global-warming summit in Copenhagen that will convene in December could change all that. By putting a greater carbon value on trees planted on farmland through a cap-and-trade program that would give companies a carbon credit for growing and maintaining trees, we could encourage the growth of agroforestry. It’s not a perfect compensation for continued deforestation — whole, virgin rain forests have an enormous ecological value that can’t be replicated by agroforestry — but it’s a realistic fallback. “This is a win-win investment opportunity for the world,” says [Dennis Garrity, the World Agroforestry Centre's Director General]. It’s also a rare bit of green good news.

Agroforestry: Farms and Forests Are Compatible – TIME.

REDD can compete financially with palm oil in Indonesia peatlands while protecting endangered species

A new paper by Oscar Venter et al (2009) finds that forest conservation via REDD — a proposed mechanism for compensating developing countries for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation — could be economically competitive with oil palm production, a dominant driver of deforestation in Indonesia.

They found that if CO2 credits could be sold for $10 to $33 per tonne, conserving the forest would be more profitable than clearing the land for oil palm. In addition, forest conservation would prevent 2.1 billion tonnes of carbon from entering the atmosphere and preserve the habitat of some of the world’s most threatened mammal species living in these forests including the orangutan and Bornean elephant.

Oscar Venter et al. Carbon payments as a safeguard for threatened tropical mammals. Conservation Letters xx (2009) 1–7 doi: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2009.00059.x (download PDF – subscription required)

Read more: REDD can compete financially with palm oil in Indonesia peatlands while protecting endangered species. Mongabay.com

Brief Summary of the Waxman-Markey Discussion Draft

In the United States, policymakers are considering the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, a draft comprehensive energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction bill, put forward by Chairmen Markey and Waxman. The World Resources Institute has released a summary of the key points in the Waxman-Markey Discussion Draft. The points below relate to forestry and reducing emissions from deforestation in the tropics:

• Supplemental emissions reductions from reduced deforestation: Achieve supplemental emissions reductions of at least 720 million tons in 2020 (cumulative amount of 6 billion tons by 2025) through forestry projects in developing nations. Also calls to build capacity for international forest credits and preservation of existing forest carbon stocks at risk of international leakage. (Sec. 751, pg. 436)
• Allowances for reduced deforestation: In order to achieve the reductions called for in section 751, the draft allocates: 2012-2025: 5 percent; 2026-2030: 3 percent; 2031-2050: 2 percent (Sec. 781, pg. 476).
• Offsets from Reduced Deforestation. International offset credits allowed only if the activity occurs in a country identified by the Administrator pursuant to their ability to participate in such a program as established by this act. Provides guidance on the quantity of credits issued, how to establish a national deforestation baseline, how to avoid double counting and which countries are eligible to participate (Sec. 743, pg. 431-6)

If the Bill passes, the USA would become a major driver of Avoided Deforestation projects in the tropics, and would likely help shape the way forests are included in the post-2012 international climate change framework.

Source:Brief Summary of the Waxman-Markey Discussion Draft | World Resources Institute.

ASB endorses call for US Leadership on Forests and Climate Protection

The ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins is endorsing a multi‐sector Call for U.S. Leadership on Forests and Climate Protection [PDF]. The initiative is being led by Washington DC-based Avoided Deforestation Partners

The call includes these recommendations

1. Take a global leadership role in combating deforestation. Protecting forests internationally should be part of a comprehensive U.S. climate policy that ensures and prioritizes substantial domestic reductions in emissions. Both in international agreements and domestically through its own laws, the United States must fashion and advance policies that reflect the many benefits of conserving tropical forests.
2. Advance a diverse set of solutions including market and non-market based approaches. There is no silver bullet. The United States must pursue a full range of environmentally and socially sound policy instruments and incentives, including enhanced development assistance, improved forest governance and expanded use of both public- and private-sector carbon finance. All such approaches must protect the rights and interests of forestdependent communities, include prior informed consent and ensure equitable sharing of benefits.
3. Engage a wide range of stakeholders while crafting policies. Any effective approach to the challenge of deforestation must involve the broad spectrum of experts and stakeholders to develop sustainable, scalable and equitable solutions that scientists, developing nations, indigenous groups, local communities, civil society, and industry can support.

Read on for the full letter of endorsement from ASB

more proposed US legislation for avoided deforestation

At a recent Avoided Deforestation Partners event, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for action to prevent deforestation and thereby slow down climate change. On Jan. 29, Lugar and Kerry introduced a bill to reauthorize for the Tropical Rain Forest Conservation Act of 1998, which has used "debt-for-nature swaps" to conserve tropical forests in developing countries. Grist reports:

Former U.S. climate negotiator Stuart Eizenstat also spoke at the event, emphasizing that programs to incentivize avoided deforestation will be critical in engaging developing nations in climate talks. Developing nations and their citizens depend more directly on forests for their livelihoods, and deforestation is often the result of a lack of other economic options.

Prof. Wangari Maathai was also in attendance, urging action on Avoided Deforestation in the months leading up to the UNFCCC climate change conference in Copenhagen this December.