In a big country in the Americas, an elderly leader defeats his far-right rival by a narrow margin. After facing a coup attempt, he starts off his government reversing several of his predecessor’s nefarious policies, rebuilding federal governance, and proposing ambitious measures to tackle the climate crisis.  

Soon, however, it becomes clear that the new government can’t or won’t deliver on its progressive agenda: the president faces severe hurdles in a Congress tipped to the far right. The elderly leader’s popularity starts to plummet, even though the economy is doing fine, and job creation is spiking. His adversaries regroup and are threatening to take back power at the next election. 

This could be the story of the United States – but it’s Brazil we’re talking about. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 78, led in 2022 a coalition of democrats across the political spectrum to salvage his country from the grip of autocracy. 

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His tightly won election was greeted with relief by the international community, but environmentalists had particular reason to celebrate. Lula’s far-right predecessor saw Amazon deforestation increase by 60% over his term and turned Brazil not only into a pariah but also a liability for the global fight against climate change. 

More environmentally conscious now than in his two previous administrations, former union leader Lula vowed to prioritize the fight against the climate crisis. He gave native Brazilians a seat in the cabinet for the first time and promised to end deforestation by 2030, starting by re-enacting the Amazon Deforestation Control Plan that made Brazil a success story of climate mitigation in the past.  

Lula also offered to host the 2025 UN climate conference in Brazil, resurrected environmental funds, and corrected his country’s embattled climate pledge. The efforts paid off: in 2023, Amazon deforestation dropped by 22% and a further reduction is expected for 2024. 

Stakes high for COP30

Understandably, the world started to look up to Brazil in search of leadership in this critical decade for climate action. As Europe has weakened its position in the wake of farmers’ protests and the rise of the far-right in the EU parliamentary elections – and the US faces the threat of Trump 2.0 – the stakes are getting higher for COP30, the UN climate summit to be held in the rainforest city of Belém next year under Lula’s baton.   

Alas, Mr. da Silva has little to show for it so far. The Brazilian president has faced a hostile Congress, dominated by the far-right and the rural caucus, and empowered by Jair Bolsonaro, whose government gave Congress increased control over the federal budget.  

In the tough negotiations with such a parliament, the environmental agenda has been a bargaining chip. More anti-environment and anti-Indigenous bill projects have advanced since 2023 than during the whole Bolsonaro administration.  

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Right now, three dozen legislative proposals are under examination that could make it impossible to control deforestation and meet the country’s climate pledges. Lula’s negotiators in Congress have faced this barrage with embarrassing apathy. 

In a situation similar to that of Joe Biden in the United States, Lula’s polling has dropped – for no obvious economic reason. Joblessness is at its lowest since before the 2015 recession; inflation is under control; real wages have increased, and with them the purchasing power of families; and GDP growth, though mediocre, is steady.  

The perceived weakness of a government that has so far failed to make transformative changes (and whose greatest merit is precisely to make Brazil normal again) works as the proverbial blood in the water for the opposition: as a result, the government gets even weaker and more likely to forgo progressive agendas.  

New oil and roads

To be sure, a fair share of environmentalists’ disappointment stems from Lula’s own actions. The president has been determined to make Brazil the world’s 4th biggest oil producer (today it ranks 9th) at the expense of the global climate, even though Brazil right now is ablaze and its major cities are covered in smoke from record-breaking wildfires.  

Lula’s plan involves opening up new hydrocarbon frontiers both on land and offshore, including in the Amazon. His administration is also hell-bent on constructing a highly controversial road that cuts through the heart of the rainforest, which is feared to facilitate land-grabbing and illegal timber extraction and could increase emissions from deforestation by 8 billion tons by 2050.  

Human rights must be “at the core” of mining for transition minerals, UN panel says

Da Silva’s Workers’ Party is riddled with old-school backers of national development who don’t believe in the green economy and isolate pro-climate officials such as Finance Minister Fernando Haddad and Environment Minister Marina Silva. Bizarrely, Lula also bets his international prestige on non-starters, like Ukraine, while leaving unattended the only geopolitical agenda where he and his country could really make a difference: climate change.  

“Lead by example” is a motto of the Brazilian government whenever it tries to portray itself as a trusted champion of the Paris Agreement global warming limit of 1.5oC. Right now, the world would do better searching for leadership elsewhere. The good news is that Lula can still be persuaded to wear the mantle. COP30 is his golden opportunity – but it is a window that will not remain open for long. 

The post Is Brazil’s Lula a climate leader? appeared first on Climate Home News.

(Pic: Bigstock)

By Alex Kirby

Scientists in the US say the world’s tropical forests may be making a much larger contribution to slowing climate change than many of their colleagues have previously recognised.

A new study − led by the space agency NASA and the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences − suggests that the forests are absorbing far more carbon dioxide from human sources than they are given credit for.

It estimates that the forests are absorbing 1.4 billion tonnes of human-derived CO2 − a sizeable slice of the total global absorption of 2.5 billion tonnes.

If the tropical forests are left undisturbed, the trees should be able to go on reducing the rate of global warming by removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

Conversely, continuing destruction of the forests may prove to have an even more damaging effect on countering the rising rate of CO2 emissions, because if the rate of absorption slows down, the rate of global warming will accelerate.

Lead author David Schimel, a research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says: “This is good news, because uptake in northern forests may already be slowing, while tropical forests may continue to take up carbon for many years.”

The question of which type of forest absorbs more carbon “is not just an accounting curiosity”, says one of the paper’s co-authors, Britton Stephens, a scientist at the  National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Earth Observing Laboratory in Boulder, Colarado.

“It has big implications for our understanding of whether global terrestrial ecosystems might continue to offset our carbon dioxide emissions or might begin to exacerbate climate change.”

Forests and other land vegetation currently remove up to 30% of human CO2 emissions from the atmosphere by absorbing the gas during photosynthesis.

The new study is the first to devise a way to make direct comparisons of CO2 uptake estimates from many sources at different scales, including computer models of ecosystem processes, atmospheric models used to deduce the sources of today’s concentrations (called atmospheric inverse models), satellite images, and data from routine and experimental forest plots.

Ecosystem model

The researchers reconciled these analyses and assessed the accuracy of the inverse models based on how well they reproduced independent, airborne and ground-based measurements.

They obtained their new estimate of the tropical carbon absorption from the weighted average of atmospheric, ecosystem model and ground-based data.

“Until our analysis, no one had successfully completed a global reconciliation of information about carbon dioxide effects from the atmospheric, forestry, and modeling communities,” says the report’s co-author, Joshua Fisher, a researcher at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “It is incredible that all these different types of independent data sources start to converge on an answer.”

VIDEO: Can people and forests live in harmony?

As human-caused emissions add more CO2 to the atmosphere, forests worldwide are using it to grow faster, reducing the amount that stays airborne. This effect is called carbon dioxide fertilisation.

But climate change also decreases the amount of water available in some regions and warms the Earth, causing more frequent droughts and larger wildfires.

For about 25 years, most atmospheric inverse models have been showing that mid-latitude forests in the northern hemisphere absorb more CO2 than tropical forests.

This result was based on the prevailing understanding of global air flows and limited data suggesting that deforestation was causing tropical forests to release more CO2 than they were absorbing.

Measurements of CO2

In the mid-2000s, Britton Stephens used measurements of CO2 made from aircraft to show that many atmospheric inverse models were not correctly representing flows of the gas in the air above ground level.

Models that matched the aircraft measurements better showed more carbon absorption in the tropical forests.

Dr Schimel says the new paper reconciles results at every scale − from the pores of a single leaf, where photosynthesis takes place, to the whole Earth, as air moves carbon dioxide around the globe.

There is still considerable uncertainty about the part played by the tropical forests in moderating the climate.

One study, for example, found that trees in the forests of Borneo absorbed much more CO2 than those in Amazonia. Another found that the southern Amazon forest was drying out far faster than had been projected.

Meanwhile, the rate of deforestation continues to increase in many vulnerable areas.

In June 2014, it was reported that Indonesia’s clearance of its forests was, for the first time, happening faster than in Brazil. Three months later, the Brazilian NGO Imazon said the rate of forest loss in the country’s Amazon region had risen by 290% in the past 12 months.

This article was produced by the Climate News Network

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Pic: mariusz kluzniak/Flickr

By Paul Brown

Preserving forests is a vital step in preventing climate change, but people who defend them against illegal logging and land grabs are being murdered in increasing numbers.

And one of the worst recent examples is in Peru, the country hosting the United Nations climate change conference that opens in the capital, Lima, on December 1.

Four indigenous leaders from the Ashéninka people from the Peruvian Amazon − including Edwin Chota, a prominent anti-logging campaigner − were killed attempting to defend their lands in the Ucayali region in September.

The killings were highlighted yesterday in a report, titled Peru’s Deadly Environment, by the independent environmental investigation agency, Global Witness.

The report calls into question “the commitments of Peru to protect its carbon-rich forests and the people who live in them, in light of unfettered illegal logging, disregard for indigenous land claims, and new laws that favour industrial exploitation over environmental protection”.

Tragic reminders

Patrick Alley, co-founder of Global Witness, said: “The murders of Edwin Chota and his colleagues are tragic reminders of a paradox at work in the climate negotiations. While Peru’s government chairs negotiations on how to solve our climate crisis, it is failing to protect the people on the frontline of environmental protection.

“Environmental defenders embody the resolve we need to halt global warming. The message is clear: if you want to save the environment, then stop people killing environmental defenders.”

The report follows a wider Global Witness investigation of the escalating number of people killed trying to defend the environment. Between 2002 and 2013, it says, 908 campaigners were killed in 35 countries. Brazil was the worst offender, with 448 killings, Honduras second with 109, and the Philippines with 67.

The recent killings in Peru makes it the fourth most dangerous place to be a defender of the environment, with 57 people killed − 60% of them in the last four years. This is mostly in disputes over land rights, mining and logging. Over 20 million hectares of land claims of indigenous communities have not been processed.

Edwin Chota had received numerous death threats for his resistance to the loggers who were gutting his community’s forests, but his appeals to the authorities were ignored. There was speculation that there was collusion between the loggers and the authorities.

Before he died, Chota sent local police photographs of the illegal loggers and the sites they were exploiting. It is these loggers who have now charged with his murder.

In an attempt to make it worthwhile for Peru to leave the country’s forests standing, Norway and Germany have offered a $300 million partnership deal to support Peru’s efforts at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in the country’s Amazon region.

Ironically, the deal was announced in September − the same time as the four activists were murdered.

The money was to cover the period up to 2020, and Peru would get the cash from Norway if it recognised indigenous people’s land claims, and so preserved the forest. At the same time, Germany would continue its extensive support for Peru on climate and forest issues.

At the time of the deal, the President of the Peru, Ollanta Humala, said: “There is growing evidence that economic growth and environmental protection can be combined. The Letter of Intent with Norway is a major step forward in realising the vision of deforestation-free development, and we are firmly committed to implement its provisions faithfully. We do this because it is in the self-interest of Peru.

“Our indigenous peoples’ groups have traditionally been the best guardians of our forests. By embarking on this path of deforestation-free development, we hope also to reach out to our indigenous peoples and move together towards a more harmonious future.”

Weak government

All three countries accepted that there were serious problems in implementing the agreement because of weak government and pressure from miners, loggers and small farmers. There are 68 million hectares of forest, with 350,000 indigenous people living in it − including several uncontacted tribes.

Despite the president’s words, Peru had already invoked a new law in July 2014 that grants extended land use rights to investors for the expansion of large-scale agriculture, mining, logging and infrastructure projects.

At an award ceremony in New York yesterday, the four dead activists were honoured as Diana Rios Rengifo, daughter of one of the murdered men, Jorge Rios, accepted an environmental award from the Alexander Soros Foundation on behalf of her father and their Ashéninka community.

“They may have killed my father and his friends, but I am still here,” she said. “And I will continue to fight for the rights to our territories and for the rights of the other indigenous peoples of Peru.”

David Salisbury, associate professor of geography at the University of Richmond in the US, has spent time with Edwin Chota’s community. He says: “Peru’s credibility as a forest protector hinges upon providing land and resource rights to the country’s indigenous and rural populations.

“The government should recognise there are people in the forests, and give them rights to them. How can you maintain standing forest, and mitigate climate change, if the defenders of the forest are being assassinated?”

This article was produced by the Climate News Network

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(Pic: Matt Zimmerman/Flickr)

By Alex Kirby 

A report by the US non-governmental organisation, Forest Trends, says 49% of all recent tropical deforestation is the result of illegal clearing for commercial agriculture.

It says that most was driven by foreign demand for agricultural products, including palm oil, beef, soya and wood products – and  the impact on forest-dependent people and on biodiversity is “devastating”.

The report, funded by the UK Department for International Development, estimates that the illegal conversion of tropical forests for commercial agriculture produces 1.47 gigatonnes (1,470,000,000 tonnes) of carbon a year − equivalent to 25% of the European Union’s annual fossil fuel-based emissions.

NASA said in 2012 that tropical deforestation had accounted for about 10% of human carbon emissions from 2000 to 2005.

Household products 

“This is the first report to show the outsize role that illegal activities play in the production of hundreds of food and household products consumed worldwide,” said Michael Jenkins, the president of Forest Trends.

The report’s author is Sam Lawson, founding director of the investigative research organisation, Earthsight. He said that the equivalent of “five football fields of tropical forest are being destroyed every minute to supply these export commodities. There is hardly a product on supermarket shelves that is not potentially tainted.”

He said the report’s figures were obtained using conservative estimates based on documented violations of significant impact.

The study says that 90% of Brazil’s deforestation between 2000 and 2012 was illegal, and was caused mainly by a failure to conserve a percentage of natural forests in large-scale cattle and soya plantations, as required by Brazilian law.

Much of the deforestation, the study acknowledges, happened before 2004, when the Brazilian government implemented an action plan to reduce deforestation.

Around 80% of deforestation in Indonesia was illegal − mostly for large-scale plantations producing palm oil and timber, 75% of which is exported. Brazil and Indonesia produce the highest level of agricultural commodities destined for global markets − many of them winding up in cosmetics or household goods (palm oil), animal feed (soya), and packaging (wood products).

Illegal deforestation is widespread across Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

In Papua-New Guinea, millions of hectares of forest have been illegally licensed for deforestation in recent year, and a recent parliamentary inquiry in the country found that 90% of these licences were issued by corrupt or fraudulent means.

In Tanzania, forests have been illegally razed to make way for jatropha, a plant commonly used to produce biofuels.

Flouting the law 

“All over the tropics, companies are bribing officials to obtain permits, trampling the legal or customary rights of indigenous peoples and other forest-dwelling communities, clearing more forest than they are allowed, and causing pollution and environmental devastation by flouting the law,” Lawson said.

The report says the international trade in agricultural commodities produced on land illegally converted from tropical forest is worth an estimated US$61 billion annually. The EU, China, India, Russia and the US are among the largest buyers of these goods.

The problem is spreading. The study says that in the Congo Basin, for example, two of the three largest new oil palm projects have been found to be operating illegally. One of these, in the Republic of Congo, is set to double the country’s deforestation rate.

“The current unfettered access to international markets for commodities from illegally-cleared land is undermining the efforts of tropical countries to enforce their own laws,” Lawson said. “Consumer countries have a responsibility to help halt this trade.”

This article was produced by the Climate News Network

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Pic: carlos cerulla/Flickr

By Sophie Yeo

Peru has slashed environmental regulation in an effort to boost the economy, raising questions about its credibility as host of this year’s UN climate talks.

A law introduced this week is designed to revive the country’s flagging economic growth by promoting the mining industry.

Critics of the law say that it will weaken Peru’s environment ministry and set a bad example when negotiators from other countries arrive in Lima this December for a UN climate conference (COP20). It is the last major climate conference before Paris in 2015, when parties hope a new global treaty will be signed.

Manuel Pulgar Vidal, Peru’s environment minister and COP20 president, voted against the bill, which he described as a major setback for the country on climate change.

The law fast-tracks environmental impact studies to a maximum period of 45 days, reduces fines by the country’s environmental regulator, and removes the Environment Ministry’s authority over protected areas.

Over 100 environmental organisations, including WWF, the Sierra Club and Oxfam, wrote to Peruvian president Ollanta Humala Tasso protesting the law, which they said “rewards those parties who do not comply with current environmental rules in Peru”.

Indigenous rights

More than half of Peru sits within the Amazon basin. The rainforest reduces the impacts of climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and is home to many indigenous communities.

The new law makes it easier for mining companies to exploit resources in this sensitive environment, which observers fear will lead to deforestation and damage local ways of life.

The extraction industries in Peru, which include mining for oil, gas, copper and gold, were responsible for 75% of Peru’s exports in the first half of 2012, and accounted for 5% of its GDP.

“The aim of this law is to stimulate economic growth. For Peru, that means the hydrocarbon sector,” said Helen Bellfield from the Global Canopy Programme, a group working on the protection of forests.

Much of this extraction takes place within Peru’s Amazon basin, of which about three quarters is divided up into oil and gas concessions.

Gladis Vila Pihue, president of the National Organisation of Indigenous Andean and Amazonian Women of Peru, told RTCC that that the new law would make it easier to displace their communities.

“Before this law, we had all the right criteria for companies to follow and there were still violations – to people and the environment. Now it will be worse,” she said.

“To give one example, when a mining company came to Huancavelica, many people came into the community to profit, and the money changed our lifestyle – we saw things we had not seen before, like prostitution and alcoholism.”

The UN has also expressed concern over the law, with resident coordinator Rebeca Arias stating in a letter that, for climate-vulnerable Peru, “a growth model driven by environmentally friendly investments is the only viable option for sustainable development”.

COP presidency

Peru’s Environment Ministry, established in 2008, has so far set a progressive agenda on climate change.

But observers worry that the dismantling of its environmental legislation suggests that it is still regarded as antagonistic to Peru’s development agenda. The government passed the new law as an emergency measure after growth in 2013 sunk to 5%, compared with 6.3% in 2012.

This attitude could prompt concerns that this year’s climate talks in Peru are not backed by the whole government, says Guy Edwards from Brown University’s Climate and Development Lab.

“In order to run a successful conference, the Peruvian presidency has to be a good host, demonstrate strong domestic climate action, facilitate the process and set the level of expectations for the conference,” he said.

“If we consider those four elements highly important for successful leadership, Peru, according to the detractors of this new law, has undermined its credibility on domestic leadership and damaged its ability to facilitate the negotiations.”

Valuing forests

While the law has now been passed, activists hope to limit the damage.

“NGOs have been protesting and making several activities to bring this issue to the presidential level itself, which is in their view the person who can push back the package. But at this stage, it doesn’t seem to be a likely outcome,” said Enrique Maurtua Konstantinidis from the Climate Action Network’s Latin American branch.

In the long term, Peru’s forests are only likely to receive adequate protection if they are valued according to the benefits they provide to the planet and communities, says Rachel Mountain from the Global Canopy Programme.

REDD [Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Degradation] is one UN-backed scheme designed to get rich countries to pay forest nations to preserve these natural resource. It has been slow to take off, due to a lack of finance and concerns over corruption and indigenous rights.

“If there was a functioning market for REDD and forests were valued then you wouldn’t get this issue around hydrocarbons and resources being seen as a premium,” said Mountain.

“It’s really dependent on the donor governments, the operationalisation of climate finance.”

The Peruvian government did not respond to a request for comment.

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Pic: MATEUS_27:24&25/Flickr

By Sophie Yeo

Pope Francis has rebuked those who exploit nature, calling environmental destruction the greatest modern challenge.

In a speech the University of Molise in southern Italy, Francis called attention to the destruction of the rainforests, including in his own country Argentina.

“This is one of the greatest challenges of our time: to convert ourselves to a type of development that knows how to respect creation,” he said.

“When I look at America, also my own homeland (South America), so many forests, all cut, that have become land … that can longer give life. This is our sin, exploiting the Earth and not allowing her to her give us what she has within her.”

The UN’s science report says that deforestation is responsible for around 10% of greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans.

In Argentina, around 16 million hectares of Argentina’s forest cover was lost between 1980 and 2000, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Francis has repeatedly called for environmental protection since he became Pope in March last year.

Named after Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the environment, the head of the Catholic Church is currently writing an encyclical on man’s relationship with nature.

Comment: Farewell Benedict XVI, the first Green Pope

The Pope’s speech is the latest in a series of interventions by religious leaders into global environmental politics,

Representatives of all major religions have indicated they will mobilise on climate action ahead of a landmark summit to be held at the UN headquarters in New York this September.

The World Council of Churches has announced that it will hold an Interfaith Summit on Climate Change in New York on September 21-22, the two days before UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hosts the summit.

The WCC is a coalition of 345 churches, representing Christians across Europe, America, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific.

Thirty participants, representing Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, indigenous people and others, will gather to push political leaders to demonstrate greater ambitions in the “power games” of the UN climate talks, said Kirsten Auken, an advocacy advisor at Danish NGO DanChurchAid.

“We have to be the moral voice in this,” she added.

Daniel Murphy, a campaigns assistant at the Environmental Justice Foundation, said: “We will join our voices in the call for human rights and climate change to be addressed systematically.”

WCC members reinforced that they hoped their voice would also be heard at the UN’s major annual climate conference in Lima this year, and in Paris 2015 where a new agreement to combat climate change is due to be signed.

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(Pic: Leonora Enking/Flickr)

By Gerard Wynn

Tropical forests in central Africa are turning browner, pointing to a water shortage and higher surface temperatures, concluded a study published in the journal Nature.

The publication of the study follows a major UN report which last month found evidence for forest decline across climate zones globally, in a trend which may worsen under climate change.

Wednesday’s study used satellite data over the last 10 years to show a “large-scale browning” in the Congolese forest.

The study was based on a measure of colour which is linked with plant growth and leaf size.

The observed browning closely matched a drop in rainfall observed in the same area since the 1950s, and especially in the last decade.

“Multiple lines of evidence indicate that this large-scale vegetation browning, or loss of photosynthetic capacity, may be partially attributable to the long-term drying trend,” the authors said.

That chronic water stress differed from isolated mega droughts, for example as seen in the Amazon in 2005 and 2010.

“The persistent browning of the Congolese forests might reflect a slow adjustment to the long-term drying trend, rather than a response to episodic events such as the Amazon droughts.”

Tropical forests are important as global centres of biodiversity, as large stores of CO2, and for their influence on the wider global rainfall patterns and climate.

One concern is that a changing species composition may change forest habitats, threatening tropical forest species including charismatic species such as the mountain gorilla and forest elephant.

“Our results suggest that a continued gradual decline of photosynthetic capacity and moisture content driven by the persistent drying trend could alter the composition and structure of the Congolese forest to favour the spread of drought tolerant species,” the authors of the latest study said.

Another risk is that a decline in forests may release large amounts of CO2, further fuelling a global climate change trend.

Drought

The scientists used a measure if forest colour which they called the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), which records photosynthetic capacity, or ‘greenness’.

They also measured the water in plant matter above ground level, which would show an increase in leaf fall, for example. This measure was called the vegetation optical depth (VOD).

They found that both declined, in tandem with rising temperatures and a drop in rainfall.

“EVI declined over 92% of the study area from 2000 to 2012 and in 97% of the area from 2003 to 2012, with 39% and 54% of the area showing a significant negative trend. VOD decreased steadily from1988 to 2002, recovered slightly between 2003 and 2006, and reached the lowest levels thereafter, mirroring the low-frequency signal of rainfall variations.”

The latest study reflects a growing concern for the creeping impacts on tropical forests of more frequent droughts, rather than a total tropical forest dieback whose probability is now considered less likely in the near term.

Last month’s report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that tropical forests may see shifts in tree species composition, ecosystems and biodiversity as they became drier.

A comprehensive analysis in 2010 of tropical forests across 10 countries, cited by the IPCC, examined the biodiversity implications of more frequent drought in the Amazon rainforest, Borneo and elsewhere.

They reported that droughts killed larger, less dense trees first, risking wider changes to the biodiversity of the forest.

“The rich ecology of tropical forests is intimately tied to their moisture status,” the authors of that 2010 study said.

“Amazon drought kills selectively and therefore may also alter species composition, pointing to potential consequences of future drought events on the biodiversity in the Amazon region.”

A climate and vegetation analysis of the dry forests of India in 2011, also cited by the IPCC last month, concluded that much of this forest would undergo fundamental vegetation change this century.

“According to the model projections, 39% of forest grids are likely to undergo vegetation type change under the A2 scenario (of continuously rising carbon emissions through 2050) by the end of this century,” the authors of that 2011 study said.

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Source: Flickr/Corinne Staley

By Sophie Yeo

The Congo Basin will face disproportionately high levels of global warming by 2050 due to deforestation, researchers have warned.  

Shrinking rainforest cover means the area will heat up by an additional 0.7C by mid-century, on top of the 1.4C increase from today’s temperatures that rising global greenhouse gas emissions are projected to cause.

This is in addition to the 0.85C of warming that the world has already experienced since industrial times, when humans started burning fossil fuels at scale.

This puts the Congo on track to hit around 3C of warming by the middle of the century, far exceeding the internationally agreed ‘safe’ target of 2C, with severe implications for the plants and animals in the forest.

“When you go to local hotspots of over 3C by 2050, you have some species which won’t be able to adapt to this temperature change,” said co-author Wim Thiery to RTCC.

He added that the fragmented landscape and the extreme sensitivity of tropical species to changes in the temperature would cause severe disruption to the environment.

The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Leuven in Belgium, was published in the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate.

Deforestation

The Congo rainforest is the second largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon, covering nearly two million square kilometres of central Africa.

But growing populations and inefficient agricultural practises mean that the trees are being cut down. A recent study found that during the 1990s nearly 3,000 sq km of forest was felled each year, although this slowed to around 2,000 sq km between 2000 and 2010.

Globally, deforestation accounts for approximately a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, putting it second only to the energy sector, and contributing to the worldwide hike in temperatures.

This latest report, which the authors say uses the most realistic future scenarios of potential deforestation to date, shows that the loss of the rainforests also has severe impacts at a local level, due to reduced evaporation.

This also threatens precipitation levels across the region, say the researchers.

“Not only does deforestation in this region contribute to the global rise in temperature through CO2 emissions from wood burning, it also has a direct impact on the climate of Central Africa,” says Tom Akkermans, lead author of the study.

“The results point to the need to address the causes of deforestation in the Congo Basin.”

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Source: Flickr/imagea.org

By Sophie Yeo in Geneva

Last week, representatives from countries across the world gathered in Geneva with a common mission: to figure out how to stop the destruction of the planet’s rainforests. 

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Land Degradation, known as REDD+, is a UN-designed scheme to ensure that it becomes more profitable for developing countries to leave their precious rainforest resources standing, rather than chopping them down and selling the wood.

The only way to do this is to persuade rich countries to pay the forest nations to preserve their trees.

Forest degradation and deforestation is one of the prime drivers of climate change, accounting for nearly 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, as the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere.

REDD+ was created at the UN climate conference in Bali in 2007. This year, in Warsaw, the rules were finally put in place to allow the programme to take flight.

But problems remain. The UK, US and Norway recently made a US$ 280million donation, but in general the funding has come in trickles, rather than the waves needed if the forests are to remain standing.

Indigenous people have fought back over perceived violations of their human rights, while setting up the mechanisms needed to start the implementation process has proved complicated.

RTCC travelled to Geneva to see what some of the main players in REDD+ process think has been achieved so far, and what lies in wait for the scheme over the coming years.

Pham Manh Cuong, Director of Vietnam REDD+ Office

Source: RTCC

“Vietnam has some advantages compared to other countries. REDD fits well with our ongoing national policy strategies on environmental protection and poverty. Many activities have been implemented for more than 20 years.

“We have gained experience from that, and we would like to increase and improve our system to meet with the international requirements. Vietnam also receives considerable support from the international donor communities.

“But on the technical aspects, not many developing countries have the same capacity. In Vietnam we have the experience from the implementation of the inventory and monitoring programme for the last 20 years, so we could meet the demands of the international donor community in the next few years.

“In terms of financial management, REDD requires you to develop the transparent financial measuring system, so we need to develop entities and management schemes in cooperation with an ongoing positive incentive schemes in the country like a payment for forest ecosystems.

“Another challenge is social development. We need to mobilise more active and meaningful  participation of the stakeholders in the REDD implementation.”

Pasang Dolma Sherpa, National Coordinator at the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities

Source: RTCC

“The government of Nepal started REDD initiatives from 2009. In the beginning, indigenous people were not aware of this process, but later the concerns of the indigenous people have been raised in the global and regional level.

“On the national level there’s a representative of indigenous peoples in the Ministry of Forestry and Conservation. It is a good step that at least there’s a representative of indigenous people in the process but, unlike in the UN, the decision making process is not on a consensus basis.

“Indigenous people represent one out of 13 parties. As this is based on the majority voice, we can easily imagine what would be the situation on the issues and concerns that have been raised by indigenous people.

“The main concerns indigenous people have been addressing are land tenures and recognition of indigenous peoples’ traditional practices and forest governance system and institutions. The forests have undoubted impact on the livelihoods, on their identity, on the cultural and social values of indigenous people.

“Indigenous people are really raising our concern that until the safeguards of indigenous people’s rights have been addressed by the international conventions, it will not work because there will be a lack of a sense of responsibility and a lack of trust, mutual trust between indigenous people and the government, for the REDD implementation.”

Alfred Gichu, Coordinator of REDD+ readiness activities in Kenya

Source: RTCC

“REDD+ provides one of the greatest opportunities for Kenya to address what we see as the current drivers of deforestation and the climate change problem within the country.

“We’ll have to contend with a number of challenges that lie within the current process we develop a strategy and implementation framework. They are processes that will require broad stakeholder consultation and participation. It is a process that will require us a country to move as one community.

“It is also a process that will involve deployment of technologies that are not available within the country and so we will have to seek support from elsewhere. There is a whole array of activities we need to undertake, but some we do not have available in the country, such as technology, to see us through.

“Warsaw was a very significant step forward because it gives us the broad framework we need as a country to grow and develop our readiness activity. It also gives us confidence that if we embark on the processes initiated that we will at some point be incentivised.

“As we develop strategies, as we develop the implementation framework, we should do it in a way that brings on board everybody who will ultimately participate in REDD+ implementation. That is something that cannot be done without trust across the board.”

Evarist Nashanda, Principle forest officer at the Tanzania Forest Services Agency

Source: RTCC

“Forest degradation and destruction is a very big challenge. Most of our people, they depend on forest resources for their livelihood and in most cases they depend on biomass energy for cooking. An alternative source of energy is expensive and they cannot manage.

“One of the biggest challenges is that we expected to get funding for protection of the forests but the discussion has been very long and we are not yet there, and our people are still depending on cutting forests for their livelihood. If we could get an alternative source for income, then the forests would have been saved, but since the dependence on forests is very high they will continue to be degraded unless we get an alternative source.

“When it was agreed in Bali that REDD was going to be a way of rewarding local people, many people thought that funding could be accessed easily but as we went down the road, we found that it is becoming complicated because of the elements that need to be put in place before you can be paid. It’s not easy.

“I think it is a question of transfer of knowledge, because one thing you need is to measure the forests. You need to measure both in terms of physical measuring and satellite monitoring, and this technology is not there in developing countries and it is expensive.”

Gabriel Labbate, coordinator for UN-REDD in Panama

Source: RTCC

“In June 2009 we received a note of protest from COONAPIP about problems with consultation and participation of the indigenous people in UN-REDD in Panama. The UN programme began a process of dialogue with COONAPIP which was interrupted in Feb 2013. At that point Coonapip withdrew from the programme.

“Then the programme launched a large independent investigation. It took a few months to be completed and in June 2013, six months ago, with the results of this investigation in place, the government and COONAPIP began a process of dialogue to discuss and find a solution and a way forward.

“It took real transparency to encourage this process of negotiation and the result was quite successful. Both parties agreed to come back to the programme.

“This success story shows that even what both parties considered as very strong differences about a year ago can be solved. There are positions that can satisfy both parties and that is a lesson not only for Panama but for the programme in general.

“REDD has genuinely paid attention and is making sure indigenous people are represented fully. Our programmes can have difficulties—it is a learning process. The situation in countries can be complex and mistakes can be made. These things happen.

“The programme is ready to acknowledge the mistakes, and it is ready to take the corrective actions.”

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Source: Flickr/ben britten

By Sophie Yeo

Parliaments and national legislation are key to reducing deforestation, according to a report released last week by Globe International.

The global forum of legislators says Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and the Democratic Republic of Congo do not need to wait for a binding climate change deal in 2015 to reduce the destruction of forests.

Deforestation account for around 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and is especially damaging because the jungles of the Amazon, Congo and Sumatra store vast quantities of carbon.

UN climate talks starting next Monday in Warsaw are set to resume discussions on how a mechanism known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) can be developed.

REDD+ is a contentious issue, and with forest degradation increasing, the report’s backers say more focus needs to be placed on the role of national parliaments in addressing the problem.

Writing in the Guardian, Globe International President Lord Deben said power needs to be handed to legislators in the affected countries.

“With 2015 on the horizon, much is now at stake for a global deal on forests and climate change. These can both still be secured with a concerted effort that is driven by national parliaments,” he said. “Time is of the essence, however, and we ignore the ticking clock at our peril.”

Wood from the trees

The REDD+ programme uses funds from developed countries, which are used to pay developing countries to keep their forests intact.

An absence of legal clarity in developing countries means that land is often given over to exploitation for economic gain, including agriculture, mining and oil exploration. Clearer rules on a national level would prevent forests coming second to economic interests.

7,732 mining permits have been granted to mining companies, for instance, with 3.5 million hectares of them encroaching on protected forest areas.

Initially seen as a quick and easy means of reducing carbon emissions, thanks to the large amount of CO2 that forests absorb, the REDD+ process has become a stumbling block for international negotiations.

It has become bound up in issues of indigenous people’s rights, while corruption is a threat due to the large amount of money involved.

Getting an international consensus on REDD+ is likely to prove vital in achieving a strong climate deal. With UN talks commencing in Warsaw next week, progress on the issue could help remove one of the obstacles to an effective agreement in 2015.

“Urgent engagement with parliaments, and advancement of strong national forest legislation, is now crucial if a REDD+ deal is to be reached in 2015.  Achieving this goal is still possible,” said Senator Alejandro Encinas of Mexico, where there is already protection in place for indigenous communities.

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(Pic: WRI-Staff)

By Nilima Choudhury 

The UN hopes a new treaty signed by African governments, industry representatives and civil society organisations this week will slow levels of illegal timber trading in the Congo Basin.

The Brazzaville Declaration marks the latest effort by the international community to slow the destruction of Africa’s rainforests.

Backed by the governments of the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon, the agreement focuses on boosting transparency, forest governance and timber tracking.

Covering an area of 300 million hectares, the Congo Basin harbours the world’s second largest tropical forest, but the UN estimates net forest loss is around 700,000 hectares a year.

The agreement recognises the “importance of the forestry sector in the socio-economic development and its contribution to food security and nutrition on the one hand and its role in the preservation of the global climate and biodiversity conservation on the other.”

Recent research shows that Congo Basin tree species are larger in stature on average than their Amazon counterparts, suggesting the African rainforest may be a larger carbon storehouse and a crucial resource for productive and sustainable forest management.

Climate change

WWF says up to a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation and forest degradation.

Trees in the Congo Basin are also a major source of illegal timber, part of a global trade that costs governments around $10 billion per year in lost tax revenues worldwide.

Simon Counsell, executive director of campaign group Rainforest Foundation UK described the agreement as an ‘important step’, but argued it needs to be more ambitious.

“Noticeably, the declaration has nothing to say about the potential role of local communities, of which there are many tens of thousands in the Central African forests, in helping to protect their environment and prevent illegal destruction, nor indeed about civil society organisations,” he said.

“In many ways this reads more as a ‘timber industry charter’ than it does something aimed at preventing forest destruction, and appears to learn nothing from the previous decades of experience in this region and elsewhere.”

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