As Robert said, Forest Day was a fantastic event, particularly as forests and the consequences of different forest management practices are higher on the global political agenda than ever before.
Highlights for me included listening to Rajendra Pachauri (Chair IPCC), Elinor Ostrom (recent Nobel Prize winner), Sir Nicolas Stern, Hilary Benn ((UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and Wangari Maathai.
There was also about 20 negotiators present and apparently negotiations on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and its extended track "REDD plus" have taken a "positive" turn. REDD is a policy that aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries and requires the developed world to finance and incentivise governments of developing nations for preserving forests. However, the Bali Action Plan called for "policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries". This then led to REDD-plus which also provides finances for efforts to conserve forest areas, adopt environment friendly methods or plant new trees - as against REDD, which was just about reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation of forest areas.
Facts: Forests and other land ecosystems currently capture and store more than a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions, deforestation and forest degradation simultaneously contributes up to 17–20% of global CO2 emissions. Major contributions to fighting climate change could be achieved through improved forest management and land use practices.
How might REDD plus be funded? There are many different proposals, broadly they fall into three categories:
1)Market mechanisms: countries that reduce deforestation would gain credits for reducing their carbon emissions, which would then be sold on international carbon markets.
2)Government funds: a large pot of international funding would be set up and play a similar role to the official development aid that flows from rich to poor countries. An example of this is Brazil's Amazon Fund to which Norway has pledged US$1bn
3) A combination of the two
Sir Nicholas Stern was good (spoke with no notes) and stressed that one of the lowest costs way of reversing climate change was to stop deforestation. He said deforestation could be halved at a cost of ball park US$15 billion per annum by 2020. Costs should be shared globally and he stressed that funding from governments alone will not be sufficient.
Hilary Benn then spoke and mentioned that "REDD+ will only succeed if we - as developed countries – do our bit. So as well as contributing finance, that means stopping the purchase of timber from damaging deforestation and supporting the purchase of timber from sustainable sources. This will send a message and help to change behaviour. It will reduce the risk of deforestation moving from places - which are benefiting from REDD finance - to others which are not. Our responsibility as Governments is to use the power we have – when we buy timber - to help the market for products that don’t have a damaging ‘forest footprint’. And it’s not just about timber; it’s also about sustainable palm oil". He ended by saying: "This year we celebrated 150 years of the publication of Charles Darwin’s, ‘On the Origin of Species’. Darwin revolutionised the way we see and think about our place in the world – who we are and where we come from. Darwin bequeathed to us this simple advice. He said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent…. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. He was right. He had the courage to tell us what the science told him. It is up to us to find the courage to secure the world’s future for our children and our grandchildren. And the time to do this is now". (Excellent speaker)
In the afternoon, Wangari Maathai spoke with extraordinary and exciting conviction. She was the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and won it for forming the Green Belt Movement where for nearly thirty years, she mobilized poor women in Africa to plant 30 million trees and reverse deforestation. This woman is phemonenal, but ironically was always dubbed as a troublemaker for speaking out. The president of Kenya called her a "mad woman," and "a threat to the order and security of the country." Her husband abandoned her, filing for divorce on the grounds that she was "too educated, too strong, too successful, too stubborn and too hard to control." Maathai maintained that it was particularly important for African women to know that they could be strong, and to liberate themselves from fear and silence.
At the end of day, Yvo De Boer popped in to deliver the final address. Most noticeable was his passion and ability to empower that was completely absent at the Global Business Day. He began by saying how critical this moment in time in history was for climate change. The strong scientific base, a broad understanding of the challenge, a resounding political will to come to grips with solving the problem, 43,000 people registered in support to COP15, as well as 120 heads of states converging on Copenhagen next week. If we fail to deliver a resounding answer to climate change then the political attention will move elsewhere. Now is the time but he stressed, it is vital to make sure that beyond the political wins of the conference, that we we pay attention to the broader agenda of sustainable development. He powerfully called on us all to be the environmental, ecological and social conscience of the process. Rock on Yvo!
Ciara Shannon
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