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VicForests is seeking markets for approximately 837,000 tonnes per annum of residual log material, available from Victoria's commercial native forest estate.

Timber Communities Australia has issued an invitation to attend the ‘Native forest biomass for bio-energy forum; social, environmental and economic considerations’ on 7 March.

The Australian Government will be holding public information sessions around the country to inform industry and other interested parties on the Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill 2011 that was introduced into Parliament on 23 November 2011.

The Future Fund is helping to finance a move by United States timber investment manager The Campbell Group in a A$600 million offer for South Australian forestry assets.

THE ANZ Bank and nine other banks have extended Gunns Limited's $340 million senior debt and $200 million working capital facility until December 31, 2012, according to Nick Clark writing in The Mercury.

On a more positive note, we are pleased to advise that the sale of the softwood joint venture plantations was finalised today. The Deputy Premier Bryan Green and Forestry Tasmania's chairman Adrian Kloeden announced back in early December that Taswood Growers had reached agreement to sell rights to the plantation estate to Sydney based firm New Forests for $156m. The sale process, which included Foreign Investment Review Board approval, was finalised today, and our share of the proceeds will be used to retire debt.

McKay's Timber, the largest family-owned sawmill in Tasmania’s south, has stood down 30 of its workers - about a third its staff.

Forestry Tasmania has come out swinging in the latest round of the fight with anti-forestry activists. FT managing director Bob Gordon landed some heavy blows when he released a report entitled Forest management in Tasmania - the Truth.

GINA, 2 February 2012 | Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) will soon benefit from implementation support through a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Guyana and The Energy and Research Institute (TERI) headed by Dr. R.K Pachauri, Nobel Prize Laureate and Chairman of the Inter- Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Former President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo and Shyam Nokta from the Office of the President held discussions in Delhi with Dr. R.K Pachauri and TERI officials which will see Guyana receiving support from TERI in the implementation of its climate initiatives and the LCDS. Among the broad areas identified for assistance include support for long- term strategy development in the energy sector with focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency and establishing a partnership for the setting up of a Centre for Biodiversity Studies.

By Chevon Singh, Guyana Chronicle, 2 February 2012 | The Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) will not be available for disbursal until the Government of Guyana and its partners -- the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) -- have agreed on projects to be presented to the Steering Committee. Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon, made this pronouncement yesterday while fielding questions at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President. “We have to continue working with our partner entities to ensure agreements can be made on project design and execution; and at that point, it will be placed before the Steering Committee… If this is not completed, then access to the funds to implement those projects would not be possible,” the Cabinet Secretary explained. The GRIF is a fund for financing activities identified under the Government of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).

Kaieteur News, 3 February 2012 | Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon yesterday told media operatives that he is aware of reports involving police altercations with controversial contractor Makeswhar ‘Fip’ Motilall but insists that the Government owns the seized equipment. Dr Luncheon, addressing reporters at his weekly media conference, said that Government forked out a significant sum of cash for the purchase of the equipment and in light of the developments involving the project, the Government contends that it owns the equipment. Dr Luncheon explained that Government had relied on the provisions in the contract with Synergy Holdings Inc, hence the seizure of the equipment. “I don’t believe that there is any question that Government has an absolute right, absolute ownership…because they expended funds to procure that equipment.”

By Chevron Singh, Guyana Chronicle, 2 February 2012 | Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon has announced that Cabinet on Tuesday approved the provision of financial resources to continue work on the Amaila Falls access road. He was at the time speaking at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President, where he explained that the resources earmarked for the continuation of the project, were to be used for the recruitment of contractors to complete the road works. The Cabinet Secretary said: “In essence, the provision of resources was intended to allow central government to acquire the services of a number of contractors, not one as before, but a number who would be able to assume responsibility for design and completion of their lots on the entire roadway from Linden to the site.”

By Steve Zwick, Ecosystem Marketplace, 3 February 2012 | Ecosystem markets have gained credence around the world - in part because of people like Robert Costanza, Adam Davis, and Sally Collins. After all, Costanza’s effort to put a number on the value of nature’s services sparked a debate that continues to this day, while Davis’s efforts to move beyond abstract valuations led to the founding of Ecosystem Marketplace, and Collins's recognition of the economic threats to North American forests led to her appointment as the founding director of the US Department of Agriculture’s Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets... Time to Rethink? Costanza got the fire burning last October, with a post entitled Conventional markets are the wrong institutions for managing ecosystem services. "If we think of ecosystem services as part of 'the commons', we still can and should use economic incentives (fees and payments) to manage the commons," he continued.

American Carbon Registry, February 2012 | Winrock International’s American Carbon Registry (ACR) is developing technical guidance for REDD+ projects nested within a jurisdictional accounting framework. Project-level REDD+ activities – including conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks – are eligible to register on ACR and, upon release of the ACR Nested REDD+ Requirements, will be able to do so using baseline, leakage, monitoring and other requirements developed at the jurisdictional level provided these meet certain minimum criteria.

GINA, 3 February 2012 | Guyana's delegation, lead by the Hon. Robert Persaud, Minster of Natural Resources and the Environment, has been engaged in intense discussions at the 18th Meeting of Latin America and Caribbean Environmental Ministers, being held in Quito, Ecuador from January 31 to February 3, 2012. Representatives and Environmental Ministers from over 30 countries of the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) are also participating in the Forum. Discussions have been primarily focused on the exchange information and experiences of the LAC countries since the 1992 Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the intention of crafting a joint Latin American and Caribbean vision for the upcoming Rio+20 follow-up Conference scheduled for June 2012.

Mark Tercek, Huffington Post, 20 January 2012 | As we watch the world debate how best to address climate change, and as carbon emissions continue to soar, at least one climate strategy strikes me as a "no-brainer." We should do everything we can to save the world's forests. There are many good reasons for protecting forests, from their intrinsic beauty to their ecologic and economic values. Tropical forests are storehouses of biodiversity, harboring more than one-half of the Earth's known plants and animal species. And nearly 1 billion people worldwide directly depend on forest resources -- fiber, fuel, food and clean water -- for their livelihoods and well-being.

mongabay.com, 2 February 2012 | A comprehensive satellite-based assessment published in the journal Nature Climate Change estimated that the world's tropical forests store some 229 billion tons of carbon in their vegetation — about 20 percent more than previously estimated. The findings could help improve the accuracy of reporting CO2 emissions reductions under the proposed REDD program, which aims to compensate tropical countries for cutting deforestation, forest degradation, and peatlands destruction. Brazilian mining giant Vale won the dubious distinction of being named "the world's worst corporation" for its involvement in the controversial Belo Monte dam (construction also began in January). Vale was selected after an online vote organized by the Public Eye Awards. A review of scientific literature argued that selective logging of primary tropical forests is rarely sustainable ecologically or economically. The paper was published in journal Biological Conservation.

By Essam Mohammed, International Institute for Environment and Development, 30 January 2012 | REDD+ aims to reward or compensate tropical developing countries for keeping their forests intact or for reducing the scale of deforestation. It’s predicted that financial flows to these countries from REDD+ could reach up to US$30 billion a year. So getting the issue of REDD+ benefit distribution right is crucial, not only to ensure that it is benefiting the poorest of the poor (or at least not harming them), but for building REDD+’s legitimacy both at the national and international level, which in turn will help preserve forest ecosystems. Before REDD+ programmes begin to be implemented in earnest, lessons should be learnt from previous payment schemes, so past mistakes aren’t repeated.

Agfax, February 2012 | Ghana is one of several African countries taking a keen interest in the REDD+ scheme, which offers payment for planting and protecting forest areas. Adoption and promotion of REDD+ presents challenges however, and farmers are among those who are concerned as to whether they will ever receive the promised financial benefits. Kofi Adu Domfeh speaks to some of those involved with Ghana’s uptake of the scheme about the challenges and rewards that REDD brings, including the benefits it could offer in terms of local climate as well as the global picture.