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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
By Nnamdi Duru with Agency Report, This Day Live, 4 February 2012 | Foreign and local investors who are usually worried about the future of their investments in Africa due to political and social instability in the continent now can now heave a sigh of relief. OPIC’s President, Ms. Elizabeth Littlefield said: “For example, OPIC is developing insurance products for the renewable resources sector, specifically to protect investors against a government’s change in the feed-in tariff that the...
LifeWeb, February 2012 | The project will pilot a sub-national REDD+ strategy in the Albertine Rift in south-west Uganda. This region ranks first out of the 119 terrestrial eco-regions of continental Africa in terms of biodiversity significance, but has one of the highest deforestation rates globally, losing 17000 ha/yr. By introducing REDD+, the project will apply a transformational approach to the management of the 329000 ha of remaining forests in protected areas, safeguarding carbon stocks...
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...
Albertine Rift, no date | One of the potential financing options that exists for conservation of natural forest is through REDD. The idea is that western nations offset their carbon emissions by paying to protect natural forest which is a source of about 20% of all carbon emissions. These funds could provide incentives for people who have natural forest on their land, or to national governments to protect forest rather than convert it to agriculture. WCS has been leading a feasibility analysis...
By Jenny Marusiak, Eco-Business.com, 2 February 2012 | Policymakers looking to reduce deforestation in their countries have the right tools to do so today, but without a solid foundation in good governance and consistent policies, they will not be successful, said a prominent policy expert... A notable exception to that trend is Costa Rica. Its tropical forested area is roughly twice the size it was 20 years ago, when its government first implemented national policies on conservation. Speaking...
Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources, 3 February 2012 | International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB), on 15January 2012 has written a letter to the Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Sinawatra regarding forced relocation of indigenous Karen peoples from Kaeng Krachan National Park leading to violation of their human rights. The letter states the harrassment of Karen villagers had been going for some time that came to a severe situation in May, June and July 2011, when many houses of the...
Jim Snetsinger, British Columbia’s Chief Forester, told a convention of the Western Silviculture Contractors’ Association this week that the historic mountain pine beetle infestation in interior B.C. wasn’t as destructive as first feared.
“In 2006, we were projecting a mountain pine beetle kill of 80 per cent of pine by 2013,” Jim Snetsinger said. “Our 2011 models . . . now tell us mountain pine...
Weyerhaeuser has reported net earnings of $65 million in their fourth quarter on net sales of $1.6 billion.
This can be compared to Weyerhaeuser’s net earnings of $171 million on net sales of $1.5 billion for the same period last year.
For the full year 2011, Weyerhaeuser reported net earnings of $331 million on net sales from continuing operations of $6.2 billion. This compares with net earnings of $1....
