The eyes of the world are on COP15

]]> http://fficop15.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/postcards-from-copenhagen-3/feed/ 0 fficop15 The eyes of the world are on COP15 http://fficop15.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/more-postcards-from-copenhagen-2/ http://fficop15.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/more-postcards-from-copenhagen-2/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:15:17 +0000 fficop15 http://fficop15.wordpress.com/?p=357 ]]> More photos can be seen on the Postcards from Copenhagen page, or from FFI’s Flickr photostream.

Inventive exhibits were in abundance

Orang-utan

Dr Ian Noble from the World Bank suggested “Climate change is and will continue to be one of the dominant drivers of biodiversity loss”

He also said “REDD has the potential to deliver co-benefits for forest biodiversity if we recognise the contribution of diverse forests, respect indigenous and local peoples and address forest governance issues”

“Maintaining biodiversity and setting up monitoring systems to reduce threats is key,” said Natasha Calderwood, Program Coordinator, FFI-Macquarie Taskforce.

“The co-benefits for wider ecosystem services include things like watershed protection and preventing soil erosion.”

World forest ecosystems provide a range of environmental services that directly or indirectly benefit all humans and forest ecological sustainability and resilience depends strongly on biodiversity.

It is key, therefore, that efforts to reduce emission from deforestation take biodiversity conservation into consideration as this will help maintain fully functional and resilient forest ecosystems as well as the long term stability of the carbon pool.

Nicaraguan dry forest

Forest ecosystem in South America

FFI’s mission is to act to conserve threatened species and ecosystems worldwide, choosing solutions that are sustainable, based on sound science and take into account human needs.

“Forest Day 3 gave us the chance to share experiences and learn from forest-focused projects and people,” Natasha said.

REDD+ was a big focus of Forest Day 3. Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) is primarily about emissions reduction and REDD+ extends this to include the role of conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancing forest carbon stocks in developing countries.

“REDD+ is the scope of forest-based mitigation options to be hopefully included in the post-2012 REDD regime, encompassing forest conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of forest carbon stocks, as identified in the Bali Action Plan,”

It is thought that REDD can not only address climate change and help the poor but have a positive effect on conserving biodiversity and sustaining vital ecosystem services.

“REDD+ must be part of an agreement made this week at COP” said Hilary Benn, Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK.

Community involvement in an FFI project

FFI has recently conducted a project looking into the social impact assessment of REDD projects and has been able to share some of the learnings here at COP15.

“Currently there is a monitoring system for carbon but what we don’t have is a way of monitoring success from REDD in terms of the social and biodiversity benefits of these projects” Natasha said.

FFI, in partnership with Forest Trends, the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) and Rainforest Alliance, collaborated on developing guidance for conducting social impact assessments.

“This will hopefully help REDD proponents developing projects take into account the social implications” Natasha said.

- FFI teams attended Forest Day 3

- Climate negotiations changed gear during closed meetings at COP15

- Archbishop Desmond Tutu handed Yvo de Boer, UN Climate Chief, half a million signatures from people wanting action on climate change

Apologies for the late review – delegates, NGOs and press waited in freezing temperatures this morning with queues (it’s rumoured) as long as 3 kilometres!

COP15 logo

You’ve probably been seeing a lot of the COP15 logo recently, especially if you happen to be in Copenhagen!

The logo was chosen from hundreds of proposals in an open competition, with the winning design coming from Danish design studio NR2154.

“The design is based on graphs of scientific climate data, showing predicted temperature changes, and there are 192 lines, one for each UN member state” explains Troels Faber of NR2154.

Read more about the design on the official COP15 blog.

The Hopenhagen globe at the City Town Hall Square

]]> http://fficop15.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/postcards-from-copenhagen-2/feed/ 0 fficop15 Hopenhagen globe http://fficop15.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/forest-day-3/ http://fficop15.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/forest-day-3/#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:23:45 +0000 fficop15 http://fficop15.wordpress.com/?p=241 ]]> FFI attends Forest Day 3….

Forest Day 3

Forest Day 3 is hosted by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Collaborative Partnerships on Forests. It is the third in a series of days dedicated to keeping forests high on the climate change agenda, something that FFI also believes very important.

The first Forest Day, 2007 in Bali, informed the inclusion of forests in the Bali Action Plan. Last year in Poznan, at Forest Day 2, key stakeholders agreed that including forests in the global climate protection regime was urgent and that is was of upmost importance to manage forest for livelihoods, biodiversity and carbon storage.

This year Forest Day is dedicated to ensuring the design and implementation of forest-related climate measures are climate- and cost-effective with equitable impacts and co-benefits.

Forest Day is a critical event for FFI during COP15 as forests, forest management and REDD are key aspects of our work. We work to conserve significant areas of tropical and temperate forest habitat and the rich assemblages of animals and plants that they harbour.

Climate change adaptation and mitigation, the social impacts of REDD, degradation and biodiversity are just some of the topics to be discussed at Forest Day 3.

Check back later to get an update of the day from Natasha Calderwood from the FFI-Macquarie Taskforce.

The social impacts of REDD are discussed at Forest Day 3