Making Copenhagen count

Georgian carnovore camera-traps

Postcards from Copenhagen…

More photos can be seen on the Postcards from Copenhagen page, or from FFI’s Flickr photostream.

The eyes of the world are on COP15

More postcards from Copenhagen

More photos can be seen on the Postcards from Copenhagen page, or from FFI’s Flickr photostream.

Inventive exhibits were in abundance

Climate change and biodiversity

I was lucky enough to sneak into a session at Forest Day 3 where they were discussing climate change and biodiversity.

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

Postcards from Copenhagen – weekend demonstrations

A selection of photos from the weekends’ various demonstrations can be seen on our Postcards from Copenhagen page. The main protest was on Saturday where thousands gathered to marched 6km across the city to the conference centre where negotiators and ministers are meeting.

Ready to distribute placards

Forests and FFI

 I talked to Natasha Calderwood, Program Coordinator, FFI-Macquarie Taskforce about the role of REDD+ and FFI’s new project.

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.