Forest Carbon, partnering with GIZ Laos through the CliPAD programme, has begun a groundbreaking jurisdictional forest carbon accounting and mapping project in the Khammouane Province of Laos this month. Forest Carbon will carry out a jurisdiction-wide, wall-to-wall REDD+ analysis, identifying potential investment opportunities for private companies interested in forest conservation and ecosystem restoration. High-resolution remote sensing data and extensive ground truthing will contribute to the forest classification and carbon stratification analyses, covering the entire province, and putting Khammouane in place to take advantage of potential private sector investment through the voluntary carbon market.

Forest loss and degradation have in recent decades led to a rapid decline in the natural forests of Laos. The consequences of widespread deforestation and degradation are loss of biodiversity, limited availability of forest products, and a decline in the environmental services provided by the forests such as watershed and soil protection, biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration. The poorest groups in Lao society, those that are highly dependent upon forests and ecosystem services for subsistence livelihoods, are most seriously affected by these losses of natural capital.

Forest Carbon, operating out of its newly opened Indochina office in Vientiane, is a Southeast Asian environmental consulting organization, with an established track record on conservation and climate change mitigation through sustainable forestry. GIZ Laos’ Climate Protection through Avoided Deforestation (CliPAD) programme, agreed upon by Lao and German governments, is designed to strengthen park management, work in collaboration with local communities and develop pro-poor REDD strategies and incentive schemes to protect biodiversity while mitigating climate change and alleviating poverty.

After analyzing carbon stratification and historical forest change over the last ten years using data collected from 2 weeks of field based data collection, Forest Carbon is tasked with recommending priority areas in the province for project-level private sector and NGO REDD+ interventions. They will also highlight some of the most promising types of mitigation activities through on-the-ground stakeholder consultations and interviews. The final report is slated for mid-March, 2013.

About Forest Carbon

Forest Carbon (forest-carbon.co.id) is a Southeast Asian based environmental consulting and technology company that has extensive experience in ecosystem mapping, remote sensing, and satellite imagery analysis. Forest Carbon also works with companies within the natural resource management sector to implement efficient operating systems that utilize spatial mapping and GIS services.

The Malaysian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE) with co-funding from The United Nations Development Programme, launched a project this month to develop sustainable mechanisms to finance REDD+ in Malaysia. The goal of the project is to facilitate private and public sector capital towards financing climate mitigation activities that will lead to the long term enhancement and expansion of country’s natural forests. To implement the project, the UNDP and the Malaysian government have engaged Frankfurt School of Finance and Management’s International Advisory Services (IAS) in partnership with Forest Carbon (forest-carbon.co.id), a Southeast Asian-based environmental consulting firm.

The project consortium will work with government ministries, private sector industries, and state governments on documenting current conservation and green economy financing activities taking place domestically and internationally and develop strategies that are appropriate for the Malaysian context. The project, which supports the overall Malaysian national climate change strategy, will be implemented over eleven months with the goal of creating a proposed sustainable financing mechanism for REDD+ implementation that will be endorsed by the already established National Committee on REDD+.

Scott Stanley, Managing Director at Forest Carbon, sees the project as signaling a new trend in REDD+ financing and support within the region. “The project seeks to assess the feasibility of an array of financial mechanisms ranging from tax incentives for companies to payments for environmental services that look beyond traditional bi-lateral assistance which currently represents the largest source of REDD+ funding.”

About Forest Carbon

Forest Carbon (forest-carbon.co.id) is a Southeast Asian based environmental consulting and technology company that has extensive experience in ecosystem mapping, remote sensing, and satellite imagery analysis. Forest Carbon also works with companies within the natural resource management sector to implement efficient operating systems that utilize spatial mapping and GIS services.

About Frankfurt School of Finance and Management

Frankfurt School (frankfurt-school.de) is a leading private business school based in Germany with more than 50 years of experience in providing professional, academic, and executive education to managers and executives as well as financial institutions. Since 1992 Frankfurt School has designed and implemented more than 300 consulting and training projects world-wide through its International Advisory Services, part of which is the FS-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance.

Press Release in PDF Format: Link

WWF and Forest Carbon are conducting a technical feasibility assessment of a new Trans-boundary REDD+ project in Central Vietnam and Southern Laos. The “Avoidance of deforestation and forest degradation in the border area of Southern Laos and Central Vietnam for the long‐term preservation of carbon sinks and biodiversity” project, referred to locally as the “CarBi Project” is made up of the two Sao La Nature Reserves and the Bach Ma National Park in Vietnam, as well as the Xe Sap National Protected Area in Laos. Together, the two contiguous regions comprise an area of more than 200,000 hectares.

Forest Carbon, a southeast Asian environmental consulting firm, is carrying out the initial assessment focused on looking at the feasibility of combining the two contiguous forest conservation areas, in different countries, into either a single or joint project-level activities under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). If shown to be technically feasible, this could be a milestone for trans-boundary and regional collaboration, between countries, to develop sustainable financing for an entire ecological landscape shared by both host countries.

“Forest Carbon is really impressed with the ambition of this initiative by WWF. Project proponents and implementers such as KfW, WWF and partner governments in Laos and Vietnam understand that endangered species such as the Saola, don’t recognize political boundaries, but ecological ones…to the extent that the two countries are able to come together to protect this landscape through REDD+, it would be a major step forward,” said Scott Stanley, one of the Directors of Forest Carbon and the technical lead for the scoping collaboration.

After recent weeks in the field with WWF’s technical team, performing rapid forest assessments and meeting with local stakeholders including government and communities, Forest Carbon will now examine the potential for the REDD+ project to take off, examining closely the financial, operational and technical hurdles it may face.

The CarBi project is supported by a €7 million investment by the Federal Republic of Germany’s International Climate Initiative (ICI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) through KfW, and an additional €1.2 million provided by WWF Germany. The project builds upon the expertise of WWF Laos and WWF Vietnam in carrying out successful conservation work with close government counterpart collaboration. These counterparts include the Vietnam Forest Protection Department, the Laos Department of Forestry and Agriculture, the Laos Forest Inspection Department, as well as the Laos Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. It also includes the provincial governments of Salavane and Xekong in Laos, and Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue in Vietnam, and other relevant partners.

Related Links:Project description on WWF website

About Forest Carbon

Forest Carbon is a technical forestry consulting firm based in Indonesia capable of providing services for carbon baseline measurement, REDD project design and implementation, and forest monitoring for the voluntary and compliance markets. Forest Carbon’s experts are specialized in a number of core disciplines including tropical ecology, silviculture, GIS/remote sensing, social policy and environmental policy.

About WWF

WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which human live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. Please visit www.panda.org/news for latest news and media resources

About the International Climate Initiative

Since 2008, ICI has been financing climate protection projects in developing and newly industrialized countries, as well as countries in transition in Central and Eastern Europe. Based on a decision taken by the German parliament (Bundestag), € 120 million from the auctioning of emission allowances is available for use by ICI annually. By means of this innovative financial mechanism, BMU effectively contributes towards emission reduction and adaptation to climate change. This new form of climate cooperation complements the existing development cooperation work of the German Government.

The ICI is active in three areas: (i) promoting climate-friendly economies, (ii) fostering measures to adapt to the effects of climate change and (iii) ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of natural carbon reservoirs/reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). When selecting projects, BMU attaches great importance to developing innovative, multipliable and transferable approaches whose results are maintained long after completion. Targeted cooperation with partner countries provides the ICI with an important impetus for an international climate agreement. The ICI also makes a significant contribution towards the international dialogue on creating a climate change financial architecture.

About CarBi

The International CarBi project will improve Protected Area management, including progressive Law Enforcement and state of the art scientific biodiversity data collection in Vietnam and Laos, covering an area of more than 200 000 hectares of priority biodiversity land; work with communities in Laos to build capacity to take informed decision regarding natural resource utilization; facilitate strong cooperation between Laos and Vietnam to address trans-boundary timber trade, including the development of a progressive timber tracking system to address the chain of custody; support forest restoration and livelihood enhancement on the Vietnam side of the project area. As part of CarBi’s REDD+ Component, WWF will assess the feasibility of a joint trans boundary project design across border areas, support efforts to measure, report and verify (MRV) carbon emissions from forests and provide capacity building to project partners to ensure long-term sustainability.

About KfW

KfW is Germany’s leading development bank and works on behalf of the German Government, helping to achieve the goals set for German Development Cooperation: to reduce poverty, protect the climate, ensure peace and make globalisation fair to help especially those people living in poor parts of the world to benefit, too. The resources come from the federal budget and are increased by raising additional funds in the capital market. This is capital that directly benefits the partners. In financing, advising and guiding development projects throughout the world their efforts focus on the needs of the partner countries.

“Formalization and Community Forestry in Jambi, Indonesia: Indigenous Rights, Rural Migrants, and the Informal Divide”

Matthew J. Bock, University of British Columbia

Abstract: Recent literature lauding indigenous ‘localism’ has led to the proliferation of local resource management institutions which has subsequent implications regarding the development conservation nexus: this localist paradigm risks entrenching a rigid definition of ‘local’, especially within the rural sector. Mobility is a fundamental tenet of a liberal democratic society while migration occurs for myriad reasons; migrant communities often remain marginalized and susceptible to human rights abuses. Similar to mass property titling programs instigated by Hernando de Soto’s policy prescriptions, state-driven, community resource management programs may also exacerbate the indigenous-migrant divide. In Jambi, Indonesia, the village forest designation (hutan desa) is a promising institution with the potential to impact positively the livelihoods of communities, although a gap in academic literature on migrant communities hinders the ability of the Indonesian government and NGOs to engage with rural settlers to bridge the informal divide.

Indonesian Hutan Desa Licencse Approval Process: PDF Link

Forests are critical to mitigating the effects of global climate change because they are large storehouses of carbon, but there are significant uncertainties about the actual behavior of many of their sinks and sources, according to a recently published textbook, Managing Forest Carbon in a Changing Climate.

The book, written by researchers at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, is a comprehensive review of the science of carbon sequestration in forests, management of forests for carbon mitigation and poverty alleviation, and the socioeconomic and policy implications of managing forests for carbon.

Forest Carbon’s Jeffrey Chatellier and Ian Cummins have co-authored two separate chapters of the book. Mr. Chatellier researched the greenhouse gas implications of the entire lifecycle of forest products in the chapter entitled “Role of Forest Products in the Global Carbon Cycle: From the Forest to Final Disposal”. Mr. Cummins wrote about REDD+ policy decisions in the chapter entitled “Large and Intact Forests: Drivers and Inhibitors of Deforestation and Forest Degradation”.

Managing Forest Carbon in a Changing Climate grew out of a series of seminars that were organized by faculty, students and alumni of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The book is published by Springer and can be read online.

See the product flyer here.

Forest Carbon (www.forest-carbon.co.id) is joined in the consortium by Indonesian bioenergy company, STC Consulting (www.stcresources.com); Dutch engineering firm, Maris BV (http://www.maris-projects.nl/); and Elang, a Riau based environmental NGO that works with farmer associations on rural development. The project will implement a comprehensive model to capture multiple waste streams from the palm oil sector and use them to generate electricity through an integrated power production facility.

Forest Carbon will focus on mapping the extensive palm oil supply chain that incorporates hundreds to thousands of small holder farmers in the districts of Rokan Hulu, Siak, and Indragiri Hilir. Forest Carbon will also conduct a district-wide land cover classification from satellite imagery which will identify degraded lands appropriate for agriculture.

Prasetya Mahardhitama, an analyst at Forest Carbon, sees the project as a great example of using spatial planning technology in order to drive low carbon development, “The project utilizes geographical data to map an extensive network of farmers in order to utilize an agricultural waste product by creating an efficient supply chain that will increase incomes for famers and electricity capacity for the province.”

In order to ensure the environmental sustainability of the project, the consortium will implement the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification scheme, a German Government initiative that has been recognized by the European Commission as the approved scheme for sustainable biomass energy certification under the EU’s renewable energy initiative.

About Forest Carbon

PT. Forest Carbon (www.forest-carbon.co.id) is an Indonesian environmental consulting and technology company that has extensive experience in ecosystem mapping, remote sensing, and satellite imagery analysis. Forest Carbon also works with companies within the natural resource management sector to implement efficient operating systems that utilize spatial mapping and GIS services.

About STC Consulting

Sustainable Trade and Consulting (www.stcresources.com) was formed in 2009 to implement a new vision for bioenergy. This vision is based on maximizing the use of non-food grade waste materials, partnering with small and medium sized farms, utilizing existing infrastructure, and maximizing efficiency throughout the entire supply chain.

Press Release Link : PRLog

Orangutan Foundation (OF) is working to survey orangutan populations and assess habitat quality within logging concessions and protected areas. Forest Carbon conducted a week-long training course in the use of ArcGIS software, image analysis methods, rapid forest assessment and biomass estimation techniques. The course was attended by OF staff, its Indonesian NGO partner Yayorin, and officials from the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry’s local Agency for Conservation of Natural Resources (BKSDA).

Peta Contour Belantikan Hulu

The Lamandau-Belantikan Hulu landscape in Central Kalimantan is home to an estimated 6,000 orangutans comprising one of the largest remaining wild populations in the world. Image and spatial analysis will be undertaken to determine habitat conditions, threats to the forest and orangutans, and prioritize conservation areas. The results of the imagery analysis will allow a more accurate assessment of both orangutan populations and forest conditions in the area.

Ashley Leiman OBE, Director of OF, says “About 70% of the local orangutan population in the Belantikan area are found on active logging concessions. This imagery will allow us to see the impacts of logging on orangutan habitat as well as to determine forest regeneration rates.”

Forest Carbon has collaborated with OF since 2008 on aerial surveys and habitat assessments of the Lamandau River Wildlife Reserve. The work also builds on Forest Carbon’s experience working on a number of REDD+ and sustainable forestry projects in Kalimantan.

Scott Stanley, Managing Director at Forest Carbon, believes that conservation efforts and management efforts outside of protected areas will be necessary to ensure long-term orangutan survival. “With so many orangutans living in unprotected areas, it is necessary to identify which concessions they may occur on and which areas harbor the greatest chance for long term population viability.”

About Orangutan Foundation UK

The Orangutan Foundation is one of the world’s foremost orangutan conservation organizations. It works to save Asia’s endangered great ape by supporting efforts to protect their tropical forest habitat, working together with local communities, NGO’s and government authorities.

The approach of the Orangutan Foundation goes beyond that of purely protecting the orangutan. Critically it also recognizes that orangutan habitat is unique in its richness of biodiversity and crucial for local communities, who are as dependent on the forest as is the orangutan.

Conservation is more than protecting a species, it is about saving nature which includes us, ‘the fifth ape’. The efforts of all of us to prevent global warming will be seen as a defining moment in history, for humanity’s sake and for the health of the whole planet. Tropical forests can play a significant role in guarding against climate change.

About Forest Carbon

Forest Carbon is an environmental consulting and technology company based in Indonesia. It has advised numerous international environmental NGO’s on REDD+, ecosystem mapping, and sustainable forest management in Southeast Asia and Africa. It also works with timber companies on the implementation of sustainable forest management practices.

Project Page : Forest Carbon

Original Press Release Link : PRLOG