Lao, May 25, 2011
Forest Carbon has begun supporting a major new independent online REDD news initiative, ForestCarbonAsia.org, started up by Dr. Unna Chokkalingam, based in Vientiane Lao PDR and S. Anuradha Vanniarachchy based in Sri Lanka. One of PT Forest Carbon Indonesia’s Directors, Gabriel Eickhoff, will contribute regular submissions to the website regarding carbon market projects, sustainable carbon entrepreneurship and private sector opportunities for investment and credit acquisition in the forest carbon sector globally.
Forest Carbon Director, Gabriel Eickhoff, commented on the new partnership, “For us at Forest Carbon, which is a private sector company dedicated to helping public and private project developers build robust and well designed projects, we’ve seen time and time again that a huge part of [our client's] success comes from fully understanding the context, policies and players within the countries that they choose to develop projects. However, that information is often hard to find and usually exists only with the technicians and experts who work day-to-day on REDD+ projects in various countries and very rarely makes it out into an easily accessible forum. So we see this is a way that we can contribute to delivering insight to the carbon forestry community that comes directly from the people who are actually on the ground, every day, working to build REDD+ policy systems, work with communities and design projects on the ground.”
The website aims to serve as an information and resource hub for forest carbon/REDD+ in Asia− providing current news and views from the media, a categorized library of relevant publications, vacancy and event announcements, directories of forest carbon players and links to other useful resources for convenient reference and networking. It also provides regularly-updated synopses of the science, current global policy and financing developments, projects on the ground and quality standards.
Other main features of ForestCarbonAsia.org are up to date country profiles, in–house articles, and research briefs and reports which will provide country overviews, delve into the key issues and cover important developments in the region. Readers can interact online and contribute their own information and material for posting. The website seeks to promote open and free information sharing among forest carbon players across and beyond the Asian region.
ForestCarbonAsia.org’s mission is to raise awareness and understanding about forest carbon-related issues, and promote sustainable forest carbon/REDD+ activities and investments in Asia that are also good for the environment and the local communities. “Through this platform, we hope to engender a healthy and critical debate and move talks and action forward in a positive manner.” says Dr. Chokkalingam.
