Community Forestry REDD in Cambodia

The Community Forestry Carbon Offset is the first REDD pilot project that involving 13 community forestry sites located in the Northwestern part of Oddar Meanchey province. The area was covered with 75% of evergreen, semi-evergreen (mix deciduous) and deciduous forest types but due to demand for timber and agricultural and settlement land, forest cover has declined at an average rate of 2.1% per annum. Because of the high deforestation rate, the area was selected for REDD pilot project. This Community Forestry Carbon Offset project was launched in 2008 by Forestry Administration with the collaboration of PACT Cambodia and Terra Global Capital. In addition, the project was also officially endorsed by the Prime Minister of Cambodia under Decision no 699 dated 26 May 2008.

The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) strongly supports the REDD mechanism and believes not only that REDD will help reduce GHG emission, but also contribute to alleviating poverty, improving forest governance, and enhancing sustainable forest management in the nation. Butler (2006) estimates potential earnings from REDD for Cambodia at between US$ 85 - 875 million depending on the extent of forest protected for REDD and that REDD can increase the country’s GDP by between 1.7% - 18.5%. The large tracks of forests in Cambodia make it a suitable country for REDD and indeed the country already participated in both Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank and United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD).

REDD in Prey Long (Cambodia)

Global warming is fast becoming the issue of the 21st century. It is also widely accepted that we indeed are a major course. The question is what we are going to do about it. Deforestation and forest degradation now accounts for about 12% of global emissions. If we are to be serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we have to address deforestation in developing countries. “REDD in Prey Long” is about such a project in Cambodia.

The film follows the development of a Cambodian forest climate project where researchers from Forest & Landscape are working together with local NGOs and the Cambodian forest administration to protect the country’s last intact lowland rainforest. This is being achieved by purchasing the existing timber concessions and financing the transaction by selling carbon credits from the preserved forest.

In addition to its climate benefits, the project seeks to preserve a unique flora and fauna as well as safeguarding the existence of the 250,000 people whose livelihoods depend on the forest.

The film tries to answer questions such as: What is the connection between tropical forests and climate change? How much CO2 is there in a tropical forest? How do you calculate it? What does it correspond to in terms of Danish consumption? And how much is the CO2 bound in the forest worth in the international carbon credit markets?

Finally, the film aims to find out whether climate projects can be structured so they have a positive impact on the biological diversity and economic development for the most disadvantaged people in the developing countries.

The film has been made by Ida Theilade and Lars Schmidt from Forest & Landscape, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with Conservation International and the Blue Moon Foundation. It is produced by Asian Images.

Source:Forest & Landscape, Faculty of Life Sciences(LIFE), University of Copenhagen(UC),Denmark

Forest and Nature Conservation Policies in Europe: Spain, France, Germany and The Netherlands

Management and sustainable use of natural resource are the main issues on policy agenda in Europe.Nature conservation practice in Central Europe is importantly concerned on protection of nature and preservation of particular species. As a result, the European Commission has passed a common legal framework for nature conservation which based on the Bird and Habitats directive. In 1997, the Natura 2000 initiative was created on the basis of the bird and habitats directive of European Commission. Additionally, the establishment of Natura 2000 areas cannot be accomplished without mentioning the contribution of European forest sector. Even though there was not any common comprehensive forest and nature conservation policies at European level, these policies are integrated with other common legal frameworks and policies such as environmental policy and the bird and habitats directive which have an effect on national forest policy of member states. In 1997, the European Commission issued the “European Union Forestry Strategy” in order to promote cooperation among the member state on forest sector. Multi-functional forestry is the main focus of the strategy because it has integrated the important functions such as ecological, economic, protective and social. In this paper, Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands will be selected as the examples in order to highlight and understand more about the forest and nature conservation policies in Europe. Furthermore, the primary data which based on personal communication with professors, government official, forest owners and other relevant stakeholders were also used to support the literature. Based on the analysis, the forest and nature conservation policies adopted by the four states have showed different integration to other related policies. In practice, the forest and nature conservation policy would not work smoothly without combination with other policies like agriculture, land use, tourism, and environment. The future trend of forest and nature conservation policy seems to regulate according to the ecological, economical and social perspectives of these countries.