WALHI accuses Irwandi of breaking REDD+ promises in Aceh

Mongabay is reporting that WALHI has accused Aceh Governor Irwandi of approving a permit to put a palm oil plantation on a peat forest....which would go against many of the Aceh REDD laws, goals, institutions, and personalities. I'm quoted in the brief article and recommend that all the facts are brought out and the governor's office has time to respond before leaping to any conclusions. WALHI is not the most neutral observer of REDD in Aceh, having fought against REDD programs in Aceh pretty much every step of the way.

Policy Nominations for Visionary Forest Policies

This is an interesting article on nominations for Visionary Forest Policies, an award by the World Future Council. The article at the bottom provides a link to 19 nominated policies from around the world, including the US 2008 Lacey Act, Aceh's 2007 Logging Moratorium, and Brazil's 2008 law authorizing the Amazon Fund (among many others).

3rd GCF meeting kicks off

Governor Yusuf Irwandi of Aceh welcomed delegates from around the world to Banda Aceh.

Today's meeting thus far has been an opportunity for GCF member states to update the group on their activities. The meetings are being chaired by Amazonas State (Brazil), represented by Natalie Unterstell and Bernhard Smid.

Later this afternoon, there will be updates on Brazilian (Ernesto Roessing, GCF country coordinator), Indonesia (TBD) and US (William Boyd, GCF Secretariat) federal legislation and programs and international REDD policy (John-O Niles, TFG). These updates will be followed by the first Working Group I (Standards and Criteria).

Tomorrow will be an update from Barbara Bamberger on the California rule-making process of ARB 32. This will be followed by Working Groups II (Coordination Mechanisms and Accounting Frameworks) and WG III (Needs Assessment and Finance). The meeting is scheduled to conclude with a declaration of the GCF to be used at various for a (including for example, the Paris-Oslo process), the date and location of the next GCF meeting, addition of new GCF members discussion and stakeholder involvement and an outreach strategy. The next day is scheduled for a joint meeting between GCF members and all interested stakeholders.

REDD Governors Gather in Aceh

The Governors Climate Forest Taskforce is an informal collaboration among some of the most advanced state and provinces in the world working together to make REDD happen. The governments represented on the GCF include Aceh, Papua, East Kalimantan and West Kalimantan (Indonesia), Acre, Amapa, Amazonas, Matto Grosso and Para (Brazil), California, Illinois, Wisconsin (USA), Campeche (Mexico) and Cross River State (Nigeria).

The GCF occupies a key role between project-based REDD and what is hoped in most quarters to be national accounting. In many developing countries, states and provinces provide many of the basic services for people and have a significant role in managing lands and forests.

The GCF meeting in Aceh Indonesia comes at an interesting time in many respects:
1) The UNFCCC in Copenhagen unanimously endorsed a decision requesting developing countries to build national, and where appropriate sub-national, forest monitoring systems.

2) The UNFCCC LCA chair has just announced a new comprehensive text, what may be the UNFCCC's last chance to be relevant in the long term.

3) US federal legislation has been introduced that would support some sub-national REDD programs.

4) The role of the VCS (and the voluntary market at large) have many REDD projects and proponents scratching their heads about what to do. Almost everyone thinks the VCS is the right way to go, even though not a single VCS REDD project has qualified for any part of the VCS REDD requirements.

GCF members and stakeholders have started to gather under the mountains of the Ulu Masen forests (pictured above), with prayer calls about and a gaggle of good people working at the nexus between federal and project REDD carbon accounting. Tomorrow formal talks begin on three working groups: one on project based accounting, another on nesting and state systems, and a third of needs and funding of/for GCF members. Stay tuned here for updates.

Aceh's Governor Irwandi birthday surprise visit

As far as birthday surprises go, my 40th birthday couldn't have been more exciting. One of my heroes in this world, Governor Yusuf Irwandi of Aceh Indonesia, is an icon in conservation, democracy and human rights.

Governor Irwandi and some of his senior staff (Wibi, Yakob, Rafli, and others) popped by unexpected to share some food, play with kids, and toast to a new year. TFG is looking forward to staying engaged in Aceh forest conservation and sustainable livelihood efforts in the coming months and years.

You can read a 2007 article about Yusuf Irwandi (that I wrote when I was still in the private sector) here:

http://ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/article.opinion.php?component_id=5358&component_version_id=7777&language_id=12