Two Male Giant Cuttlefish in Whyalla, South Australia, displaying their colours to fight for the right to Mate with a female. Photo: Rowan Dear/TNC Photo Contest 2022
FEATURED NEWS
Indigenous Peoples Are the World’s Best Conservationists. Climate Funders Must Recognize That [Commentary]
TIME, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, 29 May
TIME publishes a letter from Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, President of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad, calling for climate funders to not miss the opportunity to invest in the most effective practitioners, Indigenous Peoples. Conservative estimates show that the territories of Indigenous Peoples contain about 40% of the large intact ecosystems scientists say we cannot lose if we want Earth and its natural systems to continue to support life as we know it. Climate Home News reports that rich nations in 2022 delivered on a longstanding pledge to channel $100 billion a year in climate finance to developing nations, two years later than originally promised. At COP26, a joint-donor Pledge was announced committing $1.7 billion to advance Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ forest tenure rights from 2021 to 2025, but currently, less than one percent of climate and biodiversity funding goes directly to Indigenous Peoples.
Euractiv reports representatives of Malaysia’s Indigenous Peoples, along with climate and human rights NGOs, took new concerns to the European Commission that civil society has not been consulted enough in discussions about the EU’s anti-deforestation regulation to prevent further deforestation and loss of Indigenous-owned territories.
Nations, Firms Pledge $2.2 Billion to Africa Clean Cooking
Bloomberg, Antony Sguazzin and Nayla Razzouk, 14 May
Bloomberg reports governments, multilateral lenders and oil and gas companies at the International Energy Agency’s Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa pledged $2.2 billion in financing to promote clean cooking in Africa and end a scourge that causes fatal respiratory disease, adds to carbon emissions and leads to deforestation. It is estimated 2.4 billion people, mainly women, still cook over and heat their homes with open fires that burn wood, charcoal, or dung, leading to 3.2 million annual premature deaths from particulate pollution exposure. Switching to clean-cooking technologies would cut global carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 billion tons, the same amount generated by all planes and ships today. Project Syndicate carries a commentary piece from Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28, and Joseph Nganga, Interim CEO of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, calling on wealthy and Global North governments to meet their commitments on climate financing and fund the transition to clean cooking across the world.
EU spending up to €48bn on nature-harming activities each year, report says
Carbon Brief, Orla Dwyer, 13 May
Carbon Brief covers a new report from WWF that finds EU countries could be spending between €34-48 billion each year on projects that can end up damaging biodiversity in sectors such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries. The largest proportion of these subsidies comes from the EU’s farming-subsidy programme, which accounts for almost one-third of the bloc’s total budget. Carbon Pulse reports 140 organizations have sent an open letter to the EU warning the rollback of nature restoration and corporate sustainability due diligence laws threatens climate goals and economic resilience. i newspaper carries a commentary from the CEOs of the National Trust, RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts and Woodland Trust sounding the alarm over the decline of the UK’s natural environment and noting that every UK political party is failing to tackle the crisis of nature loss.
Fossil fuels, food, and farming – investors need to look through the same lens [Commentary]
InvestmentNews, Annie Sanders, 8 May
InvestmentNews carries a commentary from the Director of Shareholder Advocacy at Green Century detailing why investors should view companies tied to significant levels of deforestation as carrying unnecessary levels of material financial risks given the rapid growth of national and subnational policies around the world to halt nature loss. Deutsche Welle releases a documentary on the connection between Germany’s largest car companies with leather imports tied to illegal deforestation in Brazil.
Scientists explore nature’s promise in combating plastic waste
Mongabay, Claire Asher, 8 May
Mongabay covers new approaches scientists are developing to create biological solutions to address the plastic pollution crisis at every stage of the material’s life cycle. Since 1950, humanity has produced more than 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic. Most has ended up in landfills or the environment, where it is harmful to wildlife, ecosystem functioning and human health. Utilizing new approaches to trap, break down and transform plastic through nature-inspired solutions could provide significant benefits to maintaining healthy ecosystems, a requirement to address climate change.
SPOTLIGHT – A Sea Change for Nature Protection
Nature4Climate is proud to be supporting the Sea Change Row, a team of 6 environmental professionals taking on one of the toughest rowing challenges in the world – a circumnavigation of Great Britain – to collect environmental data and promote coastal conservation projects. The team is set to depart from Tower Bridge on the 9th of June. The six women from Portsmouth aim to become the third all-female crew to complete this challenge.
You can hear more about this 6-week journey on the Blue Pioneers Podcast, by following their updates on Sea Change Row’s LinkedIn page.
SPOTLIGHT – Learn About VCMI’s Carbon Integrity Program
The Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative’s (VCMI) Carbon Integrity 101 webinar series invites companies from around the world to learn how to make Carbon Integrity Claims to accelerate global net zero, above and beyond science-aligned emissions cuts. This full programme provides a step-by-step deep dive into VCMI’s Claims Code of Practice, with a live Q&A at the end of each session. Upon completion, participants will be fully equipped with the know-how to make a Carbon Integrity Claim.
The full series, covered in six webinars, includes topics such as how to select which claim to make, how to get third-party assurance using VCMI’s Monitoring, Reporting, & Assurance (MRA) Framework, and more.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
The Nature Conservancy shares an explainer on Article 6, examining COP 28 outcomes, the implications of decision-making failures in Dubai on Articles 6.2 and 6.4, and the topics for COP29. It also scrutinizes the current status of Article 6.2 agreements, the implementation of Article 6 by host countries, and its impact on voluntary carbon markets.
WRI releases a video showing how to get large-scale farmers, who are directly affected by water scarcity, to participate in Local Mechanisms for Payment for Environmental Services. These mechanisms address deforestation and forest ecosystem deterioration, help reduce climate change vulnerability, and promote adaptation.
WCS publishes two new reports supporting its High Integrity Forests (HIFOR) Initiative, a payment for ecosystem services program to incentivize maintenance of climate regulation and biodiversity conservation by high integrity tropical forests. These reports explain the HIFOR methodology and detail the frameworks under which buyers can report purchases and claim contributions to climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation.
Restor releases the first episode of a four-part series spotlighting people and communities around the world protecting and restoring nature. This episode focuses on the journey to restore seed and food sovereignty in India.
The Nature Conservancy and the Bezos Earth Fund share a joint study quantifying the fluxes of carbon loss from an undrained tropical peatland ecosystem in Indonesia.
UNEP highlights World Environment Day on June 5, publishing a practical guide designed to help get everyone involved in ecosystem restoration. The guide is organized into several chapters such as food systems and freshwater ecosystems.
Convention on Biological Diversity shares a press release on negotiators’ focus for talks at the upcoming UN Biodiversity Conference, which will center on addressing finance, high tech biology, Indigenous Peoples’ engagement and more.
IUCN finds that more than half of the world’s mangroves are at risk of collapse by 2050, based on the results of the first-ever global assessment for the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems.
Transition Finance shares the first chapter of its report series Financing the Transitions the World Needs: Towards a New Paradigm for Carbon Markets, focused on designing carbon markets to initiate the broader global transitions to a greener economy.
Natural Climate Solutions Alliance publishes a new report that details the entire carbon credit development journey – from project idea to carbon credit issuance, to help potential buyers understand how credits are generated and provide long-term value to the private sector and the planet.
Metcalf Foundation shares a new toolkit developed by Ecotrust Canada and the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations providing unbiased information to First Nations interested in learning more about what forest carbon offset projects are, what they mean for sovereignty, and how they can be used for protecting and restoring forests.
CASE STUDY
N4C is compiling an index of NBS case studies, together with an interactive map, to highlight action on the ground. Each week, we will be choosing a case study to present, to help give concrete examples of work being done to bring NBS theory into practic
Rio Bravo Reserve
WHERE: MAYA FOREST, BELIZE
TYPE OF NCS SOLUTION: MANAGE
The Rio Bravo Reserve is part of a corridor that is key to biodiversity conservation in Central America, and is home to several endangered and keystone species. In 2012, the reserve certified 1.6 million tons of carbon offsets by preventing deforestation and instituting sustainable forest management strategies. This has allowed the successful removal of more than $1.5 million in carbon offsets, ensuring the financial viability of the reserve.
NUMBER OF THE WEEK – 23 MtCO2e/yr
The annual carbon dioxide emissions that could be sequestered by Ghana if it meets its potential for reforestation by 2050. See more details on the potential for natural climate solutions in N4C’s naturebase.
GOOD NEWS
Campesinos bring life back to a deforestation hotspot in the Colombian Amazon
More than 700 campesinos from the municipality of Cartagena del Chairá have started restoring 4,762 hectares (11,767 acres) of degraded rainforest in one of Colombia’s deforestation hotspots. To date, they’ve planted almost a million trees. In collaboration with researchers from SINCHI, the Amazonian Scientific Research Institute, and the Association of Community Action Boards (Asojuntas), the families have recorded more than 600 plant species and more than 100 animal species in the area. Environmental education, research and restoration activities have also included children and teenagers from several communities, with many young people motivated to pursue environmental careers.
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The Rio Bravo Reserve is part of a corridor that is key to biodiversity conservation in Central America, and is home to several endangered and keystone species.
Case Study