FEATURED NEWS
‘Our world hangs by a thread’: Indigenous activist asks US agri giant to stop destroying Amazon rainforest
The Guardian, Nina Lakhani, 12 October
The Guardian covers Brazilian Indigenous Peoples’ of the Munduruku community join a Stand. Earht campaign sharing a new letter calling on the billionaire owners of the US’s biggest private company, Cargill, to stop destroying the Amazon rainforest and its people. Cargill has promised to be “deforestation-free” in the Amazon and Cerrado by 2025 and completely eradicate deforestation from all its supply chains by 2030. The pressure on the family that owns the company, which includes 12 billionaires, comes as Cargill is facing legal scrutiny on multiple fronts in relation to allegations of land grabs and broken promises on deforestation and Indigenous rights. Grist reports that Brazilian lawmakers are still advancing legislation that would make Marco Temporal, a legal theory that would have limited Indigenous claims to their land, the law of the land despite the country’s Supreme Court rejecting the theory as unconstitutional.
Report: Half of plantations in Indonesia’s palm oil heartland are illegal
Mongabay, Hans Nicholas Jong, 13 October
Mongabay covers a report from a coalition of NGOs based in Sumatra that finds nearly half of plantations in Riau province, Indonesia’s palm oil heartland, are illegal. The illegal plantations span 2.52 million hectares (6.23 million acres) of land — an area nearly the size of Hawai‘i.
The Great Cash-for-Carbon Hustle
The New Yorker, Heidi Blake, 16 October
The New Yorker reports on the South Pole’s Kariba avoided deforestation carbon project, surfacing new allegations, and reporting that the firm sold millions of credits for carbon reductions that weren’t real. Carbon Pulse reports that Verra has put the project on hold and launched an investigation in response. Financial Times publishes a commentary covering why the carbon market in the Amazon faces significant challenges to achieve integrity.
Following the release of new research from Ecosystem Marketplace last week, TIME publishes an op-ed from Conservation International’s Bronson Griscom who writes that most companies that are using carbon credits are not greenwashing.
Deforestation in Bolivia has jumped by 32% in a year. What is going on?
The Guardian, Thomas Graham, 12 October
The Guardian covers the growth in deforestation in Bolivia of 32 percent in 2022 compared to 2021. Most of this is happening in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s most economically dynamic region, where most of its soya and beef, as well as its sugar cane, corn and sorghum, is produced.
Forest Clearing Slows in the Amazon, but Wildfires Are on the Rise
Yale Environment 360, 16 October
Yale Environment 360 covers the record-breaking number of wildfires in the Amazon as the region faces a severe drought. Earth.com reports data from June 2023 that shows the number of active Amazon fires surged to its highest since 2007. Moreover, the total number of fires for the first six months of 2023 was an alarming ten percent more than the previous year.
SPOTLIGHT
Nature4Climate is proud to be an Ecosystem Partner of Bloom 23 — the leading event for professionals advancing strategies to protect and regenerate nature — taking place October 24-25 in San Jose, CA. Nature4Climate’s Lucy Almond will be there sharing the launch of our new report on the State of the Nature Tech market on Wednesday the 25th.
Join us and more than 500 professionals to explore the markets, technologies and partnerships key to addressing the climate and biodiversity crises hand-in-hand. Learn more and use the code B23N4C when you register for 20% off the All-Access Pass.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative announces it will be publishing additional guidance to supplement its Claims Code of Practice on 28th November.
Expert Panel on Livestock Methane launches as a group of scientists and academics who work together on a voluntary basis to bring the latest peer-reviewed science to the media and policy debate about livestock methane and climate change.
Finance for Biodiversity announces 14 new signatories to its FfB pledge, which is a commitment of financial institutions to protect and restore biodiversity through their finance activities and investments.
Quantum Commodity Intelligence releases the latest edition of its Quantum Carbon Insights, highlighting news and events in the voluntary carbon market.
Open Forest Protocol shares an Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation Carbon Whitepaper for blockchain based credits.
Ma Earth releases “The Regeneration Will Be Funded,” an interview series exploring regenerative finance, technology, and the living planet.
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) publishes its sixth and final status report, showing steady momentum in companies disclosing TCFD-aligned information but emphasizing the need for more progress. On average for fiscal year 2022, companies reported in line with 5.3 of the Task Force’s 11 recommended disclosures, up from an average of 3.2 in 2020.
Taskforce on Nature Markets releases an extended version of its “Making Nature Markets Work” report, providing more depth, context and points to scalable solutions for how to achieve the 7 recommendations to embed nature and equity goals into global financial activity.
Ecosystem Marketplace publishes its 2023 corporate voluntary buyers report, “All in on Climate: The Role of Carbon Credits in Corporate Climate Strategies.” The analysis looks specifically at the climate-related behavior of companies purchasing voluntary project-based carbon credits for their own use compared with companies that are not engaged in the VCM.
Oak Foundation calls for concept notes for its new Regenerative Landscapes sub-programme to support organizations working to restore landscapes, specifically seeking nonprofit organizations from Southern Africa.
BirdLife International highlights research mapping the journeys of more than 1,000 seabirds. Researchers have been able to identify common migration routes used by seabirds to define marine flyways, used by some of the world’s most vulnerable species.
UNEP announces the adoption of the Carpathian Biodiversity Framework, which is a comprehensive instrument supporting the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at the Carpathian level.
Woodwell Climate Research Center releases science-based principles to guide implementation of natural climate solutions (NCS) at national and sub-national scales. These principles broadly support the inclusion of NCS among measures needed to meet targets associated with the Paris Climate Agreement that establishes a global framework to limit warming to less than 2°C.
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 practice.
Niger Community Action Programme
WHERE: KONÉ BÉRI, NIGER
TYPE OF NCS SOLUTION: PROTECT
Communities planted the trees on once-abandoned land and nurtured them over 14 years as part of an afforestation agro-forestry project—part of the World Bank’s Community Action Program. Project partners embraced the opportunity to reclaim deserted land and try new methods of agro-forestry to boost food supplies and incomes in some of the poorest areas of Niger.
NUMBER OF THE WEEK – 32%
Forest loss in Bolivia loss rate of primary forest increased 32% from 2021 to 2022, according to Global Forest Watch.
GOOD NEWS
U.S. Interior opens 2 new wildlife refuges
The Department of the Interior has opened new national wildlife refuges in Wyoming and Tennessee. The Wyoming Toad Conservation Area and Tennessee’s Paint Rock River National Wildlife Refuge are the latest additions to the refuge system.