Forest Day is one of my favorite events during the COP.  Not only are the panels very informative and solutions-oriented, but it is an excellent time to connect with other people in the sustainable development and forest conservation fields.  Realistic situations at the country and project level are discussed at Forest Day making it a welcome relief from the sometimes elusiveness of the COP negotiations.   The conference is also a good time to learn about progress in negotiations around REDD+.   It takes place on the one day negotiators take a break during the 11 day COP and its primary focus is to serve as a platform for entities interested in or taking part in forest protection and regeneration efforts to come together to share experiences and knowledge and connect with each other.

Some of the main takeaways from Forest Day:

The theme of Forest Day 5 was “From Policy to Practice” which was very much aligned with the condolences paid to Nobel Peace Prize winner and forest conservation advocate, Wangari Maathai (- 2011).  Dr. Maathai, founder of the Greenbelt Movement, was able to work at the UN level shaping policy and at the community level, empowering women to improve their health, develop sustainably and protect their environment.

The updates on the state of the worlds forests and reducing deforestation (with an emphasis on REDD+)  came from some of the most heavily rainforested countries in the world, with the highest rates of deforestation and included both Brazil and Indonesia.

• Brazil has been able to decrease deforestation from 2007-2010 in spite of rising cattle and soy prices, due to the government’s increased enforcement of environmental laws.  The question now is how to continue this sort of trend into the future.   Some of the issues that must be addressed now, according to Paolo Barreto of IMAZON, include working with small landholders to reduce deforestation (potentially where REDD financing can help), remove agricultural subsidies that encourage deforestation and increase productivity of degraded land (there is an estimated 11milllion hectares of deserted pasture land in Brazil).
• Mr Barreto also emphasized that we must look at the full risks of deforestation, outside of the forest sector:  infrastructure and subsidies for agriculture.
• In Indonesia 30% of GDP comes from use of forests.  The agriculture and mining industries are the cause of much of the deforestation and there are increasing foreign investments in both these areas.  Electric generation in Indonesia is 80% coal which is found in the country’s forests.  At the same time Indonesia has made a commitment to a 26% reduction of GHGs by 2020 and is committed to designing a national strategy for REDD+.  To start, there has been a national level suspension of the conversion of peatland for 2 years. The destruction of peatland is one of the primary reasons Indonesia is in the top four when it comes to countries with the highest carbon emissions.  When peat is burned it releases an immense amount of stored carbon and can burn for weeks, months, even years!
• One potential deforestation driver mentioned by both Indonesia and Brazil was the fact that both countries are biofuel producers and will most likely increase the production of biofuels in the future meaning that competition for land could increase.

REDD+ Negotiations Update – Tony La Vina, Chair of the REDD Working Group gave an update on the progress of the REDD + negotiations.  Another draft text has been produced that includes decisions on REDD+ safeguards and monitoring and reporting but has left REDD+ financing to be decided on in 2012.  Note: According to the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the requirements for safeguards are “watered down” and would leave indigenous groups vulnerable.  More information about the current REDD+ text can be found on CIFOR’s blog.  La Vina mentioned that the point of the text was to move from politics to implementation of REDD+ so that experience is gained in the field so that safeguard details can be determined based on experience from implementation.