A forest in Oddar Meanchey province is facing environmental “disaster” after thousands of people destroyed up to 1,000 hectares of natural habitat, putting revenues from a carbon credit scheme worth tens of millions of dollars at risk.

Proceeds from a United Nations-backed Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation scheme are said to be in danger after waves of settlers destroyed parts of the forest in Samroang district, chief of the Romdoul Veasna community forest programme, Malis Hoeuth, said yesterday.

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Phnom Penh Post

The government issued a new version of a forest map, revising down the size of primary forests and conservation areas in the forest moratorium to 55 million hectares.

The new map, posted on the Forestry Ministry website Monday, highlights 55 million hectares of primary forests and conservation areas and 17 million hectares of peatland estimated to store 1 billion tons of carbon.

Previously, presidential aide on climate change Agus Purnomo and several officials said a moratorium would cover 64 million hectares of primary forests and conservation areas.

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The Jakarta Post

Over the years, policy makers have explored various mechanisms, which address environmental management and poverty alleviation.  Payments for environmental services (PES) is a relatively new concept which is now recognized as a way to address both of these goals. In a PES system, those who benefit from the environmental services (ES) compensate those who provide these services in order to secure ES provision. This paper investigates the value that domestic water users in Tuguegarao City place on watershed protection. Using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), this study established the willingness to pay of domestic water users in Tuguegarao City. Payments would contribute to a fund that would provide for the watershed protection of the Penablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape (PPLS). This would help to ensure the provision of a reliable water supply for their households. This local fund may lead to funding for a possible watershed management program. This would generate solutions to forest problems by directing funding support to upstream communities to implement measures protecting the PPLS.

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PREM

The forest is home to a large, marginalized sector of Philippine society composed of both migrant and indigenous dwellers.  They constitute about 20 million or 25% of total population and are generally considered the poorest of the poor.  The attraction of the forests to the poor has partly to do with the lack of livelihood opportunities in the lowlands and partly with the numerous goods and services the forests provide for free.  If properly managed by the upland dwellers, the forests can provide society with both use values such as timber and non-timber products, beautiful landscapes, recreation and hydrological services and non-use values like climate regulation, carbon sequestration and biodiversity. The offsite beneficiaries of these services are the downstream industries and residents who are normally better off in economic standing than the upland dwellers but who do not pay for the external benefits they derive. 

In recent decades, there has been a growing interest among resource decision-makers in developing countries in market-based instruments (MBI) as a strategy to address the twin goals of resource management and poverty alleviation.  This development is attributed to the poor performance of command and control policies in resource management in the absence of complementation from market-based instruments (MBI).  A recent and innovative MBI that is gaining importance globally is payment or compensation for environmental services (PES).  PES seeks to promote forest conservation activities by recognizing and compensating forest owners or dwellers for the environmental services they provide and making the beneficiaries of these services pay for them.  The basic idea in PES is to create a market for environmental services by linking together the providers and users of these services and creating incentives to both groups to protect the integrity of the forests.

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PREM

Previous studies of rural households in developing countries have tended to find that the dependence of these households on common-pool resources declines with income. This study of households in Jhabua, India, finds a more complex relationship. Using the share of resource income in total long-run or “permanent” income as the dependence measure—which authors argue is more appropriate than the short-run income-based measure commonly used in the literature—the study finds that for households that collect any resources at all, dependence exhibits a U-shaped relationship with income. That is, the poorest and richest households depend more on resources than households with intermediate incomes. The poorest and richest households are also found to be least likely to collect, however, indicating that resource use at the income extremes is bimodal—either zero or above average. Moreover, the observed trends for resources as a whole are not mirrored in those for individual resources. Dependence on fuelwood and dung declines with income, for example, while dependence on fodder and construction wood increases. These findings suggest that common-pool resources are a productive source of income not just for the poor but also for the rich, and that improvements in the stocks of these resources can potentially form the basis of poverty reduction efforts in these economies.

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PREM

BOGOR, Indonesia 
(April 5, 2011) - New research shows that mangroves store exceptionally
more carbon than most tropical forests, but they are being destroyed from
coastlines at a rapid rate causing 
significant emissions of greenhouse gases.

The findings from the
study, which was carried out by scientists from the Center for International
Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the USDA Forest Service, underscore a call by
scientists for mangroves to be protected as part of global efforts to combat
climate change.

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CIFOR

BOGOR, Indonesia (May 20, 2011) Indonesia today took a step toward cutting its carbon emissions by issuing a presidential decree banning new concessions in primary forests and on peatlands, but more stringent measures may be needed if the country is to meet its ambitious targets for cuts in greenhouse gases, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) said.

The two-year moratorium, which started May 20, 2011, is part of a bilateral agreement with Norway signed on May 26, 2010, in exchange of potentially US$1 billion, pending verified emission cuts in Indonesia. Indonesia is the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases due to the country's high rate of deforestation.

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CIFOR

Sustainable poverty reduction requires access to natural resources. While natural resource tenure includes rights over land, it encompasses other natural resources as well. The property may be farm land, grazing land, forest land, a river, a fishery, wildlife or some other resource, including minerals. Each of these resources possesses particular physical qualities and technical constraints concerning their use, yet they fit into an integrated ecosystem.

The key message of this study is that secure access to tenure for the poor is essential to poverty reduction and the realisation of human rights. This assessment shows that natural resource tenure is inherently complex.Incomplete understanding, and ignorance or disregard for fundamental complexities, may lead to erroneous policy prescriptions and ultimately, to conflict about these resources.

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Sida

In Bali, Indonesia, reefs that were once devasted by cyanide and explosives fishing are now thriving again, thanks to innovative, community-driven regeneration efforts.

ADB

One of the world's most diverse and threatened marine ecosystems - the Coral Triangle - is getting Asian Development Bank (ADB) support to improve management of its rich resources and to provide job alternatives for people living in the coastal communities.

ADB has approved assistance of around $12 million for the Coastal and Marine Resources Management Project. It includes a $1 million grant from ADB's concessional Technical Assistance Special Fund, and $11.2 million in cofinancing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines will provide $3 million in non-cash contributions.

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ADB