Rainforest Foundation UK News
RFUK CONDEMNS ARREST OF CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS & JOURNALISTS IN GABON AND CALLS FOR THEIR RELEASE
RFUK demands the immediate release of the detained civil rights activists and journalists, arrested without charge by the Gabonese judicial police last Wednesday, five days ago today. On December 31, the Gabonese judicial police arrested the environmental and civil rights activist Marc Ona Essangui, president of Rainforest Foundation UK's partner organisation, Brainforest, and coordinator of the Publish What You Pay Coalition in Gabon. Also arrested was Georges Mpaga, president of the Network of Free Civil Society Organisations for Good Governance in Gabon, (ROLBG), Grégoire Ngbwa Mintsa, a party to a complaint made by Transparency International and the French NGO Sherpa against, among others, the President of Gabon, and Gaston Asseko, technical director of the radio station Sainte Marie. All four are still being held in custody as of today. No reason has been given for their arrests and they have not been permitted to see a lawyer. In addition to these civil society activists, two journalists were arrested on December 30. One of those was released the next day, but the other, chief editor of the newspaper ‘Tendance', is still being held without charge. RFUK condemns the arbitrary arrest of these environmental and civil rights campaigners and calls for their immediate release.
RAINFOREST FOUNDATION STATEMENT ON OUTCOMES OF UN CLIMATE TALKS
Governments fail to deliver on rainforest protection.
As the UN Climate talks draw to a close in Poznan, the Rainforest Foundation today expresses its deep disappointment at the Parties' failure to lay the foundations for lasting forest protection in a future global deal on climate change. Unless the issues of indigenous peoples and local community rights, forest law enforcement and governance, and the underlying drivers of deforestation are at the heart of any mechanism to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), it will fail.
OVER FIFTY INTERNATIONAL NGOS, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES & LOCAL COMMUNITIES OUTRAGED AT THE REMOVAL OF RIGHTS
A demand today from the United States, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia to oppose the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) has caused a wave of outrage across many groups including the Rainforest Foundation (UK & Norway), CARE International, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Christian Aid, Earthjustice, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, ICCO, Tebtebba Foundation, and members of the Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change at the Poznan UNFCCC climate summit.
OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS OF BRINGING FORESTS INTO THE CLIMATE AGREEMENT
Rainforest Foundation UK, The Wilderness Society Australia, FERN, Eco-Forestry Forum PNG, Centre For Environment And Development Cameroon
NGO experts from both North and South will today say that governments gathered in Poznan can lay a sound foundation for bringing forest protection into a new climate deal, but must still resolve many outstanding questions in order to avert what could be a catastrophic misstep. They will also say that forests should not become a pawn in the current dispute within the European Union, and that cheap forest-based ‘hot air' carbon offset credits should not be available to allow industrialised countries to carry on polluting.
EU DECISION ON FORESTS COULD UNDERMINE UN CLIMATE TALKS
Rainforest Foundation UK, Friends of the Earth International, FERN, Global Witness
At the EU Environment Ministers meeting in Brussels tomorrow, 4th December, some EU Member States are expected to strongly push for the inclusion of forest offset credits in the European Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). Civil society organisations have been calling for years for the total exclusion of forest offset credits from carbon markets. The inclusion of forest credits in the ETS would allow countries to make fewer emission reductions at home whilst essentially commodifying forests in tropical rainforest regions.
FORESTS MUST NOT BE A PAWN IN CLIMATE NEGOTIATIONS
As the international climate talks open today in Poznan, Poland, the Rainforest Foundation UK warns that the rights and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of poor forest-dependent people could become hostage to political compromises in the run-up to a new climate agreement.
Forest Communities of the Congo Basin speak out on REDD
From November 18-20, 2008, over 30 indigenous peoples and civil society representatives with whom RFUK works throughout the Congo Basin gathered in Kinshasa to discuss forests, climate change, and proposed mechanisms for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).
Are We Gambling With The Future Of Forests And Climate?
While the financial crisis has dominated the headlines in recent months, the climate crisis grows ever more urgent and the impetus to find the cheapest solutions to global warming, ever more intense. As the Secretary General of the United Nations urged recently, world leaders must not neglect global warming even as they turn their attention to the world's broken banking sector.
This week in Poland, the United Nations will hold the next international summit on climate change, where governments will chart the road to a new global climate agreement, to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. The question of how to ensure the protection of rainforests as part of the fight against climate change is once again expected to be at the centre of the negotiations. But once again, the people who live in and depend on the forests, and have protected them for centuries, risk being left out of the debate.
Although there is widespread agreement that forest destruction must be halted in order to save the climate, there remains much debate about how to keep forests standing, how to pay for their protection, who should pay, and whom to pay. To ensure that the traditional guardians of the forest have a say in answering these questions, RFUK will help bring representatives of forest-dependent communities from around the world including Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville, to Poland this December.
RFUK believes that we cannot protect forests instead of dramatically reducing industrial emissions - we must do both. Trading off continued fossil fuel emissions against hoped-for reductions in deforestation could be a catastrophic lose-lose strategy - delaying the much needed transition to a low-carbon economy in the industrialised world while gambling on the protection of forests in the long term.
Conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
The Rainforest Foundation UK would like to express its concern for our partners and friends working for peace, progress and development in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and support the call being echoed around the world for urgent international action to contain the crisis. We would like our partners in DRC to know that we are here to do what we can, and hope that above all, they can continue to protect the safety of themselves, their communities and their projects.
La Rainforest Foundation Royaume-Uni tient à exprimer sa profonde préoccupation quant à la situation de ses partenaires et amis qui travaillent pour la paix, le progrès et le développement dans l'est de la République Démocratique du Congo, et soutient les nombreux appels à une mobilisation internationale urgente pour une résolution de la crise. Que nos partenaires sachent que nous sommes à leurs cotés et que, plus que tout, nous souhaitons qu'ils puissent assurer leur sécurité personnelle, ainsi que celle de leurs proches et des communautés avec lesquelles ils travaillent.
RFUK Positions Available
We are looking for three dynamic individuals with strong experience for roles within the Rainforest Foundation UK's core team.
A summary of all positions can be found here.
Closing date for all applications is December 15, 2008.
