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Photo JB Dodane

Gabon is set to receive $150 million over ten years for cutting emissions from forest degradation and deforestation and for the CO2 sequestration of its natural forests. The deal, under the UN REDD+ programme, was brokered with the country by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) on behalf of funder Norway. It was announced by Gabonese Forests Minister Lee White at the Climate Action Summit at the UN in September.

The initiative, which will be subject to third party verification, sets a carbon floor price of $10 per certified ton to incentivize forest maintenance and emissions reduction. Payments will also be retrospective, covering Gabon’s achievement in this area going back to 2016.

“We have to raise the value of Gabonese rainforests to ensure conservation and sustainable exploitation can be used as tools to improve living standards by creating jobs and livelihoods, whilst also sustaining natural capital,” said Mr White. “Norway’s agreement to double the price of a ton of rainforest carbon dioxide is highly significant and gives us hope that the international community will move towards a realistic price that will provide a real incentive for rainforest countries to follow our example.”

Norway  Minister of Climate and Environment Ola Elvestuen described the project as ‘historic’. “It properly takes into account Gabon’s special status as a country with high forest cover and low deforestation,” he said. “It is 88% covered with forests, and I hope our partnership can help them reach their goal to maintain 98% of that for the future.”

According to CAFI, Central African forests and peatlands store up to 70 billion tons of carbon, equivalent to 5-10 years’ global greenhouse gas emissions. Emmanuel Groutel expert in strategy and international markets at WALE welcomed the Gabonese initiative and said it could be a model for fellow supplier states. “The whole world must support Gabon because what it is proposed is an example of virtuous development that preserves the environment and shows the way forward for other countries in the region,” he said.

ATIBT President Robert Hunink applauded the Gabon initiative. “I hope that other Congo Basin countries consider following this example. It would truly be a great contribution towards climate change mitigation,” he said. “However, in other to convince governments that forest conservation could be an alternative income model to conventional harvesting, carbon prices need to reflect this. And last but not least, socio-economic development should not be negatively impacted by these agreements.”

In 2018, Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba stated that all forest concessions in the country must be certified by 2022.

A documentary featuring STTC and Fair & Precious partner Interholco, which highlights how sustainable forest management in the Republic of Congo can incentivise forest and habitat conservation has won Germany’s prestigious Nature Film Prize.

In ‘Paradise Preserved: Congo – Protecting the Gorilla Forests’ , which was produced by Thomas Weidenbach for tv channel ARTE, film-makers followed the work of forest and industry teams from Interholco subsidiary IFO in the Republic of Congo over several weeks.

The company manages an FSC concession of 1.16 million ha in the country and the film showed how its approach to sustainable management, including working with conservation organisations, helps preserve habitats, in this case home to several thousand western lowland gorillas.

“The jury came to its decision based on the film’s positive vision of how it’s possible to secure nature in the tropical forest, while at the same time providing local people with long-term, economic prospects,” said Interholco managing director Ulrich Grauert. “’Made in Africa’ sustainable hardwood offers a multitude of solutions to help tackle climate change, while supporting social justice in developing countries and protecting habitats. We hope this film will be shown in schools all over Europe. It explains in a comprehensible way how sustainable forestry works in Africa.”

In its report on the award, newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said the documentary demonstrates ‘how it is possible to give nature a value that ultimately contributes to its protection’.

“This is a previously neglected perspective, which gives hope in nature conservation and social terms,” it said.

Streaming service Curiosity Stream (www.curiositystream.com) shows the film with the strapline: ‘Something exceptional is happening in the north of the Republic of the Congo. Here loggers are not destroying the environment, but helping preserve the tropical forests’.

The German Nature Film Foundation has been awarding its annual prize since 2008. The aim is to support the work of film makers, but also help conservation by ‘bringing endangered species and natural spaces’ into people’s living rooms’.

The award was presented by German culture minister Bettina Martin.

You can watch the film here: https://curiositystream.com/video/3159.

The Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition has relaunched its website, www.europeansttc.com, developing its role as an information hub on sustainable timber procurement and the benefits it delivers in underpinning sustainable tropical forest management.

The revised STTC site sets out its objectives to increase EU demand for verified sustainable tropical  timber through communicating its technical and environmental benefits, and the environmental and development value of tropical forests. Its goal is also to convince tropical suppliers that there is a long-term viable market for verified sustainable tropical timber, so incentivizing uptake of sustainable forest management.

The website’s Market Data page highlights the STTC’s view that accurate, consistent data on the tropical timber trade is central to informing EU market development. It details its own market reports and analysis. It also provides links to other international and national data sources.

In its Marketing section, the website underlines the importance of stepping up tropical timber communication and promotion in the EU given its perception that it is implicated in deforestation. Key tropical timber marketing resources and tools are listed and linked. These include life cycle analysis studies on tropical timber, manuals on the use of certified timber in construction, and the STTC’s YouTube channel, which features a range of videos on the STTC itself, its partners, and the wider values of sourcing verified sustainable tropical timber. It also links to other sustainable tropical timber marketing initiatives and information resources and websites on the performance and availability of lesser used tropical timber species, relevant regulation and business information.

The site also includes a dedicated page on lesser used tropical species (LUS) which, the STTC says, if used more widely would reduce stress on more popular varieties and make sustainable forest management more economically viable. It links to a number of websites focused on availability and technical performance of LUS and a range of other resources focused on varieties from Africa, South East Asia and Latin America. It lists sources of guidance on marketing LUS and their performance in specific applications.

The Procurement Policies page details how these shape the marketplace for tropical timber and provides a link to the Buying Sustainable Timber Guide for public authorities. The STTC is looking to update and include on the website a database providing guidance, materials, tools and training resources for public authorities on sustainable timber product procurement.

The STTC website additionally features a section on the impacts of using verified sustainable tropical timber in terms of climate change mitigation, the superior life cycle performance of timber products and forest and biodiversity maintenance. It also provides a comprehensive list of resources on the wider social, economic and environmental benefits of sustainable forest management.

“Using verified sustainable tropical timber from sustainably managed forests has numerous, often interrelated benefits,” states the STTC. “These are also increasingly objectively proven and documented.”

The site features also prominently a link to the website of the sustainable tropical timber branding campaign Fair&Precious. The two initiatives earlier this year announced that they would work closely together to achieve their shared aim of growing the EU market for verified sustainable tropical timber. Each committed to leverage the strengths of the other, with the STTC’s focus on market and product data and analysis, Fair & Precious’s emphasis on marketing the environmental, social and economic benefits of sourcing tropical timber from sustainably managed forests.

The STTC will continue to develop the website and welcomes feedback and contributions with regards to resources (promotional tools, data resources, publications, etc.).

Latest research has shown that certified sustainable forest management, including low impact logging, supports habitat preservation and richness and diversity of wildlife.

The WWF study was conducted in the Peruvian Amazon and the results published in Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation journal, which is produced by educational services provider Wiley and the Zoological Society of London.

Researchers evaluated the impact of forest management certified under the Forest Stewardship Council scheme in Peru’s Tahuamanu Province in the Madre de Dios region.

They found that the sustainably managed area supported greater diversity in a range of species, including amphibians, insects and monkeys, compared to non-certified forest. The species variety was comparable with that in undisturbed forest.

The research team used acoustic technology analysis to gauge the diversity of wildlife in the study region, recording  hundreds of audio samples of birds, insects, amphibians and monkeys in three large industrial concessions. Two were FSC-certified and one non- certified. In total they set up 67 recording sites across the sustainably managed and non-certified logging sites.

They found not just a greater variety, but a greater quantity of animal sounds in the certified forest and both were comparable with what might be expected in un-exploited forest.

“Our findings reinforce conclusions of other studies that certified forests can maintain similar levels of fauna biodiversity to undisturbed primary forest in the Amazon region,” concluded the research team. They added that their work provided important pointers for future biodiversity analysis, with numbers and variety of insects and ‘anurans’ amphibians (toads and frogs) providing most reliable evidence of habitat structure variation.

“The Peruvian project provides further validation for the STTC’s view that uptake of certified sustainable forest management practice supports tropical forest and habitat maintenance,” said Nienke Sleurink of the STTC. “And one way to encourage that is to grow the market for verified sustainable tropical timber from those certified forests.”

The findings also bear out statements of the Fair&Precious campaign that certified forest concessions ensure preservation of wildlife habitat.

“In addition, the communication routes maintained within the forests improve the mobility of large mammals, which has resulted in the repopulation of the various species,” it says.

Workers in the Peruvian FSC-certified forest used reduced impact logging strategies including pre‐harvest inventory, plunge cut, planned skidding and directional felling to reduce collateral damage. The FSC concessions also had lower harvesting intensity in terms of number of trees and timber volume, higher log recovery and they damaged fewer commercial species during felling than non‐FSC concessions.

According to the WWF, timber production takes place in around a third of tropical forest. Poorly conducted logging, it says, can degrade ecosystems and fragment habitats, threatening biodiversity. However, responsibly managed logging can conserve it, as well as providing sustainable  local livelihoods and economic development.

This findings of the latest research complement an earlier study which concluded that densities of large and medium-sized tropical animals in FSC-certified logging areas, including jaguars and pumas, were similar to or even higher than in protected areas.

“This new study shows us that it is possible to combine production forestry with biodiversity conservation if done in the right way and in the right places.” said William Baldwin-Cantello, WWF Forest Practice Lead.

© Courtesy TFT

The EU has pledged to support spread of sustainable, biodiverse forest coverage worldwide. In July the European Commission adopted the EU Communication ‘Stepping up EU Action to Protect and Restore the World’s Forests’.

The STTC welcomed the new development as in line with its objective to grow the EU market for verified sustainable tropical timber. At the same time, IDH – the Sustainable Trade Initiative urged further steps, including using regulation and demand, to drive development of deforestation free supply chains.

The EU communication proposes creation of a ‘multi-stakeholder platform’ and an EU Observatory on deforestation and forest degradation. It also advocates exploration of forest protection  legislative measures, and reinforcing implementation of the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan to combat illegal logging.

At its core are five policy priorities for the EU. To:

• Reduce the EU’s consumption footprint on land and encourage consumption of products from deforestation-free supply chains
• Work with producer countries to reduce pressures on forests and “deforest-proof” EU development cooperation
• Strengthen international cooperation to halt deforestation and forest degradation, and promote reforestation
• Redirect finance to more sustainable land-use practices
• Increase provision of information and back research on forests and commodity supply chains

“Setting out these policy priorities is a positive step and the strategy shares key goals with the STTC and its partners,” said Nienke Sleurink of the STTC . “The STTC’s aim is also to ensure deforestation-free timber supply chains and forest maintenance through supporting uptake of sustainable timber procurement policy and so drive the spread of sustainable forest management. It also welcomes increased backing for forest research, with another STTC strategy being to support development of markets for verified sustainable lesser used tropical species and so make sustainable forest management more economically viable.”

ATIBT’s Fair & Precious campaign has also been active in moves to achieve deforestation-free supply chains in forest commodities. It is involved in the French National Strategy against Imported Deforestation (SNDI), including in sharing its experience with the F&P brand for the possible development of a ‘Zero Deforestation’ label.

The EU says its new strategy on forests is a response to ‘persistence of the issue of global deforestation and increasing awareness of the link between deforestation and agricultural expansion, as well as repeated calls from the European Parliament and the Council to take action’.

“It recognizes that the EU, as a major importer of agricultural and forest commodities, is part of the problem, but can also be part of the solution,” it states. “The overall objective of the initiative is to develop a more coherent and comprehensive approach to the problem.”

Among the additional measures IDH urged the EU to consider in a position paper on the Communication [add link to IDH position paper] was use of competition compliance legislation to ‘promote innovation for sustainable supply chains’.

“Closer collaboration between DG Environment and DG Trade should also be explored,” it said. “How can trade agreements be set up in such a way that sustainable production and imports are promoted, and the requirements for imports are enforced?”

The organisation also suggests making it obligatory for EU member states to source only sustainable products, and it recommends partnering on sustainable supply chain development with other trading powers, mentioning India and China. It recommends too including sustainability data in trade statistics to inform policy development.

IDH also highlights the importance of including smallholders in sustainable trade strategy and supporting anti-deforestation measures at sub-national level.

It additionally questions the EU Communication’s recommendation to ‘disseminate information to help reduce demand for products whose supply chains may involve deforestation’. “Moving away from supply chains that have issues will not create impact, it merely displaces the problem,” states IDH. “All efforts that the EU undertakes should focus on creating an incentive for continuous improvement in production. Part of this incentive is increasing demand.”

STTC partner Interholco also contributed to consultation, which can be found here.

More background to the EU strategy can be found in its Roadmap document.