Intervju med Davi Yanomami Kopenawa

Intervju med shaman Davi Yanomami Kopenawa fra Brasil. Yanomamiene er den største urfolksgruppen i Amazonas som lever på tilnærmet tradisjonel vis. Klimaendringene er en stor trussel mot deres fremtid.

Les mer om Regnskogfondets skoleprosjekt med yanomamiene: http://www.regnskog.no/Hvor+vi+jobber/Amazonas/Prosjektland/Brasil/44.cms

Amazon Crude på 60 Minutes

Urfolk i Ecuador saksøker oljegiganten Chevron. Urfolkene mener at oljeutvinningen i Amazonas har forurenset deres leveområder.

Les også om den aktuelle filmen Crude: http://www.crudethemovie.com/
Filmen vises på Oslo Dokumentarkino/Parketeateret onsdag 30. september 2009.

Bo Mathisen: Fotoserier fra wajãpiene

Se kortfilmene fra Bo Mathisens besøk hos wajãpiene i Amazonas.

Les mer her: http://www.bomathisen.no/fotografi/page42/page42.html

Fotoserie fra Regnskogfondets tur til Kongo

Regnskogfondets Anne, Ingelin og Stefan har de siste ukene vært på prosjekttur til Equateur-provinsen i Den demokratiske republikken Kongo.

Reisen var sammen med våre lokale samarbeidspartnere. Formålet med turen var å sjekke mulighetene for flere fremtidige prosjekter med lokalsamfunnen i området.

Området ligger langs Kongo-floden vest i landet. På turen besøkte de blant annet områdene Bikoro og Ingende, sør for Mbandaka.

Anne (tv) og Ingelin besøkte blant annet landsbyen Bompanga . Regnskogfondets partnere Adrien Sinafasi (DGPA), Julien Mathe (RRN) og Pierre Bonkono (CPDA) snakker med landsbybeboerne om hvordan leveforholdene er i området.

En landsbybeboer viser frem en tradisjonell måte å lage palmeolje på.


Møte med RRN-nettverket i Equateur-provinsen. RRN, Réseau Ressources Naturelles, er en av Regnskogfondets største partnere i Kongo. Det er et nettverk fordelt over hele landet med flere hundre medlemsorganisasjoner.

Tømmerhogst er en reell trussel mot regnskogen i Sentral-Afrika.

Fotos: Stefan Kistler/Regnskogfondet

Klikk her hvis du vil lese mer om Regnskogfondets arbeid i DR Kongo.

Hilsen fra wajãpiene i Amazonas

Regnskogfondets Rune Hauger kom denne uken tilbake fra en prosjekttur til Brasil og skriver følgende:

"Legger ved et fint bilde av reisen nedover elva på vei til landsbyen Pairakae i Terra Indígena Wajãpi i delstaten Amapá nordøst i Amazonas. Legger også ved et bilde av den ene tamme tukanen deres. Maten på bålet er to stk trairão (en stor fisk) og en oppskåret gnager, paka (heter majas på spansk). Landsbyen var liten, kun 21 innbyggere.

Møtebildet er fra et to-dagers seminar om Plano de Vida dos Povos Indigenas do Oiapoque i Macapá, nord i Brasil (hovedstad i delstaten Amapá). Foran sitter professor Lux Vidal (Universidade de Sao Paulo), som representerte Regnskogfondets partner Iepé."

Regnskogfondet 20 år

Se bilder fra jubileumskonserten på Rockefeller

Regnskogfondet fyller 20 år! Og feiret det i går på Rockefeller med gode artister, spennende gjester og et herlig publikum. Fotograf: Espen Wæhle.


Hovedøen Social Club startet og avsluttet konserten med deres dansbare salsaversjoner av norske klassikere.

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami hilste til Sofieprisvinner Marina Silva og Regnskogfondets daglige leder Lars Løvold og takket for samarbeidet med å kjempe for yanomamienes sak i Brasil.

- I think I'm the only artist in the world talking in English and singing in Norwegian? sa Odd Nordstoga til publikum i går. Han kunne også presentere en premiere for anledningen: Bugge Wesseltoft kom opp på scenen og akkompagnerte på piano på siste låta.

Susanne Sundfør hadde reist fra Vestlandet for å spille. Hun har vært engasjert i regnskogssaken lenge, og spilte en spesialkomponert låt til Regnskogfondet for anledningen.

Petter Nome var kveldens vert og intervjuer her Lars Løvold, ikledd hovedpryden fra Kongo-gjestene.

Dansegruppen Frikar sto for kveldens energiutblåsning med prosjektet "The Snuff Grinders" som blander halling med capoeira og breakdance.

Torsdag morgen stilte prosjektrådgiver for Amazonas, Torkjell Leira, i dress på NRK-nyhetene og snakket om regnskog og klima. Samme kveld firte han seg ned fra taket som en del av danseshowet til Frikar.

Adolphine Muley fra DR Kongo holdt appell og overrakte Løvold en hodepynt hjemmefra.

Ingrid Olava ga publikum en eksklusiv opplevelse: En versjon av hennes Jokke-cover "Her kommer vintern" som hun ellers aldri spiller live.

Bugge Wesseltoft vakte stor begeistring i går, både blant norske regnskogsentusiaster og våre utenlandske samarbeidspartnere.

Rainforests and Climate Change: Making Sustainable Development Possible

The Rainforest Foundation Norway is host to an international conference on rainforest and climate change in Oslo today. 



Marina Silva, Senator from Brazil, Angela Cropper, UNEP Deputy Executive Director and United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Senior Scientist Daniel C. Nepstad, the Moore Foundation are some of the prominent speakers at the conference. 


Click here for the program.

Inaugural Session-Welcome Address

Trudie Styler, Co-Founder of The Rainforest Foundation

Trudie reflected on the beginnings of The Rainforest Foundation 20 years ago. It all started with a trip to the Amazon in Brazil and seeing first-hand the devastation taking place in the forest and the impact on those dwelling in the forest.

Click here for Trudie's opening statement.

Lars Løvold, Director, Rainforest Foundation Norway, welcomed participants to the conference and outlined the 3 main issues that would be taken up: the role of forests as forests (in a climate change perspective), the role of the people of the forests as it pertains to climate, and the economics of standing forests or in other words, how much it would cost to make the trees stand.

Lars questioned the present development model asking if forests need to fall in order to spur development?

55 indigenous and civil society organizations are represented at the conference along with leading world experts and decision makers working on the issue of rainforests and climate.

The conference coincides with the Rainforest Foundation's 20th anniversary.

Inaugural Session-Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation: A new role for the UN

Speaker: 
Angela Cropper, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program.

Angela outlined the financial and environmental benefits of REDD, a package of challenges and opportunities she described as aiming to address the convergence between forest preservation and climate change. She went on to outline the mechanisms behind the UN-REDD Programme, and her hopes for Copenhagen.

According to Angela, the financial flows for greenhouse gas emission reductions from REDD could reach up to US$30 billion a year. She went on to say that this significant North-South flow of resources could reward a meaningful reduction of carbon emissions and could also support new, pro-poor development, help conserve biodiversity and secure vital ecosystem services. Further, maintaining forest ecosystems can contribute to increased resilience to climate change.

Norway's international climate and forest initiative: Goals and ambitions Erik Solheim, Minister of Environment

Minister Solheim started his presentation saying that the rainforests of the world must be sustained and preserved. He cited 3 main reasons for conserving the rainforests: emission reductions, the need to preserve the diversity of species in the rainforests, and for those living in and dependent on the rainforests.

Solheim described Norway's role as trying to bring together the world community to work on the issue of rainforests and climate change. UN-REDD includes the UN system and World Bank in a single coherent structure, but this initiative must be led by the rainforest countries, he said.

Solheim went on to describe the 3 phases to this programme:
Phase 1: Establishment of pilot programmes and capacity building (present phase).
Phase 2: To establish in all main rainforest nations a REDD strategy specific to the country and context.
Phase 3: The establishment of a global market system.

Solheim outlined the main needs for the moment including transparency in the devising of REDD strategies, results must be measurable and verifiable, the need to embark upon a global system to fund national REDD strategies (to be taken up in Copenhagen and improved afterwards), and the need for funding from the developed nations of the world to make this work.

He concluded by underscoring the importance of indigenous people as important forest managers and the need for their rights to be recognized. Solheim pledged the support of Norway in empowering these groups and in embarking upon a system of payment for eco system services in the context of rainforests.

Session 2: The role of forests (in a climate change perspective)

Forests in the balance: forests as providers of ecosystem services vs. emissions from deforestation and forest degradation 


Daniel Nepstad, Chief Program Officer, The Environmental Conservation Programs, Moore Foundation, USA

In his presentation, Daniel described some the ecological services provided by forests (with a focus on tropical forests) and went on to evaluate the potential of one service provided by forests—carbon storage—to create large new incentives for forest conservation. The central question he asks is if the value of the carbon in trees is enough to carry a forest conservation agenda?

Daniel described the relationship between forest degradation and climate change in a series of compelling charts and diagrams (see below).

Forests, points out Daniel, are far more than processors of carbon and water and energy. They sustain myriad forms of plants and animals who, themselves, sustain life on the planet. He gave the example of the forests of Costa Rica that contribute significantly (in financial terms) to the local coffee industry by pollinating coffee trees. This is an “ecosystem service” that no one pays for, and that is lost as forests are converted to crop fields and pastures.

Daniel sees REDD as one of the most exciting conservation initiatives in recent times in providings a means of intervening, drastically lowering carbon emissions and buying humanity time to "fix" global warming?

Daniel concluded by saying that REDD is not a panacea, but it is probably the biggest near-term opportunity that we have.

Daniel's presentation

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For a more complete summary of Daniel's presentation, click here.

Session 2: Frances Seymour on Forests in the new climate agreement: What would be the ideal solution?

Frances Seymour, Director General, Center for International Forestry Research, Indonesia

Frances' talk focused on the 5 "E"s involved in coming up with the "ideal" solution for forests in the new climate agreement: effectiveness, emissions, efficiency, equitable and expectations.

Effectiveness: Most current emissions are from a few countries, in a few ecosystems (Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia).

Emissions must be reduced in these places first.

Efficient: Limit credits for reductions to real reductions. The determination of reference levels should minimize the scope for political manipulation. Minimize money and time on approaches that do not work.

Equitable: fair; protects the poor and vulnerable. North South equity. North must cut emissions and transfer money to south for compensation for preserving forests.

Expectations must be appropriately set. There is no one size fits all model when it comes to REDD implementation. There will be different models, paces, and changing reference levels.

The best agreement is one that recognizes there is no ideal solution and that respects indigenous rights.

Frances concluded by saying that there cannot be business as usual in emissions or in development aid anymore. There is a need to move to results based, performance based incentives that need to be spelled out in an agreement.

Draft Seymour Kompr

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Click here for more background information on Frances and her work.

Session 3: Respecting local rights, rewarding local communities

Indigenous peoples and forest dependent communities' rights according to international law and their implications for international climate policies.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chair, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and Executive Director, Tebtebba, the Philippines

Victoria spoke of climate change, justice, equity and human rights and the mismanagement of the past and future. She underscored the injustice of allowing the poor and indigenous peoples to bear the brunt of climate change problems they did not create.

Victoria spoke of climate change and the direct threats it poses to a wide range of universally recognized fundamental rights--including the right to life, food, water, health, education.

Her presentation included a survey of instruments of international human rights law and indigenous peoples rights declarations and treaties related to the climate issue and the implications for international climate change policies

She called for a stop to the criminalizing of indigenous peoples and forest peoples' protests, and advocated the setting up of conflict resolution and mediation processes and the strengthening of redress mechanisms.

Victoria concluded by saying that REDD has to be an integral part of a holistic carbon, green development pathway that is underpinned by human rights and the rights of Mother Earth.

Rainforest Foundation Norway, Rainforest and Climate Conference, Victoria Tauli Corpuz

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Click here for more information about Victoria and her work.

Session 3: Sandra Moniaga on Protecting whose forest? REDD and the ongoing contested land claims

Sandra Moniaga, Head of Learning Center, Association for Community and Ecologically-based Law Reform (HuMa), Indonesia

Sandra began by explaining the title of her presentation stating that in Indonesia, the forest is claimed by many parties.

Her presentation included a general overview of latent "forestry" and "indigenous peoples" issues in Indonesia and a summary of recent REDD-related developments in Indonesia.

Sandra explained the problem of definitions, for example, the difference between an "ecological" forest vs. a "political" forest; "natural" forest degradation vs. "political" forest reduction.

According to Sandra, REDD is being developed in more than 20 sites in Indonesia. Most of these in areas inhabited by indigenous people, who have not been consulted.

Can REDD be part of the solution?

According to Sandra, several latent problems need to be addressed before REDD can be effective. Laws have to be changed to take into account human rights and indigenous and tribal peoples rights. Serious efforts need to be made to bring about conflict resolution around land and resource tenure conflict. And, participation cannot take place without an understanding of the technical terms, etc.

Sandra's presentation

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