CoP13 Nairobi
The project was represented at CoP13 in Bali in December 2007 and some presentations were made at the Forestry day (8 December).
The picture here below was taken during a work visit to the University of Twente on 26th August 2006 with the Minister of Cooperation for Development in The Netherlands and part of the KTGAL's project members.
Agnes van Ardenne, Minister of Cooperation for Development in The Netherlands stands on the right side. She talks with Margaret Skutsch, Scientific Director of Kyoto's project (left) and some researchers involved. They are from left to right: Bhaskar Karky (Nepal), Rupa Basnet (Nepal) and E. Zahabu (Tanzania).
CoP12 Nairobi
The project was represented at the CoP12 meeting
in Nairobi from November 6 -17, 2006, with an Exhibit in cooperation with ENDA.
At this time the project was actively engaged in
the policy debate on reducing emissions from deforestation, which was formally
started at CoP11 in Montreal. It is expected that a decision on this matter
will be taken by CoP13/MoP3 at the end of 2007. This means that there will be
an immediate need to develop methodologies for creating adequate deforestation
baselines and for monitoring change in carbon density as well as changes in
forest areas. The challenge is to find methodologies that are reliable, accurate,
and inexpensive. The aim of the K:TGAL programme is to show that measurements
by local people of the carbon content of their forests can form an important
part of such methodologies, complementing 'top-down' measurements through remote
sensing and modeling, and enabling ground-truthing to be carried out at low
cost.
The project partners held a meeting from 1-4 March in Mali, hosted by the Mali
Folk Centre, at which plans were made for the period up to the end of 2006.
Among other outputs, it is hoped that one or two of the CBFM projects with which
we are working will be submitted to the Biocarbon Fund during this period.
Side Event at CoP10
The 10th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC
(CoP10) was held last year in Buenos Aires (6-17th
December) and the Kyoto: Think Global, Act Local programme hosted a side event
to explain the purpose of the research and the findings so far. Case study material
was presented from the programme sites in Tanzania, Uttranchal, Nepal and Senegal.
The date for this side event was 17th December and a report about it appears
in the Earth News Bulletin http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop10/enbots/.
For copies of the presentations you can click
here.
National Workshop Tanzania
A national workshop was held at the Amani Nature
Reserve in Tanzania October 15 and 16. The research was presented by team members
and discussed by participants who were interested in the idea of 'carbon forestry'
and how their own work in forestry could relate to, and benefit from, carbon
payments. Cooperative agreements were made with a number of on-going forest
and environmental conservation programmes. For more information, please contact
the regional team directors, George
Jambiya and Hussein
Sosovele.
Himalayan States working towards
internal carbon market
The research in Uttaranchal by CHEA (Central Himalayan
Environmental Association) under the Kyoto;Think Global, Act Local programme
has raised considerable interest among a number of the Indian Himalayan states
as regards the possibility of claiming financial rewards for eco-services, such
as carbon sequestration, within India itself. The mountain areas, it is argued,
protect the densely populated Gangetic plains areas and provide water, carbon
storage and biodiversity for the benefit of this greater population. Dr. R.S.
Tolia, Chief Secretary fo the Government of Uttaranchal, included a chapter
called "Think Global, Act Local: Van Panchyats for Carbon Rewards"
in his recent book "Patwari, Gharat and Ch'ai: Essays on Making and Shaping
a Self-Reliant Uttaranchal" (Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh Publishers,
Dehra Dun, 2004). This led to a conference of the Ministers of the Indian Himalayan
states, which was held at Dehra Dun October 11 and 12 2004, at which Prof. S.P
Singh of CHEA presented the ideas behind the research. This was apparently very
well received and a follow up meeting is planned. For further information please
contact Prof. Singh at his
office.