Outreach at UNCSD 3rd Informal Informals - 30th May 2012

inside: Run-up to Rio: A bad time for uncertainty on forest protection in Brazil Rio+20 should make sustainable land use a top priority

a multi-stakeholder magazine on climate change and sustainable development

out reach.

30 May 2012

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contents.

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Run-up to Rio: A bad time for uncertainty on forest protection in Brazil

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Indigenous REDD in the Amazon: Beyond the global talks

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Internalisation of the value of watershed environmental services

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Rio+20 should make sustainable land use a top priority

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What you might not have known about forests and food security

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Spotlight: The Green Economy Concept, a perspective!

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The reality of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, I.A.P.

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Time is running out

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Youth Blast

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Reflections on the Negotiations – Tuesday 29th May

pic: Eugenio Fernández Vázquez

OUTREACH IS PUBLISHED BY:

About Stakeholder Forum Stakeholder Forum is an international organisation working to advance sustainable development and promote democracy at a global level. Our work aims to enhance open, accountable and participatory international decision-making on sustainable development through enhancing the involvement of stakeholders in intergovernmental processes. For more information, visit: www.stakeholderforum.org

Outreach is a multi-stakeholder publication on climate change and sustainable development.

It is the longest continually produced stakeholder magazine in the sustainable development arena, published at various international meetings on the environment; including the UNCSD meetings (since 1997), UNEP Governing Council, UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) and World Water Week.

Published as a daily edition, in both print and web form, Outreach provides a vehicle for critical analysis on key thematic topics in the sustainability arena, as well as a voice of regional and local governments, women, indigenous peoples, trade unions, industry, youth and NGOs. To fully ensure a multistakeholder perspective, we aim to engage a wide range of stakeholders for article contributions and project funding.

If you are interested in contributing to Outreach, please contact the team (gmacdonald@stakeholderforum.org or acutter@stakeholderforum.org) You can also follow us on Twitter: @Earthsummit2012

OUTREACH EDITORIAL TEAM Editorial Advisors

Felix Dodds

Stakeholder Forum

Farooq Ullah

Stakeholder Forum

Editor

Georgie Macdonald

Stakeholder Forum

Co-editor

Amy Cutter

Stakeholder Forum

Editorial Assistant

Jack Cornforth

Stakeholder Forum

Print Designer

Jessica Wolf

Jessica Wolf Design

Web Designer

Thomas Harrisson

Stakeholder Forum

Web Designer

Matthew Reading-Smith

Stakeholder Forum

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Steve Zwick

Ecosystem Marketplace

Dirk-Jan Verdonk WSPA Nederland

Luis Gamez

ESPH

Amanda Larsson

WWF

Jenna Gall

SOI Alumni

Stakeholder Forum

Roberto Pedraza Ruiz

Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda I.A.P.

Jan-Gustav Strandenaes

Freshwater Action Network

Luc Gnacadja

UNCCD

Isabella Montgomery

Farooq Ullah

Stakeholder Forum

CIFOR

Run-up to Rio: A bad time for uncertainty on Amanda Larsson forest protection in Brazil WWF Forests are home to as much as 90% of the world’s land-based animal and plant life. They directly provide food, shelter, fuel, and a source of income to the 1.6 billion people whose livelihoods depend on them.

And forests also benefit our environment by regulating the climate and water cycles and preventing soil erosion.

But the world’s forests are in crisis. Humanity is now using 50% more resources than the Earth can provide, according to WWF’s recently released 2012 Living Planet Report. And the consequences are plain to see in ongoing deforestation to the tune of 13 million hectares each year.

Amid dire news for the well-being of people and nature, there have been notable conservation successes in recent years that demonstrate alternatives to ‘business as usual’.

Brazil, for example, has made stunning progress over the past decade reducing deforestation in the Amazon. This was achieved while growing the economy, making Brazil an exemplar among emerging economies.

But now, just as Brazil prepares to take centre stage at Rio+20, the nation’s vast forests may be back on the chopping block.

On 25th May, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff decided to approve the majority of a hugely controversial revision to the country’s long-standing forest legislation. The changes, passed by the Brazilian Congress last month, would severely weaken the nation’s Forest Code, which is meant to protect sensitive forest areas and guard against rampant deforestation in the Amazon and elsewhere.

Brazil’s Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) estimated that the new legislation could lead to the loss of up to 76.5 million hectares of forest, which translates to 28 billion tonnes of added CO2 in the atmosphere, making it impossible for Brazil to reach its carbon reduction targets.

Despite massive national and international social mobilisation in favour of a full veto, President Rousseff opted to reject only 12 of 84 articles in the bill. This attempt to break up elements of an already complicated piece of legislation will make the revised Forest Code extraordinarily difficult to implement – and Brazil's forests may well suffer as a result.

WWF Director General Jim Leape says: “For the last decade, Brazil has been on a path of economic and environmental progress. President Rousseff’s statement creates an uncertain future for Brazilian forests, considering that Congress could still cut forest protections even further”.

The findings of the Living Planet Report show that humanity is squandering the very resources we depend on for survival. It offers both the reasons humanity needs to change course, and the steps we can take today to live within the Earth’s ecological limits.

WWF believes that the world community must use the Rio Conference to declare its recognition of the global importance of forests, including their significance for both climate and biodiversity, and should back this up by addressing the causes of deforestation, and through agreeing financial mechanisms to ensure that forests are worth more standing than they are destroyed

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MORE INFO pic: maistora

Contact: Robin Clegg, WWF-UK, rclegg@wwf.org.uk

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Indigenous REDD in the Amazon: Beyond the global talks Steve Zwick Ecosystem Marketplace

Indigenous people have plenty to gain from forest carbon, especially in the Amazon. After all, they have traditionally been the best stewards of the rainforest, and forest carbon projects aim to both reward and incentivise good land stewardship. But indigenous people also have plenty to lose, as they have almost always got the short end of the stick when valuable resources are discovered on their land.

The issue of indigenous protection has been a contentious one within global climate talks, but most forest-carbon programs are being developed under the voluntary carbon markets, as we saw in last year’s ‘State of Forest Carbon Markets 2011: From Canopy to Currency’ and again in this year’s ‘State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2012’, both of which are published by Ecosystem Marketplace.

Disturbingly, the Forest Carbon report finds that only 25% of privately-financed REDD projects involve communal or customary lands, and only 2% of the projects are exclusively on such lands. The vast majority of the projects are on private lands, and the report attributes this to concern over tenure: investors are confused over who owns the carbon on indigenous land, especially if it is owned by a government but administered by traditional leadership.

For this reason – and because it’s proven to be so difficult to reach agreement on wording to protect indigenous peoples’ rights in a comprehensive REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) program through the UN – indigenous groups have begun to team up with advocates and move regionally to ensure their rights are protected in forest-carbon transactions.

In 2008, Forest Trends commissioned Trench, Rossi and Watanabe to examine the Brazilian Constitution, laws, and regulations, as well as the legal treatment of other natural resources on indigenous lands in Brazil.

They concluded that under the constitution, indigenous people have exclusive rights to manage natural resources on their land for both subsistence and commercial purposes. They also concluded that carbon is a natural resource. FUNAI (Fundação Nacional do Índio, ‘National Indian Foundation’), the government agency that oversees

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indigenous affairs under the auspices of the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, has also recently established that, though indigenous land belongs to the government, the carbon in the trees on that land belongs to the tribes.

That same year, the Pueblos Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica frente al Cambio Climático (Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon Basin to Combat Climate Change) began work on a program designed to help indigenous groups in the Amazon Basin develop REDD projects. The program was developed through an agreement between the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), together with the Woods Hole Research Center, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Yale School of Forestry, and was formally launched last May. This effort focuses on the Amazon basin region of Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia, creating more than 50 community-based training workshops in the five participating countries, and the development of at least two pilot projects. These echo a similar effort launched by the Katoomba Incubator, together with Amazon-focused NGOs such as Imaflora and IPAM (de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia, the ‘Amazon Environmental Research Institute’).

Over the past two years, the Katoomba Incubator has carried out workshops involving more than 40 indigenous leaders. This involvement is critical not only for indigenous leaders, but for the success of forest carbon itself.

“We see learning as a two-way street,” says Theodore Varns of the Yale School of Forestry. “Yale, IDB, Environmental Defense and Woods Hole can offer technical expertise, but they lack the situated knowledge and understanding of the environment where these trainings are to take place.”

The involvement of COICA has also ensured that indigenous groups have their voice heard during every step of the process. “The project was designed together so it has a lot of buy-in because it is the indigenous people organization who designed the project” says Gonzalo Griebenow of the IDB. The need for COICA to have a prominent role in the project essentially boils down to protecting rights—and putting their traditional knowledge into practice. “We have defined the policy lines about REDD+ and climate change,” says COICA economic coordinator Juan Carlos. “Among other things, we are working on a regional strategy to defend the rights of our territories.”

As global talks stall and national and sub-national initiatives take hold, such regional strategies may prove just as meaningful – if not more so – than any protections agreed to under the UNFCCC

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Internalisation of the value of watershed environmental services Luis Gamez Public Utilities Company of Heredia (ESPH), Costa Rica

The economic value of high quality drinking water – as an environmental service provided by the management and conservation of the upper part of five local micro-watersheds – has been considered by the citizens of Heredia as an item that should be included in the monthly water service bill.

To activate this scheme, adjustments were introduced in March 2000 to the water service monthly bill in order to make all categories of end-users, contribute directly to finance the cost of protection and maintenance of an adequate forest cover in strategic areas of the catchment area, mainly for infiltration and recharge of ground water.

An additional of less than US$0.3/m3 is charged in the monthly water bill to all categories of end users of water services. This item is denominated as Tarifa Hidrica. The revenue captured is used to offer a direct and tangible monetary compensation to the Braulio Carrillo National Park and to private landowners, for forest protection and restoration in key points of the watershed used for water supply. Participating landowners receive a payment close to US$120 /hectare/yr. for protecting forest around ESPH’s water sources. This amount represents the opportunity cost of land use in the upper watershed (mainly marginal dairy farming and abandoned grasslands) to generate the quality water environmental service. The estimate was obtained through the annual flow of revenues of traditional land uses, and the value that local residents give to water as an environmental service.

In 2012, the ESPH scheme will cover 1191 hectares of forest and reforestation in public and private land. Land owners participate on a voluntary basis. It is expected that other large water consumers and water supply entities that extract water from this area, will contribute as well to finance the protection of these watersheds.

pic: International Rivers

This pioneer initiative in Costa Rica was motivated by the concern of the local public utilities company (ESPH) for the urgent need to protect its water supply sources and its catchment area from the risk posed by urban sprawl and other undergoing changes in land use in the upper watershed. Acknowledging the threat of degradation of the catchment area, the ESPH applied creative economic instruments to expedite policy actions to protect and capitalise on the natural value of high quality drinking water for the local and metropolitan population. A local environmental services payment scheme was developed specifically to protect and conserve the catchment area and water sources.

The financial contribution of end users in Heredia to compensate for the costs borne by the national park and landowners for forest conservation, responds to a high benefit-low cost investment strategy based on social equity and the user-pays-principle. This initiative is fully independent in administration and self-sufficient in funding, and does not rely on government or international aid for its operation. This case study can provide some sense of what is achievable in terms of stimulating operative markets for environmental services through direct and tangible willingness-to-pay in a developing tropical country

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MORE INFO Public Utilities Company of Heredia (ESPH) Ph. +506 8385-9360 Telefax +506 2262-5891/5894; Email: gamezch@racsa.o.cr or lgamez@esph-sa.com Apdo. 581 Heredia 3000, Costa Rica

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Rio+20 should make sustainable land use a top priority Luc Gnacadja Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

World leaders must promote effective land use methods to mitigate drought. Severe droughts in Africa are a stark reminder of global unfairness. About 13 million people still struggle to have enough food in the Horn of Africa, and about the same number, most of them children, suffer from hunger in the Sahel region, which stretches across Africa below the Sahara.

Droughts now hit these parts of Sub-Saharan Africa more frequently than the usual ten-year cycle, and more severely.

Last year, the response of the international community to the Horn of Africa crisis was catastrophically slow.

Tens of thousands of people may have been rescued if we had not waited for the food crisis across East Africa to escalate into famine in Somalia. To make things worse, humanitarian relief eventually leaves communities that depend on agriculture even more vulnerable to the next drought. Farmers lose income and a major incentive to grow crops when local people can get food for free as aid.

Now, the latest reports from early warning systems predict a crisis in both the Horn of Africa and Sahel again this year, when they have not yet recovered from the 2010 and 2011 droughts. The question is what are we going to do about it?

Protect and thrive Farmers in the Maradi and Zinder regions of Niger know what to do. Over the past 20 years they have protected trees on some five million hectares of farmland. Where they had no or few trees, they now have up to 120 per hectare. These trees not only improve soil fertility but also provide about a million households with fodder, fruit and firewood. A recent survey shows that the farmers who preserve trees are able to cope better with drought than other farmers in the same area. Some of them even produced a modest cereal surplus in 2011. This is just one example of highly successful sustainable land management on a grassroots level.

These successes should be communicated by local, national and international media — especially radio, which is the most accessible medium for farmers across Africa.

National and international strategy But strategies that work on the level of individual farmers are not enough. We need to make sure that each droughtprone country has a national drought policy, based on the principles of early warning, preparedness, risk management and response. This effort is led by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the World Meteorological Organization.

Such policies would embrace insurance schemes, for example, allowing farmers and herders affected by drought to receive state subsidies.

Most importantly, we should empower smallholder farmers to become 'champions' in the race against the disastrous effects of climate change. In most African countries, the land that local people have been cultivating for generations is legally owned by the government. But farmers will preserve their trees if they have clearly defined rights to them recognised in national forestry and agriculture laws.

We know from numerous studies that building longterm resilience is much more cost-effective than ad-hoc crisis response. Still, it seems easier for donors to justify spending money to feed a starving child rather than supporting his or her father to grow enough crops.

We should not wait until the next food crisis emerges — we need to disseminate and scale up this experience.

Drought is predictable. The tools and knowledge farmers need to cope with it are already there. What is missing is the political will and the lack of awareness about existing, sustainable land-use practices.

With the global community discussing the green economy and sustainable development at Rio+20, it is unthinkable that we would continue to allow tens of thousands of people to die of hunger. We should act at local, national and global levels to give farmers the lead, and promote sustainable land use and re-greening initiatives.

First steps are local

Rio+20 should make this a top priority. It is essential to averting the next food crisis in Africa, and meeting the global challenge of feeding nine billion people by 2050

The first step is to empower local communities and foster farmer-to-farmer communication. In 2004, the International Fund for Agricultural Development helped to create the first village committee in the Aguie district of the Maradi region in Niger to monitor re-greening activities. The initiative is recognised at a national level,

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prompting the establishment of similar committees in neighbouring villages. Today, these committees regularly meet to share experience in land management. Then in 2008, several farmers from Senegal visited re-greened areas in Niger. On their return, they used what they learned to protect young trees on their farmland on about 40,000 hectares. Local authorities should encourage such experience sharing.

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MORE INFO This article was adapted from an opinion piece first published on SciDev.net. Read the full article here:

www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/forestry/opinions/rio-20should-make-sustainable-land-use-a-top-priority-1.html

What you might not have known about forests and food security Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) This article was first published on the CIFOR Blog, for more information visit - www.blog.cifor.org • Forests are a nutritional bounty – virtual natural supermarkets for 1 billion of the world’s poorest people. In rural areas of the Congo Basin many communities depend on wild meat for up to 80% of the fats and proteins in their diets. The 5 million to 6 million tons of bush meat eaten annually in the Congo Basin is roughly equal to the total amount of beef produced each year in Brazil – without the accompanying need to clear forest for cattle. In areas where fish are an important source of protein, forests, especially mangroves, support the healthy aquatic ecosystems necessary to maintain fish stocks.

• Forests provide goods and services that support the agricultural sector. Livestock production benefits from the fodder and shade provided by forests and trees. Forests provide homes for the bees, bats, and other pollinators of agricultural crops. Coffee cultivated in the fields furthest away from forested areas has been shown to have lower yields due to reduced pollination services. Forests provide hydrological services to agriculture, moderating the quantity and quality of surface water available for irrigation, and controlling the sedimentation of irrigation infrastructure.

• Natural forests provide habitat for the wild relatives of many important tree crops, a source

of genetic diversity that will become increasingly important for these species to adapt as climate change advances – and for humans to adapt to climate change as well. Once our diets included more than 7,000 species of plants and animals, but today the global trend towards simplification means our diet contains fewer and fewer species. This lack of biodiversity in our food sources makes us more vulnerable to the onset of new pests and diseases brought on by climate change.

• Environment-related income makes up about onequarter of total household income for people living in or near forests.

• Despite the rush to allocate forested land to agriculture in the name of food security, the impact on total agricultural production of such conversion has been slight. While agricultural production in developing countries has increased by 3.3–3.4% annually over the last two decades, gross deforestation has increased agricultural area by only 0.3%, often on marginal lands, suggesting a minor role of forest conversion in increasing overall agricultural production. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon offers a stark illustration of this calculation with cattle ranchers often using a hectare of land to raise a single cow.

• Of course there are many instances in which rural households have been made better off by converting forests to agriculture. In Indonesia, many families in the Outer Islands are sending their children to college for the first time with income from smallholder oil palm production. But all too often, when communities sign over their forested land to large-scale commercial agriculture, they benefit little, despite hopes and sometimes promises of employment and other benefits, while losing access to traditional forest-based sources of income.

Take part in a unique opportunity to highlight the contribution forests can make to sustainable development: the Rio+20 Dialogues. The Dialogues are an initiative of the Government of Brazil to provide an online tool for civil society to discuss ten key issues related to sustainable development.

Conclusions and recommendations emanating from these forums will be conveyed directly to the heads of State and Government gathering in Rio June 20-22.

This week, the Dialogues are focusing on the development issue of forests and food, namely “How will we fight world hunger without forests?” Participants are discussing issues such as “Where will the land to feed 9 billion people come from?” and “Is agricultural intensification the solution and if so, how will this affect forests?”

pic: Rainforest Action Network

MORE INFO

Sign up at www.riodialogues.org

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Spotlight: The Green Economy Concept, a perspective!

Jenna Gall SOI Alumni Delegation

The concept of a green economy is one that is going to be high on the list of topics being debated, negotiated and discussed at Rio+20.

After reading an article published on 11th May, called ‘Political shift will make or break Rio+20’ summit (Reuters), I feel as though the talks in Rio are going to need to first discuss what is meant by a ‘green economy’, before any solid decisions can be made. Currently, there is strong disagreement amongst developing and developed nations on the concept of a green economy and how it can be achieved. UNEP defines a green economy as one that improves human wellbeing and social equity, while reducing environmental risks and scarcities. As stated in the article, some developed countries are embracing the green economy in their future sustainable development goals, while others are far from embracing – and may even be opposed to – the idea. As for developing nations, there is fear that the green economy concept does not incorporate social justice and may result in trade disputes and unfair treatment towards countries that are trying to raise their standard of living. These subjects are not new and I have yet to fully comprehend the arguments being debated, but I thought I would share my current interpretation of the issues and try to bring a youth perspective in the context of the polar regions and sustainable development.

The Polar Regions are of vital importance to the planet.

From a sustainable development angle, the Arctic is going to continue to be developed. There is evidence of this in every Arctic country; Canada, Norway, Russia, and so on. Oil and gas extractions, off shore drilling and land-based mining are already occurring. Changes in these regions affect everyone on the planet, so it is time for everyone on the planet take an interest in protecting them. Halting development is impossible, but developing sustainably and focusing on switching from our dependence on fossil fuels to renewables is possible! So the next time our governments are looking to invest in offshore oil, it’s important that we are there, encouraging them to invest in offshore wind.

It is difficult to argue against development. It increases people’s wellbeing; their standard of living, their education and their livelihood. But if development is to continue, it must be done sustainably and with future generations in mind. To me, green economy means creating a means of making a living where humans are a part of nature, rather than conquering it, and where people live, work and play.

This requires providing local food, green jobs, and green living spaces. A green economy means a standard of living that satisfies the current generation without jeopardising the standard of living of future generations. It means a world where the bottom line isn’t just money, but a triple bottom line is dominant – incorporating environment, economy and social justice. This is the future I see, want and will strive for at Rio+20 and beyond!

Our delegation will be hosting a side event at Rio+20.

We welcome you to attend.

STUDENTS SPEAK UP FOR THE POLAR REGIONS Date & Time: June 18, 2012, 1930-2100 Venue: T-4, RioCentro Organised by: Students on Ice Alumni Delegation Co-organisers: We Canada Initiative, APECS Brazil This event aims to catalyse national delegations and civil society to commit to sustainable development and protection of the Arctic and Antarctica, this event will feature speakers from the Students on Ice Alumni Delegation. Members of this international youth delegation are united by the rare privilege of having visited the Arctic and Antarctica. During this event, delegates will share first-hand experiences of their visits to the poles and explore the importance of these regions to the global environment. Nine key sustainable development challenges facing the polar regions will be addressed, and implementable solutions will be highlighted. Ultimately, the connection between Polar Regions and Rio+20 will be made, with clear indications of how Rio+20 can address polar challenges. There will also be a multi-stakeholder panel on ‘Polar Sustainable Development: Required Leadership and Solutions for the Next Decade’, with notable experts from polar science, policy, and governance

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MORE INFO Register for the livestream or to attend:

www.soidelegation-sideevent.eventbrite.ca

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The reality of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, I.A.P. Roberto Pedraza Ruiz Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda I.A.P.

The Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, I.A.P. (GESGIAP) was founded in 1987 by local citizens from the Sierra Gorda, a mountainous region situated in the state of Querétaro, Mexico.

and the National Committee for Protected Natural Areas.

The project included a $6.7 million leverage fund which led to further public and private investment totalling $41.6 million. As a consequence of this funding, 167 co-managed citizens’ sustainability initiatives have been launched within this natural area of 383,567 hectares, creating an ‘economy of conservation’.

Conservation economy Since 2003, resources have been committed from a range of domestic and international sources to pay for hydrological and biodiversity environmental services in more than 48,900 hectares of privately owned forest and jungle. This has led to an annual overflow of around $1.3 million and has undoubtedly contributed to the reduction of forest fragmentation (by 24%). It has greatly increased both forest coverage (13,000 hectares recovered from 1996 to 2010) and the financial income of the owners, laying the foundation for a conservation economy.

pic: Luz María Nieto Caraveo

It is one of the most ecologically diverse regions of Mexico, but also has high levels of poverty. The organisation has demonstrated that the success of projects for the conservation and protection of biodiversity and sustainable development is determined by a foundation of social strategy that involves the community, has clear and measurable objectives, and is supported by an alliance of government and private sector. When GESGIAP initiated its work, the Sierra Gorda was facing numerous threats common to areas of high biodiversity in Mexico and Latin America, such as extensive cattle ranching, inefficient agricultural practices, forest fires, inadequate forest management, and contamination, all exacerbated by the lack of knowledge and extreme poverty of its inhabitants.

There are 95,000 people in the Sierra Gorda that depend on traditional sustenance activities, such as farming and the extraction of goods from forests.

How it all started When the movement started, there were only a handful of volunteers in a totally forgotten rural environment. As in other areas of the country, no regulations existed for the management of its natural resources. GESGIAP obtained the support of local inhabitants of the area and together requested that the federal government protect the area through the creation of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve (now recognised by UNESCO). In 2001, it became the first Mexican NGO to obtain Global Environment Facility (GEF) backing to scale its activities up to a full-size project entitled ‘Conservation of the Biodiversity in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve’, in close collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Reforestation and the voluntary carbon market We are opening new doors and possibilities for conservation by commercialising ecosystem services in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve. We have been especially successful in the voluntary carbon market, with 14 international sales to date and several more pending.

Now, rural forest owners who have reforested part of their land with native species (on formerly degraded areas) in recent years will potentially be able to generate extra income by selling the carbon that the young trees are capturing from the atmosphere.

Natural infrastructure and the treasure it represents In the search for solutions to align conservation and economic development, we have valued the ecosystem services that the reserve offers. In 2010, vegetation in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve contained 124,065,851 tons of carbon. At a price of $15 per ton, this amounted to a net worth of $1.1 billion. This means that, in stored carbon, communities in extreme poverty are owners of an immensely important and valuable source of natural capital, worth more than the land and timber alone. By building bridges between local owners and investors, an economy can be created that compensates communities by conserving natural infrastructure and by replacing unsustainable traditional activities with those which conserve and protect the environment

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MORE INFO www.sierragorda.net

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Time is running out Jan-Gustav Strandenaes Stakeholder Forum Yesterday, UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, addressed delegates working to finalise the Rio+20 Outcome Document. Did he manage to convey the need for haste? The Outreach team was pic: CameliaTWU

present and felt the urgency.

“Time is running out. You still have much work to do – perhaps too much work. But you must persevere. The stakes are very, very high – for people and the planet… for peace and prosperity.” With these solemn and serious words, UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, opened his speech addressing the delegates at the final round of ‘informal informals’, on Tuesday 29th May. Conference room 3 was filled to the last seat when the Secretary General spoke, and the delegates seemed to take in the seriousness of the hour when he said: “This session is effectively your last opportunity to make the progress we need on the outcome we need. It is your responsibility to get it right here and now, this week”.

The Secretary General echoed the opening statement

by UNCSD Co-Chair, Ambassador John Ashe, earlier in the day, when he stated simply that all delegates had to be seriously committed to agreeing on an Outcome Document that would be worth its title “The future we want.” “We only have this planet to live on”, Ambassador Ashe said, as he reminded the delegates of the serious task ahead of them during these few days, “this document will quite possibly set the course of thinking, development and action over the next 20-30 years.”

Naturally expectations ran high in the advent of Ban Kimoons statement. “I think he has come to reprimand the delegates” a hopeful civil society member stated. “Not the role of the Secretary General” retorted a delegate, “you have to remember, he is the Secretary General of all Member States. As such he serves the Member States”.

Dag Hammarskjold, the second UN Secretary General, intervened successfully in difficult times, admonishing delegates to find a course of action out of unchartered waters. And many present today remembered well Kofi Annan’s courageous interventions in stalled negotiations.

It is true that the Secretary General is the secretary for the Member States, but it is equally true that the Secretary General also represents the UN Charter, which begins with “We, the peoples”. Many felt that Ban Kimoon spoke with that mandate today.

He had chosen his opening words carefully and continued with a direct challenge to the delegates: “Failure is not an option. The conference is too important. As I

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have said before, Rio+20 is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. It is your collective responsibility to seize it. Nobody expects countries to sacrifice national selfinterest. But keep in mind: our individual self-interests are interdependent, interconnected.”

Echoing the values and intentions expressed in the UN Charter – the raison d’etre of our working and negotiating at the UN – he said, invoking the spirit of common responsibility: “It is important – it is essential – that everyone be prepared to rise above national or group interests. More and more in today’s world, the global interest is the national interest. There is no difference between global and local. We must be united for the global common good – united for humanity. It is time to make compromises. To be flexible. To give as well as to take.”

He listed five areas of importance: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a novelty; a stronger and politically more vibrant IFSD – a necessity; decent jobs, social protection and healthy environment – a must; tangible outcomes on sectoral issues – a recognised need; honouring past commitments – an obvious issue; and as a final point he added: “Last but not least, we need commitments from all stakeholders at Rio+20 – Member States, civil society and the private sector alike. And just as we need a way to track commitments of the Sustainable Development Goals, we will need a process to follow up on these commitments, and hold actors accountable.”

The Secretary General paused, he was coming to the end of his 15 minutes. He had stirred people’s consciousness.

“So nothing new perhaps”, a seasoned delegate mused, “but if my colleagues try to belittle this statement, he or she feels guilty for not having done enough.”

Just remember the Secretary General’s final statement: “Think of the big picture – of the importance of making Rio+20 a resounding success – for now and for the future we want.”

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And that is exactly what we need to do these next few days

MORE INFO The Secretary General's full statement can be found here:

www.un.org/sg/statements

Youth Blast Over 3,000 young people are expected to attend the Youth Blast this June. The purpose of the Youth Blast (aka Conference of Youth for Rio+20) is to strategise and mobilise young people for during and after Rio+20.

This event being organised by the UNCSD Major Group of Children and Youth and the Brazilian National Youth Secretary in partnership with the Government of Brazil, Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Agência Brasileira de Cooperação), CONJUVE (National Youth Council), the UN interagency for Youth and UNDP. Unconfirmed partners currently are UN-Habitat, UNEP, and UNFPA. The Youth Blast will take place Avenida Rodrigues Alves – Armazem 6, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, CEP 20081-250. If attending, you can get off the bus at Praça Mauá (Mauá Square).

The first three days of the Youth Blast are reserved for Brazilian youth only (June 7th to June 9th). Please see the website for more information about the Brazilian days.

These days will act as a national preparatory meeting for young people from Brazil. They will create their vision and present it to their government at the end of their conference.

The international segment of the Youth Blast (10th- 12th June) will focus on strategising young people’s engagement with the remaining segments of the preparatory process and the Conference itself. It will have capacity building workshops, introductions to policy and consultations on existing lobby points. There will be sessions specific to the objectives and themes of Rio+20: Green Economy and Institutional Frameworks for Sustainable Development (governance). This is an event organised, run and held by young people for young people. It promises to be unforgettable….so if you are in Rio…please feel welcome!

In an effort to engage the high numbers of youth and children, the MGCY tried to integrate as many networks as possible to ensure maximum involvement in the Rio+20 preparatory process. Anyone under 30 is welcome to attend as a participant. Over 30s can only attend the international days as observers

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MORE INFO The UNCSD MGCY is one of the nine civil society Major Groups participating in Rio+20. See the website for the many ways to get involved. www.uncsdchildrenyouth.org If you are interested in attending the Youth Blast, please register now on the MGCY website or join the ‘Youth Space’ at: www.youth-blast.org Please send any questions to uncsdmgcy@gmail.com.

pic: Mike Vondran

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RIO+20

9

Reflections on the Negotiations – Tuesday 29th May Farooq Ullah Stakeholder Forum

Dirk-Jan Verdonk WSPA Nederland/The Netherlands

The 3rd Round of Rio+20 informal informals began this morning to a slow start. Despite having a new version of the Co-Chairs’ text to hand (with 20 paragraphs already agreed), negotiators seemed more interested in splitting hairs than building bridges.

The Rio+20 Bureau decided to continue this week with two working groups, as in the previous negotiating rounds. On Section V, Canada started well by agreeing the ‘chapeau’ or heading statement. However, it quickly became a process of adding amendments from then on.

As with the other issues, the section on sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition was plagued by the conflict between streamlining the text and restoring some valuable content that was lost in the Co-Chairs’ text of May 22. Switzerland’s effort to re-introduce strong text on the Committee for Food Security (CFS), in particular, did not receive the much needed support.

This is regrettable as the CFS could be the international and intergovernmental platform par excellence for supporting country-led processes and strengthening policy convergence among the different stakeholders on the main food security and nutrition issues. Moreover, FAO, IFAD, WFP and other relevant multilateral organisations, could conduct, through the CFS, regular, intergovernmental, participatory, cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder assessments of knowledge, science and technology as basis for a coordinated and coherent UN system-wide approach to sustainable food production, food security and nutrition. Without a mechanism like that, such an approach is hard to imagine.

The G77 expressed its frustration more than once, and other negotiators echoed this sentiment. The need for the process to evolve was clear. In response to this requirement, for example, Working Group 1 (Sections V and VI) created a few contact groups to focus on specific paragraphs. While Working Group 2 (Section I, II, III and IV) was strict about declaring non-contentious paragraphs as ‘agreed’, and formed a splinter group to deal with a few select paragraphs outside plenary and then report back. These positive steps will undoubtedly give the negotiations a push forward.

The new Co-Chairs’ text is a solid platform that builds on the work to date. The textual amendments are important. Sustainable development has always suffered from unclear and overly complicated language. And the drive to streamline the text is equally important, as we need an Outcome Document that is digestible. But the Rio process rests on a knife’s edge. It remains a process of to-ing and fro-ing between Member States’ nationalistic interests. The G77 adds while Canada, the US and the EU delete; and vice versa. Nonetheless, there were some positive moments where negotiators offered streamlining changes.

What is now – and has always been – needed is a willingness of all stakeholders (including Major Groups) to show flexibility and put aside individual interests in the name of progress, ambition and success. This will not be easy; everyone has ‘red lines’. It will require more opportunities for informal negotiations where leaders can step forward. This in turn, requires the Co-Chairs to also show leadership, and make hard decisions on how to deal with each paragraph. So while the outcomes of Rio+20 remain opaque, what is clear is that the watchword in the run-in to the Summit must be leadership

The negotiations were rife with other old reflexes. For example, the re-introduction of ‘nutritional security’ was again resisted, although it seemed to get broader support than before. Needless to say, all of the EU proposals for action oriented language with clear and time-bound objectives did not make any headway. It didn’t escape the attention of both the Chairs and negotiators that this repetition of proposals and their rejection wasn’t a promising way forward, as Rio+20 approaches rapidly. The G77 therefore requested that the Chairs provide further streamlined text proposals.

The good news? The reference of urban-rural linkages, accidentally lost in the last round in early May, has re-appeared.

Also, the issue of sustainable livestock production systems, including the interconnectedness of livelihoods of farmers (pastoralists!) and animal health, continues to receive very broad support. Last but not least, out of thirteen paragraphs, one – Food 7 – was agreed upon…

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