This Forest Trends/Katoomba Group report presents an analysis of the legal and policy framework for tree and forest carbon in Ghana – key elements for REDD+. It shows how the current legal and regulatory structure for forestry and lands in Ghana provides indications and precedents for how carbon rights and benefits might be managed and distributed. But it also highlights significant hurdles and challenges that will need to be addressed. It argues that realizing the full ecological and economic potential of REDD+ will require meaningful legal reforms and innovative application of existing mechanisms in order to effectively address the real drivers of deforestation and ensure permanence in any REDD+ activities.

In Our Balancing Act - The real value of ecosystems Denis Slieker and Jos van Assendelft explore the route of putting a value on ecosystems. Next to this, the book places the pressure on ecosystems in an historic perspective and presents ways to define the monetary value of ecosystems.

The report is based on the survey responses of 207 corporate participants during January and February 2010 who, according to the data, purchased at least 7.9 million carbon credits in 2009, including approximately 3.0 million offsets from forestry. When compared with 2008 volumes, the survey respondents represent approximately half the global demand for voluntary forest carbon offsets.

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provides the backdrop for carbon finance activities. Carbon finance is the generic name for the revenue streams generated by projects from the sale of their greenhouse gas emission reductions (see Figure 1) or from trading in carbon permits. It sets the basis for an innovative scheme to meet the GHG emissions objetives from industrialized countries through a global carbon market.

Indeed, the Kyoto Protocol provides that the industrialized countries (referred to as Annex I countries under the UNFCCC) can meet their quantified emissions obligations through (i) domestic actions (e.g., standards, taxes, subsidies, domestic emissions trading); and partially through one of the Protocol’s three market-based mechanisms, i.e., International Emission Trading, Joint Implementation (JI), and the Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM).

Marking the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF)—the world’s first global carbon fund—this report seeks to take stock of the World Bank’s experience of working with these market-based mechanisms over the past decade. It shares insights and recommendations from the perspectives of a practitioner, a carbon market player, a manager of carbon fund portfolios, and an active contributor to the regulatory process in terms of developing methodologies as well as providing assessments, analysis, and recommendations in response to the regulators’ call for inputs.

A new round of UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) talks and meetings of the AWG-LCA (Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperative Action) and the AWG-KP (Ad Hoc Working Group on the Kyoto Protocol), as well as of the two subsidiary bodies SBSTA (Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technological Advise) and SBI (Subsidiary Body on Implementation) took place in Bonn, from May 31-June 10, 2010.

Designated Operational Entities (DOEs) are accredited independent entities responsible for ensuring that proposed projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) meet all requirements established by the CDM Executive Board operating under the Kyoto Protocol. In May 2009, Öko-Institut and WWF published a first rating of DOEs. The rating aims to provide transparent information to the market with regards to how well DOEs are fulfilling the requirements and expectations of the CDM Executive Board. This report updates the rating and in addition evaluates the current validation and verification process and provides recommendations for improvements.

Access the full report in English and a summary in German from the Öko-Institut website here.

At the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen on December 2009, the international community reinforced its commitment to tackle emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. In order to provide preliminary insights into what will be needed to make REDD+ work on the ground, here we analyze the experiences of 12 pilot forest carbon initiatives in which Conservation International (CI) has been involved as a partner.

Located in nine countries throughout Asia, Latin America and Africa, these initiatives represent a broad range of geographic, socioeconomic and biophysical conditions and provide a unique opportunity to examine the challenges and opportunities of designing and implementing forest carbon initiatives in different contexts.

By providing a holistic and fine-scale analysis of our experiences in implementing reforestation and REDD+ initiatives on the ground, our study reveals many of the real-world challenges that project managers and policy makers will likely face as they design and implement new REDD+ initiatives, and provides practical recommendations of how to enhance the chances of successful design and implementation in the field that result in the provision of climate, community and biodiversity benefits.

After a description of the forestry sector and its position in existing carbon pricing frameworks, this study focuses on the extent to which "voluntary" carbon markets might make it possible to value the sequestration of CO₂ in forestry and timber projects carried out in French territory. With an eye towards practical application, it is based on seven hypothetical projects that could apply for carbon certification in the voluntary markets. The study estimates the sequestration potential of these projects and the number of carbon credits they could generate. A cost benefit analysis is also developed for one of these projects.

The guidebook instructs project developers and financiers on how to develop and bring to market profitable forest carbon projects.