The Swedish government has notified the African Forest Research Network Afornet of its intention to freeze its 20-year old support over what Sweden's ambassador Ann Dismorr described as “administrative problems in recent years.”Mrs Dismorr announced the decision at a conference organised by the network in Nairobi, but explained that the governance problems in the Nairobi-based organisation arose from its huge area of coverage.”To establish and run a programme like this in approximately 30 countries is not an easy task,” she argued but remained firm that the funding would be stopped.

via allAfrica.com: Africa: Fears Over Planned Cut in Research Funding.

“More meetings does not mean success,” de Boer, who steps down from his UN post on July 1, said today at the Carbon Market Insights conference in Amsterdam. “We need to get down to business.”

The Copenhagen summit in December 2009 was a failure even though it was preceded by many meetings, de Boer said. While about 150 nations agreed to submit plans or targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the meeting failed to produce a global treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which lapses in 2012.

“Going back from Copenhagen, I was extremely disappointed,” de Boer said. “My first feeling was it had been an absolute disaster.”

via UN Climate Process ‘Needs a Good Spanking,’ Yvo de Boer Says – BusinessWeek.

Despite pressure from farm state politicians, the Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important step to ensure that biofuels help rather than hurt the environment. Under new guidelines, biofuels produced at new facilities — including ethanol from corn, sugar, plants and other sources — must achieve at least a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional gasoline.

via Editorial – Sensible Rules for Ethanol – NYTimes.com.

Despite pressure from farm state politicians, the Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important step to ensure that biofuels help rather than hurt the environment. Under new guidelines, biofuels produced at new facilities — including ethanol from corn, sugar, plants and other sources — must achieve at least a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional gasoline.

via Editorial – Sensible Rules for Ethanol – NYTimes.com.

“Wherever we do make projections of the future, we provide a range, and that range is something that is totally defensible,” he said.

However, he admitted that, “it’s not as though we have gone through everything for a second time to apply a fine-tooth comb and see whether there are any other errors. There are others who are now working overtime on that kind of job.”

Mr Pachauri declined to name anyone behind the concerted attack on the IPCC, saying it was probably backed by powerful corporate interests determined to thwart concerted action against global warming.

via FT.com / World – Embattled UN climate boss defends record.

A large on-going UN-sponsored study into the economics of biodiversity suggests that deforestation alone costs the global economy $2-5 trillion each year.

In his speech at Monday's event, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Achim Steiner is due to highlight problems caused by invasive species, and the potential for ecosystems such as forests and wetlands to absorb and store carbon from the air.

The UN hopes some kind of legally-binding treaty to curb biodiversity loss can be agreed at the CBD summit, held in Japan in October.

via BBC News – Biodiversity loss is ‘wake-up call’, warns UN.

Eight million Ethiopians could need food aid this year, agencies say

Oxfam has launched an emergency appeal for £9.5m ($15m) to reach millions of starving people in Ethiopia and other East African countries.

The UK-based agency says thousands of animals have already died because of a drought which is the worst in 10 years.

Warning signs indicate that the lives and livelihoods of 23 million people are threatened – twice as many as the last serious crisis in 2006.

Seven countries are affected, with half of those threatened living in Ethiopia.

The global economic, food and climate change crises have hit African women the hardest, according to a report from a delegation of African and United Nations female officials attending a conference on gender equality.

“When we look at the GDPs of all African countries, they are between five and seven per cent [in the recent past… but this present crisis is going to erode all those gains that have been made,” Isatou Njie Saidy, Vice-President of Gambia, told journalists at UN Headquarters in New York.

Africa is said to be one of the regions most vulnerable to the effects of climate change although it contributes minimally to the problem. The difficult social and economic situation of most Africans, especially women and children, worsens the situation, in Ghana for instance, women constitute about 51% of the population and about 30% of them are heads of households. . “They constitute 52% of the agricultural labour force, contribute 46% to the total GDP and produce 70% of subsistent crops. They play major roles in production and distribution” according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture.

A wide variety of literature is available on the importance of agriculture to economic development in Africa and on the critical role that rural women play within this sector. Increasing attention is also being given to the role of smallholder subsistence agriculture in ensuring the food security of the continent, as 73% of the rural population consists of smallholder farmers (IFAD, 1993:6). In Sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture accounts for approximately 21% of the continent’s GDP and women contribute 60-80% of the labour used to produce food both for household consumption and for sale (FAO).

Climate Change and its impact on women

Currently the UN considers industrial tree plantations as forests. This is, simply put, an egregious error. Plantations are not forests.  Forests are diverse ecosystems and plantations are void of biodiversity.  The UN definition endangers Indigenous Peoples, forest dependent people, peasants, small farmers, biodiversity and
exacerbates climate change.

The groups held a media conference this morning and several actions occurred on the theme of calling on the UNFCCC to change the definition of forests so it distinguishes between native forests and plantations.

“We have united to challenge the definition of forest under the UNFCCC to ensure that agricultural tree crops, or plantations are not defined as a forest”, said Gemma Tillack, an international youth delegate and campaigner for The Wilderness Society in Australia.

“The conversion of native forests to plantations is bad for biodiversity, people and the climate. Human  rights, especially women’s rights, are being violated where there are plantations, and they should not be defined as forests.  In addition, industrial tree plantations impact the climate–tropical forests and grasslands store significantly more carbon than tree plantations”, said Ana Filippini from World Rainforest Movement (Uruguay) and member of the GenderCC Network – Women for Climate Justice.

“Schemes such as REDD allow companies to prevent family farmers from using the land to produce the food that is needed to feed their communities and their countries”, said Luis Muchanga of Via Campesina in Mozambique.  He continued,  ”Deforestation, which is a major driver of global warming, is not made by peasants and indigenous peoples, but by large companies that are given the right to convert the forest to tree plantations”.