The money would also fund research in smallholder production systems and markets, management and conservation of forest and tree resources, landscape management of forested areas for environmental services, biodiversity conservation and livelihoods, and impacts of trade and investment on forests and people.

Launching the programme on Dec. 4 during CIFOR’s fifth annual Forest Day, part of the on-going climate change conference here, Vice President of Sustainable Development at the World Bank, Rachel Kyte, said that the research programme on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry aims to revamp efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and expand the use of trees on farms. The programme is the brainchild of a consortium of world renowned agricultural research institutions under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), including the Forest Day organizers, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

“The initiative focuses on the critical importance of forests as natural ‘carbon sinks’ that can help slow the pace of climate change and the need to conserve forest biodiversity,” she said, adding that improved management of forests and trees can play a wider role in reducing risks for smallholder farmers and improving the wellbeing of forest- dependent communities, particularly women and disadvantaged groups.

Already, USD90 million has been raised for the programme while the rest would be secured through fund-raising activities.

The programme comes at a time when deforestation and forest degradation are accelerating climate change and threatening the wellbeing of millions of poor people around the world.

“Under these circumstances, we urgently need a strong  and sustained effort focusing on forest management and governance, given the crucial role of forests in confronting some of the most important challenges of our time: climate change, poverty and food security,” said Frances Seymour, CIFOR director general. She added that without addressing deforestation and forest degradation, the world risks the further impoverishment of millions of poor people who depend on forests and trees for their livelihoods.

“On the other hand we will continue to witness continued carbon emissions from forest destruction and degradation that are a significant source of greenhouse gases, and loss of ecosystem services crucial to sustained agricultural activity,” she stressed.

Implementation of the programme will involve the collaboration of four of the world’s leading research centers. They are the Kenya- based World Agroforestry Centre, CIFOR based in Indonesia, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) based in Colombia and Biodiversity International in Italy.  “These will be the focal points of project implementation but  we will work with universities and research institutions  in the various countries when it comes to the practical implementation of the project,” Kyte told CCMP fellows in a separate interview.

In Tanzania, The University of Dar es Salaam through the Institute of Resource Assessment (IRA) has been conducting various researches on adaptation and mitigation particularly for small farmers in the rural communities. The Sokoine University of Agriculture based in Morogoro , Tanzania has also been conducting research in these areas, also involving the rural poor in their activities. These two universities are likely to benefit most from the programme.

Asked on the dissemination of the findings, the CGIAR Chair explained that information on research findings would be timely disseminated. “Our aim is to help communities cope with effects of climate change. This means once we get findings we will disseminate them so that they are put into use by small farmers, so that they may take adaptation measure and reduce poverty,” she said.

Presenting the results of a case study on implementation of ecosystem adaption in the rural communities of western Tanzania, Dr Elizabeth Gray from The Nature Conservancy said that many communities in Tanzania have adequate information on climate change, “but their efforts to adapt are hampered by lack of accurate data and finance.”

I was born and raised in Colombia, a tropical country in South America. We are rich in forests, biodiversity and water sources. That makes us a key pillar in stopping global warming: we both host large tenures of carbon-capturing trees and our emissions are pretty low (0.31  per cent of the global total). We are part of the Kyoto protocol and here in Durban we support a second term of commitments

In Durban I share a room with Jeff Lowenstein, a U.S colleague from Chicago. He comes from the opposite corner of the world when it comes to emissions. The US is the second largest emitter, after China and the main polluter of CO2 per capita (17,7 tones per person each year while the rest of the world, excluding China, South Africa and the EU, emit less than 3.4 tons per year). The U.S. never signed up to the Kyoto Protocol and it appears to be pushing for it to die quietly in Durban.

Jeff and I sharing the same room tells its own story. We are a pretty accurate reflection of our countries, at least when it comes to consumption patterns. A quick luggage archeology reveals a little of our respective countries’ stances.

Here is a list of some of the stuff we both brought:

Jeff

2 Laptop computers (Dell and Mac Book Pro 15’’)

3 extension leads

20 AA Duracell batteries

2 plug converters (+ 2 energy transformers)

6 notepads

11 pens

500 personal business cards, approx.

50 vitamin pills (he takes 4 each day)

0 refillable water container

3 hardcover books (Earth by Bill Mc Kibben, Science As A Contact Sport by Stephen Shneider, Storms Of My Grandchildren by James Hansen)

Total checked-in luggage weight: 21 kilos

Lorenzo

1 Toshiba laptop 10´´

1 extension lead

4 Energizer rechargeable batteries

1 energy plug converter

2 reporter’s notepads

2 pens

0 personal business cards

6 anti-flu pills (just in case)

1 refillable plastic water bottle

1 paperback book (Heat by Georges Monbiot)

Total checked-in luggage weight: 14 kilos

This list might amount to little more than a funny anecdote. But for me it was revealing:  human-sized evidence that any action to tackle climate change has to tackle individual attitudes and behavior. But I certainly can’t stand in judgement. In fact with just one flight, I might have contributed more to global warming than Jeff, despite his superior consumption . When I printed out (yes, I printed it out despite all those  trees chopped down) my Delta ticket from Bogota, at the bottom of the itinerary read: ‘The estimated CO2 amount for this flight is 2020 kg. Jeff’s flight from Chicago, while also contributing to CO2 emissions, was probably closer to around 1650 kg.

2020 – the kg my flight to the COP17 emitted – is also the year when developed countries are willing to postpone any decision or binding commitment on emissions reduction. Some fear that might be too late, and that includes my good friend Jeff.

This particular lesson came as I was packing to attending the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference.

“You look like you’re planning to move there,” she said.

I had to admit that she had a point. The metal seams on my black carry-on suitcase looked strained beyond their capacity and about to burst at any second, and I had yet to put in my blazer, shoes, black and white socks or pyjamas.

This said nothing of the work and personal laptops, 20 batteries for my flip camera, or three hardcover books about climate change that I was planning to stuff into my backpack.

I realized her wisdom after I arrived in Durban, got to my room at the hotel and met Lorenzo, my roommate from Colombia. Where I brought two laptops, he brought one. Where I brought enough clean clothes for two weeks, he brought a compact supply that required him to do some minor washing. His toiletries fit neatly into a black leather bag, while mine resembled a burgeoning pharmacy.

Lorenzo explained that Colombia is a country with exceedingly low emissions, while I hail from the United States, the world’s second-largest emitter…..could it be that the differences in what we brought pointed to some differences in consumption?

“It says something,” he said after asking my permission to write about the quantity of goods I had brought.

Yet Lorenzo’s total footprint for his conference attendance may well ultimately exceed mine. That’s because of an area of climate change that thus far has bedeviled even the most creative and innovative of environmentalists: airplane’s enormous consumption of fossil fuels.

Lorenzo told me that his flight took him from his native Colombia to Atlanta before flying to Johannesburg and then Durban.

I write this to raise one of the many questions that underpins these talks.

Even if the world’s nations come to an accord that pledges to reduce the world’s emissions are you or I willing to change our consumption?

When it comes to air travel, the answer is not optimistic.

Despite calls by the British activist and author George Monbiot’s for long-distance air travel to be drastically curtailed, if not completely eliminated, the massive consumption of fossil fuels for flights continues largely unabated.

In his book, Science is A Contact Sport, the late Stephen Schneider, recipient of the 2007 Collective Nobel Peace Prize and one of the key figures for decades in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, wrote that his students maintained that the contributions he made to the issue outweighed the negative value of his footprint through air travel.

Although I would apply the same reasoning to Lorenzo’s participation here, I’m not completely sure.

But one thing I do know.

The next time I travel anywhere, when it comes time to pack, I’m listening to my wife.

Listen to the radio feature

Take Tanzania. Its vulnerability to climate change is high yet its contribution to the problem is low. Meanwhile, the potential for its forests to be part of the solution hangs in the balance.

This is because last month in Cancún, Mexico, nearly 200 governments agreed the foundations of system known as REDD (reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation).

REDD would reward countries like Tanzania if they protect their forests because they store carbon and prevent it reaching the atmosphere where it can contribute to climate change.

But as Charles Meshack, the executive director of the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group, points out, over 87 percent of Tanzania’s population depends on charcoal and wood for cooking and heating and this puts immense pressure on the country’s woodlands.

Tanzania’s environment minister Terezya Luoga Huvisa, says it will not easy for African governments to protect their forests when they are their people’s only source of energy.

“In Tanzania we do not have an alternative source of energy, therefore we can’t stop our people from using wood or charcoal since that is their only source of energy. It’s their life,” she said during an interview in Cancún.

“Developed countries cannot survive without industries and developing countries also cannot survive without charcoal,” she added. “So we have reached a point at which we must compromise.”

That compromise could come in the form of finance and technology that developed nations could provide to enable countries like Tanzania to develop cleaner sources of energy.

The Cancún meeting – the 16th conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – also saw the creation of a Green Climate Fund and an agreement on transfer of climate-friendly technologies from industrialised to developing nations.

And as Dr Markku Kanninen of Center for International Forest Research points out, the REDD agreement on forests would not mean that countries have to stop using charcoal altogether.

Under REDD, countries and communities could be rewarded financially if they manage their forests in a way that means new trees grow faster than old ones are used for charcoal of firewood.

“People should be encouraged to plant more trees for charcoal and donors can support such programs,” says Kanninen. “Forest conservation is a responsibility of all people not only forest departments.”

A report from the World Bank released on the sidelines of the 16^th UN climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico in December outlines how cities are responsible for as much as 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time facing significant impacts from climate change.

The report, “Cities and Climate Change: An Urgent Agenda,” says that up to 80 percent of the expected $80 billion to $100 billion per year in climate change adaptation costs will likely be borne by urban areas.

Nevertheless, the report says that climate change offers cities opportunities to change course, implementing smart policies and developing sustainable communities.  Some major world cities are already moving forward.

“Many world cities, such as New York , Mexico City, Amman, or Sao Paulo are not waiting for a comprehensive and global climate deal to emerge, they are already acting on climate change,” said Andrew Steer, the World Bank’s special envoy for climate change.

“They are showing how to address mitigation, adaptation, the delivery of basic urban services, and poverty reduction through smart ideas and local initiatives.  They need the support of their national governments and the international community at large.”

The report, which urges rapid, unified action by the world’s urban centres,  warns that current investments in infrastructure will determine both the impact of cities on the world’s climate, as well as the impact of climate change on those cities, including  wind storms, flooding, heat waves, and sea level rise.

The report details how the organization and lifestyles of cities determines their greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the Spanish city of  Barcelona’s per capita emissions are less than one-quarter those of Denver. Brazil’s  Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were also noted for their low per-capita emissions.

More than half of the people in the world now live in urban areas, a proportion that is growing fast. The world’s 50 largest cities alone have a combined population (500 million people) larger than the United States. If this were the population of a single country, it would be the third leading emitter of the gases that cause global warming, trailing only China and the USA.

The report outlines a climate-smart way forward for cities. The key is cooperation. Organizations like the World Bank are providing assistance in urban areas such as Mexico City, Cairo, and Bangkok and detailed vulnerability assessments for several coastal cities.

New partnerships are emerging: UN agencies and the World Bank have developed a joint work plan expressly to provide faster and more coordinated assistance to cities.

New financing options such as ‘green bonds’, a city-wide approach to carbon finance (now proposed in Jordan’s capital Amman), and emissions trading systems such as the one recently launched in Tokyo, are also being studied.

The report says that cities are well advised to act on climate change as
soon as possible because costs of delaying action are high, particularly in rapidly growing cities.  Related benefits of action are substantial,  including improved public health, cost savings, and energy security.

The report adds that low-carbon economies and low-pollution cities are essential to a high quality of urban life.

Cities are also seen as having a  unique advantage in confronting climate change since they are the optimum scale for action. They are big enough to see results but sufficiently close to the public to be
faster and more effective than larger national governments in implementing policies.

At a side event in Cancun entitled ‘Cities and Climate change,’ Axumite Gebre-Egzhiaber, director of the global division at  UN-HABITAT, noted that both adaptation and mitigation strategies in urban areas require new and improved infrastructure and basic services. These can provide cities in both developed and developing countries with unique opportunities to redress existing and expected deficiencies in housing, urban infrastructure and services and to create jobs and new opportunities to stimulate the urban economy.

For this to happen, predictable long-term financial and technological support will be required in many developing countries to strengthen the capacity of local authorities to participate in the formulation and implementation of such strategies and to facilitate linkages between local authorities within and across countries, she said.

And also in Mexico, mayors and other leaders from around the world met to try to  shape the future of cities. A world summit of local and regional leaders was held Nov. 17-20 and issued a Manifesto for the City of 2030.

“At a time where our world becomes more and more urban and where intermediate and small cities will grow tremendously in the next years, the local and regional leaders have recalled that cities, whatever their size, are all facing similar challenges,” the manifesto reads.

That was the recommendation an online tool — developed by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development — made to Indonesian IGG Maha Adi when he calculated the carbon footprint of his trip to the UN climate conference in Cancún, Mexico.

Delegates at the two-week conference could use the online calculator or manual version set up in the conference venue to measure emissions associated with air and ground transportation, lodging and meals.

The Mexican government then offered delegates the opportunity to offset their emissions by donating to four low-carbon projects, including a wind turbine project to which participants could contribute US$14.82, or indigenous forest projects at a cost of US$12.65 each.

Mexico also took other steps to reduce the conference’s environmental impacts. Solar power was supplied through a system of photovoltaic cells with an estimated output of 130 kilowatts and a newly-installed 1.5-megawatt wind power generator contributed to Cancun’s electricity production.

Hybrid vehicles transferred delegates between the conference venues. Tahe government also planted 10,000 trees and bushes in Cancun, and implemented a special hotel assessment program aimed at enhancing sustainability.

Through the Environmental Leadership for Competitiveness program implemented by SEMARNAT, Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, hotels ran eco-efficiency projects to reduce the use of raw material, energy and water during the conference.

The projects were expected to reduce water consumption by 200,000 cubic meters and carbon dioxide by 4,000 tons.

Redd: problems and prospects