Press Release by African Biodiversity Network, Amigransa Venezuela, Biofuelwatch, CESTA (Friends of the Earth El Salvador), COECOCEIBA Costa Rica, Econexus, ETC Group, FASE  Brasil, Gaia Foundation, Global Forest Coalition, Global Justice Ecology Project, Latin American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations (RECOMA), Observatorio de Conflictos Ambientales (OLCA) Chile, Otros Mundos Mexico, Rettet den Regenwald, Salva la Selva, Save America’s Forests, Sobrevivencia (Friends of the Earth Paraguay) and World Rainforest Movement

30^th August 2010 – Nineteen groups today expressed their dismay at an article by leading biochar advocates, published in the science magazine Nature, which proposes that an area larger than the land mass of India could be turned into charcoal plantations in the name of climate change mitigation.[1] The paper’s own figures contradict the authors’ claims that biochar will not lead to large-scale land grabbing in the global South.

The article, posted online in the August 2010 edition of Nature Communications, claims that 12% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions could be avoided by producing vast quantities of charcoal and adding it to soils, a practice called “biochar”. Although the authors claim that this could be done without the conversion of natural habitats and agricultural lands, the figures and forecasts used as a basis for their calculations tell a very different story, implying land-conversion on an unprecedented scale. The authors claim that there are nearly 200 million hectares of “abandoned cropland” that could be converted to crops and trees to produce biochar[2]. In addition, 170 million hectares of tropical grasslands could be turned into short-rotation tree plantations to produce both biochar and animal fodder.[3]

Co-authors Johannes Lehmann and Stephen Joseph are Chair and Vice-Chair of the International Biochar Initiative, which lobbies for carbon credits and subsidies for biochar.

The concept of  “abandoned or marginal cropland” has been strongly criticized by social movements and civil society groups around the world because the term is  being widely used to refer to land upon which millions of peasant farmers, indigenous peoples and pastoralists depend. Referring to community lands rich in biodiversity as  “abandoned and marginal” and assuming those lands are “available” for conversion is already resulting in massive land grabs – especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  Such lands in fact play an essential role in maintaining biodiversity and regulating the climate.[4]

The groups critical of the Nature Communications article are among more than 100 organisations worldwide who signed an international declaration last year urging caution about large-scale biochar deployment and opposing carbon credits for biochar .[5]  Two UN reports and various scientists are amongst those who have warned against large-scale biochar deployment because it could lead to even more land being turned into monoculture plantations.[6]

Anne Maina from the African Biodiversity Network states: “Groups have been warning for years that the biochar techno-fix will mean land-grabbing on a vast scale.  Time and time again, biochar advocates have misled the public with claims that we can produce vast amounts of charcoal from residues alone. Now they are showing their true colours: Large-scale biochar means large-scale land grabs.”

Raquel Nunez from the World Rainforest Movement adds: “Authors of the study couch their vast land-grabbing plans in terms like ‘conservative’, ’small scale’ and ’sustainable’ and try to hide those plans in obscure supplementary notes and tables.  They call for ’sustainability standards’ but there can be nothing sustainable about converting lands on which millions of people depend and which are also important for ecosystem integrity and biodiversity protection.  This must be a wakeup call.”

Wally Menne from Timberwatch, African Focal Point for the Global Forest Coalition, states: “The ’sustainability’ myth used by individuals and institutions promoting large-scale biochar, is underpinned by the dubious notion of ’sustainable production guidelines’.  This is based on tree plantation certification systems such as that of the FSC [Forest Stewardship Council], and it will not prevent harm to local communities and ecosystems.”

Helena Paul from Econexus adds: “By using terms like ‘agroforestry’ or ’silvo-pastoral systems’, the authors mask large plantation plans which in no way resemble the sustainable practices used by small farmers and pastoralists around the world.”

For more information:

Teresa Anderson, the Gaia Foundation, teresa@gaianet.org +44 20 7428 0055

Anne Maina, African Biodiversity Network, anne@africanbiodiversity.org 254 67 20229/30; 254 67 22373

Helena Paul, EcoNexus, h.paul@econexus.info +44 207 431 4357

Diana Bronson, ETC Group, diana@etcgroup.org +1 514 629 9236 (cell) +1 514 273 6661 (office)

Notes:

[1] The article “Sustainable Biochar to Mitigate Global Climate Change” by Dominic Woolf et al was published in Nature Communications on 10^th August 2010 and is publicly available at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v1/n5/full/ncomms1053.html .  The land and biomass figures referred to can be found mainly in the Supplementary Notes: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v1/n5/full/ncomms1053.html#/supplementary-information .

[2] The “abandoned cropland” figure is 193 million hectares, derived from the only reference on which authors rely when calculating potential biomass from such lands: Biomass Energy: The Scale of the Potential Resources, Christopher Field et al, www.cas.muohio.edu/~stevenmh/Field%20et%20al%202008.pdf.

[3] This practice is referred to as ’silviculture’ and would consist of dense short-rotation plantations of ‘fodder trees’, such as acacia, to produce both animal feed and wood for biochar.  Fodder trees play an important role in many farming and pastoral communities, particularly in Africa.  Those sustainable and traditional practices differ fundamentally from the dense plantings with short-rotation fellings envisioned in the biochar article.  The latter are called ‘fodder bank’ and, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, they are not a traditional practice but one invented by the predecessor of the International Livestock Research Institute.

[4] Also see: “Biochar Land Grabbing: The Impacts on Africa”, African Biodiversity Network, Gaia Foundation and Biofuelwatch, November 2009, www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/biochar_africa_briefing.pdf

[4] www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/news.php?id=1226

[5] The UN reports are “The Natural Fix? The role of ecosystems in climate mitigation”, UNEP, June 2009 and the Report of the Second Ad-Hoc Technical Expert Group on Biodiversity and Climate Change, UNEP and Convention on Biological Diversity, 2009. See also “A Horizon Scan of Global Conservation Issues for 2010”, William Sutherland et al, 2010,  www.cbd.int/doc/emerging-issues/2010-TREE-horizon-scan-conservation.pdf

The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the “devils in the details” in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from whats really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about Cap & Trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.

[23 April, 2010] As Earth Day celebrations commence around the world, indigenous peoples from across the Americas are in Cochabamba, Bolivia, to close the historic conference on climate change and the “Rights of Mother Earth” hosted by President Evo Morales. Morales, the only indigenous head of state in the world, called this conference in the wake of failed climate talks in Copenhagen.

As the world prepares for the next round of talks in Cancun, Mexico, indigenous peoples vowed today to push for proposals that keep fossil fuels in the ground, protect indigenous rights, and reject predatory policies like REDD (reducing emissions through deforestation and forest degradation).

“REDD is branded as a friendly forest conservation program, yet it is backed by big polluters and climate profiteers. We cannot solve this crisis with out addressing the root cause: a fossil fuel economy that disregards the rights of Mother Earth,” said Alberto Saldamando, legal counsel for the International Indian Treaty Council. “President Morales has heard our recommendations on the structural causes of climate change and predatory carbon schemes like REDD, and will bring our voices to the world stage in Cancun later this year,” Saldamando said.

This morning President Morales was joined by representatives of 90 governments and several heads of state to receive the findings of the conference on topics such as a climate tribunal, climate debt, just finance for mitigation and adaptation, agriculture, and forests. The working group on forests held one of the more hotly contested negotiations of the summit, but with the leadership of indigenous peoples, a consensus was reached to reject REDD and call for wide-scale grassroots reforestation programs.

The final declaration on forests states: “We condemn the mechanisms of the neoliberal market, such as the REDD mechanism and its versions REDD plus and REDD plus plus, which are violating the sovereignty of our peoples and their rights to free, prior and informed consent and self determination.” ‘MONOCULTURES ARE NOT FOREST’ The working group on forests also challenged the definition of forests used by the United Nations, which permits plantations and transgenic trees, saying that “monocultures are not forests.”

“REDD is not a solution to climate change,” said Marlon Santi, President of CONAIE, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, the largest indigenous organization in that country. “REDD has been created by multilateral institutions like the World Bank that routinely violate indigenous peoples’ rights and pollute Mother Earth.

It is perverse that these institutions are pretending to have the ’solution’ when they have actually caused the climate crisis. REDD should not be implemented in any country or community.” “REDD is a predatory program that pretends to save forests and the climate, while backhandedly selling forests out from under our indigenous peoples,” said Tom Goldtooth, director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, based in the United States.

“REDD will encourage continuing pollution and global warming, while displacing those of us least responsible for the crisis, who have been stewards of the forests since time immemorial,” he said. The declarations forged by the working groups in Cochabamba will be taken to the Cancun summit by President Morales as a counter-proposal to the widely criticized “Copenhagen Accord.”

Movements of indigenous peoples, trade unions, farmers and environmentalists are also building momentum out of Cochabamba with plans for mass demonstrations in Cancun.

The U.S.-based Indigenous Environmental Network empowers indigenous nations and communities toward sustainable livelihoods, demands environmental justice and maintains indigenous traditions.


By Belen Balanya

Yesterday hundreds of activists were beaten and arrested in the streets of Copenhagen and Via Campesina, Friends of the Earth and other NGOs were banned from the Bella Center, where the UN negotiations take place. But this morning, representatives of big business were inside the Bella Center having a high-level breakfast with 10 ministers, an event jointly organised by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the UNFCCC. The WBCSD has 230 accredited delegates in Copenhagen.

The WBCSD’s President Björn Stigson hosted today’s breakfast with summit chair Yvo de Boer, and his message, according to the WBCSD, is a ‘simple one’: “You (governments) will not tackle climate change without business at the table as an engaged, involved partner. Governments cannot deliver the targets which are being talked about without business.”

Later in the morning the WBCSD co-organised another event in the Bella Center to discuss “Private Sector and the UNFCC: Options for Institutional Engagement”. The event title is more than wishful thinking. Only a few weeks ago the EU awarded a contract to the WBCSD and consultanciesEcofys and Climate Focus to do a study that should “define options for formal engagement of the private sector within the UNFCCC process”.

The EU has also been promoting this initiative during the summit. On 12 December, an event on Private Sector Engagement in the International Climate Change Policy Process took place in the EU pavilion in the Bella Center, co-organised by the Commission, DG Enterprise and the three groups contracted to do the study.

The WBCSD’s privileged access today to the Bella Center and to high-level decision-makers and the fact that the EU is funding the WBCSD to make proposals for involving business even closer in international climate talks is outrageous and unacceptable. Since its foundation in 1992, the WBCSD has only been advocating industry self-regulation, a global carbon market and false solutions like nuclear energy, agrofuels, coal (CCS) and carbon credits from plantation forests.

The EU’s and the UN’s preferential treatment of the WBCSD are deeply flawed. Effective and just climate policies are only possible if governments keep a healthy distance from companies that have a direct economic interest in the decisions taken.

Also at: http://climatecrashers.blogspot.com/2009/12/climate-summit-closed-to-civil-society.html

Copenhagen, Denmark – As the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) winds down, thousands of people marched in the streets today to “reclaim power” from the UN process they say is not good enough. Indigenous Peoples led a march from inside the official venue of the climate negotiations, to stand in solidarity with the rest of civil society in demanding climate justice.

Over the past two weeks, indigenous peoples have been working to ensure all potential climate policies and actions that come out of the negotiations, ensure recognition of and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. Specifically, indigenous peoples have lobbied for the incorporation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into climate policy. Although some would see the mention of the UNDRIP in the text of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) a small success, many feel it is a slap in the face of indigenous peoples.

“Indigenous peoples rights are mentioned once in the form of a recommendation for nation states to consider, but not as a requirement,” explains Alberto Saldamando of the International Indigenous Treaty Council (IITC). “But ensuring basic human rights for the worlds populations who are most affected by climate change should not be voluntary. It is a matter of obligation.”

“It’s a sad situation that world leaders representing industrialized society have lost their understanding of the sacredness of Mother Earth,” adds Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). “Before we can achieve global action, there needs to be international awareness of why we are really here. We marched out in support of our brother, President Evo Morales of Bolivia, and his demand that the rights of Mother Earth be recognized in the negotiating text here in Copenhagen.”

“Coming into these negotiations, I was optimistic about our world leaders coming together to solve this global problem,” says Nikke Alex, a Navajo youth who works for the Black Mesa Water Coalition (BMWC) in the southwest United States. “But now I see the health of our people and Mother Earth are not central to their agenda. Their goal is to use the climate crisis to make profit. The people who are really solving climate change are those at the grassroots level, working to create more sustainable societies.”

The IEN delegation brought a delegation of 21 Indigenous Peoples from North America affected by fossil fuel development. They came to call out false solutions like clean coal technology, nuclear power, and the carbon market. Over the past two weeks, the IEN delegation has used a variety of tactics to push for strong targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and demand effective, fair and equitable methods to address the climate issue.

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The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) is a United States-based non-governmental (Indigenous) organization formed in 1990 addressing environmental and economic justice challenges.  IEN is a network of Indigenous Peoples empowering Indigenous communities and Nations towards sustainable livelihoods, demanding environmental justice, and maintaining the Sacred Fire of our traditions. Since 1998, IEN has been working on issues of climate change and global warming.  IEN is one of the leading organizations/networks within the U.S. environmental justice movement involved in climate change policy – locally, nationally and globally.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 16, 2009
Contact: The Indigenous Environmental Network Media Team
Mobile Number: +45 526 85596
E-mail: indigenous.environmental.network@gmail.com
Websites: http://indigenousenvironmentalnetwork.blogspot.com/

Protests Expose Deep Flaws in the COP Process and Denounce Efforts to Silence Critics by Excluding Civil Society

December 16, 2009
Contacts:
Climate Justice Now!: 0045 2497 7863
Climate Justice Action: 0045 5066 9028
media@climate-justice-action.org

Copenhagen, Denmark—As the COP 15 climate talks enter their final days and world leaders converge on Copenhagen, thousands demonstrated in the streets of Copenhagen as part of the “Reclaim Power” protest for climate justice called by Climate Justice Action. About 300 COP 15 delegates who are part of the Climate Justice Now! Network marched out of the Bella Center and attempted to join the protests outside, led by members of the Bolivian delegation and the Indigenous Peoples Caucus. These delegates were met with police truncheons; some were badly bruised. Hundreds more UNFCCC accredited Civil Society observers were denied access to the Bella Center all together, including the entire Friends of the Earth International delegation, who staged a sit-in in the lobby at the Bella Center– and the Indigenous Peoples Caucus, which is scheduled to meet with Bolivian President Evo Morales and is being denied entry at the time of writing.

“In the wake of the mass exclusions of critical civil society voices from the COP 15 process, and with the future of our planet literally hanging in the balance, we joined the mass nonviolent movement in Copenhagen to protest the unjust agenda of the rich countries who are trying to strong arm the rest of the world into accepting their agenda of allowing global warming by 2 degrees — which will literally wipe entire nations off the map,” said Anne Peterman of Global Justice Ecology Project and Climate Justice Now! who joined the march out of the Bella Center today.

“I participated in this protest because climate change is already killing people in Africa.  This is an emergency and we need climate justice now! We must acknowledge that we from the south are the real creditors and the governments of the North are the real debtors. They owe the world economic debt, ecological debt and climate debt and they must pay now!” said Wahu Kaara of the Kenya Debt Relief Network.

As broad frustration grows with the content and direction of the climate negotiations, two international networks of people’s movements, civil society groups, Indigenous Peoples Organizations and grassroots activists united to stage mass non-violent civil disobedience to expose the failure of the COP process. Representatives of these networks, Climate Justice Action and Climate Justice Now!, declared that, given the urgency of the climate crisis, it is time for dramatic action to expose the COP process as undemocratic, unjust and inadequate to deal with the scale of the problem. The “Reclaim Power” action on Wednesday December 16th involved thousands of activists simultaneously approaching the Conference centre from different starting points, and a mass of people walking out of the climate talks, to hold a ‘People’s Assembly’ a participatory platform for marginalized voices and real solutions to climate change. Despite significant violence from the police against non-violent protesters the groups did manage to meet and hold the assembly before marching triumphantly back to the city center to continue the work of building a broad based global climate justice movement.

“The solidarity we experienced today, in the face of police intimidation and repression, shows that people across the world are standing together to expose the failure of the COP to address the real causes of the climate crisis, and our determination to work together to bring about the changes needed to tackle climate change. The people feel strong together and we will go back home to build the movement for climate justice and for real solutions, ” said Kingkorn Narintarakul of the Thai Working Group for Climate Justice who, together with a delegation of Thai community activists, marched in today’s protest.

Unfortunately after today’s actions and the people assemble the Bella centre continues to be closed to all Non-Governmental Organizations and members of civil society. Among those locked out were leaders from the Indigenous Peoples caucus, young children and observers from across the globe aiming to support their governments. As Tom Goldtooth, director of the Indigenous Environmental Network who was also among those locked out of the building said “this is in direct contravention of our Human Rights under the United Nations Charter

“We have no more time to waste.  If governments won’t solve the problem then its time for our diverse people’s movements to unite and reclaim the power to shape our future. We are beginning this process with the people’s assembly.  We will join together all the voices that have been excluded—both within the process and outside of it. said Stine Gry, Climate Justice Action.

The Reclaim Power action brought together climate activists, representatives of climate-impacted communities and Indigenous peoples from around the world for a peoples assembly that took place outside the Bella Center. The range of actions included not only participants in the COP process walking out of the talks but also thousands of people who have been excluded from the talks making their way into the grounds of the Bella Center to call for Climate Justice.

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Press Advisory

16 December 2009

For Immediate Release

Contact: +45 53 95 61 04

URGENT : Civil Society Delegates Marching Out of COP 15 Bella Center

WHAT: HUNDREDS MARCH OUT OF BELLA CENTER  – HAPPENING NOW

An array of civil society, delegates and negotiating parties representing a global alliance of both north and south civil society groups, people’s movements, indigenous representatives and even some governments have begun a dramatic protest today disrupting the inside of the Bella Center.

WHO: Scores/Hundreds of representatives gathered in the central hall and loudly marched out of the Bella Center in protest.

The march is headed out to join the thousands of people who have been excluded outside and participate in the Peoples’ Assembly which is a centerpiece of today’s Reclaim Power action.

WHY: “The surgical removal of non governmental organizations underscores the lack of democracy inherent in these negotiations.” said Professor Micheal Dorsey, a member of the Climate Justice Now! Network. “The United Nations process has systematically failed the world’s marginalized countries and consistently excludes those that would dare support and fighton behalf of those countries. The only way to avoid catastrophic climate change is fully supporting and including peoples movements like the very ones illegitimately removed from this process.”

Today we are seeing thousands of people joining together to fight for climate justice,” said Natalie Swift, a spokeperson with Climate Justice Action. “We need systems change to create a world which is truly just and sustainable and solve the climate crisis.”