IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

The plight of mangrove forests in Pakistan - Film

Across the Indus delta in Pakistan, at Keti Bundur, Siddiq Roonjha narrates the once prosperous economic history of the area, his recent battles with cyclones and sea storms as his home was inundated in front of his eyes; his precious belongings lost. …  

14 Sep 2011 | Video

Civil Society in Cameroon forms a national REDD and climate change platform

On July 23, 2011, about 60 representatives of various civil society networks, government officials, international NGOs and representatives and the private sector in Cameroon gathered in the capital Yaoundé for a daylong workshop. Participants to this meeting sought consensus on how civil society organizations (CSO) should better organize for more effective participation in and contribution to Cameroon’s national REDD+ process. The workshop was convened by the Ministry of Environment and Protection of Nature with technical and financial support of the IUCN Pro-Poor REDD project. …  

26 Aug 2011 | News story
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Guidelines and Manual

This Manual is first and foremost a community tool to facilitate implementation of Ghana’s National Wildfire Management Policy. However it will also serve as an instrument for fire management trainers in communities with little experience in fire management and for consultation by professionals, students, policy makers, practitioners and communities when faced with fire related problems and incidents. …  

25 Aug 2011 | Downloads - publication

Clarifying land rights as a pre-condition for pro-poor REDD in Papua Province, Indonesia

Secure rights over forests and the carbon within them is generally agreed to be a pre-requisite for any REDD+ mechanism to function successfully, and delivering this certainty has been a major pre-occupation of Governments and private sector investors. Defining these rights is not simple, at least in Indonesia, where up to 40 million people live within land designated as 'state forest' without any legal right to be there or to use the resources. In July 2011, at an international conference on Forest Tenure, Governance and Enterprise in Indonesia, (http://asiatenureconf2011.wordpress.com/) one expert reported that “whilst in Asia overall about a quarter of the forest is owned, designated or managed by communities and indigenous people, in Indonesia less than a tenth of one percent has been formally devolved to local communities.” …  

17 Aug 2011 | News story
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Symposium on Land/Tree Tenure Rights and Benefit Sharing to mark International Year of Forests 2011

As part of activities towards the celebration of the International Year of Forests 2011, a one-day symposium took place in Accra, on 4th August 2011. The symposium, dubbed ‘Securing Land/Tree Tenure Rights and Benefit Sharing Towards REDD Implementation in Ghana’, was an initiative of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, with facilitation support from The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Growing Forest Partnerships (GFP). …  

06 Aug 2011 | News story
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Three new reports on REDD+ Readiness Dialogues organised in Ecuador, Guatemala and Cambodia

IUCN and The Forests Dialogue (TFD) organised three large stakeholder dialogues on REDD+ readiness over the course of 2010. The meetings brought together over 160 forest leaders ranging from community organisations and NGOs to private sector actors and government policymakers. The discussions focused on challenges and opportunities in countries that are building REDD+ national strategies as part of the readiness phase. …  

22 Jul 2011 | News story
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Understanding forest-dependency for REDD+

A new briefing paper illustrates how participatory assessment tools can inform REDD+ decision-making about important links between forests and livelihoods. REDD+ is a mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aimed at Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. The Forests‐Poverty Toolkit is a rural assessment tool that uses locally identified poverty indicators and participatory exercises to collect data which differentiate forest dependence among men and women, richer and poorer people and among people living closer or further away from markets. The toolkit also sheds new light on non-monetary aspects of forest dependency. Finally it collects data on villagers’ assessments of the drivers of deforestation through time, and of the key current forest problems in their area and their potential solutions. …  

16 Jun 2011 | News story
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Forest communities contribute to pro-poor REDD+ readiness process in Ghana

Efforts by IUCN in Ghana to engage local communities and exchange information on key REDD+ governance issues are bearing fruit. A series of meetings and workshops at the regional and community levels have generated detailed inputs that can directly feed into Ghana’s evolving REDD+ strategy. That process is at a crucial stage. Ghana has received funds from the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and was accepted as one of five pilot countries for the Forest Investment Program (FIP). Now that the country is ready to start the building of its REDD+ strategy, community organisations have a crucial role to play in the identification of REDD+ activities that can be the building blocks of such a plan. …  

19 May 2011 | News story
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Progress with formal REDD-plus planning in Cameroon

Recent developments in Cameroon show that the country is now steadily advancing with the building of a national REDD+ strategy. Progress with the creation of an all-important national framework for REDD+ implementation has to be taken step by step in order to allow stakeholder engagement and attention to the broader interests they represent.  …  

21 Apr 2011 | News story
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arborvitae Issue 43 - Attending to gender

• Women and forest ownership: Providing secure tenure rights to both genders can promote sustainable forest management and poverty alleviation.
• Feature: Now is the time for the forestry and environment community to recognize that women are primary stakeholders of forest management schemes.
• Women and community forestry: Women spend significantly more time in forests than men do.

08 Mar 2011 | News story