Rainforest Foundation UK News
RFUK launches a project aimed at mapping 5 million hectares of forest in the Congo Basin
It is estimated that over 40 million people depend on the Congo Basin rainforest for their wellbeing and livelihoods, including up to 500,000 indigenous partly-nomadic hunter-gatherers. Sadly, these groups constitute some of the most disenfranchised and poorest people in Africa. Many lack access to basic services such as healthcare and education and often see no benefit from the exploitation of the forests they inhabit and consider their own.
RFUK’s Mapping and Forest Governance Programme aims to map forest areas used by local and indigenous communities covering over 5 million hectares across the Congo Basin, including the majority of the tropical rainforest in the Central African Republic.
Working with our local partner organisations, we are conducting asurvey which will establish the very existence of local and indigenous communities, which will help them to become recognized by governments and increase their chances of better access to state services such as health centres and schools.
The Rainforest Foundation UK Annual Report 2011-2012
We are delighted to share with you The Rainforest Foundation UK’s Annual Report 2011-12, which highlights a selection of our successes during the year, and sets out how we are continuing to grow and help drive change for forest communities in the Congo and Amazon basin rainforests in 2013 and beyond.
Report design: 999 Design
Hear about today’s challenges facing Peru’s indigenous populations first-hand
Protecting the Ene River Valley: Ensuring a right to land and livelihood
What are the major threats to the indigenous population today?
Event: Peruvian Embassy, London, 26th February 2013
Read more and book your tickets here.
Simon Counsell and Aldo Soto of The Rainforest Foundation UK provide insight into the lives of the indigenous Ashanika people of the Ene River Valley in Peru’s Selva Central, and their struggle to protect their land invasion by settlers, illegal loggers, and a plan to construct a major hydroelectric dam. An area once wracked by conflict with the Sendero Luminoso, still faces many challenges, including serious poverty, the Ene Valley is home to 10,000 Ashaninka people, the largest single lowland indigenous group in Peru.
What do you think of us?Let us know and win a case of treats!
Your views are important to us here at The Rainforest Foundation UK. Let us know what you think of us and the work we do, and win a case of goodies from our friends at Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate!
Complete our short survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8LFNF7D
Stark climate change threat to indigenous communities continues as governments fail to reach funding resolution
Earlier this month the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha, COP18, failed to result in a solution which would allow for appropriate funding for efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation.
Studies continue to show however that climate change is having very real impacts on forest communities and their environment now.
RFUK, together withlocal partners, recently conducted research into the impacts of climate change on forest communities in the Republic of Congo in conjunction with indigenous people’s rights specialist, Charapa Consultant.
Read more about the report here.
Our response to the UNEP's launch of The Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network
UNEP Launches New Initiative to Support Climate Change Adaptation in Africa
RFUK welcomes the new UNEP’s new Africa Adaptation Knowledge Network, and hope that it will contribute to enabling marginalised communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change. As we have recently seen first hand, forest communities in the Congo Basin are directly impacted by changes in the length of seasons, in rainfall and temperature related to climate change. These communities are often socially and economically marginalised which makes responding to new threats to their livelihoods more difficult. The impact of climate change on forest communities and hunter-gatherers, and their rights under national and international law, must not be forgotten.
Forest Carbon Markets
The Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) is playing a leading role in the debate ahead of a crucial decision on funding to reduce deforestation and carbon emissions, a decision which governments are expected to make at UN climate talks in Doha from 26th November.
Funding forest protection through the creation of a forest carbon market would be costly and potentially counterproductive - and loopholes may mean that deforestation and emissions could actually rise under this system, according to RFUK’s publication Rainforest Roulette.
The United Nations programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)which is known as UN-REDD, has recently published a statement on RFUK’s Rainforest Roulette which accepts many of our points but also, we believe, misrepresents our argument. In order to reduce confusion, and further the debate, RFUK has produced a two-page response.
› Our briefing:Rainforest Roulette (English)
12 Days of Christmas Auction 2012
SANTA’S SACK ARRIVES EARLY AT THE RAINFOREST FOUNDATION!
Public auction of exclusive gifts from Olympic and Paralympic medalists, celebrities, luxury labels, artists and athletes
The Rainforest Foundation UK will be hosting an exclusive public auction of one-off gifts which have been donated by celebrities, luxury labels and esteemed brands to raise funds to protect the world’s rainforests this Christmas.
The 12 Days of Christmas, an online auction now celebrating its third year, will kick-off on the 13th November 2012, running until 25th November 2012. The auction is hosted by Ebay and can be found here: www.ebay.co.uk/12days
Brazil with Michael Palin
‘Brazil with Michael Palin’ on the BBC this week put under the spotlight some of the key issues that RFUK’s partners in Peru and the Congo Basin tackle every day on behalf of indigenous forest people.
Western influences mean that commodity mining and mass-logging will always be a threat to indigenous tribes such as Brazil’s Yanomami and the Wauja which feature in this programme.
Lack of consultation has meant that the Yanomami’s views have not been taken into consideration on how the land they have lived on for centuries is used, an example of how the rights of indigenous rainforest people are often disrespected.
The Wauja tribe in Brazil has chosen to use the Western influence of technology such as video cameras and mobile phones to track and record their way of life, aware that their knowledge of the rainforest and its natural resources is ultimately the most vital source of protection against climate change for us all. In a similar way, RFUK is implementing a large scale programme in the Congo Basin which allows communities to map their land and livelihood activities
12 Days Of Christmas Auction Launching Soon!
SANTA’S SACK ARRIVES EARLY AT THE RAINFOREST FOUNDATION!
Public auction of exclusive gifts from Olympic and Paralympic medalists, celebrities, luxury labels, artists and athletes
The Rainforest Foundation UK will be hosting an exclusive public auction of one-off gifts which have been donated by celebrities, luxury labels and esteemed brands to raise funds to protect the world’s rainforests this Christmas.
The 12 Days of Christmas, an online auction now celebrating its third year, will kick-off on the 13th November 2012, running until 25th November 2012. The auction is hosted by Ebay and can be found here: www.ebay.co.uk/12days
