This note examines how to maximize the benefits from the use of market instruments in support of developing countries' low-emission development priorities. First, it briefly surveys the current state and trends of the carbon market, highlighting the main achievements of carbon finance over its decade-long history. Second, it reviews updated scenarios of the scale of future carbon markets and associated financial flows, in light of developments in climate negotiations and domestic markets.

L’importance des forêts pour atténuer le changement climatique et favoriser la conservation des espèces, comme moyen de stockage de l’eau, de production d’oxygène, de protection du sol et comme source d’humus, est bien connue. Toutefois, plus de 13 millions d’hectares de forêt disparaissent chaque année, surtout dans les zones tropicales.

Le Partenariat pour les Forêts du Bassin du Congo vise à concilier la protection des écosystèmes forestiers et leur utilisation pour le développement des pays d’Afrique centrale. Cet article présente ce qu’un «réseau stratégique» de ce type peut donner comme résultats, ainsi que ses limites.

Dans les pays en développement, le secteur des combustibles bois constitue une importante source d’énergie, qu’il s’agisse du bois de chauffage ou du charbon de bois, et de moyens d’existence pour les pauvres vivant en milieu rural, aussi bien en termes de création d’emplois que de génération de revenus tirés de la vente de ces produits.

USAID is assisting the Kenya Government (GoK) to restore the forest and watersheds in the Mau Forest Complex (MFC) through a $7 million, two-year project called ProMara (for the Mara). On March 25th 2011, USAID/Kenya’s Deputy Mission Director James Hope officially launched ProMara at the project’s new Mau Outreach Center (MOC), on the outskirts of the forest. The Mau Forest Complex has a history of illegal and irregular land allocations. In 2009, GoK acted on Mau Task Force recommendations to revoke questionable titles, ordering the eviction of "illegal" settlers from the MFC.

In this report the authors aim to assess and evaluate historic and current changes in land use and forestry at the national and sub-national level in Sri Lanka. Different drivers, policies and data related to forest and land use are assessed to explore factors that have contributed to changes.

These are the main conclusions of the report:

Since 2005, a growing number of vulnerable communities and nations have used the human rights lexicon to argue their case for an urgent and ambitious response to climate change. The purpose of this Social Development Department Working paper is to examine the emergence of a new discourse linking climate change and human rights, and to assess its social and political implications, particularly as they relate to development practitioners.

The importance of forests for climate change mitigation and species conservation, as water stores and oxygen producers, soil protectors and humus providers, is well known. However, over 13 million hectares of forest are lost each year, mainly in the tropics.

Certification is viewed as one of the most effective ways of curbing unregulated logging and conserving natural forests in the tropics. In the meantime, there are several dozen certifying organisations. Among these, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) lead the field worldwide.

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership aims to reconcile forest conservation with forest use. This article explains what a “policy network” of this sort can achieve and where its limits lie.

Against the backdrop of increasing deforestation in Natural Protected Areas due to illegal logging and shifting agriculture, the Peruvian association DRIS has implemented a programme in three districts of the country. The goal is to involve the families in forest protection activities while simultaneously providing them with income opportunities

Every year, 13 million hectares of forest are lost worldwide; that is an area the size of Austria and Switzerland combined. 90 percent of this deforestation involves tropical forests. Forest loss has devastating effects on the climate and is the source of between 15 and 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If global warming is to be kept below the critical threshold of two degrees Celsius, forest loss and degradation must be halted without delay