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201421Feb21:38

Dynamic new plat­form to pro­tect forests worldwide

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 21 Feb­ru­ary 2014 | mod­i­fied 25 Decem­ber 2014
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Global For­est Watch was launched on Thurs­day 20 Feb­ru­ary at the New­seum in Wash­ing­ton, D.C by a group of lead­ers in gov­ern­ment, busi­ness, and civil society.

(source: World Resources Insti­tute YouTube channel)

“Part­ner­ships like Global For­est Watch that bring together gov­ern­ments, busi­nesses and civil soci­ety and tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion are the kinds of solu­tions we need to reduce for­est loss, alle­vi­ate poverty and pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nomic growth,” said Admin­is­tra­tor Rajiv Shah, U.S. Agency for Inter­na­tional Development.

Global For­est Watch will have far-​reaching impli­ca­tions across indus­tries. Finan­cial insti­tu­tions can bet­ter eval­u­ate if the com­pa­nies they invest in ade­quately assess forest-​related risks. Buy­ers of major com­modi­ties such as palm oil, soy, tim­ber, and beef can bet­ter mon­i­tor com­pli­ance with laws, sus­tain­abil­ity com­mit­ments, and stan­dards. And sup­pli­ers can cred­i­bly demon­strate that their prod­ucts are “defor­esta­tion free” and legally produced.

“Defor­esta­tion poses a mate­r­ial risk to busi­nesses that rely on forest-​linked crops. Expo­sure to that risk has the poten­tial to under­mine the future of busi­nesses,” said Paul Pol­man, CEO, Unilever. “That is why Unilever’s Sus­tain­able Liv­ing Plan has set tar­gets to source 100 per­cent of agri­cul­tural raw mate­ri­als sus­tain­ably. As we strive to increase the vis­i­bil­ity of where the ingre­di­ents for our prod­ucts come from, the launch of Global For­est Watch a fan­tas­tic, inno­v­a­tive tool will pro­vide the infor­ma­tion we urgently need to make the right deci­sions, fos­ter­ing trans­parency, enforc­ing account­abil­ity, and facil­i­tat­ing partnerships.”

Global For­est Watch can sup­port other users like indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties, who can upload alerts and pho­tos when encroach­ment occurs on their lands; and NGOs that can iden­tify defor­esta­tion hotspots, mobilise action, and col­lect evi­dence to hold gov­ern­ments and com­pa­nies account­able. At the same time, many gov­ern­ments like Indone­sia and the Demo­c­ra­tic Repub­lic of Congo, wel­come Global For­est Watch because it can help them design smarter poli­cies, enforce for­est laws, detect ille­gal for­est clear­ing, man­age forests more sus­tain­ably, and achieve con­ser­va­tion and cli­mate goals.

“Indone­sia is com­mit­ted to reduce its green­house gas emis­sions by 26 per­cent, or 41 per­cent with inter­na­tional sup­port, which reflect national and inter­na­tional com­mit­ments to com­bat cli­mate change. How Indone­sia meets that com­mit­ment is largely defined by how we man­age our forests,” said Heru Prase­tyo, Head of the REDD+ Agency, Indone­sia. “The abil­ity to bet­ter mon­i­tor our forests and have up-​to-​date infor­ma­tion to make deci­sions are crit­i­cal. I com­mend the Global For­est Watch ini­tia­tive, will con­tinue to sup­port it, and expect that it will be an effec­tive tool for the world and each nation as we leave neglect and igno­rance in the past.”

Global For­est Watch was cre­ated by the World Resources Insti­tute with over 40 part­ners, includ­ing Google, Esri, Uni­ver­sity of Mary­land, United Nations Envi­ron­ment Pro­gramme (UNEP), Ima­zon, Cen­ter for Global Devel­op­ment, Obser­va­toire Satel­li­tal des Forêts d’Afrique Cen­trale (OSFAC), Global For­est Watch Canada, ScanEx, Trans­par­ent World, the Jane Goodall Insti­tute, and Viz­zual­ity. Major com­pa­nies have also pro­vided early input, includ­ing Unilever and Nes­tle, and the wider Trop­i­cal For­est Alliance 2020 Part­ner­ship. Core fun­ders include the Nor­we­gian Cli­mate and Forests Ini­tia­tive, U.S. Agency for Inter­na­tional Devel­op­ment (USAID), Global Envi­ron­ment Facil­ity (GEF), U.K. Depart­ment for Inter­na­tional Devel­op­ment (DFID), and the Tilia Fund.



(Source: UNEP press release, 21.02.2014)


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