All forests, and tropical forests in particular, play a vital role in maintaining the ecosystem services upon which global food, water, energy and climate security depend. This is ‘natural capital’ whose value is still largely unrecognised. © Global Canopy Programme.
Expansion of cattle-ranching is the key driver of deforestation in the Amazon. Over the past decade more than 10 million hectares of forest in the Brazilian Amazon have been cleared for ranching. © Global Canopy Programme.
In 2009/10, The Rufford Foundation provided a grant of £100,000 to the Global Canopy Programme (GCP).
Established in 2001, with support of The Rufford Foundation, the GCP is an alliance of 37 scientific institutions in 19 countries, which lead the world in research, education and conservation in forest canopies. Our work programmes aim to define and explore the economic value of forest ecosystem services and their role in mitigating climate change.
The support of The Rufford Foundation has been critical to the success of the GCP’s Rainforest and Climate Change Programme. Funds have been used across the following programme themes:
Science: Establishment of a multidisciplinary research programme that has built networks and capacity to investigate a new Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) mechanism based on regional to global ecosystem services provided by tropical forests, using the hydrological cycle of the Amazon as a case study.
Policy: Publication of the Little REDD+ Book and the Little Climate Finance Book (each translated into multiple languages), for the UN Climate Change meetings to provide non-partisan views of the state of the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) and the financing options within the negotiations. Visit: www.theredddesk.org
Business: Launch of the Forest Footprint Disclosure project (FFD), which aims to tackle a major driver of deforestation – corporate supply chains delivering beef, soy, palm oil, timber and biofuels to consumers worldwide. With the backing of $3.4 trillion of assets under management supporting our call for disclosure, over 200 major companies from BMW to Walmart were sent a questionnaire inviting them to engage in understanding their ‘forest footprint’. Visit: www.forestdisclosure.com
Communities: Establishment of a Community Programme which seeks to empower forest-dependent communities in Guyana to benefit from future REDD+ payments through community-based forest measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) of biodiversity, ecosystem services and human wellbeing.
