Margaret Swink’s Posts

• Fashion for the Forests

  Gucci Group commits to saving Indonesia's rainforests 1

  Posted 2 weeks, 4 days agoThere’s a new fashion trend this fall: saving rainforests and preserving a livable climate.

• Notes from Bangkok

  Bangkok, Day 5: Breaking News: Forests do not naturally grow in straight lines 2

  Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago

  Forest negotiations recently have been featuring a lot of talk about something called “sustainable forest management,” or in climate policy parlance, SFM. 
  
  Because it contains the word “sustainable,” this term conjures up images of nice standing forests, perhaps occasionally harvested by indigenous peoples to make “sustainable” furniture or artisanal paper for those of us in the United States.
  
  However, here in Bangkok, SFM is at the heart of a fierce debate over what the fundamental shape of the climate change treaty will be.
  
  Environmentalists are lining up against industry interests in a debate over… Read More

• Seeing REDD

  If REDD can’t save this…. 2

  Posted 1 month, 3 weeks agoThe new forest part of the climate change treaty (called REDD) under negotiation this week here in Bangkok may end up calling it carbon savings and subsidizing its destruction.

• Dispatch from Bonn: Rainforest Action Network

  The case for carbon speed limits 2

  Posted 5 months, 1 week ago

  With the conclusion of this round of talks, negotiators have succeeded in creating a legal draft text that will be refined at the next round of talks in Bonn in August – now up to 200 pages from the original 50 created in Poznan ­- but we still are missing the critical fuel that we will need to continue the process all the way to Copenhagen: the political will to actually achieve emissions reductions, particularly on the part of the United States.

• Dispatch from Bonn: Rainforest Action Network

  Short term memory won’t cut it 0

  Posted 5 months, 1 week ago

  Developed countries from Japan to the E.U. are failing to really seriously invest in the task at hand: reducing emissions. Instead, they seem to be trying their best to do as little as possible while getting the most possible credit for their actions. And that’s not even counting the U.S.

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Margaret Swink’s Recent Comments

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  Billhook, You're right, the second meaning you point out is the intended one. The proposed REDD treaty text is currently quickly shifting, but, it does have a lot of possible pitfalls, including those you mention. RAN (and lots of other environmental groups) are not intending to as you say, "sling a fence round it and call it saved". Rather, we're actively calling for REDD to focus on indigenous land rights and tenures as a central part of the treaty. Since an estimated 1.6 billion people in developing countries are dependent on forests for their basic needs and livelihoods, REDD must directly benefit local communities and Indigenous peoples and respect their rights and tenure. Industrial interests calling for things that are called "sustainable forest management" but really aren't could indeed compromise REDD, which is why we need to return to the basics of REDD as a means to protect forests like Bukit Tigapuluh, not to pursue policies and language that further commoditizes trees as "carbon stocks."On If REDD can’t save this…. posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago 2 Responses

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  We need to start now....

  US agricultural policies and Big Ag have huge consequences for the environment around the world, and major impacts on any global warming policy. For instance, US demand for so-called renewable fuels made from food crops is spurring the destruction of rainforests in the Amazon and in South-east Asia, making Indonesia and Brazil the third and fourth top greenhouse gas emitters.

  It's disappointing to see the new administration embracing the old, failed, global food structures that are responsible for so much harm. I agree that it's to our advantage that the Farm Bill debates are a ways off, but we need to start now to pressure Obama and his new appointees at Trade, Ag, Energy and the EPA to stop supporting Big Ag and start creating change we can be excited about.  On Picking the battles will be key to reforming food policy posted 10 months ago 3 Responses