Friends of the Earth International Warns Against Land Grab Threat At U.N. Climate Talks In Ghana

Friends of the Earth International MEDIA ADVISORY

GREAT LAND GRAB THREAT AT U.N. CLIMATE TALKS IN GHANA

ACCRA (GHANA), 19 August 2008 -

Delegates attending the United Nations climate talks in Accra on 21th - 27th August will focus on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) but environmental campaigners are warning against the inclusion of forests in carbon markets.

Friends of the Earth International warns that the inclusion of forests in carbon markets enables developed countries to avoid real carbon emissions reductions at home.

Further, any proposal that increases the value of forests may trigger a rapid increase in land rights' abuses due to a rapid expansion of state and / or corporate control over forests without regard to the customary or territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities.

Campaigners believe that the negotiations are focusing excessively on
finance and not on the root causes of deforestation, such as our
consumption of biofuels, meat and timber products.

Belmond Tchoumba, Friends of the Earth International coordinator of
the Forest and Biodiversity Programme said: "If the value of their forests
increases, they may face governments and corporations willing to go to
extreme lengths to wrest their forests away from them. Delegates are focusing primarily on finance but to stop deforestation, land rights
must be centre stage. Yet these UN climate talks shamefully continue
to take place without any meaningful participation by Indigenous
Peoples."

Despite the fact that Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent
communities have been protecting forests for millennia, they often
have no formal land title. Many have been forcibly and even violently
evicted from their territories.

60 million Indigenous Peoples are dependent on forests for their
livelihoods, food and medicines. These people have already been
severely impacted by deforestation, in particular to grow crops and agrofuels for export.

Friends of the Earth International is strongly opposing the inclusion of forests in carbon trading initiatives as this "offsetting" promotes business-as-usual pollution in industrialised countries and diverts
attention from real measures to tackle climate change.

Kate Horner, International Climate Campaigner, Friends of the Earth US
said: "Any agreement on forests must tackle the root causes of
deforestation, including halting agrofuels targets, timber products,
meat consumption and expanding agricultural production. Northern
countries must radically reduce unsustainable consumption instead of
trying to buy their way out of emission reduction obligations through
offsetting."

Forests are a key component of the earth's carbon and hydrological
cycles and are now recognised as being fundamental to our efforts to stop runaway climate change. Some 18% of the world's man-made greenhouse gas emissions come from what is referred to as the "land use change and forestry" sector (IPCC, 2007).Yet forests themselves are being impacted by climate change and may be losing their ability to regulate the planet's climate. Critically, if global temperatures increase more than 2 degrees centigrade, tropical forests could switch from acting as carbon sinks, to being net sources of carbon emissions.

Campaigners are demanding that Northern governments take the lead in
radically reducing their emissions and meet their obligations for financial transfers to the South, based on climate debt, for mitigation and adaptation that are independent from and additional to emission reduction obligations.

This would include finance and technology that would support developing
countries' just transitions towards low carbon economies.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT IN ACCRA, GHANA:

Belmond Tchoumba, Friends of the Earth International coordinator of the
Forest and Biodiversity Programme: +233 27 1214504 (Ghana mobile valid
until 27 August)

Kate Horner, Friends of the Earth US : +1 360 319 9444 (US mobile)

Joseph Zacune, Friends of the Earth International Climate and Energy
Coordinator: +44 7967877593 (UK Mobile)

George Awudi, Friends of the Earth Ghana: +233 27 7432 014 (Ghana
mobile)