REDD

Building dams at a Greenpeace camp in Sumatra. International funds and a moratorium would make this a thing of the past

While our campaign to stop HSBC investing in deforestation continues, events have been quickening at the political end. Money and a moratorium have been promised for Indonesia today, both of which are desperately needed to help safeguard the country's forests from further devastation.

This blog by Greenpeace US webbie Mike Gaworecki first appeared yesterday on the Climate Rescue weblog.

Discussions at these climate talks are often in a highly specialized language that some of us like to call 'alphabet soup' – because it is conducted almost entirely in acronyms. One such cup o' soup we’ve been hearing a lot about lately is REDD, which stands for "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation." So I thought I'd give you an as-brief-as-possible update on where the negotiations on REDD are at, and what we're pushing for.

Greenpeace activists shut down an APRIL logging concession yesterday.

Ian is the member of our forests campaigning team dealing with Indonesia.

Yesterday, as Greenpeace activists were preparing to close down the pulp and paper operations of one of Indonesia's biggest forest criminals APRIL, (or 'Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings'), back here in the UK I was just starting a meeting with UK climate minister Joan Ruddock.

What's the connection between our activists in the field, and me in a meeting room in London? Well it certainly wasn't our choice of outfits - they probably wouldn't let me into DECC with a red boiler suit on, and a suit and tie isn't particularly suitable for the Indonesian rainforest.