Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA)
This article was originally written by Natsuko Utsumi for World Bank’s web site.

The Brazilian Amazon

The Amazon occupies almost half of Brazil’s territory and constitutes a major part of the world’s tropical forest: around 4.1 million square kilometers of forest are in Brazil alone, or 1/3 of the world’s tropical forests. The Amazon encompasses more than a thousand rivers that form the Amazon River Basin, an area of 7.3 million square kilometers. The Amazon is rich in natural resources, especially fresh water and forests, as well as large reserves of oil and raw materials for medicine, cosmetics, and food.

Although a considerable number of the world’s flora and fauna remain undiscovered, scientists estimate that the Brazilian Amazon contains 1/5 of the world’s biodiversity, home to more than 200 species of mammals, 950 birds, 2,000 fish, 2.5 million insects, and 30,000 plant species, many of which are unique to the Amazon.

The Amazon wildlife shares this huge territory with over 30 million people, including more than 220 indigenous groups in the Brazilian Amazon alone. Behind this incredible cultural diversity lies a bleak reality: despite living in an area with a bewildering array of natural products and services, many of the local people remain in poverty.

Deforestation

Forest clearing of the resource rich Brazilian Amazon has been increasing, with particularly high rates of deforestation occurring in 2002 and 2003. Two driving forces of deforestation have been expanding cattle ranching and soy bean production resulting from increased commodity prices.

According to the WWF and Institute of Space Research (INPE), 697 thousands sq km of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest biome already disappeared by 2005, representing 17.1% of the forest. On average, 18 thousand square kilometers are destroyed every year.

Not all the impacts of deforestation are completely fathomable, however, some of the main aspects are Loss of biodiversity: leading to the extinction of many species; Habitat degradation: new highways that are provided for settlers and loggers to reach the heart of the Amazon Basin are causing widespread fragmentation of rainforests; Loss of water cycling: deforestation reduces the critical water cycling provided by trees;
Social impact: with reduced forests, people, particularly indigenous to the region, are less able to benefit from the natural resources on which their livelihoods depend thereby resulting in poverty and often relocation; and Modified global climate: deforestation (including slashing and burning) not only reduces the forests’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) but detrimentally increases the production of CO2. The forest is believed to sink close to 120 billion tons of carbon that are essential for the mitigation of climatic change.

The Fight against Deforestation

“Despite the enormous complexities and setbacks involved in ensuring the sustainable use and protection of the world’s largest forest, bigger than the whole of Western Europe, Brazil has shown clear commitment and has achieved much.” World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Pamela Cox says.

Brazil has already set aside 25 percent of its territory (over 2 million sq km) as areas for protection, through the creation of roughly 100 million hectares of federal, state, and municipal protected areas and the demarcation of an equivalent area as indigenous lands.

The ten-year Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) program is creating a system of protected areas encompassing some 500,000 sq km (12%)–an area greater than the entire U.S. National Park System. Four years into the program, 135,000 sq km of new federal and state strict nature protection areas have been created–such as the magnificent 35,000 sq km Tumucumaque Mountains National Park. An 80,000 sq km of existing parks, covering an area larger than the United Kingdom, are being included under the program.

ARPA, the largest initiative to protect tropical forests in history, was signed during the Johannesburg summit in 2002 to promote the land use planning and management through the creation and consolidation of protected areas. ARPA is an initiative of the Brazilian Government executed by the Environmental Ministry and Ibama with help from an alliance between the WWF and the World Bank,, BEF (Global Environmental Facility), PPG-7 and KFW.

➢ The goal is to triple the extent of the protection/conservation area of the Brazilian Amazon, aiming at protecting 500,000 square kilometers (12%) of Amazon forests over ten years (2002-2012).
➢ The program will also establish, for the first time in Brazil, an endowment fund whose income will be used to finance the costs of managing and protecting these areas. .
➢ The program has a ten-year time frame for the disbursement of $395 million.
➢ There are three basic lines of action:
(1) creation and implementation of new strict protection areas,
(2) consolidation of existing strict protection areas, and
(3) creation of new extractive reserves and sustainable development areas.

With ARPA, for the first time, deforestation is not treated solely as an environmental problem, but is mainstreamed into all sectors of policy.

Extractive Reserves and people

On November of 2004, Brazilian presidential decrees created two Extractive Reserves, the “Riozinho do Anfrísio” (7,360 sq km) and the “Verde Para Sempre” (12,800 sq km) These Reserves are two examples of the concrete results achieved by the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA).

“The first positive aspect of creating an Extractive Reserve is to ensure the use of that area for its residents”, explained Adriana Moreira, manager of the ARPA Program at the World Bank. These two Reserves in the state of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, has benefited nearly 2,600 families who now have their natural resources and land use rights protected.

The “Riozinho do Anfrísio” Extractive Reserve is located in the municipality of Altamira, in the region known as “Terra do Meio” (Middle Land), between the Altamira National Forest and the “Xipaya” and “Cachoeira Seca do Iriri” Indigenous Lands. About 50 families in the region make a living from the production of chestnut, rubber, copaiba and crabtree oil.

Located in the municipality of Porto de Moz, the “Verde para Sempre” Extractive Reserve has a population of some 2,500 families.

Another example of the progress Brazil has made is that today 15 percent of wood extraction in the country is through good forest management techniques, while fifteen years ago sustainable forest management was virtually zero. The activities carried out in this area will raise the share of sustainable supply to about half of the current demand for timber from the region. These efforts provide both income and jobs for forest people while reducing environmental impact.

“The World Bank supports Brazil efforts in these areas through a broad package of financial and non financial services, including state level investment which will contribute to economic growth while strengthening best practices for sustainable use of natural resources,” said Pamela Cox.

“Slavery is very much alive on every continent. In fact, there are more slaves in the world today than ever before.

Some people maintain that every prostitute is a slave; some go so far as to assert that the only present-day slaves are prostitute. This absurd view in effect consigns to limbo millions of men and women who are , by any standard, living in slavery but not working in the sex trade.

In Uganda, for example, when the Lord’s Resistance Army seizes a fourteen-year-old girl and forces her to be an unpaid porter and a concubine, that is, by any definition, slavery.

In New York City, in the 1990s, one crime family forced hundreds of deaf and mute Mexicans to peddle trinkets ont he subway. At the end of each day, if the men and women did not meet their daily quotas, their traffickers beat them or shocked them with stun guns. That too is slavery.”

Richard Holbrook (Forward for a book by Benjamin Skinner) 2009, A crime so monstrous Face-to-face with modern-day slavery, Free Press, .

The problem is particularly urgent now, as local economies around the world reel from the global financial crisis. People are increasingly desperate for the chance to support their families, making them more susceptible to the tricks of ruthless criminals. Economic pressure means more incentive for unscrupulous bosses to squeeze everything they can from vulnerable workers and fewer resources for the organizations and governments trying to stop them.
Hillary Rodham Clinton- Secretary of States
Washington Post, June 17, 2009

Some Numbers:

Victims of Trafficking
(UN International Labor Organization Estimates)

According to the United Nations, human trafficking generates an estimated $32 billion in revenue each year.
According to a State Department estimate, between 600,000 and 800,000 individuals are trafficked annually, with women and children especially being targeted.
The State Department estimates that 70 percent of trafficking victims are female and that nearly 50 percent of the victims are younger than 18.
Moreover, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), of the 12.3 million people who are currently subjected to forced labor, bonded labor, or the commercial sex industry, 2.4 million have been trafficked. Of these, 80 percent are used for sexual exploitation while the remaining victims are forced to labor on farms or in factories.

12.3 million adults and children at any time, in forced labor and sexual servitude
1.39 million victims of sex trafficking, both national and transnational
56% of forced labor victims are women and girl
800,000 people are trafficked around the world each year

Major Forms of Trafficking in Persons
・Labor
・Involuntary Domestic Servitude
・Sex Trafficking
・Child Sex Trafficking
・Bonded Labor
・Forced Child Labor
・Child Soldiers
・Debt Bondage Among Migrant Laborers

Highlights

Human trafficking is prevalent throughout the world, as shown by the Report’s expanded coverage to 175 countries.
Subtle but potent forms of coercion are often used against victims, including threats of deportation or imprisonment, or severe reputational and financial harm that make them feel they have no choice but to continue in service.

Factors contributing to trafficking include fraudulent recruitment practices, excessive recruitment fees and debt, and lack of legal protections for migrants.

There remains a stark disparity between the large global problem of forced labor and the low numbers of prosecutions and convictions of labor trafficking crimes (less than 10 percent of all convictions).
Traffick in Person Report 2009

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/scp/fs/2009/124871.htm

As a result of rising world oil prices, concerns about energy security, and about climate change caused by CO2 emission from the fossil fuels, interest in biofuels as an alternative energy source continues to grow globally. Both the industrialized countries and developing countries have not ceased their pursuit of the commercialization of biofuels. In the case of developing countries, particularly oil-importing countries, biofuels are seen as a way to curb oil import, stimulate rural development and create jobs.

Today, the two largest biofuel markets are Brazil, which produces ethanol from sugar cane, and the United States, which produces ethanol from corn. While biodiesel production is costly and not yet viable commercially, ethanol enjoys high marketability, particularly ethanol from sugarcane, being the most cost-effective and productive using current technology.

Ethanol is a large component in Brazil’s commitment to clean energy, which is a hallmark of its economy. As World Bank Latin America and Caribbean Vice President, Pamela Cox says, “Since hydroelectricity usually accounts for over 80% of the power generation and ethanol from sugarcane accounts for over 30% of fuel for automobiles, the carbon intensity of the Brazilian energy sector is half the global average and less than 20% of the OECD country average.”

New flex-fuel vehicles—capable of running on varying percentages of ethanol— are also revitalizing the sale of ethanol. Flex-fuel vehicles already account for 20 percent of Brazil’s car fleet, while the number of single-fuel cars on the road is falling gradually, Says Petrobras downstream director, Paulo Roberto Costa.

The Brazilian Experience: Ethanol
Of the global fuel ethanol production of around 40 billion liters in 2006, about
90 percent was produced in Brazil and the United States . Apart from the fact that Brazil has had the longest history of ethanol production, starting in the 1930s; that it has mandated consumption; and that it has uniquely favorable sugarcane-growing conditions in its center-south region, there are other factors that have made Brazil the most competitive producer in the world. These are linked to high productivity and low production costs.

1) Although cane cultivation is water-intensive, nearly all of the cane fields in the center-south region are rain-fed, not irrigated.
2) Ethanol from sugarcane does not compete with other crops. Bio-fuels use only 4 million hectares of land – about 5% of Brazil’s cropland.
3) Productivity has been boosted by decades of research and commercial cultivation.
4) Most distilleries in Brazil belong to sugar mill/distillery complexes, and are thus capable of flexibly changing the production ratio of sugar to ethanol
5) Flex-fuel vehicles have increased the attractiveness of building hybrid sugar-ethanol complexes and allayed consumer fears about potential ethanol shortages.

Close to 100 countries around the world are growing sugarcane, yet none have been able to match Brazil’s sugarcane cost structure.

Government Interventions

Brazil is the only country to have achieved a commercially competitive ethanol industry, and this was preceded by more than 20 years of government support. Even today, Brazil continues to maintain a significant tax differential between gasohol (80 percent gasoline/20 percent ethanol) and hydrous ethanol.

Governments provide substantial support to biofuels to maintain competitiveness against gasoline and conventional diesel. These supports include consumption incentives (fuel tax reductions), production incentives (tax incentives, loan guarantees, direct subsidy payments), and mandatory consumption requirements.

Sharing Brazil’s Technology and Knowledge
In light of Brazil’s leading position in biofuel industry, the World Bank is seeking to facilitate the export of Brazil’s technology for making sugar-cane ethanol to developing countries in Africa and elsewhere, according to Bank’s vice-president for Latin America, Pamela Cox. Biofuels present several incentives to developing countries for their adoption:

1) Diversification of energy sources and lower exposure to the price volatility of the international oil market. Diversification is attractive for oil-importing countries, especially those that have high delivered costs of petroleum (such as land-locked countries).
2) Rural development. Biofuels hold the promise of contributing to rural development by creating jobs in feedstock production, biofuel manufacture, and the transport and distribution of feedstock and products.
3) Reduction in harmful pollutants from vehicle exhaust. Ethanol has the greatest air-quality benefits.
4) Net reductions in lifecycle GHG emissions. Developing countries do not currently have binding GHG reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. However, through the Clean Development Mechanism (Kyoto Mechanism), they can sell carbon credits gained as a result of GHG reductions obtained from the use of biofuels.

Despite the various advantages that biofuel offer to developing countries, the World Bank’s Masami Kojima and Todd Johnson have warned that with the advantages come certain risks. Developing countries are also concerned with the potential social and economic costs of biofuel programs. These include the historical need for significant and ongoing government subsidies to the industry. Because of this, biofuel program subsidies are likely to be monopolized by large-scale farms and agribusiness. Furthermore, there will likely be fiscal and equity impacts caused by the reduction in government revenues from tax exemptions for biofuels. Biofuel production also have implications for agriculture and agricultural trade policy, and potential environmental damages associated with feedstock production and biofuel manufacture.

Unaccounted Externalities

It is impossible to deny the environmental benefits that accrue from the use of biofuels due to their lower emissions of pollutants. However, the possible negative effects cannot be ignored. For example, biofuel feedstock production and processing may cause water and air pollution, soil depletion, and habitat loss associated with the conversion of forests to cropland.

Another effect has recently impacted poor countries across the globe: rising food prices. The increased demand for raw materials including wheat, soy, maize and palm oil for the biofuel production has resulted in rising food prices, which have also been linked to higher energy and fertilizer prices, a weak dollar and export bans.

The production and use of biofuels within the present economic framework presents great development opportunities as well as challenges, and one of the most important challenses is the vital need to address the impacts that biofuel programs have on the poor.

Danny Leipziger, World Bank Group Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) says, “The poor are not just facing higher food prices but also higher energy costs, which is a worrying combination. Policy responses to protect the poor from food price rises are urgent, and need to be designed in a way that is conducive to stimulating greater agricultural production in the long run.” World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick called for a New Deal for Global Food Policy to focus not only on hunger and malnutrition, access to food and its supply, but also on the interconnections with energy, yields, climate change, investment, and the marginalization of women.

As “global warming” became the household term of the 21st century, the latest IPCC report in 2007 confirms that Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and “Observational evidence from all continents and most oceans shows that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases”
Latin America region, in particular, is very vulnerable to the climate impacts that is very significant and expected to irreversibly affect key ecosystems and the services they provide.
Among many climate impacts, the impact on water supply and water availability in Latin America are taking place today and are expected to worsen with time.
In Pucarumi, a small community in the foothills of the snow-capped Peruvian Andes, Felipe, an alpaca herder, has witnessed the receding of the life-giving Ausangate glacier every year. “We are feeling the effects of climate change,” says Felipe, His animals do not grow enough as the pastures do not get enough runoff from Ausangate . “This loss of snow means we receive less water. This climatic factor is causing us great danger.”
Less water means less pasture and more difficulty raising livestock. Their lands are running out of water to grow native potatoes without glacier runoffs, and they are left to plant “improved potatoes with chemical fertilizers” that cost money to them.1

Melting Glacier:
Many might regard glaciers as continental glaciers as in the Antarctic with the image of a lone polar bear on the drifting piece of iceberg. However, most (70%??) of the world’s “Tropical glaciers”, a type of Alpine glacier, are located in the high Andes Cordillera of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
According to the recent report by the World Bank, “Visualizing Future Climate in Latin America”, Temperature increases are expected to be particularly extreme in the Andes. “The rate of increase is projected at two or more times those projected for average temperature increases. Changes of this magnitude will irreversibly affect the ecology of the Andes. Most immediately affected are tropical glaciers and other high mountain ecosystems. 2”
For instance, of currently present 18 mountain glaciers in Peru, 22% of the surface has been lost over the past 27 to 35 years, an area equivalent to that of all glaciers in Ecuador.3 Since 1970, glaciers in the Andes have already lost 20% of volume.

Moreover, most of the smaller glaciers are expected to diminish within a generation, Modeling work and projections indicate that many of the lower-altitude glaciers in the cordillera could completely disappear during the next 10 to 20 years. For example, Bolivia’s Chacaltaya glacier has lost most (82%) of its surface area since 1982 and may completely melt by 2013.4

Glacier Retreat and Water Supply:
One of the glaciers’ important functions is its water regulation capacity that runoffs during dry, warmer periods and stores water during wet, colder periods. As glaciers retreat, the water regulation function will be affected and eventually lost. Area of its impact covers the entire range of the tropical Andes, home to over 30 million people and host to biodiversity of global importance, while, the economic and social costs will run into billions of dollars for the power sector, and affecting water supply for mountain urban areas, agriculture, and ecosystem integrity.
Impact on water supply to Andean cities
More disappearance of the glaciers will consequently bring the major effect on water supply, power generation, and ecosystem integrity in the region.
Change in water supply will put population and food supply at risk, and can affect water costs and ultimately may impair the ability of these cities to maintain vibrant local economies. Large cities in the region are depending on Glacier runoffs for its water supply: Ecuador’s Quito depends 50% of its water supply from the glacier basin, and Bolivia’s La Paz, 30%.

Impact on energy
Most countries in the Andes are dependent on hydro energy for power generation: Bolivia 50%, Colombia 73%, Ecuador 72%, and Peru 81%. But this contribution will be diminished in areas where basins are glacier dependent.
Impact on agriculture
Reduced water supply during dry season, extended dry season impacts agriculture as People are already experiencing in Pecarumi community.
Economic consequences
The impact of Andes’ glacier retreat on local economy is formidable. Take an example of Peru, annual incremental costs to its power sector are estimated at US$1.5 billion (should rationing conditions be allowed to occur), or US$212 million (if a gradual adaptation scenario is implemented).

In any case, Peru will likely have to invest in additional power capacity, most likely thermal-based, at a cost of about US$1billion per gigawatt installed, resulting in higher cost to end-users5, and of course that will set off the vicious cycle of the carbon emission. The World Bank’s lead engineer, Walter Vergara estimates that the economic consequences of glacier retreat are major, running into billions of dollars for the power sector.
Adaptation Measures:
Because runoff from glacierized basins of Andes is an important element of water budgets, assuring year-round flows for agriculture, potable water, power generation, and ecosystem integrity, changes induced by tropical glacier retreat constitute an early case of the need for adaptation and the type and size of associated economic and social impacts caused by climate change6
Some adaptation measures to climate impacts in Glaciarized basins (Bolivia, Ecuador Peru) include:
1)Development of alternative water supply sources , water demand management, and engineered water storage
2)Diversification of energy supply
3) hifting to alternative crops and developing advanced irrigation system
The World Bank is working together with Global Enfitonment Facility, to implement adaptation measure by:
• supporting the detailed design of selected adaptation measures;
• implementing regional and strategic adaptation pilots to address key impacts of
rapid glacier retreat on selected basins; and
• supporting continuing observation and assessment of glacier retreat and the
associated impacts on the region (no GEF resources are requested for this activity).
The project is being prepared with the assistance of a multidisciplinary group that includes expertise in glaciology, remote sensing, agriculture, water and power supply, and rural development.
Adaptation will be expensive. The region, while contributing little to the global issue, is at the receiving end of anticipated impacts. Adaptation will require considerable funding, well beyond what is available today through the GEF funds and other sources. These re- sources will need to be complemented with additional funding. In the meantime, several regional priorities must be carefully selected to cover a range of situations, ecosystems,
and economic activities affected.

1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0qDc4hXUSY
2 “The Impacts of Climate Change in Latin America” Walter Vergara World Bank
3 “Projected Climate Over the Central Andes Countries caused by Global Warming” Grinia Jesús Avalos Roldán National Meteorology and Hydrology Service–SENAMHI (Peru)
4 The Impacts of Climate Change in Latin America” Walter Vergara World Bank
5 “Economic Impacts of Rapid Glacier Retreat in the Andes”PAGES 261, 264, EOS, Transactons, American Geophysical Union. Vol. 88, No. 25, 19 June 2007
6 “Economic Impacts of Rapid Glacier Retreat in the Andes”P 261, 264, EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union. Vol. 88, No. 25, 19 June 2007


Background:

In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted unanimously as a part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. As of April 2008, 178 states have signed and ratified the treaty.

Under this treaty, signatory countries that are industrialized must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions over the period between 2008 and 2012 by an average of 5.2% below the 1990 level, amounting to about 550 million tons of CO2 equivalent. Signatories that are developing countries, such as Mexico and Brazil, are exempt from this requirement.

Kyoto Mechanism

Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries are expected to reach their reduction targets by reducing domestic emissions. However, the cost of reducing emissions varies considerably from region to region, depending on the level of industrialization and economy. That is to say, it is much more expensive for an industrialized country than a non-industrialized country to attain the same amount of reduction.

The Kyoto Mechanism seeks to maximize the global economic efficiency of abatement based on the fact that greenhouse gasses are a ‘global pollutant’ that affects the entire world equally, irrespective of their country of origin. In other words, cutting one ton of CO2 in the developing countries is just as effective as cutting one ton in the industrialized countries.

As one example, relatively cheap improvements made to older coal-burning power plants in developing countries can produce a substantial reduction in emissions that would be far more expensive to achieve through improvements made to modern combined-cycle gas plants that are more common in industrialized countries.

Through the following two project-based mechanisms, the Kyoto Mechanism provides parties with cost-effective opportunities to reduce emissions or remove carbon from the atmosphere:

• The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) supports projects in developing countries that result in reduced emissions or increased carbon sequestration that can be purchased by Annex 1 countries to offset their domestic targets.
• QUESTION TO NATSUKO: Please check my changes above for appropriateness. I am still new to these expressions…
• The Joint Implementation mechanism (JI) is similar to the CDM, but is applicable to countries with economies in transition.

Carbon Finance at the World Bank

The World Bank Carbon Finance Unit (CFU) uses money contributed by governments and companies in OECD countries to purchase project-based greenhouse gas emission reductions in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. The emission reductions are purchased through one of the CFU’s carbon funds on behalf of the contributor, and within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or Joint Implementation (JI).

The Latin America and Caribbean region is among those in which the Bank’s carbon finance initiatives are being most actively implemented.

Carbon Partnership Facility (CPF) and Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)

The World Bank is presently striving to evolve from being a representative of just the buyers to being an equal representative of the sellers as well. The business model remains the same, whereby the Bank raises and manages money for the buyers. But by combining seller and buyer in a partnership, it seeks to design a framework that reflects the interests of both parties.

Carbon Partnership Facility (CPF) is designed to spur the expansion of CDM volume within the current business categories (energy, transport, industry, etc.).

Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) seeks to create a new asset category. Since the prevention of deforestation as a means of reducing emissions is currently not a component within the CDM, the FCPF is not active in areas where CDM is applicable today.

The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) was developed because forests are more important left standing than cut down. The FCPF will reduce deforestation and forest degradation by compensating developing countries for carbon dioxide reductions realized by maintaining their forests. The FCPF will build the capacity of developing countries in tropical and subtropical regions to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) and tap into a future system of positive incentive for REDD.

As of April 2008, 13 Latin American countries have expressed significant interest in the FCPF, and 3 countries have submitted projects.

CDM Projects in the LAC Region

The Latin America and Caribbean region (LAC) is among those in which Carbon Finance projects are being most actively implemented. In the LAC region, 27 Carbon Fund projects have been signed in the energy and environment sectors, representing a value of 96,912,676.8 US dollars in Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreements (ERPA) and a volume of 19,197,614 tons CO2. The breakdown in projects is as follows: 7 CDCF projects (Community Development Carbon Fund), 7 PCF projects, 8 BIoCF (Bio Carbon Fund) projects, 4 Spanish Fund projects and 1 Danish Fund project.

QUESTION TO NATSUKO: Is the number “96,912,676.8” okay? How about rounding down to “9.69 million”? Also, I am not sure what is being counted here. Is the word “project” okay (i.e., 27 Carbon Fund projects)? I am taking a hint from the examples below. Also, shouldn’t there be a definition for “PCF”?

The following are examples of some of the projects currently being implemented in the Latin America and Caribbean region:

• BioCarbon Fund (BIoCF)
The BioCarbon Fund provides carbon finance to projects that sequester or conserve greenhouse gases in forests, agro- and other ecosystems.
The BioCarbon Fund tests and demonstrates how land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities can generate high-quality emission reductions with environmental and livelihood benefits that can be measured, monitored and certified, and stand the test of time.
The BioCarbon Fund is a public/private initiative established as a trust fund administered by the World Bank.
Precious Woods Project (Nicaragua)
The Nicaragua Precious Woods Project supports the generation of 297,045 tons of carbon dioxide emission reductions by the year 2017 through reforesting 600 hectares of privately owned degraded agricultural lands in southern Nicaragua. In addition, within the same land and as part of this project, the project’s aim is to conserve approximately 350 ha of secondary forest and mature trees, for which it will not claim carbon credits from the BioCarbon Fund.
As a side benefit, this project seeks to create a sustainable and commercially viable source of wood for sale in domestic and international markets that will reduce pressures on natural forests. In this way, this project will increase carbon sequestration and enhance ecological, wildlife, and landscape diversity, while providing sustainable, income-generation options to poor and vulnerable communities.

• Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF)

The single overarching factor which defines this fund and differentiates it from the other World Bank carbon funds is the generation of community benefits by the projects that it finances. The CDCF supports projects that combine community development attributes and emission reductions to create “development plus carbon” credits. These projects are opportunities for small communities in weaker economies to obtain clean water, improve health conditions and create jobs for women. At the same time they represent investments in clean technologies that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change.

Olavarria Landfill Gas Recovery Project (Argentina)
The Argentine Olavarria landfill gas recovery project helps mitigate climate change by financing the improvement of municipal solid waste management and strengthening its commercial viability by leveraging additional revenue from carbon finance at the local landfill.

To achieve these objectives, the project will capture and destroy methane gas currently generated at the landfill. The project will also implement a micro-social enterprise to improve overall living conditions of the 550 inhabitants in the rural village of Espigas by enhancing the potable water and water heating supply at the local school through a renewable energy system,

What’s Next?

The next step for The World bank is to further develop and expand the Carbon Fund market. This will involve moving from the funding of individual projects to the development of a market system, not only within the framework of the World Bank, but also within the countries themselves. In the LAC, the World Bank is working to develop internal markets, and markets that communicate with other Carbon Fund markets outside of the LAC, as well as local institutions that have the capacity to engage in larger-scale transactions.

Report warns of “irreversible” damage already affecting the region’s environment
Washington, DC, December 5, 2007 ― Climate change will have dramatic and costly consequences for the people and ecosystems of Latin America, according to the World Bank’s lead engineer for Latin America and the Caribbean Walter Vergara. Vergara’s warning comes in a collection of five reports “Visualizing Future Climate in Latin America” that outlines – and adds new detail to — the environmental problems facing the region.

Visualizing future Climate in Latin America

“In Latin America, climate impacts are very significant,” says Vergara, “and expected to irreversibly affect key ecosystems and the services they provide.” The new report gives detailed projections of how climate is expected to change by the period 2008 to 2099, based on calculations made by the “Earth Simulator” supercomputer and data made available by the Japanese Meteorological Research Institute. The results give tentative but crucial indications of how rising temperatures and changes in precipitation will affect key areas, thus providing a “route map” for adaptation strategies.

Vergara’s report “The impact of Climate Change in Latin America” draws on recent research to present a worrying picture of how the region is likely to be impacted, including the destruction of coral ecosystems in the Caribbean Basin, the rapid disappearance of glaciers and the intensification of hurricanes:

“The impact of Climate Change in Latin America”

− Coral bleaching is believed to have affected over 80% of coral reefs in the Caribbean Basin, following the heat and hurricane activity of summer 2005, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the fish that live and breed in the reefs. Bleaching also robs coral of its esthetic appeal, threatening the tourist trade.

− Temperature increases are expected to be particularly extreme in the Andes. “The rate of increase is projected at two or more times those projected for average temperature increases. Changes of this magnitude will irreversibly affect the ecology of the Andes. Most immediately affected are tropical glaciers and other high mountain ecosystems,” the paper reads.

− Most of the smaller glaciers are expected to be gone within a generation, while lower-altitude glaciers could completely disappear by 2026. The economic consequences of glacier retreat are considerable, “running into billions of dollars” for the power sector and affecting agriculture and the water supply. “These costs constitute in fact a climate tax imposed on populations that have contributed little to the problem,” Vergara argues.

− As is often the case with climate change, the regions and people most severely affected are often not those most responsible. Although, Latin America is not a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, the region is very vulnerable to climate impacts.

− The World Bank expert highlights the “moral imperative” for carbon-polluting nations to work to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. (Latin America produces only six percent of the worlds emissions.)

− Climate change may already have affected the circulation patterns that bring water vapor to the paramos, the wetlands of the Northern Andes, threatening the unique flora of mountain ecosystems. The retreat of mountain lakes poses the alarming possibility that water supplies may be affected for such major cities as Bogota and Quito.

− Rapid changes in the environment may even result in a vicious cycle, that undermines a low carbon economies. The loss of sources of hydro-electric power in the Andes may cause nations to reach for the cheapest alternative: fossil fuels.

− Even more worrisome is the potential desertification of large areas stemming from damage to the ecosystem of the Amazon Basin, whose rainforests play a crucial role in absorbing vast quantities of carbon dioxide and are home to a quarter of the world’s biodiversity.

− Climate models suggest the possibility of extreme drops in rainfall, coupled with rising temperatures, could lead to a process of gradual “savannization” in the Amazon Basin. The paper points that this is potentially the single most serious result of climate change in the region but notes that the “prospects and consequences are still poorly understood”.

The paper represents a major attempt to analyse the implications of climate change, as well as pointing to the ongoing need for further study, more detailed data and awareness of the limits of accurately predicting future climate.

The Earth Simulator reinforced studies that predict not just rising temperatures, but an enhanced hydrological cycle, with more unusually dry and unusually wet periods. The computer projected that most of North America and Latin America will see an extra 30 days per year when the maximum temperature will exceed 30 degrees centigrade. A recent study in Colombia formally tested and found a significant link between rising temperatures and rainfall and the Tropical Vector Diseases malaria and dengue fever. Climate change therefore points to rising health care costs for Latin America, the paper reports.

Hurricane intensification has been accompanied by an increase in the number of hurricanes making landfall in Mesoamerica since 1995, affecting the economy and ecosystems. The paper points out that four of the ten most active years for hurricane landfalls have occurred in the last ten years. “Latin America is a region that is very vulnerable to climate impact, and that is already taking place,” repeats Walter Vergara.

The World Bank has been involved in encouraging adaptation efforts based on the understanding that some of the impacts of climate change are now unavoidable and may be irreversible. The working paper highlights both the value of the projects the bank is involved in — and the need for more action.

The Japan Times

Sickness unto death, without despair
Hospice assists terminal patients to die in comfort and dignity
By NATSUKO UTSUMI Special to The Japan Times

One summer morning in 2001, a good friend of mine, Bronson Conrad, rang me at my Manhattan home. After we’d chatted for a while, he broke the news that he had incurable, terminal cancer in his hip bone.
“What do you mean by incurable terminal cancer?” I asked him, almost with annoyance.
“It means that I’m dying,” he said.
No! How could anybody sound so unperturbed at making such an announcement?
I cannot remember what I said afterward, but I was crying at the same time trying to make him tell me that there was even a faint hope of recovery. It was supremely ironic that he was the one doing the consoling as I became more and more distraught.
Bronson wanted me to visit him in  Toronto while he was still strong enough.

He was only fifty-something then, a tall and sturdily built former Canadian Army officer who had made his fortune starting up an Internet company and other businesses — even a diamond-mining concession in Sierra Leone.
Always an energetic risk-taker, he had enjoyed an adventurous life.  As an avid recreational pilot, he had flown two around-the-world trip in his own small Cessna. On the second of those flights, 2 years before his death in 1999, his wife and two sons accompanied him on what, unbeknown to any of them, would turn out to be their last family trip.

A week or so after his call, I flew up to Toronto. Frankly, I had had no idea what to expect. However, as soon as I walked into his large suburban home,  I relaxed as I saw my dear friend sitting up and smiling on a high hospital bed set up in a living room.  During my visit, Bronson made and received several business phone calls, while I looked at small woods through the living room’s panoramic windows that look out over a terrace.

As he was considerably calm and alert, we managed to talk about the fun times and adventures we’d shared.  Momentarily, it was easy to forget that he was dying.

It was not so easy, however, when he talked about his horrendous pain. That was controlled, he said, by morphine-based medication that he administered himself when he needed it by pressing a button on a portable pump called a “syringe driver,” which subcutaneously injected just the right amount to alleviate his pain without making him lethargic. Thanks to this self administration system, despite the fact he had tremendous pain from the cancer, he could still talk and even laugh almost like he used to.  Nevertheless, my emotional but rather inconsiderately strong goodbye hug made him wince.
Bronson died three weeks later.

Though that was the last time we met, it was the first time for me to encounter the “home-care hospice” system.

Hospice and palliative (or symptom- easing) care, whether in-patient or home hospice, aims to enable terminally ill people to live out their remaining time with dignity, and as long as possible without pain or suffering. Pain and symptom control is at the heart of this specialist medical field. In practice, it means that patients, and their families, receive interdisciplinary medical support, as well as spiritual support.

In June, I visited Connecticut Hospice in Branford, near New Haven. It was America’s first such program. It was founded in 1974 when Brooklyn-born nurse Rosemary Johnson- Hurzeler began an in-home hospice service funded by the National Cancer Institute  for its first three years,. (Today, there are some 2,400 similar programs throughout the United States)

In 1980, after Connecticut Hospice acquired a building, it was able to offer palliative care to its first in-patients. As a basic rule, only patients diagnosed as having no more than six months to live are admitted, and no curative treatment or extensive life-support are given.

Standing inside the new, semicircular three-story building, it felt almost like a small resort hotel, overlooking, as it does, a beach on the New England coast. The all-glass lobby is a bright, wide-open space from which I could look over a green lawn and see boats going by. The second floor is for patients, where there are fireplaces and tasteful paintings in the hallway. The ceiling is decorated subtly with stars and moons, so that they have something pleasant to rest their eyes on when they are transported from their rooms.
In other words, the goal has been to make the remainder of their lives as comfortable as possible — they can share almost unrestricted time with their families and friends, take care of unfinished business or just relax in peace.
As Johnson-Hurzeler, a platinum-blond woman with a gentle voice yet commanding presence, explained: “Death is but an instant in the comparatively long continuum of one’s life — life that should be celebrated and savored up until its very last moments.” With the support of friendly doctors and nurses — and nowadays mostly paid for by Medicare and private insurance and philanthropic donations — Connecticut Hospice’s care is all about what’s known as Physician Assisted Living (PAL), not about dying.
PAL focuses on the dialogue between physician and patient. Clearly, the physician’s role is pivotal in preparing patients for the possibility of advanced and irreversible illness. But, of course, final decisions on whether to be in the in- patient hospice or hospice home-care — or even whether to go back to a regular hospital — are for the patients to make.
In April last year, cervical cancer patient Michelle Quesinberry, 48, was told that she was terminally ill. Looking back, she said, “I have never been a quitter, but there was nothing I could do.”
As cancer was gnawing her life away, I visited her at home and found her “living one day at a time” with the aid of painkillers and a morphine pump. She said that talking to visiting home- hospice doctors, nurses and social workers gave her an enormous amount of support, especially because they tell her what’s happening and don’t just dole out medication.
“I wish to be happy till I go,” she said. “I just want to spend some time with my family.” Hospice care enables Michelle to stay at home to be with her 83-year-old mother. “My mother keeps me strong,” Michelle said lovingly.
Above: Lung-cancer patient Jane Albert pets certified therapeutic dog Ipsy Pipsy. Bottom: Cancer patient Michelle Quesinberry, 48, and her mother relax during a home visit by hospice nurse Marcy Holland.
Hospice care is not designed solely for patients, but also to support anxious family members going through such a trying period, and the inevitable bereavement.
Another home-care patient I met was 61-year-old Walter Lechowitz, a victim of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a progressive nerve-degenerating disease that eventually leads to muscle weakness, atrophy and death. He was immobilized from the neck down and unable to speak. Since he learned that he had this incurable disease 18 months earlier, his family had been taking care of him at home — as was his wish.
“We see him get worse and worse every day, but I tell myself that we still have time,” said his wife Diane. “He cries, but all we can do is just give him a hug and let it pass.”
Home-care nurse Laruen Tolla comes twice a week to take care of him, but also dedicates a lot of her time to supporting the family, which, like all families in this situation, is under tremendous emotional and often practical stress. As Rosemary Franco, another nurse, put it, “Our patients and families are angels, but sometimes they are flying low to the ground. It is the privilege of nursing to be their other wing. We learn from patients and families always.”
Despite the burden on them, however, most families apparently want to be involved in patient care. “Our help includes outreach for the family,” said clinical supervisor Sylvia van Heerden. “Caring for the [dying] family member also helps to reduce their fear, because they are actually doing something; they are involved in taking care of the patient. Toward the end of life, people lose a lot of control, and in a way it gives some control to the family and to the patient, as they are actually involved in their own care by making decisions.”
For family members, the experience of sharing the last days of a loved one’s life is very precious.
Among the many I spoke to was Peter Yarrow (from the folk band Peter, Paul and Mary, and today an advocate of the hospice movement). Speaking of his work, he said “This is the most spiritual time in my entire life.”
Years back, he spent the last three weeks of his mother’s life at her bedside in Connecticut Hospice, sleeping there and singing for her. Thinking back, he said the experience changed him for the rest of his life, as he feels he has “never loved anybody with such freedom and honesty.
“With dying loved ones in a hospice, there is no point in lying or talking trivia,” he said. There, love transcends everything else.
To learn that we are dying is the most horrifying moment in life. How can anybody live with such unfathomable apprehension? And is it right to inform people their days are numbered?
From her 22 years of experience, van Heerden said, “A lot of the fear of dying is because people are not informed. Often you can talk to them, about what it is, and what’s happening to them, and a lot of the time fear will subside, because they are informed. Then they can start thinking of important things, instead of fearing, and refocus on other aspects of life.”
Jane Albert during a consultation with Connecticut Hospice chief physician Dr. Todd Corte.
On my last day at Connecticut Hospice, I was sitting with Dr. Todd Corte and 53-year-old lung-cancer patient Jane Albert, who started to weep while telling the doctor about her condition. She was a teacher for the blind, and had married only three years before. Although cognitively she must have known that she would die, I could see that she was clinging on to life, even wearing perfume and a wig. Her pain and symptoms were under control, but her sadness was not.
Corte said to her with utter sincerity, “I wish I had pills for you to ease sadness.”
From an outsider’s perspective, it seems that for doctors and nurses working in a hospice, the hardest thing must be that they hardly ever see patients recover or be discharged, except in rare cases of cancer remission. Every day, four or five patients pass away. Still, because the goal of doctors and nurses at Connecticut Hospice is to ease suffering rather than cure illness or prolong life, my impression was that they did not necessarily see death as failure.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the job is easy. Staff hold what they call a “daily huddle,” in which they sit together and share their experiences, thoughts and feelings. The result is that they all work together as a therapeutic support group.
Altogether, my abiding impression is of tremendous bravery from everyone I met at the hospice, whether they were staff, patients or families. Most of the patients had undergone every treatment modern medicine can offer, only to learn after so much suffering and so many dashed hopes that there was nothing left to do but entrust the rest of their lives to fate.
Yet what I saw was people not just letting go and living in despair or anger, but choosing to live positively until the end, and to enjoy as much quality time as they can. Such humility, combined with an appreciation of life, bestowed upon most patients a serenity that was profoundly moving to witness.
If the day comes when a doctor tells me that I am terminally ill, I don’t think I will be so courageous, and I am sure I will go through a serious grieving period. But then, I hope, I will be able to find support at an compassionate and competent place like Connecticut Hospice. I would also be sure to call everybody I have ever loved to say that I love them, and apologize to everybody I owe an apology to.
Dying with peace of mind, free from unnecessary life support: This is the ideal I learned from my friend Bronson and from Connecticut Hospice.

PHOTOS:

Above: Michael Alfonso, then 7, and his younger brother Sebastian, 4. Michael, who was born with cerebral paralysis, was placed in a home-hospice program after suffering an attack of acute respiratory failure.

Bottom: Connecticut Hospice physician Diane Smith ministers to Michael in his room at home while hospice nurse Arlene Wisneski sits by the window. Michael died two weeks after this photograph was taken.

Top: A life-size bronze sculpture in the Connecticut Hospice compound portrays the partnership forged between the patient, family and nurse. The torch held by the nurse never goes out. Bottom: Family members watch as hospice nurse Lauren Tolla prepares Walter Lechowitz, who suffers from a nerve-degenerating disease, for his bed bath.

Natsuko Utsumi is a photojournalist who has reported on gender issues and the impact of war on civilians.
The Japan Times: Sunday, Oct. 23, 2005
(C) All rights reserved

The Japan Times Printer Friendly Articles
Sickness unto death, without despair
Hospice assists terminal patients to die in comfort and dignity

Sickness unto death, without despair | The Japan Times Online