Avoided deforestation has additional benefits to fighting climate change7
Forests and Virgin
. Forests
hold the majority of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity8
, provide watershed protection,
food, timber and non-timber products, medicines and homes for 1.6 billion of the world’s poorest people9, 10
. Many of the world’s poor depend on
services and goods provided by forests for their livelihoods but these services and resources are depleting rapidly11
.
• Richard is very passionate about forests and has served on the Prince of Wales’ board for the Prince’s Rainforest Project13
.
Virgin Trains and Virgin Atlantic have also supported the Prince’s Rainforest Project by promoting awareness to their customers of the urgent need to take action against tropical deforestation
• Virgin Media and Virgin Unite have donated
funds to a project in the Congo through The
Forest Trust14
Local communities gain little benefit from logging. In West Papua logging generates only $10 US per log for the local people, while traders sell the logs for thousands of dollars.
Source: Maung, Z. (2008) Avoided deforestation credits head for the voluntary carbon markets. Climate Change Corp. 4 June 2008.
. The project involves working
with local communities which rely on the forest as their principal source of shelter, nutrition and medicine, to help them gain greater access to the resources they need for income generation and food security
• Virgin Money UK and Virgin Unite have
donated £50,000 to the Green Light Trust
Community15
, a charity that educates children
about the importance of forests and builds wildlife habitats across the UK to increase biodiversity and help motivate children and young people to become responsible custodians of the environment. Virgin Money UK helped by providing financial support and by working to build a five year plan to enable greater financial security
• Virgin Blue and Virgin Unite provide financial
support to NAILSMA’s16
savannah fire
management projects and indigenous youth economic development projects for remote communities across Northern Australia
Virgin’s forest footprint
As well as having direct impacts, companies can indirectly contribute to deforestation through their supply chains resulting in a ‘Forest Footprint’. Having worked hard to measure the Virgin Group’s carbon footprint (8 million tCO2), we also recognise the importance of understanding our forest footprint and so despite its relatively small size are using the principle
behind the Forest Disclosure Project12
to consider
our companies’ direct (e.g. how much paper and wood they buy) and indirect impacts (e.g. how much forest is destroyed because of the food or fuel that the company consumes). From this, we can then make improvements and ensure that their forest footprints are kept to a minimum.
• Virgin Radio France has been supporting a reforestation project in the Peruvian Amazon and working to raise awareness amongst its listeners of issues connected with deforestation and climate change (read more about this in the ‘Relax and Have Fun’ chapter on page 67)
• Virgin Balloons Flights donates £1 to The
Forest Trust14
for each tonne of carbon it emits • Virgin airlines have lobbied the UNFCCC17 for
the inclusion of Avoided Deforestation and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries in the Clean Development Mechanism
• The Carbon War Room is planning a ‘battle’ on forests (read more about the Carbon War Room on page 76)
Virgin Media
donated £20,000 from
2008 to 2009
Virgin Unite
donated £10,000 in 2009
$65,000 (Australian
dollars) in 2009.
NAILSMA aims to support practical Indigenous land and sea
management.
(www.nailsma.org.au)
7. Mongabay (2006) World bank says carbon trading will save rainforests. 23 October 2006. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1023-forests.html 8. SCBD Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2001). The Value of Forest Ecosystems. Montreal, (CBD Technical Series no. 4)
9. FAO (2006) Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005: Progress towards Sustainable Forest Management, FAO, Rome [Online] Available from: http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/008/ a0400e/a0400e00.htm [Accessed on 28th July 2008]
10. Eliasch, J. ‘Climate Change: Financing Glboal Forests’ (Eliasch Review). London, Office of Climate Change, Government of the United Kingdom (2008).
11. Hassan, R., Scholes, R., Ash, N. (eds.) (2005) Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Current State and Trends, Volume 1, Millenium Ecosystem Assessment [Online] Available from: http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/Condition.aspx
12. The Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (www.forestdisclosure.com) 13. The Prince’s Rainforest Project (www.rainforestsos.org) 14. The Forest Trust (formerly Tropical Forest Trust) (www.tropicalforesttrust.com) 15. The Green Light Trust (www.greenlighttrust.org) 16. The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (www.nailsma.org.au) 17. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (http://unfccc.int)
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