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The Princess Project Panama reforestation plan, compiled by Eco Management on behalf of Silva Tree Panama, has been submitted for final comments.

The Princess Project Panama reforestation plan, compiled by Eco Management on behalf of Silva Tree Panama, has been submitted for final comment. Herminio Rodriguez, ANAM recognised Forestry Engineer and Director of Eco Management has written a complete reforestation plan for the Princess Project Panama. The 50 page document details the environmental benefits of the project, the location, geographical qulities, exact planting and cutting sechedule and much more. The plan is designed to provide governemtal department ANAM with sufficient information about the project not to have to make a personal visit. The reforestation plan also makes upo a significant part fo the documentation required for the Carbon offset credit certification of the project. Copies of the reforestation plan are available on the Silva Tree website (Spanish only): http://www.silvatree.com/admin/documents/Environmental-documents/Reforestation_Plan.pdf http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=108http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-03-03www.silvatree.comInvestment

Those investors who bought land in the Carbon Offset Reforestation Project (CORP) in Costa Rica, received their first returns in February 2009. Paid towards the end of February by Citadel Trustees, all the investors received their returns in the bank account of their choice.

Those investors who bought land in the Carbon Offset Reforestation Project (CORP) in Costa Rica, received their first annual return in February 2009. Paid towards the end of February by Citadel Trustees, all the investors received their returns in the bank account of their choice. The investment returns are projected to increase next year and investors are looking forward to receiving their subsequent payments every year. The Carbon Offset Reforestation project delivers annual returns based on the Carbon trading market. An avoided deforestation project, it is the first of Silva Tree's environmental projects and sold out within a few months of being launched. The Costa Rican project is no longer open to investment. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=109http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-03-03www.silvatree.comSilva Tree

The Silva Tree UK office has moved into the Central London business district. The new contact details are effective immediately.

The Silva Tree UK office has moved into the Central London business district. The new contact details are effective immediately. Please feel free to contact us with any questions. Main telephone switchboard: 0207 554 8880 Fax: 0207 554 8892 Address: Office 308 Hamilton House Mabledon Place WC1 H9BB London email: office@silvatree.com website: www.silvatree.com Direct lines: Lee Chapman: 0207 554 8883 Ann Putty: 0207 554 8890 Chris Goodman: 0207 554 8884 Patrick Boyce: 0207 554 8885 Adrian Daou: 0207 554 8886 Ian Coleclough: 0207 554 8887 Patrick Visser: 0207 554 8881 (please note, Directors may not be available at the London office at all times) Keren Katz: 0207 554 8882 (please note, Directors may not be available at the London office at all times) All other staff: 0207 554 8880http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=105http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-03-03www.silvatree.comSilva Tree

Silva Tree recently submitted an Environemtal Impact Asessement, stating the Princess Project Panama to be a category I project. This has been accepted by ANAM, the Panamanaian governmental department of environment.

According to Panamanian law, every forestry project above the size of 50 hectares must submit an Environmental Impact Assessment document to the government. This document outlines the company's project practices and their impact on the environment, including pollution, noise, GHG emissions and effects on biodiversity. Silva Tree recently submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment (or EIA), compiled by Eduardo Reyes, a leading authority on environmental issues and holding titles such as CDM representative for Panama and Vice President of Environment. The EIA submitted states that the Princess Project Panama has a positive impact on the environment and that is it is a category I project. This has now been accepted by ANAM, the Panamanian governmental department of environment. A copy of the Princess Project Panama EIA is available of the SIlva Tree website (Spanish only): www.silvatree.com/EIA.pdf http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=106http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-03-03www.silvatree.comSilva Tree

A further delivery of tens of thousands of seelings was received at the Princess Project Panama to be planted during the country's dry season.

It is unusual to plant a tree in Panama's blistering dry season as most species succumb to the drought and extreme temperatures experienced from December to April. Paulownia, however, is a robust tropical species that resists drought and, as long as properly acclimatised, will survive the hottest temperatures. Paulownia does require irrigation during the first few weeks of its life, which is why water wells are being built by Silva Tree in the Princess Project area. The wells also serve local communities as a supply of fresh drinking water during these difficult months. The latest delivery of seedlings will acclimatise for approximately 3 weeks, a longer period than usual because of the higher temperatures felt during this time of year. During this acclimatisation period, the seedlings will need regular watering of up to twice a day, a process which is labour intensive considering the great number of plants that require maintenance. They will then be planted in the Princess Project plantation and watered relatively infrequently. This dry season planting is of particular relevance to Silva Tree because it serves as a part of their experimental joint venture with the Panamanian department of environment, ANAM. The government is looking for a tree species that can survive in the toughest conditions, and Silva Tree are working with them to see if the Paulownia tree could be used for widespread reforestation in degraded Panamanian land. The dry season planting which is currently occurring within the Princess Project will be included in the experimental data compiled as an important part of the Silva Tree/ ANAM joint research project. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=107http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-03-03www.silvatree.comPress release

Having spent December 2009 in Panama, Silva Tree’s Directors have finalized an extensive plan to improve sustainability and quality of life in the areas close to the Princess Project Panama.

Having spent December 2009 in Panama, Silva Tree’s Directors have finalized an extensive plan to improve sustainability and quality of life in the areas close to the Princess Project Panama. Chepo in Panama is an area which is dominated by cattle and dairy farms, but land is degrading, making grazing more and more difficult, and the dry season brings with it unemployment, hunger and drought. The Princess Project Panama promises to change the lives of the local villagers, providing dependable employment, water wells, road improvements and, most importantly, trees. Trees will improve the quality of the land, and will provide an entirely new industry for the people of the Chepo district. In addition to the employment opportunities created, the Princess Project Panama promises to deliver an array of socioeconomic benefits and sustainability practices. During their recent trip to Panama, the Silva Tree board of directors made final decisions about where funds would be placed to maximize improvements to the project area and its inhabitants. It currently takes over 20 minutes by road vehicle to travel from the village of Tres Quebradas to the Princess Project Panama and nearby villages. In heavy rain it can take substantially longer, if access is possible at all, due to the poor road conditions. During the long Panamanian wet season there can be flooding as well as landslides and to make matters worse the various bridges that must be crossed are badly damaged, effectively leaving communities stranded and cut off from everything including sources of food and fresh water. While the wet season brings with it flooding, the dry season brings a serious drought, and the lack of wells in the area means that the local people of Tres Quebradas effectively run out of drinking water- and work. During the dry seasons, there is little employment for the local villagers and they have to find alternative ways of making a living. The Silva Tree Panama Directors and senior staff held a meeting in Chepo to discuss the effects of the Princess Panama Project on local communities, security issues and company expansion during their recent Xmas visit. Joining Patrick Visser, Maurice Sjerps and Keren Katz for the meeting were an esteemed group of influential public figures from the local area; Herminio Rodriguez, Forestry Engineer and Director of Eco Management, Julio Lasso, Police Commissioner of East Panama, Oscar Chávez, Civil Engineer and Director of Ministry of Public Works, Lieutenant Mariel Vásquez Paredes, Head of the Judicial Investigation Department (Public Ministry) and Olmedo Barrios, Mayor of the District of Chepo. The local authorities displayed support and enthusiasm for the project and plans were made for works to begin. The road authorities provided a proposal for the upcoming road and bridge improvements, which will facilitate transportation of goods and services in and out of the local area, contributing to a better quality of life for the local community. The Mayor displayed support on behalf of the local people and district as a whole, due to the impact the project will have on the local ecosystem and quality of life for the region and all of its inhabitants. The mayor also promised to assist with the project development as much as possible. A final decision was made on the basis of the meeting: The infrastructure priorities will be to improve the road from Tres Quebradas to local villages and rebuild the 13 bridges that the road crosses. In addition, several wells will be dug by Silva Tree, in conjunction with governmental authorities and with permission from the ministry of health. With “El Niño” (the local word for the drought phenomenon) facing the community in the coming weeks, providing clean drinking water to communities is essential and this is a top priority for Silva Tree. The wells will also serve for the irrigation of the Princess Project plantation. The next stage of development will consist of improvements to housing, major road upgrades and extending electricity supplies. An education program is being devised, which will help local communities to understand the importance of their rainforests and natural resources and train them in the skills required to work in the timber industry. Long-term future improvement could include an adult education centre, extensive commercial electricity supplies to all local villages and education grants for children. The decision will be made according to surveys which are still in progress. Silva Tree Panama S.A. is a Panamanian company dedicated to environmental development, with projects across Central America. The Princess Project Panama is a commercial reforestation project, developed to meet the VCS and CCB standards and following CDM approved methodologies. For more information about Silva Tree Panama or the Princess Project Panama, please contact Keren Katz, Founding Director in charge of environmental and social impact, on keren@silvatree.com http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=104http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-02-22www.silvatree.comSilva Tree

Princess Project EIA has been completed and shows the project to have significant positive impact on the environment, including air, soil, flora fauna and human elements.

Every Panamanian reforestation project over 50 hectares must present an environmental impact assessment, or EIA, to the government. This is a comprehensive document, over 70 pages in length, which outlines the project's impact on the soil, air, flora and fauna of the project area. The effect on human populations is also recorded. The results of the EIA are very positive, showing there to be no significant negative effect on the environment, and showing highly positive attitudes to the project from local communities. The report also highlighted significant benefits to the environment and local populations. The EIA has been submitted to ANAM, the Panamanian department of environment. The main body of the report is available on the Silva Tree website in Spanish. Key extracts of the report are being translated and will be made available online shortly.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=102http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-02-05Silva TreeSilva Tree

Citadel, who hold the Princess Project in trust, are celebrating their 25th birthday this week. The company enjoys a long-standing reputation, having provided trustee services for a quarter of a century.

Citadel have several offices around the world and have been providing trustee services to a variety of organisations for many years. They are growing their alternative investment clients and the sector grows in popularity. Citadel hold Silva Tree's project in trust, including the Carbon Offset project in Costa Rica as well as the Princess Project Panama. We wish them a happy anniversary and continued success during their next quarter of a century.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=103http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-02-05Silva TreeEnvironment

Companies that rescue and restore forests to earn money by capturing carbon in trees likely expanded their operations in 2009, despite the global recession and regulatory uncertainty, capping three years of accelerating growth, according to the first-ever global survey of emerging markets in forest carbon.

The Copenhagen Accord may have disappointed many of us, but it also yielded agreement on the need to develop financing mechanisms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). For REDD to work, however, investors will have to be on board – and for that to happen, the forestry markets will have to become more transparent and trustworthy. To promote that transparency and trustworthiness, Ecosystem Marketplace spent the past year speaking with more than 100 market participants – 65 of whom develop forest protection and restoration projects, primarily in rainforest nations, and 37 of whom act as intermediaries. These participants accounted for 230 projects generating credits across 40 countries over the past 20 years. The result is State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009: Taking Root & Branching Out, which is being released today with support from the World Bank BioCarbon Fund, Biological Capital, Ecosystem Restoration Associates, and Baker McKenzie, as well as funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and the Surdna Foundation Rapid Growth and Recent Change Respondents documented the impact of carbon finance on more than two million hectares of forests over the past 20 years. That impact has resulted in the capture of nearly 70 million tonnes of carbon (MtCO2) in trees – although the bulk of this can be attributed to one massive project in the early 1990s that captured 47 MtCO2. The findings also indicate substantial shifts in growth patterns over the past three years, during which these markets have matured substantially. From 2007 through the first half of 2009 alone, forest carbon markets have funneled roughly $100 million into forestry conservation projects around the world, transacting 20.8 million MtCO2 in the process. In dollar terms, this period represents 67% of the market value of all forest carbon offsets, due to higher volumes and prices associated with emerging interest in the voluntary carbon markets overall, along with maturing standards and infrastructure. During this same period, the dominant source of forest carbon credits in the developing world appears to have shifted from Latin America to Africa, although globally North America appears to have been the top region for sourcing carbon credits in 2008, generating 42% of the volume transacted that year, followed by Africa and Latin America with 26% and 21% respectively. The survey results signal robust and growing belief in the ability of ecosystem markets to help reverse climate change. These findings were compiled before the December Copenhagen Accord, which explicitly stated the need to develop mechanisms that will reward sustainable land-use practices that capture carbon in trees. Prices on the Rise Overall, prices for forest carbon credits ranged from $0.65/ tCO2 to more than $50/ tCO2. Over time, the volume-weighted average price was $7.88/ tCO2. The compliance markets have commanded the highest prices overall, with a volume-weighted price average of $10.24/ tCO2 over time, followed by the voluntary OTC market at $8.44/ tCO2 and the CCX at $3.03/ tCO2. In 2008, the voluntary OTC market took the lead at $7.12/ tCO2, but was surpassed in June, 2009, by the compliance market, which had reached the highest volume-weighted price average across markets and over time at $12.31/ tCO2. OTC Still King OTC projects made up 90% of the total number of projects, with an additional 6% under the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). Only 4% of projects transacting credits (including ex-ante sales) were from regulated markets; half of these were from NSW GGAS and half from Kyoto-related afforestation/reforestation projects. The total historical market value tracked through the first half of 2009 was $149.2 million, of which $137.6 million arose from the voluntary market and $11.6 million from the regulated market. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=98http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-02-03Steve ZwickEcosystem MarketplaceEnvironment

Carbon offset retailers and brokers have seen increased interest in and demand for voluntary carbon credits this month, particularly from the United States.

Brokers MF Global saw an increase in demand for Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and Gold Standard credits this month. "Interest in pure-VCS credits, particularly from U.S. buyers, has increased markedly, " it said in a brokers' note. "Since this year started we have seen a huge amount interest -- mostly from the U.S. -- in carbon credits and it won't be long before the voluntary market worldwide begins really to gain some momentum," said Matthew Sullivan, chief executive of carbon offset retailer the Carbon Advice Group. The unregulated voluntary market operates outside mandatory emissions cut schemes such as the United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism or the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme. It relies on businesses to self-regulate their carbon emissions in the absence of a legally binding climate agreement and individuals' need to offset their carbon footprint. Brokers MF Global saw an increase in demand for Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and Gold Standard credits this month. "Interest in pure-VCS credits, particularly from U.S. buyers, has increased markedly, " it said in a brokers' note. Prices for Gold Standard spot voluntary emissions reductions were around 6.50 to 7.50 euros a tonne. Pure Voluntary Carbon Standard credits were $2-$2.50, while recent vintage pre-CDM voluntary carbon units were $3-$4. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=99http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-02-03IB TimesSilva Tree

The most recent seedling shipment is currently in transit from the southern US to Panama. The seedlings have been stored in a greenhouse until large enough to plant

Paulownia seedlings are grown in a warm and humid environment until they reach the size of approximately 10-20 cms. This is the optimum size for them to be transported; they are big enough to survive transit but not too big to fit into transportation boxes efficiently. Due to winter temperatures in Georgia, the young trees have to be kept in a warm greenhouse to make sure they do not go into hibernation. They then have to acclimatise to the hot dry conditions they meet upon arrival in Panama. The next batch of planting is scheduled for the end of February following the extensive acclimatisation period. Plans are being made to accelerate the seedling production by building a micro-propagation laboratory onsite at the Princess Project Panama. This would reduce the transport and acclimatisation timeframe and costs, not to mention the Carbon footprint. Research for a laboratory is underway and a decision about construction will be announced by the end of the month. If the lab goes ahead, it will create employment for up to 30 people. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=100http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-02-03Keren KatzSilva TreeSilva Tree

Silva Tree UK Ltd. is a fully incorporated UK company, registered in companies house under company number 07100240. Currently located in North London, the office will be moved to Central London at the beginning of March 2010.

Silva Tree UK Ltd. is a fully incorporated UK company, registered in companies house under company number 07100240. Currently located in North London, the office will be moved to Central London at the beginning of March 2010. Silva Tree UK Ltd is in charge of all UK operations. We expect that this new organisation will further increase the already high level of transparency which underlies the Silva Tree ethic. The company details can be found online using the companies house webcheck facility: http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/e90a94268afde97b4b7f65f415f1fed9/compdetails The new contact details for Silva Tree UK Ltd. will be distributed in our next newsletter, before the end of February 2010.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=101http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-02-03Silva TreeEnvironment

Australia, France and Canada are among nine countries that have told the United Nations they’ll accept the Copenhagen Accord, the non-binding climate-change agreement brokered last month, the UN said.

Australia, France and Canada are among nine countries that have told the United Nations they’ll accept the Copenhagen Accord, the non-binding climate-change agreement brokered last month, the UN said. With 12 days before more than 190 nations must say whether they accept the deal and detail pledges to cut emissions blamed for global warming, nine countries have said they’ll sign up while one, Cuba, has rejected it, a UN Framework Convention on Climate Change spokesman said today in an e-mailed reply. The accord was brokered on Dec. 18 by U.S. President Barack Obama, China Premier Wen Jiabao, South Africa President Jacob Zuma, India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Under the deal, countries will aim to keep the global rise in temperatures since industrialization in the 1800s to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Turkey, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Serbia, Ghana and the Maldives have notified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change they’ll accept the deal, the spokesman said. Countries have until Jan. 31 to sign the accord and list in an appendix the emissions-reductions targets and actions they’ll commit to. The U.S., Brazil, China, India and South Africa have yet to make formal submissions to the UN indicating they’ll sign up to the Copenhagen Accord, according to the UN e-mail. The 27-nation European Union, Ethiopia and Grenada were among those that indicated support for the deal in Copenhagen. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=97http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-01-21Alex MoralesBloombergSilva Tree

The Silva Tree Directors spent Xmas 2009 in Panama to see the progress on current projects in addition to planning future projects.

Rather than spending Xmas eve under the Xmas tree, Patrick Visser and Keren Katz, founding Directors of Silva Tree Panama, spent it amongst the Paulownia trees in Panama. Making the 2 1/2 hour drive from Panama City to Chepo with Forestry Engineer Herminio Rodriguez, they inspected the plantation and existing facilities. It is currently dry season in Panama, and they view that greeted them, unhindered by heavy rain, was spectacular in the sunshine. "The size of the project is very striking when standing at the top of the plantation" said Keren Katz, "and the beauty of the area is breathtaking." The two Directors were able to enter parts of the plantation that were previously uncomfortable to reach due to rain, and were surprised to discover some interesting features: The project site is adjacent to a small patch of natural primary rainforest which is protected by the governmental department of environment, ANAM. This little island of rainforest is home to Spider Monkeys, rare tree species, extremely rare spiders and birds. Herminio reports that the plantation staffs are often greeted by the inquisitive and surprisingly tame Spider Monkeys who swing in the trees nearby. "Having trees adjacent to this patch of forest is invaluable to these animals, it will allow them to escape their isolated area of forest for the first time in over 30 years" says Herminio who has known the land around Chepo all his life. Onsite facilities have been under development for several months and it was gratifying to see them taking shape. Upon inspection, additional facilities were added to the development plan, some of which will accommodate visitors to the project site. All 3 of the company owners met with the project team leaders in Panama City, and decisions were made about future projects, community benefits and company expansion which will be shared with you in due course. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=93http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-01-20Ann PuttySilva TreeSilva Tree

The Silva Tree directors held a special Christmas Party for local schoolchildren and their parents.

Silva Tree staff were unsure of the turnout they could expect when they stood at the school entrance a few days before Xmas. Christmas parties in areas of poverty and poor education are uncommon and we were unsure about how our idea would be received. Thankfully, after just a few minutes, every single child in the school approached eagerly, accompanied by parents, relatives and siblings. All the children were skipping excitedly, eager to attend the festivities and receive their presents. Touched by the children’s excitement, we distributed their gifts first, and they all sat perfectly still and beautifully well mannered throughout. A festive meal was then given to children, parents and teachers, before Forestry Engineer Herminio talked to the adults about the Princess Project. Several of the parents asked interested questions and all showed great enthusiasm for the benefits of the project to their community. Chepo is an area which is dominated by cattle and dairy farms, but land is degrading, making grazing more and more difficult, and the dry season brings with it unemployment, hunger and drought. The Princess Project promises to change the lives of the local villagers, providing dependable employment, water wells, road improvements and, most importantly, trees. Trees will improve the quality of the land, and will provide an entirely new industry for the people of the Chepo district. Then the games began, to the delight and enjoyment of not just the children! A piñata was set up in the playground and games were held including the traditional pole climbing which many fathers participated in with great enthusiasm. At the end of the afternoon, all the children walked away bearing shiny new toys and big grins. For many of them, it was the only toy they would receive this Christmas. Parents walked away with renewed hope that they will survive the increasingly long drought season due to the work that Silva Tree is doing in the area. We walked away feeling that we have the support of the community, satisfied that they all feel positively affected by our project, and humbled by the attitude and warmth displayed by the children and adults alike. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=94http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-01-20Ann PuttySilva TreeSilva Tree

The Silva Tree Directors met with local authorities, the Police and Mayor, to discuss the project in detail.

Silva Tree Directors and senior staff held a meeting in Chepo to discuss the effects of the Princess Panama Project on local communities, security issues and company expansion during their recent Xmas visit. Joining Patrick and Keren for the meeting were an esteemed group of influential public figures from the local area, the key individuals who participated being Herminio Rodriguez, Forestry Engineer and Director of Eco Management, Julio Lasso, Police Commissioner of East Panama, Oscar Chávez, Civil Engineer and Director of Ministry of Public Works, Lieutenant Mariel Vásquez Paredes, Head of the Judicial Investigation Department (Public Ministry)and Olmedo Barrios, Mayor of the District of Chepo (all pictured). The local authorities displayed support and enthusiasm for the project due to the improvements to the quality of life for the local community as well as the implications for the local wildlife and natural habitat. Police support was achieved for security matters which is imperative from a long-term project perspective in addition to providing an increasingly safe community for the local inhabitants of the region. The road authorities provided a proposal for the upcoming road and bridge improvements, which will facilitate transportation of goods and services in and out of the local area, contributing to a better quality of life for the local community as well as benefitting the project itself. The Mayor displayed support on behalf of the local people and district as a whole, due to the impact the project will have on the local ecosystem and quality of life for the region and all of its inhabitants, human and non-human alike. Chepo is a farming district, and the dry season is a difficult time for many of its inhabitants. The drought makes farming impossible, and many people turn to rainforest logging just to make ends meet during these hard months. Climate change seems to be elongating the dry season in Panama, magnifying the problem even further. By providing long-term employment for the local people, Silva Tree can bring them away from deforestation practices and provide them with a secure, sustainable income. Local leaders and the department of environment see this aspect of the Princess project as a crucial effect on the district of Chepo and the country as a whole. The mayor also promised to assist with the project development as much as possible, which is extremely positive for the company. This is a great platform on which to build upon what Silva Tree has commenced in the last twelve months. We are looking forward to the next twelve months and are heartened by what we have achieved so far and full of excitement for the achievements to come. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=95http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-01-20Ann PuttySilva TreeSilva Tree

Silva Tree agrees to help the community and local area within the district of Chepo in Panama.

Silva Tree is pleased to announce that we have agreed upon a strategy of activities designed to help the community and local area within the district of Chepo in Panama. The road is to be improved from the local village, right up to the project area, with several other villages and farms to be affected. Currently it takes well over 20 minutes to travel from the village of Tres Quebradas to the project area. In heavy rain it can take substantially longer, if access is possible at all, due to the poor road condition. During the long Panamanian wet season there can be flooding as well as landslides and to make matters worse the bridges are badly damaged, effectively leaving communities stranded and cut off from everything including sources of food and fresh water. The infrastructure improvement priorities will be to improve the road and rebuild 7-8 of the bridges in the short-term. In addition, several wells will be dug by Silva Tree, in conjunction with governmental authorities and with permission from the ministry of health. With “El Niño” (the local word for the drought phenomenon) facing the community in the coming weeks, providing clean drinking water to communities is essential and this is a top priority for Silva Tree. The wells will also serve for the irrigation of the Princess Project plantation. The Silva Tree team are extremely proud and excited about this part of the project, as these improvements are essential to the community and will markedly improve the quality of life for the local inhabitants, as well as providing essential facilities for the projects themselves. The long-term infrastructural improvement are currently in discussion and will be announced in due course. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=96http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-01-20Ann PuttySilva TreeEnvironment

Second research note predicts price of EUAs will rise to around €15 during second half of the year. In a research note released over the weekend, the bank predicted that despite downgrading its emissions forecast for the current phase of the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS), it still expected prices to recover in the medium term as energy firms hedge against the expected shortfall in emission allowances that will come into effect from 2013.

Deutsche Bank has added its voice to those of analysts saying the EU carbon market will rebound during 2010, predicting that the price of EU emission allowances (EUAs) will recover to €15–€16 a tonne by the middle of the year. In a research note released over the weekend, the bank predicted that despite downgrading its emissions forecast for the current phase of the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS), it still expected prices to recover in the medium term as energy firms hedge against the expected shortfall in emission allowances that will come into effect from 2013. "We see moderate downside risk to EUAs until mid-February, but think that thereafter utility buying could see prices revert to €15–€16 per tonne by mid-year," the note said. "This is because generators will have to hedge increasing amounts of 2013 power sales this year, and with the auctioning of 2013 EUAs unlikely before Q3 2011 at the earliest, they will have to buy Phase-2 EUAs instead." The analysis mirrors a separate research note released last week by Barclay's Capital, which similarly predicted that the average price of EUAs during the second half of the year will reach around €15 a tonne as firms seek to build up a stockpile of allowances that they can carry over for use in phase three of the ETS when it starts in 2013. The predictions could prompt speculators to purchase EUAs at the current price of around €13 a tonne, with a view to cashing in as prices rise ahead of phase threehttp://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=90http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-01-18Business Green staff Business GreenForestryDispatch: Haiti before the quake

Chris Snavely, 81, was taking on a new project: to see if he could find a species of tree that might begin to reforest Haiti. When times get tough in Haiti, trees bear the brunt. Branch by branch on dusty hillsides, they're hacked down and turned into charcoal, the country's main source of fuel.

From the window of a small, private plane, the island of Hispaniola came into view in the middle of the vast, blue Caribbean. Haiti and its neighbor on the island, the Dominican Republic, looked like two countries on a globe in a library, set apart by two different colors. The Dominican Republic was a lush green and mountainous Haiti, a rumpled blanket of brown. The six travelers were guests of fellow Pittsburgher Chris Snavely, the chairman of Snavely Forest Products, who had packed 1,000 saplings in the cargo hold. At 81, Snavely was taking on a new project: to see if he could find a species of tree that might begin to reforest Haiti. We set foot on the sweltering tarmac and pushed our belongings on a cart to customs. After ignoring the State Department warning to stay away, we wondered what lay ahead. When the papers were finished, our armed private security team hustled us outside where three white SUVs awaited. Off we went, cutting a brief path into the main flow, honking, lurching and merging into the teeming, dusty artery of cars and motorbikes, lined by people, dogs, goats and pigs. Kidnapping of foreigners was becoming common in Port-au-Prince, and our priority was getting out of there fast. In some places, high walls lined the city roads. Mainly, though, flimsy, makeshift commercial huts formed the berm, along with women balancing baskets on their heads, men pushing wheelbarrows and discarded tires and cars. Doors locked as we swung through a slow, sharp turn where the road narrowed. Carjackers often waited there, as professionals from the city -- people rich enough to have a car -- headed out of town for the weekend. The main highway led north through walls of garbage into a hilly country area, where skinny cows ranged free and dead horses occasionally lay by the roadside. Drivers generally stay on the right, but there are no lanes, no signs and no rules. On a patch of good road, the driver stepped on it, only to brake hard and nearly stop before descending into axle-breaking potholes. Village followed village with Haitians in shanties selling food or charcoal. We never saw a farm, just the occasional subsistence plot with banana or mango trees. In one small city, cars, wheelbarrows and footfalls raised a constant cloud of dust. And the people, though the deepest African black, were covered in dust, all a ghostly white. Haiti's singular history Since the first European set foot on it, Haiti has been a land of promise and cataclysm, of fable and frustration, of beauty and desperation. Christopher Columbus was the first European to make landfall on the island, in December of 1492. It took the Spanish about 25 years to exterminate the native Arawak Indians. The Spanish, however, soon lost interest in Haiti, moving on for gold elsewhere. The French took control of Haiti in 1697, logging nearly the entire mahogany stock and sending it back to Europe for furniture. They cleared more to create sugar cane plantations, bringing hundreds of thousands of African slaves to work the land. More logging fueled the mills. Haiti's prosperity earned it the name "The Pearl of the Antilles," and the position of being France's most prized colony. Soon it became a black pearl, the world's first black republic, when in 1804 the slaves revolted and finally defeated Napoleon's forces. As part of the peace, however, Haiti agreed to pay France reparations for the war, which included further deforestation of mahogany. What pride and promise the revolution held has never translated to prosperity. Now, more than 8 million people live in an area just larger than Maryland. Unemployment, to the extent that it can be counted, exceeds 70 percent, and illiteracy tops 90 percent. There are no exports to speak of. Per capita income is just over $200 a year. And a trip to a local market confirms that Haiti is not only the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and perhaps the world, it is also the end of the consumption chain. Aside from hog's heads lying in the dirt, bubbling caldrons of red broth and well-used fabrics, the market offers half-full tubes of toothpaste, used shoes and single pieces of chewing gum. The story of trees When times get tough in Haiti, trees bear the brunt. Branch by branch on dusty hillsides, they're hacked down and turned into charcoal, the country's main source of fuel. A devastating logic accompanies the loss of trees. Without trees, nothing holds the topsoil, which either blows or is washed away. The U.N. estimates Haiti loses 36 million tons of topsoil a year. Less topsoil, in turn, means fewer trees. And without trees, which breathe vapor into the atmosphere, there's less rainfall. When rain does come, the earth can't absorb it, so heavy rains become floods that kill thousands. In short, Haiti is a haunting, apocalyptic vision of ecological collapse. Against that backdrop, Snavely, Rawson and three others climbed the hill behind the Mellon house, pausing briefly in the shade by the Mellons' simple grave, before continuing to the compound's garden. In the garden, dripping with sweat, the group squatted and knelt to plant the first Paulownia trees. At hand were 8-inch-tall, miniature Lawn Boy-like bags half full of dirt. The process was simple: fill the bottom part with water, then fill the rest of the bag with dirt. The trees were just little twigs with roots. On our last day, we visited the local Catholic church. It happened to be a children's service, and the large, bright building was filled with young people dressed in their Sunday best, dark pants and skirts and white shirts. The pastor spoke, and the children sang song after song, their high, sweet voices providing the only harmony we would find in Haiti. Near the end of the service, one of the Haitians who'd helped plant the Paulownias took the podium and began a rousing speech in Creole. He gestured to Rawson and Snavely to come to the front. As he spoke and his voice rose, the entire church broke into applause, loud and long. Afterwards, on the steps of the church outside, the young churchgoers surrounded Snavely, eager to be near the man from America who had brought the trees. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=92http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-01-18Doug Heuckpost-gazette.comInvestment

The Economist magazine has stated that the average annual returns on timber, meaning managed preserves that are eventually harvested, have outstripped those from leading global stock indices, property, oil and gold for the past decade.

The Economist magazine has stated that the average annual returns on timber, meaning managed preserves that are eventually harvested, have outstripped those from leading global stock indices, property, oil and gold for the past decade. Worldwide, timber has attracted more than $20 billion of investment from institutional investors.Supporters of this trend say that managed timber reserves are good for the environment, preserving biodiversity on lands that might otherwise be logged recklessly. Plantation owners agree with the Economist. There are more and more people on our planet wanting wood products for housing, furniture, paper and more, while there are less and less forests and woodlots available. The result is a simple economic fact: Demand will continue to exceed supply, causing high prices and therefore high returns for tropical tree investors. Many people think that tropical trees are slow to grow. The first thing you need to do is get away from that kind of short term thinking, as it causes so much trouble for investors. For example, many people enter the stock market thinking that short term is one week and long term is two weeks. If you stop and think about it, what they are really doing is throwing the dice in hopes of a magical quick return on investment. As any business owner will tell you, it takes years of careful management and strategy to build a profitable business with consistent returns. Guess what, many tropical trees grow, mature and can be harvested in just 10 years time! Unfortunately, way too many public companies and mutual funds try to short term please investors, leading to poor performance in IRA’s, RRSP’s and pensions, and yes, even to scams and scandals. Once you accept that it is going to take 10 years to see a decent return, the next question is how big a return? Bank savings pay from .75% to 2% a year. Savings bonds, CD’s, GIC’s and Treasury Bills pay between 2.5% to 5% a year. People with stock portfolios are ecstatic if they can average a 10% a year return, rarely consistent and always risky. Contrast that with people who invest in low risk tropical trees and hardwoods. It is not unusual to have annual growth of from 30% to 40% non-compounded. Take plantation groups like Amazonia Reforestation, for instance. They pay their investors a return of about 33% per year non-compounded. An investment of $4,000 USD with them will produce a return on investment of $17,000 USD in 10 years time. In contrast the same $4,000 USD making 10% compound interest over 10 years produces only slightly over $10,000 USD, assuming no recessions, stock market scams or other risks. So what are the risk factors? The obvious risks are drought, fire, flood, disease and pests. All of these risk factors are greatly reduced using modern forestry practices. Acceptable losses due to risks are usually calculated and deducted by timber companies before the stated returns are offered to investors, which is a nice change. Tropical trees are planted in places where there are consistent and predictable weather patterns, making drought and flood problems minimal. Fire breaks and controlled burns of surrounding areas, together with strict underbrush controls make fire risk negligible. In fact, some species of tropical trees, like Acacia mangium, Caraipa llanorum or Acosmium nitens are actually natural fire barriers. Disease and pests are limited by multi-species cultivation, meaning a good tree plantation does not have all of its eggs in one basket. This greatly reduces the incidence of pests and diseases, which may be further controlled with spraying and frequent harvests in 10 to 12 year cycles. Best of all, the investor does not need to buy stock or shares in the forestry company. Rather, the investor has the option of buying the tropical trees directly. For example, Amazonia Reforestation issues Tree Ownership Certificates to its investors for the exact number of trees they own in the plantation. This joint venture approach has the added due diligence benefit of allowing the investor to come and see, touch and hug their trees any time they want. The plantation or forestry company provides the land, the tree nurseries, the planting, the know-how, the management, the harvesting and the ultimate sale of the timber, and shares those proceeds with the investor on a low risk, high return basis. Having a green investment in tropical trees is a low risk but high return strategy that everyone should do. Tropical trees are a good passive green investment and a great way to protect the health of our planet. They are also instrumental in sequestering carbon from our atmosphere in the fight against climate change, with groups like CO2 Tropical Trees leading the charge. If you can make money and help the planet, it is definitely the best of both worlds! http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=91http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2010-01-18AdminEconomist/toalive.comInvestment

Panama is likely to be upgraded to investment grade by at least two of the three main rating agencies over the next year. Panama has weathered the global economic storm better than even we forecasted.

Panama has weathered the global economic storm better than even we forecasted and we think that 2009 GDP expansion will be stronger than our previous already above consensus call of 2.0 percent. Indeed, GDP expansion will likely come in more than a full percentage point higher at 3.2 percent, the highest growth rate in Latin America this year. We think average annual growth in the second half will be at least 4 percent. THE NEXT INVESTMENT GRADE The Panama sovereign capitalized on positive market sentiment after the recent move to positive outlook from S&P, indicating that the sovereign is on the verge of an investment grade rating from that agency. Panama has had a positive outlook from Fitch since January of 2008 and is currently rated high double-B by all three major rating agencies (Ba1/BB+/BB+). This move by S&P does not come as a surprise, as Panama is one of the strongest names in the region and one on which we have been bullish for much time. [On November 16] Panama issued $1 billion of a 10-year bond of an approved amount of $2.5 billion. The use of the proceeds will be primarily for the refinancing of internal debt obligations as well as for other general budgetary purposes. INFRASTRUCTURE AGENDA President [Ricardo] Martinelli’s administration has a significant infrastructure agenda as well, for which the proceeds are likely to be used. The bond was issued at a spread of 187.5bps over 10-year USTs and is trading wide to comparable maturities in Peru, Mexico, and Brazil. We think there is room for Panama to converge on some of these names over the longer term. Comparable 10-year bonds are: Peru at a bid spread of 166bps, Mexico at 163bps, Colombia at 193bps, and Brazil at 133bps. We view this emission favorably as Panama is a strong fundamental credit and at the same time has been a generally illiquid name, so we recommend adding to a portfolio when there is the opportunity. We view the current spread levels in the 10-year region versus peers as fair in the short term with a longer term bias for spread compression versus comparables as Panama is upgraded by at least two of the three main rating agencies over the next year and in the run-up to the successful completion of the canal expansion. Issued at par, according to our trading desk these bonds are now trading at 100.75-100.95 at mid-day today. STRONG ECONOMY On the economic front, Panama has been posting relatively strong economic growth numbers. Second quarter GDP growth came in better than expected at +1.9 percent with first quarter revised up to +3.0 percent, bringing first half growth to 2.4 percent year-over-year. First half growth, as is usual for Panama, was spread across several sectors, including construction at 12 percent year-over-year, transportation and communications (canal-related and port activity) at 8 percent year-over-year, and mining at 13 percent year-over-year. Panama has weathered the global economic storm better than even we forecasted, and we think that 2009 GDP expansion will be stronger than our previous already above consensus call of 2.0 percent. Indeed, GDP expansion will likely come in more than a full percentage point higher, at 3.2 percent, the highest growth rate in Latin America this year. We think average annual growth in the second half will be at least 4 percent. CANAL EXPANSION According to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), the canal expansion project is on time to be completed by 2014 if not earlier and under budget (on average some $300 million below budget in every phase so far). The canal offers a $50 million incentive to finish six months early and there is a $50 million disincentive if it runs more than six months late, according to the ACP. There is very low risk of any delays due to labor issues: There are six labor unions working in the expansion project and all of these contracts have been negotiated through 2014 and 2015. Canal revenues for the period of January through July 2009 were up 9% annually despite the global economic crisis. Traffic though the canal, however, dropped off during that time period (-4.5 percent year-over-year) but pre-set increases in toll fees have compensated for lower volume. Nonetheless, in the middle of the crisis last year the canal was able to get $3 billion in multi-lateral loans to finance the expansion with a 10-year grace period and 20 years to pay the loan. There is no government guarantee on the loan; it is to the ACP itself. As global trade activity rebounds, so too will canal revenues. The canal is a key revenue contributor for the government and we think this is only set to grow in importance in coming years. According to the ACP, for every Panama Canal ton, $1 is paid to the government. Some $760 million will be given to the government this fiscal year, which has been the average contribution to the government over the last four years. Meanwhile, a minimum of $528 million must be paid to the government per year during the construction phase. The canal is clearly a key part of the fundamentally strong Panama story; indeed, in our view, after this expansion, Panama will become the logistical hub of the Americas. The Panama Canal already accounts for 5 percent of global trade activity. It is a massive and unique asset to the sovereign and its benefits will be reaped over the course of many years. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=88http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-18Kathryn G. Rooney Bulltick Capital MarketsInvestment

Trendsetters in environmentally responsible real estate development are discovering the many benefits of constructing low-density resorts in emerging markets like Panama.

Some savvy resort developers are responding to recent customer demands for exceptional natural experiences without sacrificing profitability. The key is emerging markets. Mature tourism markets have high land prices that make low-density development an unprofitable option. This results in higher-density developments, like high-rise beach hotels, which don't offer the seclusion many travelers demand. In contrast, low-density development is easy to accomplish in a destination like Panama, which is just recently emerging as a tourist destination and where land is still inexpensive. "There is pressure to discover the new location, to find the unspoiled beach and create value and outperform the market," said Liam Bailey, head of residential research for Knight Frank, in a recent New York Times article. "Land prices in first-tier markets are such that developers are forced to cram 20-40 units per acre at least, or else build ultra-luxury products that only a fraction of a percent of the population can afford," says Ben Loomis, President of Amble Resorts, an ecologically sensitive real estate development company. Loomis is preparing to break ground next year on The Resort at Isla Palenque, a private, environmentally friendly island resort community located in Panama's Gulf of Chiriqui. Popular eco tourism destinations like Costa Rica became well-known by offering secluded, natural experiences, but are now too mature to make that profitable. "Land prices there quickly reached the point where you have to build 7-story buildings to make the numbers work," says Loomis. "By buying our island in Panama before the area became well-known, we were able to achieve a price that will allow us to keep the majority of the island as a nature preserve and develop at densities of less than one unit per acre." Low-density resorts do more than offer premium experiences for their customers and profitability for their investors, they are more sustainable. In a recent study on Low and Medium Density Development, Landscape Architects Wes Michaels and Ebru Ozer found that, "Mid-sized resorts offer more opportunities to balance the demands of resort tourism with the environment and the cultural needs of the local population... The environmental savings are also beneficial for the economic vitality of the individual resorts as well as the long term sustainability of the entire region in relationship to tourism." Responsible developers agree. "What's really great is that we can have a much more beneficial impact on the local community," says Loomis. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=89http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-18Amble ResortsPRNewswireForestry

A clean fuel that's already gaining traction in Asia could be getting a toehold in Canada, just in time to help northwest B.C.'s hard-hit forest industry. DME is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be produced from biomass, natural gas or coal. It is now used as a propellant in aerosol spray cans because it is non-toxic and breaks down.

A clean fuel that's already gaining traction in Asia could be getting a toehold in Canada, just in time to help northwest B.C.'s hard-hit forest industry. Dimethyl ether, or DME, is almost unknown in North America but may soon get a big boost here from new tough emission standards coming to the U.S. DME is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be produced from biomass, natural gas or coal. It is now used as a propellant in aerosol spray cans because it is non-toxic and breaks down. In Asia, DME is increasingly used as a cooking fuel to replace coal or propane and remedy an air quality problem that in China alone kills hundreds of thousands of people annually, according to the World Bank. But DME also has the potential to replace diesel fuel because it produces 95 per cent fewer greenhouse gases, no soot, low levels of nitrogen oxide and no sulphur dioxide. Calgary-based GV Energy is proposing to build a biorefinery to produce DME in Terrace, B.C. "In a sense we stumbled on it but became very, very interested in it once we started doing the research," CEO Eric Switzer told CBC News. He first became interested in DME in 2008, while involved with two other business people in looking at setting up a fund to invest in sustainable energy technologies. That was derailed by the financial crisis, but their review of potential investment targets had left them impressed by DME's potential. Volvo's field trial with DME-powered trucks in Sweden (see sidebar) is just one example. The Volvo project will use DME made from a waste product from pulp mills called black liquor, but GV Energy wants to use wood fibre collected from the forests around Terrace. GV Energy signed a tentative agreement with Terrace in November in which the city set aside a 100-hectare site in an industrial park for the biorefinery, which is to use up to 3,000 cubic metres of wood fibre a day. The process would turn the fibre into a gas to make methanol, which would then be converted into DME. One reason for choosing Terrace is its rail connections through Vancouver and south into the California market. California passed diesel emission standards in December 2008 that require a reduction in particulate matter, or soot, by 75 per cent by 2010 and 85 per cent by 2020. Overall U.S. standards for nitrogen oxide emissions will also become much stricter in 2010. Needs long term wood supply But GV Energy's choice of Terrace was "predominately because of the trees," according to Switzer. "There are just lots of them in that area." The wood hasn't been locked up by forestry companies and there's an ample number of firms with cutting licences which would compete to be suppliers. GV Energy plans to spend the next three years doing a study on whether it can nail down a guaranteed long-term wood supply that is economic, and to find investors. If the company is successful, it will sign an agreement with the city. A biorefinery requiring a long-term wood supply would be welcomed in a region where many sawmills have closed and the forest industry is struggling. DME production would mean "a whole new use for our resources in the region here," said Sam Harling, of the Terrace Economic Development Authority. "We've had a tough go in the Terrace area and the whole northwest part of British Columbia for that matter," he said. It takes more DME to produce the same amount of energy as diesel, but Switzer's view is it could be cost competitive with diesel when the price of crude oil ranges from $75 to $85 a barrel US. Another hurdle would be the investment in infrastructure to make DME widely available, although the equipment to dispense the fuel is less of a problem because it is similar to what's already used to fill propane tanks. Switzer recognizes DME will never replace fossil fuels completely, but if the world has reached a peak oil production it could provide part of the solution. "It's very hard to make a lot of transportation fuel with biomass," he said. "We'll never be able cut enough trees to completely replace diesel fuel. Our objective is to displace just a reasonable amount of diesel and somebody else will come and displace a reasonable amount using conventional biodiesel, so over time there will be a multitude of transportation fuels that will accomplish the job."http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=85http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-17Dave SimmsCBC newsInvestment

The time to build a green business is prime right now as opportunity presents itself at a time when the economy is not what it was but will be again soon due to renewable energy innovation spurring new economic growth.

The time to build a green business is prime right now as opportunity presents itself at a time when the economy is not what it was but will be again soon due to renewable energy innovation spurring new economic growth. Savvy small business owners see the potential in an economic downturn to grab hold of a new green economy as it emerges and solar energy production is at the forefront of this movement. Risk would be limited since solar power and green energy currently make up only two percent of the current energy market. It is also possible to begin a home based startup company with little capital investment up front. There is plenty of room to expand in this new renewable energy market sector. Beginning as an associate the initial expenditure would be minimal at best. New startup companies will be in desperate need of employees as well as small business builders as solar power production increases. The future is looking bright indeed for solar power in the residential sector – no pun intended – as companies look to expand their market share. The market will look like the Wild West of old as companies compete to be the new “Green Google” of the renewable energy industry. The old economy laid waste to many careers and production labor and the new energy economy is poised to start fresh and create amazing opportunity to those victims of the economic downturn. For anyone who has been hit hard by the latest economic upheaval and is feeling the loss from what was thought to be secure employment; many prospects exist for small business in the renewable energy and solar power fields within the new green economy. As 2009 fades into memory and 2010 brings renewed hope for an emerging economy, green industry will be at the forefront. World leaders are meeting as this is written, deciding the future of the planet as it spirals to an uncertain future with a damaged climate due to burning of fossil fuels which can no longer be tolerated. The only option politicians of the world have is to utilize renewable energy to bring our polluted planet back from the brink. Green technologies and solar power – in all its forms – is directly at the forefront of their history making summit solutions. Entrepreneurs can feel the vibration of an opportunity presenting itself. The time to look into business and employment prospects in a new green economy is now.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=84http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-17Carl JosephRenewable Power NewsSilva Tree

All 3 Silva Tree owners will be spending the festive season in Panama this year, visiting local authorities, communities and staff.

The three Directors of Silva Tree Will be spending Christmas in Panama. As well as enjoying the celebrations of the season, the Directors will have a full itinerary which will include visits to the local community, meeting with the Panamanian Environmental Department ANAM and of course ensuring the smooth progress of their many projects there. Christmas day will be spent under a very special Christmas tree... in the Panamanian rainforest! We hope that their visit will bring happiness to local schoolchildren and the Silva Tree plantation team, and we look forward to seeing the photos of the trip on the website in the new year. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=86http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-17Ann PuttySilva TreeSilva Tree

Winter Sale Application forms received in 2009 have until 21st January to complete at 2009 prices

Silva Tree are extending our completion deadlines even through we are now working on Phase 2 of the Princess Project. We have decided that all Winter Sale Application forms received before 1st January 2010 will now have until 21st January to complete and still maintain the 2009 prices. So get those application forms in pronto to take advantage of the price-freeze! http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=87http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-17Ann PuttySilva TreeInvestment

The "perfect storm" of consumer interest and government investments has caught the attention of venture capitalists hoping to invest before a boom, said Emily Mendell of the National Venture Capital Association based in Arlington, Va.

The "perfect storm" of consumer interest and government investments has caught the attention of venture capitalists hoping to invest before a boom, said Emily Mendell of the National Venture Capital Association based in Arlington, Va. While public interest in nearly all things green has been strong for years, investor interest piqued only in the past two years as technologies have come closer to going to market, Mendell said. Promising solar companies are the most popular investment choices this year. "The money is actually starting to flow to clean-tech or green businesses," Mendell said. "You're going to see an awful lot of investment in green business in the next few years. . . . There's all this technology on the leading edge and VCs are trying to get into it early." Venture capitalists invested $4.1 billion in clean-tech companies in 2008, when there were 290 recorded deals, up from $76.7 million in 1995, when there were 36 deals, according to the National Venture Capital Association. Katherine Liu, founder of All Optronics, a solar-panel licensing company in Tucson, is seeking another $4 million over the next two years to fund additional staff, legal fees for patent processes and marketing. The company, seeded with out-of-pocket money, now employs two full-time and three part-time staff. Liu is targeting large solar-panel manufacturers like First Solar Inc. in Tempe, which ideally would purchase solar-panel designs from All Optronics. "Our approach is leveraging existing technology and optimizing engineering. We want to leverage to existing manufacturers," Liu said. "By leveraging, we think we have a better chance to get our product to the market place." Liu is among eight other Arizona-based companies chosen to pitch ideas to investors at the annual Invest Southwest Capital Conference from Wednesday to Friday at the Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale. "It could be difficult on the one hand because the climate for investing is not great, but green is a newer area that people are starting to get," Liu said. "It's a matter of finding a good match." So far, All Optronics has focused on such conferences to compete for funds, but in the next couple of months Liu will reach out to private investors specializing in green industries, she said. The company has applied for government funding, including from the Department of Energy, but with little luck. "It has not been easy," Liu said. "Our approach is more of a unique engineering approach than breakthrough technology. . . . The government tends to focus on things that are revolutionary. We're more evolutionary." Al Huss founded Phoenix-based Arizona Going Green, an energy auditing company, earlier this year and said he has had little interest from outside investors and is not hopeful about getting government funding. Instead, the former installation contractor is looking to partner with other energy-service providers. "I'm not sure there is any funding for this type of business," Huss said. "I see the biggest emphasis on the green is on renewables, not on process changes. . . . We're not completely self-supportive yet." Adam Boucher, president and founder of Adam Capital in Phoenix, established Ethos Fund Green Technology specifically for investing in renewable energy. The company targets smaller projects that have the potential for government rebates, like rooftop solar panels on businesses. "Historically, small banks have avoided this area because of lack of expertise but for bigger banks, the projects are too small," Boucher said. "The main reason most of these rooftops out here don't have solar panels is for lack of funding." Boucher said many businesses have approached him for financing but has had to turn many down. "We'd love to say yes to everybody, but it's a matter of limited resources this time," Boucher said. Oliver Sommer, CEO of Hercules Finance in Sedona, said that though he no longer provides seed money for startups - the company is focused only on a hedge fund. Many of those entrepreneurs have been looking for funding for years, he said. "They don't find it," Sommer said in an e-mail recently from Germany. "So how can America grow if entrepreneurs can't find $200,000? They can't even get their foot on the lowest rung of the startup financing ladder."http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=82http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-16Rebecca McClayThe Arizona Republicwww.azcentral.comForestry

British Columbia’s government has pledged to increase its forestry investment by an extra 17 per cent in order to enable the region to promote its products to the Chinese market.

British Columbia’s government has pledged to increase its forestry investment by an extra 17 per cent in order to enable the region to promote its products to the Chinese market. The money spent in the 2009/10 fiscal year on marketing in China will be $13 million, up from $8.6 million this year. British Columbia’s forests minister, Pat Bell, stated: “This increased funding allows us to pursue some tremendous near-term commercial opportunities – like roof trusses, in-fill walls and partition walls – as we continue to develop longer-term prospects like multi-storey wood-frame construction.” The extra investment comes on the heels of an increase in sales of softwood lumber from the region to China so far this year, reaching record highs of 860 million board feet. Traditionally the British Columbia forestry industry has heavily relied on the US market, but has recently diversified by focusing on marketing products to China. This move helped the region to cope with the loss of business through the housing slump in the US. China is now the top offshore market for the British Columbian forestry industry in terms of volume.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=83http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-16davidgarnerconsulting davidgarnerconsulting www.davidgarnerconsulting.wordpress.comSilva Tree

Following a highly successful pre-launch and subsequent product launch, the first phase of the Princess Project Panama has sold out in just four and a half months. The second phase is now available at 30,000 USD but prices will rise in the new year.

The Princess Project Panama consists of 1500 hectares of Paulownia plantation, a commercial hardwood which can be harvested in just 5 years. Investment in the project was made available to existing customers and agents only on a "pre-launch" basis in July 2009. Investors were invited to reserve units at a discounted rate, but did not pay any money until the project paperwork was completed in October 2009. The project went on general sale in August 2009 and was an enormous success, with phase one selling out by the beginning of December 2009. Phase two is now in full swing, with seedlings arriving at the project location in their thousands ready for planting. Even though Silva Tree are planting an enormous area of land with Paulownia (think 1800 football pitches), they expect to struggle to meet the investment demand, with planting only just keeping up with the sale of plots. Prices will go up to 32,500 USD on January 1st 2010. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=81http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-09Silva TreeInvestment

Institutional investors keen to diversify their portfolios from equities and bonds have long been attracted to timber, particularly pension funds, foundations and endowment funds.

Pension funds such as Calpers, the Californian pension scheme for public employees, led the way in the 1980s, later followed by big university endowment funds such as Harvard and Yale that were keen to diversify into alternatives. Since then timber has become less of an unconventional investment, sometimes described by investors as a real tangible asset, and a number of specialised timber funds have opened to meet growing interest. “Timber investments are attractive because they add to fund diversification and have attributes similar to infrastructure such as low correlation to other asset classes, inflation-adjusted cash flow and good long-term and renewable investments,” says Carol Dunsmore at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. At the end of last year, timber accounted for 28 per cent of the fund’s $10bn (£6bn, €6.6bn) infrastructure and forestry portfolio, about 3 per cent of the scheme’s overall net investments of $85bn. The Canadian fund, which invests directly in timber, started the portfolio eight years ago but has been investing in forestry for much longer. It invests in global plantation forestry and managed forests rather than natural forests. Another attraction of forestry investing is that when timber prices fall, there is still a “steady offset of the physical growth of the tree”, says Eva Greger, who runs GMO Renewable Resources, the large Boston-based fund manager that has been putting money into forestry since the 1990s. Experts say tree growth averages about 8 per cent a year. “If the market goes up that is an added bonus [to the tree growth]. This is what makes timberland a safe investment,” says Liane Luke, head of timber investment at Four Winds, which manages specialist fund Phaunos Timber. Last year in the financial crisis the timber price fell to a record low, but “it is picking up again”, says Ms Greger. Demand from pension funds and endowments also dropped and although it is picking up, “it is not what it was 18 months ago”. Although wood or timber prices are low, and have been for a few years, forestry prices continued to go up in 2008, says Ms Greger. Reasons contributing to this include an expected reverse of falling wood prices or increased productivity due to better utilisation [of timber], such as turning timber into biomass, a renewable energy source. “The value of a forest is the net present value of its flow of wood over time,” she says. Some of the bigger endowments and foundations have sold some timber investments, but there has not been a big sell-off, she says. “Timberland does not see a hot rush in or out,” she says. Some investors are wary of the illiquid nature of timber. But Ms Luke says timber is not totally illiquid. “You can sell the tree before it is cut so it is possible to realise assets. Some trees are fast-growing.” The Phaunos Timber fund, which is quoted on the London Stock Exchange, was launched nearly three years ago for European investors with an eye to global timber investing. Initially, its timber holdings were mostly in the US but its investment pipeline has expanded to Uruguay, where it has put money into the forestry services of the country’s growing timber management industry and greenfield plantations. It also has a joint venture in Brazil for setting up teak and eucalyptus plantations as well as an investment in China to develop fast-growing plantations. Newer markets in Eastern Europe such as Romania are also developing, although some fund managers believe forestry prices in the region are too high. GMO Renewable Resources, which has investments in New Zealand, Australia, South America and the US, has not yet invested in Scandinavia or Eastern Europe. “The price per hectare is not cheap enough for the operational risk,” says Ms Greger. GMO Renewable Resources has $1.8bn of assets under management in its forestry funds – 1.8 per cent of the asset manager’s overall managed assets. New arrivals are also eyeing global timber. Earlier this year the International Forestry Fund was set up to offer direct forestry investment to institutional investors. The fund, which is a joint venture between the Irish Forestry Fund and Switzerland’s Helvetica Wealth, invests in forestry in Ireland, the UK and Central America, growing a mixture from spruce and pine in Europe to tropical timbers such as teak, mahogany and rosewood. It targets annual returns of 7 to 10 per cent and carries an annual management charge of 1.5 per cent and a 10 per cent performance fee over 10-year Euro bond returns. Last year Pictet rolled out its PF timber fund with the aim of addressing the problem of illiquidity by investing in companies that own and/or manage forests. Investors can also gain exposure to forestry through exchange traded funds. iShares offers the S&P Global Timber and Forestry fund, while Claymore has Clear Global Timber Index ETF that aims to replicate, before expenses, the performance of the index made up of global timber companies. In spite of growing interest in forestry, the problem of climate change will also need to be evaluated and tackled. “Climate change puts more pressure on due diligence and on weather forecast risk, including fire risk and higher rainfall,” says Ms Greger. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=79http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-08Ruth SullivanFT onlineSilva Tree

In anticipation of the soon to be completed project PDD, Silva tree have been accepted by Carbon Catalog, and are now listed as a Carbon credit supplier in the official directory.

Silva Tree is developing two Carbon offset projects; a REDD (avoided deforestation) project and an A/R (reforestation) project. The REDD project is awaiting the final stage of VCS methodology approval, and the A/R project PDD will be complete by the end of January. Due to the transparency and careful design of the projects, Silva Tree expect to be able to sell the credits at PDD stage. Although already in dialogue with various credit brokers and purchasers, registration in the Carbon Catalog should further facilitate Silva Tree's Carbon credit sales. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=80http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-08Silva TreeForestry

Shares of several of Canada's largest lumber exporters have skyrocketed in the past two months as new building codes in China allowing wood in construction have cracked open a previously inaccessible market for Canada's long-suffering forestry industry.

Since Oct. 1, shares in International Forest Products Ltd. http://www.ifpcorp.com/ have soared 58.3%, while Canfor Corp. http://www.canfor.com/ and West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. http://www.westfraser.com/index.asp shares jumped 31.4% and 28.4%, respectively. The advances come in the wake of quiet implementation of new wood-frame construction codes in Shanghai in September. Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources, later attended a launch in the city in early November. "We are confident that the Shanghai Local Code provides a framework that will be easily adaptable to other cities and provinces across China," she said. David Watt, a currency strategist with RBC Capital Markets, sees this development as a breakthrough for both the lumber industry and the loonie. "This is an opportunity the Canadian lumber industry has been dreaming about for years," he said. "This gives us a chance to take advantage of a huge market that has suddenly overcome an aversion to your product." And the price of lumber has so far reflected that excitement, with lumber futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for January 2010 rising 21% since October, closing Wednesday at US$231.80. Lumber exports are also on the rise, with Pat Bell, B.C. Minister of Forests and Range, estimating that exports will reach a new high of 1.5 billion board feet for 2009, and top four billion in 2011. Canadian lumber exporters have had a difficult time convincing the Chinese that wood-frame buildings could be as stable as concrete buildings. However, deadly earthquakes in China in the past few years have likely forced the Chinese government to reconsider their stance on using the material. "With the earthquakes, it was clear some of the buildings made of wood held up a lot better," Mr. Watt said. As for ties to the Canadian dollar, he suggests lumber could be the "oil of the next decade" in how it lifts the loonie. "It may seem dramatic, but consider in 1999 a barrel of oil was US$12, so who would've thought oil would be the oil of the past decade?" he said. "Will there be an oil-like rise in lumber? Who knows? Why not?" A Vancouver-based analyst said the news is positive for Canadian lumber, but warned it was too early to know how it would affect exports. "It'll definitely help fix the supply-demand balance, so any news out there will help, but in the next year or two it won't be a huge driver," he said, noting it will take at least a year to educate construction companies about wood frames. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=78http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-07Eric LamFinancial Post Environment

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen (COP 15) is a meeting of the world's top authorities on climate change as well as world leaders, policy makers, negotiator and ministers. The talks will attempt to draw up a new global climate treaty to replace the UN's 1997 Kyoto Protocol after 2012.

In just a few days' time, Barak Obama and Gordon Brown will join more than 60 presidents and prime ministers where they will make decisions that will change the course of history and decide how we are all going to save the planet from climatic disaster. Ing. Eduardo Reyes will be attending as a representative for Panama, and will use the opportunity to discuss the position of the Silva Tree Princess Project Panama within the enviornmental sector, future carbon policy and post-2012 moves. It is a great privilege to have Ing. Reyes on board the Princess Project and to be represented at such an important event. The outcome of the Copenhagen talks in connection with the Princess Project will be communicated after the talks complete on December 20th 2009.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=77http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-05Environment

The Index of Democratic Development in Latin America, prepared by the German foundation Konrad Adenauer, indicates that Panama is among the group of countries that have improved their rating.

In this group are also Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela, according to the report, which was released yesterday in Argentina, according to an EFE communication. The index rates 18 countries across the region, measuring their degree of respect for political rights and the ability of governments to generate well-being. Also involved in its drafting was the Internet portal for Latin American policy, Polilat.com. The most recent index is led by Chile and Costa Rica, which, according to the study, registered the highest Index of Democratic Development. In fact, the measurement results indicate that, during this year, the region, on average, recorded an increase of 1 percent as compared to 2008. The results show that Chile scored 10 points, followed by Costa Rica (9.696) and Uruguay (9.262). In the second tier, Panama is highlighted with a rating of 7.191, followed by Mexico (6.490), Argentina (5.852), and Peru (5.587); all registering above the regional average of 5.238 points. They are followed by Brazil (4.514) and Colombia (4.073). No details were provided with regards to last year's scores.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=76http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-12-05Prensa PanamaPrensa.comEnvironment

The carbon market could become double the size of the vast oil market, according to the new breed of City players who trade greenhouse gas emissions through the EU's emissions trading scheme. The ETS market may see $3tn (£1.8tn) worth of transactions a year in the next decade or two, according to Andrew Ager, head of emissions trading at Bache Commodities in London, with it even being used as a hedge against falling equities or rising inflation.

The ETS market may see $3tn (£1.8tn) worth of transactions a year in the next decade or two, according to Andrew Ager, head of emissions trading at Bache Commodities in London, with it even being used as a hedge against falling equities or rising inflation. "It is still a relatively new industry with annual trades of around €300bn every year. But this could grow to around $3tn compared to the $1.5tn market there is for oil," says Ager, who used to be a foreign currencies trader. The speed of that growth will depend on whether the Copenhagen summit gives a go-ahead for a low-carbon economy, but Ager says whatever happens schemes such as the ETS will expand around the globe. Last week Australia gave its strongest sign yet that it would establish its own trading market, while the US is moving towards a similar scheme in a bid to find market-based ways to accelerate the transition to a lower carbon economy. Many political leaders, especially in industrialised countries, are enthusiastic: carbon markets hold the promise of cost-efficient emission cuts without the need for taxpayer funding. But their enthusiasm to place carbon markets at the heart of the Copenhagen treaty is matched by growing criticism of the concept, and not just from environmentalists opposed to free market solutions. Peter Voser, Shell's chief executive, has called on governments to introduce a carbon tax or a minimum price for CO² because – as he told the Guardian – the ETS was failing to deliver sufficient incentives to kickstart expensive technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). John Browne, a former boss of BP and an early ETS promoter, has also expressed reservations about such schemes, saying it was "wrong" to place all your faith in them. Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy, warned of the dangers of a "sub-prime" crisis inside the ETS if complex financial instruments were created by market participants. The key problem seems to be that ETS carbon prices have remained resolutely low, thwarting low-carbon, high-cost investment. Carbon is currently trading at around $13 a tonne but many believe it needs to be $30, if not $50, to deliver a decisive boost for clean technologies such as wind, solar, CCS and nuclear power.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=75http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-11-30Terry MacalisterNew Energy FinanceSilva Tree

Silva Tree are very proud to announce that Ing. Eduardo Reyes has been contracted to work on the Princess Project Panama. The Vice Minister of environment for Panama (ANAM), Ing. Reyes, will conduct the environmental impact assessments as well as oversee the Carbon mitigation status of the project.

It is difficult to summarise Eduardo Reyes' expertise; they range from holding top governmental positions to representing Panama in front of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). A leading speaker on the Carbon market, Chairman of the Host Country Committee of the World Bank (WB), and potential Executive Board member of the Kyoto Protocol, few people in the world are more highly qualified in the environmental sector. It is an honour to have Ing. Reyes on board with the Princess Project and we believe that his involvement will prove to be of enormous benefit to this project and future endeavors. Having the Vice Minister of environment himself as a part of our team is a great indication of the level of support and enthusiasm that Silva Tree have received in Panama, a country which is aware of its environmental obligations and keen to curb climate change. Ing. Reyes will oversee the environmental and socioeconomic developments of the project in line with the VCS standard as well as national rules and regulations. His team will conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for every phase of the Princess Project and will oversee the Carbon credit achievement of the project. As an active policy maker in the Carbon market (both private sector and CDM), Ing. Reyes is in the rare position of being able to establish the Carbon benefits of the project using first hand knowledge held by a select few, and will even be consulting about the Princess Project with world authorities at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference which he will be attending on behalf of Panama next month. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=74http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-11-19Silva Tree StaffSilva TreeSilva Tree

The second seedling planting phase is now complete, with unexpected levels of success. Despite heavy rainfall and high humidity, the young trees have survived in the field with an exceptionally low mortality rate of just 1.3%

This is perhaps thanks to the completion of the acclimatisation area which allows the seedlings to adapt to the tropical climate found in Panama as well as grow under protected conditions until they are strong enough for the open field. The recently completed acclimatisation area performs a variety of essential tasks: The elevated shelves upon which the seedlings are placed allows them to aerate thus adapting more easily to the high humidity of Panama's rainy season. Similarly, the young saplings are shielded from strong rains and winds, a factor which was especially relevant recently when hurricane Ida passed above Panama bringing with it slightly higher winds and rainfall. The structure is designed to allow sunlight to reach the seedlings whilst shielding them from the elements; they acclimatise for approximately two weeks before being planted. The current acclimatisation area can hold thousand of seedlings and has been built to accommodate the high number of plants required for the Princess Project. Staff shortages and heavy rainfall have slightly slowed the planting progress, but the second planting phase has now been completed with great success. An exceptionally low mortality rate of just 1.3% was recorded, which reflects the robust nature of the Paulownia tree. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=73http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-11-19Silva Tree StaffSilva TreeSilva Tree

Silva Tree holds a great deal of importance to the comfort and security of its staff, and the Princess Project field workers are no exception. A variety of improvements are being made to existing facilities to ensure the best possible working conditions are maintained.

An onsite structure designed to house approximately 25 people is currently being developed. The farmhouse will contain bedrooms, bathrooms, communal areas and terraces for field workers, Managers, Engineers and visitors. Materials have been purchased and construction began on the 5th November 2009. This additional accommodation will enable people who are seeking work from all over the country to participate in the project, providing sleeping quarters and modern living facilities which many people currently do not have. The Princess Project is equivalent to 20% of the annual reforestation in Panama in 2008, and has created so much employment that the local jobseekers have all been contracted. People from other areas are now being recruited to meet the ambitious task of planting 1000 hectares of land (the size of 926 maximum sized football pitches) and accommodation has to be supplied for them. A core principle at the heart of the Princess Project is the alleviation of poverty in Panama and the ability to recruit people from afar will enable those in need of work to join in the project regardless of where they come from. The project caretaker's house is also undergoing some refurbishment in the form of improving the floor and repainting; this work has also begun. In order to maintain good food hygiene, a general kitchen is being constructed to service all food preparation requirements on the project site. The facilities are being built in line with Panamanian hygiene safety regulations and the VCS certification guidelines. This development is in the final stages of completion and pictures will be made available on the Silva Tree photo diary soon. Finally, a top hydrologist has been contracted to provide plumbing for drinking water and sewage facilities. In addition to the comfort and health of the project staff, these facilities will prevent the contamination of the project's soil and waterways. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=72http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-11-19Silva Tree StaffSilva TreeSilva Tree

Seedlings have been planted in the first phase of the Princess Project Panama, having acclimatised sufficiently. Silva Tree Director Maurice Sjerps and Forestry Engineer Ing. Herminio Rodrigues Guerrero personally oversaw and partook in the first planting of the young trees.

Seedlings have been planted in the first phase of the Princess Project Panama, having acclimatised sufficiently. Silva Tree Director Maurice Sjerps and Forestry Engineer Ing. Herminio Rodrigues Guerrero personally oversaw and partook in the first planting of the young trees. They have taken very well to the Panamanian soil and are enjoying the ample rainfall provided by the current rainy season. The trees will only need to be watered for the first few weeks of their life so will not require any irrigation. This planting is the start of the challenging task of planting the full 1000 hectare plantation, creating so many jobs for the local community that the Project Managers are struggling to find enough manpower. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=71http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-11-02Silva Tree staffSilva TreeSilva Tree

Having flown in from the USA, the second batch of seedlings to be sent to the Princess Project arrived safely in Panama. The trees were then driven to the Project location on a truck.

Having flown in from the USA, the second batch of seedlings to be sent to the Princess Project arrived safely in Panama. The trees were then driven to the Project location on a truck. The second delivery time was approximately halved since the first, making the process less traumatic for the young trees. Although Paulownia is a very robust species, travel can dehydrate and suffocate very young seedlings, causing them some distress which they need to be allowed to recover from. The improved transport method and time ensured the second seedlings arrived less stressed, thus will require less acclimatisation time. The third seedling delivery is expected to be improved further.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=70http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-11-02Silva Tree StaffSilva TreeSilva Tree

Following his recent visit to the USA, company Director Patrick Visser came back to the Silva Tree UK office with an investment guarantee beyond all expectations.

The Princess Project was due to qualify for a bank bonded timber purchase guarantee but, due to the volatility of the banking world, a second more secure option was pursued in the form of a liability insurance policy. During Mr. Visser's final trip to the US, an insurance policy which will secure the investor for the full investment term was agreed and signed by the World Paulownia Institute, the project's timber buyer. The policy underwrites WPI's obligation to pay for the Princess Project timber in the unlikely event that WPI are unable to honour their buyback agreement. The policy's annual fee will be held in escrow by Citadel Trustees to ensure the policy is maintained throughout the investment lifetime. This unique feature of Silva Tree's latest project ensures that investors will receive their returns regardless of the future of Silva Tree or World Paulownia Institute because their returns are insured, attributing the Princess Project with the safest investment structure currently available. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=68http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-10-27Silva Tree staffSilva Tree PanamaSilva Tree

The second shipment of seedlings headed for the Princess Project Panama has now been released by the World Paulownia Institute.

The second shipment has gone even more smoothly than the first, with the seedlings spending less time in transit and being subjected to less extreme temperature changes. The seedlings are expected to arrive in Panama shortly, and our photo diary will be updated with images of their arrival. WPI have set up a heated greenhouse structure to accommodate the winter cultivation of Paulownia seedlings destined for the Princess Project, and the system is proving to be highly successful. With 1000 hectares to be planted, they have their winter work cut out in supplying plants quickly enough to meet Silva Tree's reforestation schedule. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=69http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-10-27Silva Tree StaffEnvironment

According to researcher and writer Rhett Butler, who runs the critically acclaimed website, Mongabay.com, tropical rainforests are incredibly rich ecosystems that play a key role in the basic functioning of the planet. They help maintain the climate by regulating atmospheric gases and stabilizing rainfall, and provide many other important ecological functions.

Pinning down exact numbers is nearly impossible, but most experts agree that we are losing upwards of 80,000 acres of tropical rainforest daily, and significantly degrading another 80,000 acres every day on top of that. Along with this loss and degradation, we are losing some 135 plant, animal and insect species every day—or some 50,000 species a year—as the forests fall. According to researcher and writer Rhett Butler, who runs the critically acclaimed website, Mongabay.com, tropical rainforests are incredibly rich ecosystems that play a key role in the basic functioning of the planet. They help maintain the climate by regulating atmospheric gases and stabilizing rainfall, and provide many other important ecological functions. Rainforests are also home to some 50 percent of the world’s species, Butler reports, “making them an extensive library of biological and genetic resources.” Environmentalists also point out that a quarter of our modern pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, but less than one percent of the trees and plants in the tropics have been tested for curative properties. Sadly, then, we don’t really know the true value of what we’re losing as we slash, burn, and plant over what was once a treasure trove of biodiversity. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), overall tropical deforestation rates this decade are 8.5 percent higher than during the 1990s. While this figure pertains to all forests in the world’s tropics, researchers believe the loss of primary tropical rainforest—the wildest and most diverse swaths—has increased by as much as 25 percent since the 1990s. Despite increased public awareness of the importance of tropical rainforests, deforestation rates are actually on the rise, mostly due to activities such as commercial logging, agriculture, cattle ranching, dam-building and mining, but also due to subsistence agriculture and collection of fuel wood. Indeed, as long as commercial interests are allowed access to these economically depressed areas of the world, and as long as populations of poor rural people continue to expand, tropical rainforests will continue to fall. Some scientists see light at the end of the tunnel. Joseph Wright of the Panama-based Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute says the tropics now have more protected land than in recent history, and believes that large areas of tropical forest will remain intact through 2030 and beyond: “We believe that the area covered by tropical forest will never fall to the exceedingly low levels that are often predicted and that extinction will threaten a smaller proportion of tropical forest species than previously predicted.” Only time will tell whether Wright’s optimistic predictions ring true, or whether a more doomsday scenario will play out. To stay informed and be part of the solution, stay tuned to the websites of Rainforest Action Network, Rainforest Alliance, the Rainforest Site and, of course, Mongabay.com. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=63http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-10-13Earth TalkHealthNewsDigest.comEnvironment

The frogs are dying. From Canada to Panama, swamps have gone still and rivers silent; insects the amphibians would have devoured proliferate. Creatures with 100 million-year histories have begun disappearing so fast biologists can hardly keep pace. In a decade, half of the 6,000 known species of amphibians may be gone.

And it's not just frogs. Panda and polar bears, falcons and vultures -- along with certain species of lynx, turtles, fish, deer and rodents -- could disappear within the next decade or two. Hundreds of island birds are already gone; more are artificially maintained in captive breeding programs. With the climate in carbon-induced chaotic flux, "we are experiencing the Sixth Great Extinction event on Earth," writes primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall in "Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued From the Brink." And yet Goodall, who has watched the Gombe chimpanzees she has tried to save continue to lose habitat and die of disease, refuses to grieve. "Whilst we become despairing or angered as we see how our own prolific and self-centered species continues to destroy," she writes, "there is yet a feeling of hope." That hope is seductive: Environmentalists long to believe we've arrived at the moment of reckoning -- the moment, as Barack Obama put it during the 2008 presidential campaign, "when the rise of the oceans began to slow and the planet began to heal." But Goodall offers little evidence for such optimism. Yes, the peregrine falcon has bounced back, now that large concentrations of DDT in the environment no longer thin the birds' eggshells. And the American crocodile has made a peculiar recovery near Key Largo, thriving in the 150 miles of canals built to cool effluent from Florida Power & Light's Turkey Point power station. But these successes are old stories. Goodall doesn't mention that Turkey Point is not just any power plant but a nuclear power plant, and its role in the reptile's ironic recovery is a public relations coup for that industry. Nor does she bring up the long-simmering campaign to bring back DDT on the grounds that there's no better way to defeat malaria. (DDT is still used indoors to control mosquitoes in certain African countries.) Perhaps the real story would inspire more paralyzing hopelessness than action. And action, or at least funding for conservation projects, is what Goodall is after. So she puts on a brave face and tidies up the accelerating tragedy. In sections subtitled "Never Giving Up" and "The Heroic Struggle to Save Our Island Birds," her narrative -- written with Gail Hudson and accompanied by field notes from Cincinnati Zoo director Thane Maynard -- tries to offer look-on-the-bright-side updates about some 35 species on the U.S. endangered species list or the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's "Red List." Not one to brood over losses, Goodall instead spends her time honoring the would-be saviors: scientists, filmmakers and lay conservationists who take her on tours and offer souvenirs, such as an antler shed from a tiny Chinese deer that now survives in a cordoned-off preserve or a 26-inch wing feather from a California condor. In return, she tells their stories, playing up triumphs and glossing over controversies. When all hope for restoring a habitat seems to be lost, Goodall puts her faith in zoos. A realist's approach Such faith is controversial, but it isn't surprising: She is a realist, and after a creature has "winked out," as biologists put it, there's no getting it back. Captive breeding and zoo protection is especially valuable when a single toxin in the environment has caused a dramatic population decline: Goodall writes heartbreakingly about three species of Asian vulture that have been dying off by the millions, poisoned by a cheap veterinary painkiller called Diclofenac that turns up in the carrion they feed on. Fewer than 1% of the 87 million vultures that once darkened the skies over India now remain. (When Goodall wrote her book it was 3%, which gives you a sense of the speed of the loss.) Carrion-borne illnesses and rabies have spread exponentially as feral dogs take over the vultures' job. "It just goes to show that we have no idea how human-caused species declines will later impact humans," Jemima Parry-Jones, director for the International Centre for Birds of Prey, tells Goodall. Indeed, the species we run the risk of endangering may be our own. And still we don't stop. "Homo sapiens, the serial killer of the biosphere," Edward O. Wilson once wrote, "reaches to the far corners of the earth." In fact, so much has gone wrong -- so much melting, disappearing, burning, eroding; so much destruction that none of us has any power to arrest -- it feels sad even to talk about it. Perhaps that's why, after the strain of reading Goodall's effort to squeeze hope out of tragedy, it's a relief simply to read about nature -- not an argument for nature or a defense of nature, but rather a keenly observed portrait of the world. "How marvelous it is to be alive on a planet that produces trees that grow leafy, bloom and broadcast scent," Diane Ackerman exults in "Dawn Light: Dancing With Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day." "Also that we evolved to appreciate them. After all, we didn't need to, they don't bloom for our pleasure." The connected life Ackerman, the author of "A Natural History of the Senses" and "The Zookeeper's Wife," bases this new book in the first flicker of morning, but "Dawn Light" extends far beyond a time of day into a general celebration of our continually renewed existence. We are not separate from those trees, the author insists; we are always in nature, of nature. She saves squirrels from her swimming pool so often they learn to swim toward her net; she talks to wild starlings, who talk back like parrots. She finds in dogs, construction workers and neighbors characteristics of the world's wilder creatures. "Shaggy-haired with a soup-strainer mustache, he looks like a sloth," Ackerman notes of a familiar man walking past, before observing that the two- or three-toed tree creature's slow pace allows "a complete ecosystem of bugs, bacteria, and other bionts" to live in its fur. "For all I know, the hairy man might be giving asylum to an equal number of freeloaders," she observes; after all, we all do. Ackerman writes with clear-eyed consciousness about the current condition of the Earth; she does not flinch from dead baby birds fallen from their nests any more than she turns away from evidence of the changing climate. In a chapter called "Calamity of the Cranes," she laments the near loss of the whooping crane, the population of which declined from 10,000 to 15 between the arrival of the first Europeans in North America and the 1930s. Here, she and Goodall serendipitously converge, both writing from their separate vantage points about efforts to save North America's only native crane and the epic service performed by biologists Joe Duff and Bill Lishman, founders of Operation Migration. Dressed in white and carrying crane puppets, the men and their crew climb into ultralight planes to teach captive-born birds how to migrate. They "appear to belong to an arcane religious church," Ackerman writes, "the Order of Refined Destiny, or perhaps the Celebrants of the Crane." To Goodall, who gets a ride in the plane, it's all good: She is comforted by the "people who have devoted their lives to ensuring that the whooping crane shall not vanish from the marshlands and prairies, rivers and skies, of North America." Ackerman, by contrast, learns of a flock of 80 patiently nurtured birds struck dead by lightning -- a huge loss to a population that numbers fewer than 400 in the wild -- and channels her grief into a mediation on extinction. "There are some conversations with nature we can no longer have," she writes. "Without them, how full is our sense of life on Earth?" That question, of course, remains unanswered, something to ponder as we weigh the costs of salvaging what we have left -- the honeybees, the orb-weaving spiders, the mountains and oceans that 18th century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai dramatized in paintings and prints, inspiring Claude Monet to see the Seine in a light that forever altered Western painting. In Ackerman's view, it's all knit together, this life on Earth, all connected and glorious. And there's no better time to reexamine it than at first light. Lewis writes about energy and environmental issues. She is a contributing editor to High Country News.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=64http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-10-13Jane Goodall & Diane AckermanLA TimesEnvironment

White House science czar John Holdren has predicted 1 billion people will die in “carbon-dioxide induced famines” in a coming new ice age by 2020.

As WND previously reported, Holdren predicted in a 1971 textbook co-authored with Malthusian population alarmist Paul Ehrlich that global over-population was heading the Earth to a new ice age unless the government mandated urgent measures to control population, including the possibility of involuntary birth control measures such as forced sterilization. Holdren’s prediction that 1 billion people would die from a global cooling “eco-disaster” was announced in Ehrlich’s 1986 book “The Machinery of Nature.” Holdren based his prediction on a theory that human emissions of carbon dioxide would produce a climate catastrophe in which global warming would cause global cooling with a consequent reduction in agricultural production resulting in widespread disaster. On pages 273-274 of “The Machinery of Nature,” Ehrlich explained Holdren’s theory by arguing “some localities will probably become colder as the warmer atmosphere drives the climactic engine faster, causing streams of frigid air to move more rapidly away from the poles.” (Emphasis in original text.) “Global Warming or Global Governance? What the media refuse to tell you about so-called climate change” The movement of the frigid air from the poles caused by global warming “could reduce agricultural yields for decades or more – a sure recipe for disaster in an increasingly overpopulated world,” Ehrlich wrote. Holdren and Ehrlich had previously articulated the theory in their 1973 textbook “Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions” in which they argued on page 198 that the main effect of carbon-dioxide-induced global warming “might be to speed up circulation patterns and to bring arctic cold farther south and Antarctic cold farther north.” In their 1970s textbook, “Ecoscience: Population, Resources and Environment,” last revised in 1977, Holdren together with co-authors Paul and Anne Ehrlich argued on page 687 that “a man-made warming trend might cancel out a natural cooling trend.” Equivocating between whether human-caused global warming or global cooling were the more likely future trend, the authors concluded that, either way, any rapid climate change would produce an eco-disaster because any rapid change in climate, regardless whether toward global warming or global cooling, would produce hazardous effects upon agriculture and food production. Still, worrying that human-caused climate changes either toward global warming or global cooling would be rapid, the authors concluded “there is no leeway in the world situation to absorb a significant climate-induced drop in production over broad areas of the world.” “Whatever adjustments in crop characteristics and cultivation patterns might eventually be made in response to rapid climate change would come too late to save hundreds of millions from famine,” the authors argued on page 688. (Emphasis in original text.) On page 377, the authors returned to their constant theme: The only way to control a foreseen increasing global food crisis was to control population. Noting that a 1967 presidential science advisory commission had concluded that the solution to the “world food problem” likely after 1985 “demands that programs of population control be initiated now.” (Emphasis in original text.) Commenting on the conclusions of the 1967 presidential advisory report, the authors wrote, “We emphatically agreed then, and the situation is even more urgent today.” Biofuels and world hunger Examining Holdren’s extensive publications, WND does not find him balancing his concern that anthropomorphic-induced climate change will cause world hunger with a concern that the production of biofuels to reduce carbon emissions could itself be a source of global famine. WND has reported that, ironically, a major cause of world famine has not been climate change but the increased cost of basic food products including corn caused by the production of biofuels such as ethanol. A controversial report released earlier this month by the Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, documented that the increasing demand for corn to produce ethanol contributed between 10 to 15 percent to an overall 5.1 percent increase in the price of food from April 2007 to April 2008, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. “Producing ethanol for use in motor fuels increases the demand for corn, which ultimately raises the prices that consumers pay for a wide variety of foods at grocery stores, ranging from corn syrup sweeteners found in soft drinks to meat, dairy and poultry products,” the CBO concluded. An International Monetary Fund assessment was even more pessimistic. “With respect to food, biofuels policies in some advanced economies are spilling over to the price of key food items, particularly corn and soybeans,” John Lipsky, first managing director of the IMF, told the Council on Foreign Relations May 8, 2008. “IMF estimates suggest increased demand for biofuels accounts for 70 percent of the increase in corn prices and 40 percent of the increase in soybean prices.” In an article entitled “How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor,” published in the Council on Foreign Relations Foreign Affairs magazine for May/June 2007, economists C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer concluded that if the prices of staple foods increase because of the demand for biofuels, “the number of food-insecure people in the world would rise by over 16 million for every percentage point in the real prices of staple foods.” Runge and Senauer projected that as many as 1.2 billion people could be chronically hungry by 2025, with 600 million more than previously projected, with the increase being due to the production of biofuels. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=65http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-10-13WND.comWnd.comSilva Tree

After a long and dangerous journey from the US, the Paulownia seedlings have arrived at the Princess Project site in Panama, fully hydrated, healthy and dry despite heavy rainfall in the area.

Several members of the Silva Tree team worked long and hard to ensure the fragile Paulownia seedlings did not fall prey to the elements whilst being transported across several countries from Georgia in the USA all the way to Panama. The trademarked, patented Paulownia clones which are sold exclusively by the World Paulownia Institute were carefully chosen for the project because they produce healthy, disease resistant, fast growing trees. The seedlings were carefully packed and checked by US personnel as well as an independent forestry engineer upon arrival in Panama. Having passed the quality checks, they were sent in the dark to the Princess Project site where they will acclimatise for the next few days before being planted. More images can be found on the Princess Project photo diary page (link: http://www.silvatree.com/photo-diary.html)http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=66http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-10-13Silva Tree staffSilva TreeSilva Tree

The wait for the Princess Project bank bonded buy back guarantee is coming to an end. Patrick J Visser, Founding Director of Silva Tree Panama, has made the journey to Georgia for a final meeting with the financial institutions who will deliver the bonded guarantee for the sale of the project's timber.

The bank guarantee is an extra safety precaution for Silva Tree and private investors alike, which will ensure that the project's timber will sell and thus that returns will be generated. Silva Tree pride themselves on being the only timber investment opportunity provider to offer bank guaranteed returns, so far as is known, and this final meeting is expected to deliver the final draft of the bonded agreement. Mr Visser will return from Georgia next week and Silva Tree customers will be updated, as always, on his progress.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=67http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-10-13Silva Tree staffSilva TreeEnvironment

Research permits were provided by Panama's National Environmental Authority, ANAM, and meteorological data by the Panama Canal Authority, ACP. For 16 years, Srygley and colleagues tracked the progress of lemony yellow Sulfur butterflies, Aphrissa statira, a species found from Mexico to Brazil, as they migrate across central Panama from Atlantic coastal rainforests to the drier forests of the Pacific coast.

A high-speed chase across the Panama Canal in a Boston Whaler may sound like the beginning of another James Bond film—but the protagonist of this story brandishes a butterfly net and studies the effects of climate change on insect migrations at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. "Our long-term study shows that El Niño, a global climate pattern, drives Sulfur butterfly migrations," said Robert Srygley, former Smithsonian post doctoral fellow who is now a research ecologist at the US Agricultural Research Service, the chief scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Climate change has been linked to changes in the migration of butterflies in North America and Europe but this is one of the first long-term studies of environmental factors driving long-distance migration of tropical butterflies. For 16 years, Srygley and colleagues tracked the progress of lemony yellow Sulfur butterflies, Aphrissa statira, a species found from Mexico to Brazil, as they migrate across central Panama from Atlantic coastal rainforests to the drier forests of the Pacific coast. "The El Niño Southern Oscillation—a global climate cycle—turns out to be the primary cause for increases in the plants that the larvae of these butterflies eat. El Niño results in dry, sunny days in Panama, which favor plant growth. When the plants prosper, we see a big jump in the number of Statira Sulfur butterflies." Peak Sulfur butterfly migrations take place a month after the rainy season begins in Panama. Because butterfly development—from egg to larva to pupa to adult—takes about 22 days in the laboratory, Srygley thinks that these butterflies lay their eggs on new leaves produced by vines only four or five days after the rains begin. His team tracked the production of new leaves by two of the butterflies' host plants for 8 years. Drier years resulted in more new leaves. The number of migratory butterflies was greatest in El Niño years, with one exception. The El Niño Southern Oscillation is a global-scale climate phenomenon characterized by changes in sea surface temperatures. In Panama, El Niño years have less rainfall during the dry season and higher plant productivity, with the one exception being an unusually wet El Niño year. El Niño is global in its impact. In deserts and tropical seasonally-dry forests world-wide, a warm tropical Pacific Ocean surface is associated with increased rainfall resulting in seed germination and plant growth. The effects of increased primary productivity cascade upward into higher trophic levels resulting in periodic outbreaks of herbivorous species and migratory activity. Neotropical wet forests are different because El Niño years are drier, but moderate drought results in increased primary productivity similar to that in desert and tropical dry forests. Thus the lowland forests of Panama fall into a set of habitats encircling the globe in which insect migrations are larger during El Niño years. However the Panamanian wet forest is in a class of forests that have the greatest abundance and diversity of herbivorous insects in the world, "It is like we had seen the tip of the iceberg and suddenly we realize its true size", Srygley suggested. The authors predict widespread insect migrations during El Nino years. According to Srygley, "Understanding how global climate cycles and local weather influence tropical insect migrations should ultimately improve our ability to predict insect movements and effects such as crop damage." This research is presented in the journal Global Change Biology and was conducted with support from the Smithsonian Institution and the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration. Research permits were provided by Panama's National Environmental Authority, ANAM, and meteorological data by the Panama Canal Authority, ACP, and the Terrrestrial-Environmental Science Program of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. STRI, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=62http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-10-07Beth Kingwww.stri.org.Silva Tree

The plot of land purchased for the first phase of the Silva Tree Princess Project Panama has been cleared and cleaned in preparation for planting of the seedlings.

The plot of land purchased for the first phase of the Silva Tree Princess Project in Panama has been cleared and cleaned in preparation for planting of the seedlings. Staff have been contracted from the local population for both the clearing and the planting of the land and are standing by for the arrival of the Paulownia seedlings. The project site has been used as cattle grazing land for many years and, as such, contained little visible plantlife, limited to just brush, grass and small bushes. Strong weeds, bushes and grasses can create competition for young seedlngs, however, so the land had to carefully cleared and prepared for planting. Care has been taken to ensure that any native trees or important plants in terms of animal migration, biodiversity or protected species, have been left to stand. Similarly, a patch of trees by the stream that flows through the land has been left to maintain its banks and water quality. To see latest images of the cleared land, please go to our new online photo diary at www.silvatree.com http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=60http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-09-29Silva Tree staffSilva TreeSilva Tree

You can now track the progress of the Princess project online via our photo diary. This feature contans images and captions of what is happening to the project and is updated at every significant development.

Silva Tree believe in involving everyone in our projects' progress. We want you to be able to see exactly what we are doing and when. Since the project is in a fairly remote location and the abiltiy for our cutomers and supporters to visit it is limited, we decided to bring the project to life via our website. You can now track the progress of the Princess project online via our photo diary. This feature contans images and captions of what is happening to the project and is updated at every significant development, from community projects to planting and watering. A link to the photo diary can be found on our home page: www.silvatree.com or use the following url to view the photo diary now: http://www.silvatree.com/photo-diary.html We hope you enjoy this new feature, please let us know if you have any suggestions on how to further involve you in our projects' progress. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=61http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-09-29Silva Tree staffSilva TreeForestry

A milestone in the history of forest conservation has been marked in the dense tropical rainforests of Panama’s eastern Darien region. As part of a sustainable forest management and trade project coordinated by WWF, the region’s first sustainable harvesting plan has been launched, ensuring that forest areas are cut in 25-year cycles.

A milestone in the history of forest conservation has been marked in the dense tropical rainforests of Panama’s eastern Darien region. As part of a sustainable forest management and trade project coordinated by WWF, the region’s first sustainable harvesting plan has been launched, ensuring that forest areas are cut in 25-year cycles. “This ensures that logging does not exceed what the forest can regenerate,” said Mauro Salazar, WWF Central America’s Forestry Director. Under the plan, a limited number of mature trees are harvested the first year in one forest area, cutting only four to five trees per hectare so that the forest’s ecological integrity is not harmed. The oldest seed-producing trees are not cut down so as to ensure the survival of the species. The following year logging would be allowed in a second area so that tree species in the first area could regenerate. A similar practice will continue in other areas throughout the forest over a 25-year logging cycle. When this cycle comes to an end, a new one will start again in the first area. This model is based on the “Forests Forever” concept which takes into account the principles and criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council, the world’s leading forest certification organization. (more) “This overarching approach represents a practical tool for long-term conserving, especially as the forest remains nearly intact after an extraction,” Salazar added. ”At the same time it contributes to poverty alleviation.” WWF promotes responsible forest management and trade as one of the best ways to conserve the forests over the long term, helping communities that own the forest to generate tangible economic benefits through careful resource management. “The project means taking care of the forest, protecting it and creating jobs for our communities,” said Franklin Mezúa, an indigenous leader from the Embera-Wounaan community who has been promoting responsible forest management in the Darien’s Tupiza River area for several years. “Before we were working with the WWF model, timber companies took advantage of our indigenous communities by buying large amounts of wood and leaving little benefit for us, at prices way below market levels,” Mezúa added. “Today we have higher earnings and we are sure that our children will enjoy these beautiful forests.” END NOTES: • The WWF-coordinated sustainable forest management and trade project is being carried out by local Embera-Wounaan indigenous groups, with support from the Panamanian National Environment Authority, national NGOs, forestry industry and others. • Additional support is provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Economic Community, Sustainable Development Project of the Darién (IDB), Fundación Natura, National Secretariat of Science and Technology (SENACYT), UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Global Forest Trade Network (GFTN). http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=58http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-09-21Don winnerPanama GuideSilva Tree

As of today, the Silva Tree telephone and fax numbers will change to the following: Tel: 02084572924 Fax: 02084572925

Silva Tree have recently moved their UK presence to new offices in North London. As of today, the Silva Tree telephone and fax numbers will change to the following, and the old numbers will cease to work from Wednesday 23rd September: Tel: 02084572924 Fax: 02084572925 Emails will remain the same as before. Kindly amend your telephone book contact details accordingly. Apologies for any inconvenience or confusion caused by this. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=59http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-09-21Silva Tree staffInvestment

The Princess Project prelaunch, which ran for just once month, sold out completely within the allocated period due to overwhelming interest in the project.

The prelaunch period ran from the 15th July to the 15th August and constituted the first phase of the Princess Project. Plots of land within the project were sold for a discounted price of 25,000 USD, available exclusively to existing Silva Tree customers and agents. The prelaunch went exceeding well with all units selling out in a record time of 3 weeks, causing the first phase of the project to be extended to include more plots to meet demand. The prelaunch period was a reservation period only, during which clients were in invited to complete an application form which expressed interest to purchase a plot of land as soon as the full due diligence pack was sent to them. The pack includes the bank bonded timber purchase guarantee and the lease agreements, amongst other relevant documents and no monies were collected until the investor was in receipt of the due diligence pack. The prelaunch period is now over and the Project is in its second phase. Units are on sale for 30,000 USD until the end December 2009. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=53http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-09-15Silva Tree staffSilva TreeSilva Tree

The new Silva Tree website is now live. With details of all the projects, past present and future, as well as investment details, news feeds, related reading resources and more. The Silva Tree website is designed to be complete, simple and informative.

The Silva Tree website has been updated to include the Princess Project details, investment opportunities, current plot prices and much more. The purpose of the changes are to make the website more informative which now allows potential investors, NGOs and researchers access to all information in one place, be it project details, investment details or related reading. Further to customer requests, information about the company Directors has been included, and investment application forms are now directly accessible from the website. The site now features a complete Princess Project brochure, all Silva Tree newsletters and even a photo diary of the Princess Project so that cutomers can track the progress of the project visually. We welcome any comments about the website and marketing materials so please have a look at it if you have not already done so- we hope you like it. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=52http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-09-15Silva Tree staffSilva TreeForestry

Silva Tree conducted interviews with people from the local community in Panama to assess their feelings towards the project. The response was overwhelmingly positive.

In order to ensure that the project creates no adverse effects on local communities or culture, Silva Tree have to communicate with stakeholders both on a local level and a governmental level. The fear is that forestry projects may affect the livelihoods of local people or have a negative on local farms, homes or industries. Silva Tree staff's first set of early interviews showed an extremely positive response towards the Princess Project. Local people expressed a concern that the Panamanian government is neglecting poverty issues in the local area and that employment opportunities are scarce. The Princess Project does not seem to affect any existing livelihood, as the previous land use was restricted to cattle farming, a practice which provides employment and income to just a few people at a time, all of whom in this case are not negatively affected by the sale of their land. The project will present ample employment opportunities to people who previously had little hope of finding a job that does not require a great deal of travel, as well as opportunities for people to grow their own crops onsite. Local communities are delighted by the work created by the project as well as the potential wealth and industry brought to the area by forestry activities. The interviews also asked locals what improvements to the area they would most benefit from. The interview and other media communication with local stakeholders is an ongoing process which ensures that the project is benefitting people as well as animals and the environment in general. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=57http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-09-15Silva Tree staffSilva TreeInvestment

A number of big investors have recently become advocates of investing a portion of investment portfolios in timber and related products. Timber is supposed to provide a number of attractive features.

Way back in June 2007 a very lucky, or prescient, Jeremy Grantham, chairman of a Boston investment firm managing $60bn in assets was shouting to anyone who would listen that most markets were overvalued. His advice? Pile into three assets. Not surprisingly his first two were cash and conservative hedge funds. But his third? Timber. In this article, the sixth in my series on alternative investments, I'll be taking a close look at timber, forestry and wood and assessing whether it could add value to your portfolio. I reckon it does -- but as usual with these pesky alternative assets gaining access is like getting into Simon Cowell's box at Ascot. A number of big investors have recently become advocates of investing a portion of investment portfolios in timber and related products. Timber is supposed to provide the following attractive features (which I will investigate and challenge later). 1. It is seen as a good diversifier, offering lower volatility as the growth of tree plantations is unrelated to other economic events. 2. Unlike other agricultural commodities, timber does not have to be harvested at the end of a growing season. If prices are low you can leave it 'on the stump' at no disadvantage. In fact it actually increases in size and future value. 3. It is an inherently attractive commodity because it is versatile, recyclable and is a major source of renewable energy. All important global themes supporting demand. 4. In the UK timber enjoys awesome tax advantages; it is not subject to Capital Gains Tax, and if you've owned woodland longer than two years it is exempt from Inheritance Tax. 5. While timber is renewable the supply side is constrained by deforestation, urban development, agriculture and illegal logging. 6. When you buy into timber (woodland) you are buying into property value as well. In this sense you can make money even if timber falls in value. As you would expect, if you have been reading my alternative investment articles, timber folks roll out that reliable investment chestnut; China. Yes, it tripled its timber imports between 1997 and 2005, and will require 50 new cities the size of London over the next twenty years. Once again, what would we do without China, eh? Some objective research As you would expect for a relatively small investment market, there are a limited number of authoritative price sources. However I've found two and discuss their findings below. The UK-based Investment Property Databank (IPD) has been producing a UK Forestry Index since 1992. Its starting value was 100 and at 31 December 2008 it stood at 226.2. For the sake of balance I found another source of pricing data at the USA based National Council of Real Estate Fiduciaries which has produced a "Timberland Total Return Index" since 1987. Both price indexes support the view that timber and associated woodland is worthy of inclusion in balanced investment portfolios. As usual with the alternative assets the question is; can we gain exposure with sensible affordability? How to gain exposure The two routes to investment are to buy direct or through some sort of managed fund. It is probably possible to buy a few acres of remote Scottish woodland for between £10,000 and £15,000 however, most advisers reckon that to make economic sense a minimum investment of £200,000 is required. I don't know about you but much as I like the idea of owning my own forest that entry price is too high. That leaves us with the indirect route and the main problem is the same as we encountered with coins: buying a fund usually exposes you to truck loads of stock market risk and not any of the underlying investment characteristics of the asset class. So, for example there is an ishares S&P Global Timber and Forestry ETF (LSE: WOOD). The problem is it contains not a single acre of Scottish, European and North American forest but the 25 largest publicly traded companies engaged in the ownership and management of forest and timberland. Guess what? It sank like stone in 2008, losing 48% of its value, compared to the 7% to 9% increase we might have expected from the the indexes quoted above. A similar weakness plagues Phaunus Timber Fund (PTF). Its net asset value has remained at about $1 for a couple of years but the share price is presently sitting at more than 30% discount and year to date it's down about 35%. The Quadris fund, registered in the Isle of Man, is worth a second glance. It has a number of share class options and has enjoyed an annual return of over 9% since launch a couple of years ago. It provides exposure to teak plantations in Brazil through a private unquoted management company called Florestica. This does give exposure to the underlying product, but you do also have to accept the "relationship risk" between the two companies. Oh, and it's priced in dollars so you have an exchange risk as well.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=56http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-09-15Tudor DaviesInvesting strategyInvestment

Most people are looking for a reliable home for their earnings along with a safe, sound source of income. Forestry has to be one of the safest investments any of us can make.

The estimated returns from woodland are an annual five to six percent and while other assets and investments collapse around the world, trees just keep on growing. Stock markets can implode and banks can go to the wall but woodland remains, growing annually and increasing in value. Timber prices may rise and fall, but with the huge demand for wood fuel, the rapid decline in demand for construction materials has not affected timber growers as badly as other businesses that have been hit by a fall in the demand for their products. Benefits Well-planned woodland mixed through farmland also improves conditions for grazing stock and crops, and given all the obvious benefits, farmers are once again starting to do some serious tree planting. No doubt much of the current farmer interest is due to the falling returns from other enterprises but having made a substantial investment in forestry myself 15 years ago, I can honestly say it was one of the best decisions of my career to date. Like so many others, I too have bank shares that are now virtually worthless and as for pensions, I can only thank the God who inspired me at the time that my pension was in woodland and not in one of the many funds that have since lost most of their value. The old advice of not having all your eggs in one basket was never truer than today and forestry provides the perfect additional farm enterprise for anyone looking for a safe annual income and the security of a growing asset. Few investment options nowadays can equal the returns from forestry, nor do most of them come with the same level of security. In times of financial crisis, security is everything and with the present recession looking like running for at least another 10 years, the afforestation schemes currently available are looking increasingly attractive. It's important to note the words "currently available". Along with virtually the entire world, our national finances are in a truly desperate state and by dithering and sitting on the fence, landowners may miss a golden opportunity to have their land planted for free. There is no guarantee that many of the existing schemes will not be suspended some time in the future and it would appear sensible to avail of them while they are in place. The annual tax-free premiums also provide financial security to many farm family businesses around the country and the scheme is state guaranteed. With all the current cutbacks, the reason we still have our forestry schemes is quite simply because they provide a net gain to the national economy. It occasionally takes time to get this to sink in to the minds of some of our civil servants but the facts are indisputable. Carbon sequestration alone is worth hundreds of millions to the national coffers and the thousands of jobs in the forest-contracting and nursery industries bring employment and prosperity to areas that have few other job options. Many rural farms in disadvantaged areas would not be viable without the added income that forestry provides and the thousands of livelihoods it supports bring real exchequer benefits. Drop I read recently that the world's second richest man, Warren Buffet, has seen the value of his investments drop by a massive $9bn. Having started with virtually nothing, he progressed to running the world's most successful investment group and is of course still worth more than $20bn. He made his money solely by making smart investments in companies with good growth prospects and I must admit it made me feel a whole lot better to see that he too can make mistakes. It makes my own losses seem a bit less stupid. I mention this to illustrate how in good times we loved to talk about the increased value of the money we might have put in so-called "smart" investments like overseas property and the stock markets. But in tough times the slightly "boring" investments in safer havens such as forestry or livestock come in to their own. If you are suddenly in need of cash, you can always load up a few bullocks and get paid for them the same day. Try doing that with houses or shares and see what happens. In times like these we also tend to blame others when things go wrong but I was always told to be very careful about employing consultants and advisors. We are all perfectly capable of making our own mistakes. Why pay someone else to make them for us.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=55http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-09-15Joe BarryInvestment

Now in its 6th successful year, the Timberland Investment World conference is the definitive annual meeting for the entire timberland investments value chain including pension funds, hedge funds, endowments, family offices, TIMOs, REITs, forestry management companies, paper and forest products companies, law firms, and banks.

Timberland's effectiveness as an inflation hedge is well documented: since 1970, timberland investments has outperformed inflation by an average of 3.3% a year and the returns have compared favorably with those of the stock market, too. In addition, timberland is uncorrelated with the wider financial system, making it even more attractive during periods of economic uncertainty and volatility. However, timberland is a complicated, knowledge-based investment, and investors need a detailed understanding of the dynamics of the asset class before committing capital, to invest in timber. For this reason, IQPC has designed three information-packed days, where existing and potential investors in timberland will gain a thorough understanding of every aspect of the timberland investing process, including appraisal and valuation, harvest optimization, yield enhancement, and strategies for maximizing returns through ancillary revenue streams. Specific focus areas include: International prospects for timberland investments, including Brazil, China, Russia, Australia and New Zealand Macroeconomic perspectives on the future of global demand for wood products Cashflow generation opportunities represented by ecosystem services, carbon schemes, easements, and the market in woody biomass The impact of information technology on timberland investment returns Preparing for the implementation of a nationwide cap and trade system Principles for selecting between Timber Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs) The valuation process: appraisal, discount rates, and future lumber prices The impact of biotechnology on future timber yields and growth rates http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=51http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-08-25Timberland World Summithttp://www.timberlandworldsummit.com/Investment

After just nine months, the Silva Tree Carbon Offset Forestry Project in Costa Rica has been closed to external investment. Thanks to all our customers, we have been able to expand the project as planned, saving more rainforest from destruction.

After just nine months, the Silva Tree Carbon Offset Forestry Project in Costa Rica has been closed to external investment. Thanks to all our customers, we have been able to expand the project as planned, saving more rainforest from destruction. Several community projects have also been facilitated, ranging from educational programs to helping local schools with urgent repair works. The project will ofcourse continue and details of our ongoing humanitarian activities will be sent to all Silva Tree clients and associates. The rainforest will continue to be managed by Eco Management and the Carbon offset project developed and verified by 3rd party auditors. We hope you will follow our progress with new projects and investment opportunities, such as our Princess Project which will be opened to investment in September 2009. This exciting venture is a reforestation project in Panama, where Silva Tree work closely with the ministry of environment in developing Paulownia plantations. Paulownia is a fast growing hardwood tree which thrives in the tropical conditions that Panama offers. The species offers an impressive array of environmental benefits ranging from carbon sequestration to land regeneration and fertilisation. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=50http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-07-23Silva Tree staffwww.silvatree.comInvestment

Having reached the limit of units we wish to give away to external parties, Silva Tree are now selling the last remaining investment units, so this is your last chance to get involved in our Carbon Offset Forestry Project.

Many thanks to all the investors and agents who have helped to sell out the Silva Tree Carbon Offset Forestry Project in just 8 months. Thanks to you, we have been able to expand the project as planned as well as step up all our humanitarian efforts in record time. Having reached the limit of units we wish to give away to external parties, we are now selling the last remaining investment units, so this is your last chance to get involved in our Carbon Offset Forestry Project. To remind you of why this is such a great investment, here are the details again: ·Low investment amount from just 7300 GBP (12000 USD) ·Guaranteed min 8% 1st year return, payable in February 2010 ·Projected upwards of 15% return in subsequent years ·Fully accredited and regulated project ·Trust structure in place for 100% security ·Project subject to regular monitoring by 3rd parties Maintaining the rainforest is a crucial step in the fight against climate change, but until recently its destruction has been highly profitable. Thankfully, the world community has created a financial incentive for its conservation: Carbon offset credits, which are sold and traded globally, are awarded to those who prevent the rainforest from being destroyed, making rainforest conservation lucrative as well as crucial to the environment. The Silva Tree Carbon Offset Forestry Project provides a return based on the sale of carbon offset credits, a market which has doubled over the last year in the face of a global recession. For your last chance to get involved in this exciting venture, please contact us now.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=49http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-07-08Silva Tree staffSilva Tree S.AForestry

Secretary-General and Prime Minister of Norway Launch UN-REDD Programme Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (third from left) poses for a group photo with Jens Stoltenberg (third from right), Prime Minister of Norway, and the other participants, following a joint press conference to launch a new initiative to reduce emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation.

The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD Programme) is a collaboration between FAO, UNDP and UNEP. A multi-donor trust fund was established in July 2008 that allows donors to pool resources and provides funding to activities towards this programme. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the cutting down of forests is now contributing close to 20 per cent of the overall greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere. Forest degradation also makes a significant contribution to emissions from forest ecosystems. Therefore there is an immediate need to make significant progress in reducing deforestation, forest degradation, and associated emission of greenhouse gases. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agenda item on “Reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries and approaches to stimulate action” was first introduced at the Conference of the Parties (COP11) in December 2005 by the governments of Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica, supported by eight other Parties. The challenge was to establish a functioning international REDD finance mechanism that can be included in an agreed post-2012 global climate change framework. Progress has been made and the need to meet the challenge is now reflected in the Bali Action Plan and the COP13 Decision 2/CP.13. A functioning international REDD finance mechanism needs to be able to provide the appropriate revenue streams to the right people at the right time to make it worthwhile for them to change their forest resource use behaviour. In response to the COP13 decision, requests from countries, and encouragement from donors, FAO, UNDP and UNEP have developed a collaborative REDD programme. The UN-REDD Programme is aimed at tipping the economic balance in favour of sustainable management of forests so that their formidable economic, environmental and social goods and services benefit countries, communities and forest users while also contributing to important reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The aim is to generate the requisite transfer flow of resources to significantly reduce global emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The immediate goal is to assess whether carefully structured payment structures and capacity support can create the incentives to ensure actual, lasting, achievable, reliable and measurable emission reductions while maintaining and improving the other ecosystem services forests provide. The UN-REDD Programme Fund is administered by the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in accordance with its financial regulations and rules.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=48http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-07-03UNDPUNDPInvestment

The Silva Tree Carbon Offset Forestry project prices have changed as of the 1st July 2009.

The Silva Tree Carbon offset reforestation project unit prices for July 2009 are as follows: Prices in US$: Unit Price 12000 US$, Trustee fee 600 US$, AML fee214 US$(if applicable Prices in GBP: Unit Price 7300 GBP, Trustee fee 358 GBP, AML fee129 GBP (if applicable) Prices in €uros: Unit Price €8,500, Trustee fee €419, AML fee €149 (if applicable) Currency payable according to country of residence of investor. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=47http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-07-01Silva Tree staffSilva TreeForestry

The Voluntary Carbon Standard Association (VCSA) will today launch a new package of measures designed to strengthen its carbon offset verification scheme and lay the groundwork for the expected wave of forestry and land use-based emission-reduction projects.

Under the new requirements, emission-reduction projects wishing to carry the popular Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) label will have to adhere to more detailed and stringent requirements governing how they achieve third-party verification for their projects. Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, VCSA chief executive David Antonioli said that while all VCS-approved projects already require third-party approval from two separate verification bodies, previous guidance on how this should be achieved was open to some interpretation. "The new guidance is a lot more detailed and provides clear procedures on how you should hire a validator," he said. "We have added eligibility criteria for validators that have to be met, and there is also a new public consultation process for projects." The new guidelines are designed to make it easier for project developers to submit new methodologies for assessing and verifying emission-reduction projects – a move the VCSA said should help enable the development of new asset classes, particularly in the form of forestry, soil and agricultural sector carbon credits. Market watchers are predicting forestry-based credits will become increasingly popular as governments work to develop a means of financing forestry protection through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) mechanisms as part of any post-Kyoto climate change deal. Ellysar Baroudy, fund manager at the World Bank's BioCarbon Fund, welcomed the new VCSA requirements, predicting that it will provide a boost to the emerging market for forestry credits. "The new clarification of the VCS validation process for new methodologies will be key in promoting emerging areas of the carbon market, such as REDD and soil carbon," she said. "Methodologies validated through the rigorous VCS process will send a strong message to the carbon market about the possibility of promoting REDD and soil carbon projects and reduce the risk perception in these areas."http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=46http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-06-19James MurrayBusiness GreenInvestment

As a part of their World Environment Day celebrations, Silva Tree launched their most recent community project, helping local school, Escuela Caño Zapota, which required essential repair work.

As a part of their World Environment Day celebrations, Silva Tree launched their most recent community project, helping local school, Escuela Caño Zapota, which required essential repair work. Escuela Caño Zapota is a small school, located in a remote rural village near the Silva Tree Carbon Offset Reforestation Project and was in need of vital repair work. Silva Tree believe in supporting local communities as a part of our projects so when we found out the school needed help, we offered to assist. The terrain to reach the school is tough, and the Silva Tree team had to brave several obstacles to reach it: A road closure set them back 2 hours before getting stuck in mud and eventually reaching the location just before nightfall… Silva Tree staff worked hard to assist with on the spot emergency repair work and agreed to financially support the school on a long-term basis, enabling them to purchase materials and install facilities which they have previously been unable afford. Silva Tree T-shirts were given to the children, many of whom live in deprivation and poverty. The school remains to be on our list of sponsored establishments and details of ongoing work with its staff and children can be found on our website.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=45http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-06-18Silva Tree teamSilva Tree S.A.Forestry

Counting the climate-warming carbon dioxide locked up in forests could offer a cheaper way to curb the greenhouse gas than by considering only emissions from industry and fossil fuels, according to a new study.

Factories, power plants and petroleum-powered vehicles are likely to emit some 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere this century, according to the study released on Thursday in the journal Science.By contrast, the world's forests hold some 2 trillion tons of carbon. As long as the forests stand, that huge amount of greenhouse gas stays out of the atmosphere, but if some of these woodlands are cleared for farming -- including biofuel crops like ethanol -- they start releasing carbon into the air, where it can add to the problem of climate change.So even "green" fuels can have a carbon cost, said study co-author James Edmonds, an economist at the Energy Department's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Joint Global Change Research Institute in Maryland.Right now, the carbon stored in forests has no calculated economic value, Edmonds said in a telephone interview.But if the carbon emissions from chopped-down forests are factored into the overall cost of capping atmospheric carbon this century, the price is much less than if only industrial and fossil fuel emissions are considered, Edmonds said."The results in management of the landscape are dramatically different and starkly contrasted," he said.To keep atmospheric carbon concentrations at 450 parts per million -- the level advised by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to avoid the worst impacts of global warming -- the model that factored in forest carbon had a carbon price of about $1,300 a ton by the year 2095.The model that considered only industrial and fossil fuel emissions had a carbon price of $3,500 a ton by century's end.Carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is currently between 380 and 385 parts per million, compared with a pre-industrial level of about 280 parts per million.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=44http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-06-01Deborah Zabarenko, Environment CorrespondentReuters, WashingtonInvestment

June prices are highly favourable to those investing in GBP. Unit prices and fees are as follows.

The Silva Tree Carbon offset reforestation project unit prices for June 2009 are as follows: Prices in US$: Unit Price $12,000, Trustee fee $600, AML fee $214 (if applicable) Prices in GBP: Unit Price 7,400 GBP, Trustee fee 366 GBP, AML fee 131 GBP (if applicable) Prices in €uros: Unit Price €8,500, Trustee fee €422, AML fee €150 (if applicable) Currency payable according to country of residence of investor. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=43http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-06-01Silva Tree staffsilva Tree S.A.Environment

The Big 5, the leading international building and construction show, will become the first exhibition show in Dubai to take steps towards becoming Carbon Neutral. The Big 5 is set to take place from 23-26 November 2009 at Dubai World Trade Centre.

Working with EcoVentures, the Middle East’s premier emissions reductions firm, dmg world media, the organisers behind The Big 5, are aiming to ensure that the show reduces its contribution to the global problem of climate change by endeavouring to have any emissions associated with the event reduced to net zero. Despite the fact that the economic crisis has recently put the green debate somewhat on the back-burner, environmental issues are clearly here to stay. Environmental considerations are becoming increasingly important in the UAE, including within the construction sector – for example, the introduction of new building regulations by Dubai Government requiring that all new buildings meet international green building standards. The Big 5, therefore, recognises how vital it is for the construction industry to prepare itself for this greener future now, and will aim not only to lead by example and host the wider debate, but will also educate companies in how they can help to reduce their own carbon footprint, and how best environmental practice can lead to economic benefits rather than increased costs. The Big 5 is already well known for taking a number of steps towards adopting innovative best practice in the field of environmental responsibility, most notably demonstrated by the launch of The Gaia Awards in 2008. Named after the Greek goddess of the earth, these were the first awards in the region to honour those working towards reducing the environmental impact of the construction sector. With energy usage (air conditioning, water supply, power) in the life cycle of a building equating for two thirds of carbon dioxide emissions in the region, and each Dubai resident producing some 44 tons of CO2 each year, the figures show why The Big 5 is taking the first steps in managing the progression to being Carbon Neutral, and encouraging construction companies to follow suit. Simon Mellor, Vice President of Construction for dmg world media, said, “The Big 5 is already well known for working with the construction industry to set the agenda for the future, as it is a unique forum which brings together key players from across the world. This year, we aim to go beyond exceptional, and will be the first show in the region to take steps towards becoming Carbon Neutral. We are delighted to be working with EcoVentures to make this happen, and extremely pleased that we have the full backing and support of our hosts, Dubai World Trade Centre. “Environmental issues are here to stay and The Big 5 wants to help the construction industry ensure that it places itself in the best possible position now to meet any challenges in the future. We aim to lead by example, taking the first step towards becoming Carbon Neutral ourselves. If we can then educate even a small percentage of our visitors and exhibitors about the ways in which they themselves can reduce their carbon footprint, we will have been successful.” Armen Vartanian, Director, EcoVentures, added, “We are very proud to be working with dmg world media in their efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of this year’s Big 5. As one of the region’s premier emissions reductions firms, it is inspiring to see this gathering of thought leaders in the construction-related industries setting such a great example for all industries in our region.” Peter Sutton, Vice President, Dubai World Trade Centre, said, “We are delighted to be hosting The Big 5 exhibition again this year and to be a part of the Carbon Neutral initiative. Actively taking steps towards helping the environment is an important message for an event to convey at this time of economic instability and we look forward to working with dmg to help to the best of our ability.” To take steps to making The Big 5 Carbon Neutral, EcoVentures will conduct a greenhouse gas assessment to calculate the event’s carbon footprint. dmg world media will then utilize a combination of internal emissions reductions and the purchase of offsets that will reduce carbon emissions in specific emission-reduction projects in other locations to counteract the unavoidable emissions generated by the event. The Big 5 will also be educating exhibitors and visitors about environmental issues and the benefits of green building standards via e-newsletters and web articles (go to www.thebig5exhibition.com for more details), educational booths at the event, and topical technical seminars. These educational initiatives will be carried out in association with EcoVentures and will span the six months leading up to the event, throughout the event and beyond. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=42http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-06-01EyeofDubai.comEyeofDubai.comInvestment

Prices have increased slightly in May. They have been set in three currencies, including the fees.

Unit prices for the Silva Tree Carbon Offset Reforestation Project have increased to the following as of the 1st of May2009, payable according to the investor’s country of residence: Unit Price- US$ 12000, GBP 8100, €9100 Trustee fee- US$ 600, GBP 410, €475 AML fee-US$ 190, GBP 130, €150http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=41http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-05-19Silva Tree staffSilva TreeEnvironment

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Organizers of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games said on Monday they are confident they can find sponsors to help with the estimated C$4.5 million ($3.6 million) cost of keeping the event from adding to global warming.

The Winter Games in Vancouver are expected to create about 300,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, including those from airplanes bringing thousands of athletes and spectators to the western Canadian city. The Vancouver Organizing Committee said it is in talks with carbon offset management companies it hopes will help sponsor the cost of buying credits, which it said is running between C$10 and C$20 a tonne. But the search for sponsors also comes as VANOC and other international sporting event groups are struggling to line up sponsors amid the global economic crisis. “We’re very confident we will be able to get partners on this,” VANOC chief executive John Furlong told reporters outside an international conference in Vancouver on the environmental costs of major sports events. The offset credits would come from investing in projects such as renewable energy. While Vancouver is not the only host city to promise a “carbon neutral” Olympics, Canadian organizers say they are also including emissions created outside the 17 days of competition. “We have expanded the scope by taking in air travel and starting when VANOC started (to include venue construction),” said Linda Coady, who is in charge of sustainability efforts at the committee. Air travel for athletes and spectators to and from the Games in February 2010 and Paralympic Games in March is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions related to the sporting event, VANOC officials said. The 300,000-tonne estimate is based on a 2007 study by the environmental David Suzuki Foundation, and organizers say they may have been able to cut that with changes in venue and transportation planning. A revised estimate is scheduled to be released in October. The estimated C$4.5 million to buy offset credits is not included in VANOC’s C$1.7 billion operating budget, and officials did not The Suzuki Foundation, which is working with VANOC, released its own report on Sunday warning that global warming is a threat to traditional winter Olympic sports in Canada as shorter winters leading to less ice and snow. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=40http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-04-03Reuterscarbonoffsetsdaily.co,Investment

Unit prices were Changed on 02-04-2009 according toexchange rates taken from www.xe.com at 12:15 UK Time.

This month's unit prices have been set as below, on 02-04-2009 according to exchange rates taken from www.xe.com at 12:15 UK Time. (Note: The base rate is the US$ and some amounts have been rounded off) £8,175 per unit. £425 Trustee Fees. £135 AML Fees. US$12,000per unit. US$600 Trustee Fees. US$190 AML Fees. €9,000 per unit. €450 Trustee Fees. €150 AML Fees.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=39http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-04-02Silva Tree staffSilva TreeEnvironment

Swamped by global warming..Tuvalu is why we must back Earth Hour. THIS picturesque paradise island is drowning, soon to be swallowed up entirely by the hungry, deep blue ocean surrounding it-and SUNK. Doomed Tuvalu and its 12,600 residents are the FIRST real victims of global warming as sea level rises.

Like the last man standing on the sinking wooden deck of the Titanic, sailor John Iakopo defiantly salutes the distant horizon and jolts his back upright as the warm debris-strewn water of the Pacific sloshes around his knees. Across his 1920s-style seaman's hat the word Tuvalu has faded in the relentless sun that scorches the tiny spit of land we stand on. "Listen to me," Lakopo tells us. "The good ship Tuvalu is going down. Yes sir. Surer that the sun rising over the sea in the morning." This forgotten land and its people are the tragic proof that the world must act now to prevent another breathtaking view like this from vanishing off the face of this earth. This Saturday you can do your bit by backing our Earth Hour Campaign. Simply switch off your lights from 8:30pm to 9:30pm - and remember the coral island of Tuvalu in the Pacific. The fourth smallest country in the world after Vatican City, Monaco and Nauru, and one of the least populated, Tuvalu sits stranded halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. Today the island's residents are the most environmentally aware people on earth - their daily lives determined by tides and the greasy sea water that gathers around their feet every day. The worst-case scenario? In the next decade Tuvalu, like many other islands around the Pacific, will be a distant memory on an out-dated world map. The best-case scenario? Tuvalu will last thirty years, but gripped by the sea and terrorised by king tides, its residents will be forced to bail into planes and lifeboats from their stranded island - and head for New Zealand as high seas refugees. Rubble Until then life must go on for the people of Tuvalu. The children skip to school in the spray of ocean salt that will burn their dark skin. And fishermen, who once hauled their boats out to sea from a pristine beach, now stagger and stumble over rubble and bleached coral to their battered craft. Tuvalu's castaway desert island beaches are largely gone, replaced by broken stones and dark, sinister-looking water that shadows the islanders every move . . . waiting. At the entrance to Nauti Primary School in the capital Funafuti sea water bubbles up through parts of the porous coral ground on high tides forcing the children to wade through water to classes. Nisha Tusitala, 10, is part of the last generation of schoolkids who'll grow up in Tuvalu. She said: "We see the sea threaten us everyday but I feel it is part of me. "The teachers ask us to draw pictures to capture our feelings. I drew a turtle rescuing me from my home, taking me out to sea to a safer place." As she runs off to play with her friends in the rain, Nisha's teacher Fulitua Leiteni sighs: "Here is the truth - there won't be time for them to have children and grandchildren. "Imagine living on a large football field with two angry rivers on either side about to burst their banks. A precarious existence unimaginable to most in the UK. "It is the industrialised nations that have caused the problems. This is the generation that will pay the price." Sailor Iakopo, part of Tuvalu's 100-strong reserve Navy, shares this anger: "We hardly have any cars or electricity. "We have the world's most insignificant carbon footprint and yet we will be the first to go, the first victims of global warming. "This is your fault! The British, the Americans, the developed world - you sealed our fate." Last year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations-sponsored group of 2,000 scientists, said global warming will cause oceans to rise as much as 3 feet in the next 50 years. And if the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica don't hold up, the swell could be higher. Tuvalu, just THREE FEET above sea level in many places, will disappear - that much is certain. Yet its residents are intensely divided over the endgame they will face. First are the realists: Most of them, around 3,000, have left for New Zealand under an immigration arrangement called the Pacific Access Category. Then there are the Christians - they believe that God will save the island from the floods. Standing up to her ankles in sea water on the steps of her office, Meteorological officer Hilia Vavae explains how Christianity has gripped the islanders like a fever. "The locals reckon the rainbow is a symbol of God's promise not the flood them," she explains. "Many have vowed to stay until the end, convinced God will divert the waters." But as a dramatic cloudburst of rain opens up over Tuvalu, there is no sign of the rainbow. Protection The only sound in the air is the floating chorus of hymns coming from a local church hall. Outside, Polau Falaima, 11, skips stones in the water. "We lost our first home to the sea," she tells me. "My father says we will move again but we will be safe because God will protect us with his rainbow in the sky. "I read about Noah at school and how God protected his own. That will happen again to us." http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=38http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-03-24Dan McDougall News of the WorldEnvironment

Saturday’s Coldplay concert will be carbon neutral, with organisers helping to fund a wind farm in New Zealand to offset all energy consumed in putting on the event.

The show is being held at the Emirates Palace hotel on the same night as Earth Hour, when lights will be turned off in buildings around the world, including the UAE, to promote energy conservation. The organisers estimate that the show will generate around 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Because of the practical difficulty of pulling the plug on a stadium full of people during a concert, the promoters will buy wind farm energy credits to show their support. In addition there will be recycling bins on site, an Earth Hour video will be shown before the band come on stage and leaflets will be handed out to those attending. The organisers, Flash, announced the carbon-offsetting programme yesterday. It is funded by Enviromena Power Systems, based in Abu Dhabi, with support from the World Wildlife Fund. “We can’t switch off the power because of health and safety issues,” said John Lickrish, the managing director of Flash. “But what we can do is reach out to the people in the community and speak to them directly. What we will do is to offset all the energy consumption, for example from the people travelling to the event and the band who are departing. We will then purchase gold credits.” These credits are a part of a carefully audited offsetting scheme. Enviromena compiled a detailed estimate of the emissions the event is likely to cause. The 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide include the amounts generated by flying an entourage of 40 people from Hong Kong and on to London, by the amplifiers and lighting rigs, by the cars of the estimated 15,000 people attending the show and by the waste created. “At the end of that, you come up with a carbon number and that is offset by investment in projects such as the wind farm one we are investing in with the project in New Zealand,” said Sami Khoreibi, the president of Enviromena Power Systems, who are doing a deal with the UK-based Carbon Neutral Company to fund the wind farm. Elsewhere, the Burj Al Arab in Dubai will darken during Earth Hour hour, along with other buildings across the country. The UAE’s climate means a lot of energy is used in air conditioning, making it difficult for the country to shed its wasteful reputation. “You are dealing with very difficult climate conditions here, this is one of the problems,” Mr Lickrish said. “We can do our little bit at events, but really for us it’s about driving awareness and saying, ‘Guys, it’s not that difficult.’” Coldplay themselves had yet to confirm their support in this scheme, he said. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=37http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-03-23The NationalThe National, Abu DhabiEnvironment

Silva Tree applaud the Prince of Wales' efforts to improve awareness of the importance of maintaining the world's rainforests. Earth day activitieshave been planned.

The subject of Tropical deforestation and REDD projects has been one of much discussion in recent months but the Prince of Wales’ current South American adventure is causing a long-awaited stir in the media and the public.According to the UK’s most popular newspaper, The Sun, speaking out about the issue of global warming is “the most important thing he has ever done”. Silva Tree SA, who are actively working towards halting deforestation by launching avoided deforestation projects and developing educational schemes to encourage others to do the same, have long awaited such an ambassador for their cause. 13 million hectares of forests are deforested annually (Thoumi, 2009) accounting for 20-25% of the world’s Carbon emissions (NASA) - that’s more than all the planes, trains and cars on the planet.These emissions are believed to be one of the main causes of global climate change. During his much publicized 16,000-mile tour of South America, Prince Charles states the importance of saving the rainforest and how this essential objective can be achieved, he says “The most important thing is to ensure that the rainforests are worth more alive than dead…” It is difficult to imagine how landowners can make rainforests valuable without destroying them- cutting down rainforests for timber, agriculture or development (to name but a few of possible land uses) is an intuitively profitable activity, but how can landowners do nothing with their land and still make money? The answer lies with an invisible product created by the vegetation of these vast forests.The plants silently craft something which is more valuable that all the fruit, timber and cattle in the world- Oxygen (or, to be more precise, the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere).Rainforests absorb Carbon Dioxide and emit Oxygen when they breathe, a process which is crucial to their ecosystems, resident fauna and ultimately the fight against global warming.Moreover, this giant lung can actually generate money for its owners, as several organizations such as Silva Tree are now proving. Various ideas have been put forward by scholars and environmental thinkers about how maintaining the world’s rainforests can be made profitable, but arguably the most viable strategy is the Carbon offset credit production model.The idea is that by creating a project whereby rainforests are actively protected, more CO2 is taken out of the atmosphere than if the land had been put to other uses involving deforestation.Thus Carbon offset credits can be generated by the activity of preservation and these can be sold generating an income for the landowner.Of course, difficulties and complications arise within such projects and various methodologies which attempt to account for all aspects of error and permanence are still under development. Due to the scarcity of approved methodologies, certified REDD projects are difficult to achieve and land owners could be forgiven for shying away from them.It will take many more activists such as the Prince of Wales to convince the world that making avoided deforestation profitable is the only way to stop one of the main causes of CO2 emissions on the planet. Some private landowners, however, feel the need to fight for REDD, and this is why Silva Tree include a variety of education programs in their work, helping people all over the world to understand the importance of the rainforests and how they can be saved in an economically advantageous manner. Silva Tree design and implement their own Carbon offset forestry projects whilst helping other landowners and local communities achieve the same goals.The organization’s spokesperson says, “There is very little information available to the public about how to design a carbon offset project, if you don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on professional advice andexpertise, it is very difficult to achieve a successful project.If more people were able to create these types of projects for themselves, we would see not just the benefits to the environment, but also massive economic benefits to some of the world’s poorest communities.” Silva Tree are launching a range of incentives and activities in anticipation of Earth day on the 22nd April.The programs include sponsored trips to Costa Rica to view the work being done to save this Tropical paradise and reinstate the original forest which has been cut down for commercial purposes. For more info, please contact Silva Tree SA: Tel: 08712445173 / (+44)(0)20 8446 6008 Fax: 08712445175 / (+44)(0)20 8492 8471 Email: office@silvatree.com Website. www.silvatree.comhttp://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=33http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-03-18Silva Tree StaffSilva TreePress release

Due to the volatility of the currency markets, Silvatree have decided to make investing easier for everybody by setting up 3 Trustee and company accounts, in 3 different currencies: GBP, US Dollars and Euros. This enables customers to invest without having to worry about currency fluctuations.

Due to the volatility of the currency markets, Silvatree have decided to make investing easier for everybody by setting up 3 Trustee and company accounts, in 3 different currencies: GBP, US Dollars and Euros. This enables customers to invest without having to worry about currency fluctuations. Silvatree update the prices on the first of every month, using the website www.xe.com for the exchange rates, and publish them on the website news section. For the month of March the prices are as follows: £8,500 per unit. £425 Trustee Fees. £135 AML Fees. US$12,000per unit. US$600 Trustee Fees. US$190 AML Fees. €9,575 per unit. €480 Trustee Fees. €150 AML Fees. The currency applied to each investor is based on their country of Residence. Anyone residing outside of the UK, USA and Euro zone, shall invest in US Dollars. Due to the volatility of the currency markets, Silvatree have decided to make investing easier for everybody by setting up 3 Trustee and company accounts, in 3 different currencies: GBP, US Dollars and Euros. This enables customers to invest without having to worry about currency fluctuations.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=32http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-03-04Silva Tree staffForestry

No UK government-approved carbon offset scheme currently provides money for tackling deforestation, despite climate change secretary Ed Miliband recently highlighting the issue. Government kite mark for voluntary offset schemes ignores more innovative schemes.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change this week brought out "quality assurance" guidelines for businesses that wish to voluntarily offset the carbon they produce. But offset providers are enraged that the government has only decided to approve Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), already in use under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and which typically fund large utility projects rather than smaller ones such as those that tackle deforestation. Edward Hanrahan of JP Morgan Climate Care and spokesperson for the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) said the government should recognise Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs) as well. "CERs are designed for large projects and compulsory carbon trading schemes, while VERs help fund smaller, more innovative projects which often help alleviate poverty and tackle deforestation," he said. In December, Miliband announced £100m of funding to tackle global deforestation, saying: "If we don't do something on global deforestation, then events that I saw in my constituency a year ago, with terrible flooding, will happen more often." But campaigners now claim this conflicts with the government's current policy on offsets. And because a VER costs about €7 (£6.32) compared to the cost of CERs at €11, the lack of government approval will mean fewer emissions are offset for the amount of money spent. The government says it wants to reassure businesses that are nervous about their carbon not being properly offset, as carbon offsetting has received bad press over the past few years. “The aim of this voluntary scheme is to provide clarity and give confidence to consumers wishing to offset their emissions, by allowing use of a quality mark for carbon offsets verified according to the most robust standards currently available," said a spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change. They say it is natural to err on the side of caution and they may approve VERs in the future – meanwhile companies that want to invest in them can do so should they be satisfied themselves with the quality assurances given. But ICROA says that the VER standards are already the equivalent of those used in the CDM and have backing from a number of respected NGOs – all that government reticence is achieving is a lack of investment.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=24http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-02-27Tom YoungBusiness GreenEnvironment

The UK’s carbon dioxide emissions fell by 1.5 per cent in 2007, according to the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

The UK’s carbon dioxide emissions fell by 1.5 per cent in 2007, according to the Department for Energy and Climate Change. Figures for 2007 also revealed that output of all six greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide, was down 1.7 per cent on 2006 levels. The greatest CO2 savings were made by homes improving efficiency and business cutting energy, although certain sectors such as transport saw an increase in emissions. The statistics put the UK well ahead of its target under the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. Greenhouse gas emissions were down 22 per cent down on 1990 levels in 2007. But there are more domestic stringent targets including a goal to cut carbon dioxide output, the gas which makes up the majority of the UK’s emissions, by 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010 – which it has long been expected to be missed. Emissions of CO2 were 12.8 per cent down on 1990 levels in 2007. The Climate Change Act has also set legally-binding targets for the UK to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 and CO2 by at least 26 per cent by 2020. Greg Clark, Tory spokesman on climate change, said the new figures cast doubt on the targets. “These figures show that for all Labour’s posturing on climate change, emissions of carbon dioxide have fallen by just one per cent since 1997. The reason is emblematic of the failure of Labour: it signs up to targets, but has no plan to deliver them,” he said. Robin Webster, of Friends of the Earth, pointed out that the figures do not include emissions from international aviation or shipping. “The reality is that UK carbon dioxide emissions are still higher than when Labour came to power in 1997, despite repeated promises of significant cuts,” she said. But Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change minister, said the UK would cut emissions more quickly in the next few years. “We need to reduce emissions even more quickly and I believe the policies we are putting in place now will set us on that path to meet the challenging targets we set ourselves in the Climate Change Act,” he said. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=25http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-02-27Telegraph staffTelegraph.co.ukEnvironment

Each full-time student at Delta College emitted an average of four units of carbon while on campus in the 2007-08 academic year, a number that includes commuting to and from school. Said another way, every 1,000 square feet of space at Delta emitted an average of 28.8 units of carbon in the 2007-08 year. Those gases contribute to the greenhouse effect, which increases global warming. Now the college is moving to offset that use by saving an equal amount of carbon output somewhere else

Each full-time student at Delta College emitted an average of four units of carbon while on campus in the 2007-08 academic year, a number that includes commuting to and from school. Said another way, every 1,000 square feet of space at Delta emitted an average of 28.8 units of carbon in the 2007-08 year. Those gases contribute to the greenhouse effect, which increases global warming. Now the college is moving to offset that use by saving an equal amount of carbon output somewhere else. Ways to do that include recycling, using energy efficient light bulbs and using alternative energy. Linda Petee, Delta’s sustainability and risk management coordinator, said the goal is to get the footprint to zero. ”In some form we’re trying to equalize that,” Petee said. The college spent seven months doing an inventory to determine its ”carbon footprint,” which is a measure of the amount of greenhouse gases people produce by burning fossil fuels for things like electricity, heating and transportation. The inventory is part of the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment that Delta signed in September 2007. Enrolled colleges commit to setting an example in their communities by minimizing global warming emissions and by giving their students the knowledge to do the same throughout their lives. As part of the commitment, Delta agreed to do the greenhouse gas inventory, which will be updated every other year, and to implement a plan to become ”carbon neutral,” or reduce its carbon emissions. Delta also implemented some short-term actions, such as purchasing environmentally conscious goods - like cleaning products that don’t contain harsh chemicals and organic foods that were grown without pesticides. The study was headed up by Petee, an avid outdoorswoman who said she’s always had a passion for the environment and conservation. ”So to be a part of something that’s going to make a difference is really exciting to me,” she said. The inventory looked at data from as far back as the 1999-00 school year, gathering information on utility usage, solid waste and wastewater, as well as the number of students and staff and Delta’s square footage. The largest contributor to the carbon footprint is the commute to and from Delta by students, staff members and faculty, Petee said. Data was collected on how students got to school, how far they traveled to get there and how many school credits they took. Delta worked with the Bay Metropolitan Transportation Authority to figure out where students who rode the bus to college got on and got off. It looked at how much gas Delta used in its lawnmowers and tractors, and things like student field trips, athletic travel and faculty conferences. And it did a survey of students and staff members on their driving habits. ”It was like a big puzzle, but it was really interesting to look at the patterns,” Petee said. So how does Delta stack up to other institutions? Petee said it’s too early to compare Delta’s footprint to other colleges because most are still in the process of gathering their data. But it can compare itself to its own carbon emissions from about eight years ago. Square footage has increased since then, as well as the student population. ”But our emissions are remaining pretty close to what they were in 2000,” Petee said. The next step for Delta is to analyze the data for trends and to look for ways to curb emissions, such as promoting carpooling, recycling materials used in building renovations and managing storm water. Delta recently spent nearly $5 million building parking lots that filter rainwater in an environmentally friendly way.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=26http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-02-27Mlive.comcarbonoffsetsdaily.comEnvironment

To get through the recession, consumers are scrimping and saving, which posits an environmental catch-22. Since we’re spending less, we’re consuming less, but since we have less to spend, we may not be as likely to put money towards extras like carbon offsets

To get through the recession, consumers are scrimping and saving, which posits an environmental catch-22. Since we’re spending less, we’re consuming less, but since we have less to spend, we may not be as likely to put money towards extras like carbon offsets. Recently, I caught up with Patti Prairie, the CEO of offset provider Brighter Planet, to talk about how consumers will be green in tough times. Brighter Planet partners with credit card companies to provide offsets that are accrued like rewards points for purchases. One memorable quote from Prairie: “We think this will be the year when knowing your footprint will become a classy thing.” How do you think the practice of carbon offsets will fare in this year’s economy? I think that a time like this when people are focused on doing less is a good time from an environmental point of view. If people understand where it is that they are spending and using energy, they could be more inclined to buy offsets, because there will be a heightened awareness of everyday actions. We consider conservation to be just as much of a win for us as offsetting. It’s not selling something, but raising awareness of the environment - raising the sense that every person can do something about it. What will it take to make carbon offsets more mainstream? Recognize that it’s one arrow in your sustainability quiver. For example, you still may need to drive to work. You can get a car that emits less CO2, but you still have to get there. We have our [credit] cards - they don’t cost anything. It’s not costing you anything to get offsets [through the card], and invest in renewable energy projects across the country. You have a sense of making a real difference there. The market for carbon offsets is really varied, and some people don’t trust it. Should it be standardized? Standards are increasing. Every company that provides offsets should be transparent about what their projects are, what standards they adhere to, and how they’re performing - that’s critical. Pricing, though, pricing varies. Solar projects are more expensive than methane. It has to do with the cost of the actual development of that project. I don’t think a standard price is the answer, but being transparent is - how a company picks projects and how they perform. We have an advisory board, and a project selection committee vets [the project] before it’s added to our portfolio. What factors should people look for when buying offsets? They should look for what is the project additional - that is, can it be resold after they buy it, or would the project only happen because of this offset. That’s one of the most important things. You’re investing in something that you’re making happen, not adding on to a project that would happen anyway. Look at the surrounding area. Is it good for that community? Or is it something that has side effects? We get into how many cows are on a farm, because certain sizes of cow farms can become too big. They need to look at their processes, and be comfortable with them. Do you think green “extras” - things consumers might have done in better times, like green home improvements - will suffer? There’s a whole range [of actions] that has different price points. Look at things like CFLs - there’s an immediate payback for that. Energy savings and the economy go hand in hand, they work together. If you’re cutting back on things, you’re spending less energy, and less money too. “Going green” was listed as one of the most annoying phrases of 2008. How can environmental organizations and bloggers fight the backlash? I think part of it is by explaining things - something can be annoying when someone doesn’t understand it. I can tell you from having worked with bloggers of our 350 Challenge - I’m amazed at how they portrayed aspects of the environment. One of the things we’re thinking of in terms of trying to make it more understandable is relating it to geography. We’re doing an analysis depending on what part of the country you live in, on your energy consumption, and also based on your income level and age. We’re just starting to talk about this publicly - you’re the first one we’ve talked to actually. It will be a new Web 2.0 application, like a Flickr for carbon footprints. You can see what your footprint is and share that data with others, just like Flickr lets you store photos and share with friends. It would be based on your emissions, conservation, and offsets. [Note: The application will launch later this spring] Give me your best, and most uncommon green tip. Not flying at night - science backs it up. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=27http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-02-27USNewsncarbonoffsetsdaily.comEnvironment

A Canadian company that offsets carbon emissions has listed 2.5 million voluntary carbon credits on New Zealand’s TZ1 Registry.

A Canadian company that offsets carbon emissions has listed 2.5 million voluntary carbon credits on New Zealand’s TZ1 Registry. Emission Credits International Corporation (ECIC) is a privately held company made up of rural people from Central Alberta. It acts as a broker between greenhouse gas reducing farmers and potential buyers, companies that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year. E CIC has selected New Zealand’s environmental markets infrastructure provider TZ1 Registry to list ISO standard and VCU voluntary carbon credits. There are two initial projects which have credits listed on the TZ1 Registry — the Crop Residue Conversion GHG Reduction Project and the Summerfallow Conversion Default Coefficient Project. “The use of the TZ1 Registry adds tremendous value to these carbon credits, enhancing their credibility and assisting in the growth of this important marketplace,” said ECIC president and chief executive Robert Coulter.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=30http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-02-27BusinessDaycarbonoffsetdaily.comEnvironment

Carbon offset credits hit an all-time low but are still selling at €11.65 per ton and not expected to fall any lower.

Carbon dioxide emission allowances fell to their lowest level since the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was launched in 2005 on Monday. Since mid-2008, the price of the EU allowances for carbon emissions has fallen by half. On Monday one allowance, which permits the emission of one tonne of CO2, cost €11.65 (£10.89), having reached €30 in July 2008. According to Point Carbon, today (January 21st) one carbon allowance cost €11.63. The fall in price reflects the downturn in the economy, with traders concerned that energy demand will fall and with it the amount of carbon dioxide emitted which companies will have to buy credits to cover. According to the New York Times, the falling price of less carbon-intensive fuels such as natural gas is also having an impact. Power companies are currently given millions of free credits, though this is to be modified when the system is reformed in 2013.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=23http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-01-23European Climate ExchangeLow Carbon EconomyForestry

Indonesia has delayed releasing complete regulations on using carbon credits to protect rainforests, preferring to fine-tune rules that could earn the country billions of dollars and curb the pace of climate change.

A report sponsored by the World Bank and Britain’s Department for International Development says up to 84 percent of Indonesia’s carbon emissions come from deforestation, forest fires and peatland degradation. The rules, believed to be the first of their type, have been through numerous drafts over the past year to govern a surge of investment in projects that aim to save millions of hectares of forest in return for tradable carbon credits. The World Bank says there are now nearly two dozen Indonesian forest-carbon projects under various stages of development under the U.N.-backed scheme called REDD, or reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation. But the Ministry of Forestry has not finalized all the rules on how to share revenue from forest-carbon projects or how to link the various layers of government and has ordered a review. Investors had hoped the minister would sign all the rules in December. Instead, the ministry issued a set of preliminary regulations covering demonstration activities, and also created a working group on climate change. “We are still discussing how to differentiate between private investment and public investment,” said Wandojo Siswanto, a senior adviser to the forestry minister. “For example, if a private company wants to sell its REDD credits, where does the money go? To the local government, to the provincial government, the federal government?” he told Reuters. The brief, preliminary rules were signed on December 11. “Demonstration projects are an investment designed to show how you can reduce carbon emissions by managing forest land, such as reducing deforestation, preventing forest fires, restoring degraded forests,” said Josef Leitmann, Environment and Disaster Management Coordinator at the World Bank in Jakarta. The government, holders of a license to use timber-forest products, private forest owners and traditional forest managers can conduct these projects, which have to be approved by the ministry, said Luke Devine of Baker & McKenzie’s member firm Hadiputranto, Hadinoto & Partners, in Jakarta. The ministry has yet to formally sign the remainder of the regulations, which in earlier drafts enshrined the creation of a REDD commission that will review and approve projects. Sorting out how to share revenues from projects has been passed to the finance ministry, which will issue a separate decree. The Indonesia Forest Climate Alliance estimates that REDD revenues could range between $500 million and $2 billion annually. The ministry is also finessing which type of forests are suitable for REDD projects, methods to monitor the forests to ensure they remain standing and how to verify CO2 reductions. “There are 20 different REDD demonstration projects at various stages of development around the country. The market is clearly responding,” said Leitmann. “There is also a legitimate concern by the government, which doesn’t want a lot projects going ahead by unscrupulous developers that, should they backfire, will pollute the market and reduce the image of Indonesia in the market.” A present, most REDD projects are conducted by the voluntary carbon market and the credits are bought, for example, by corporates seeking to offset their emissions. Offsets are usually priced between $4 and $10 a tonne of CO2 saved. But the United Nations wants to include REDD in the next phase of the Kyoto climate pact from 2013, meaning REDD credits could greatly expand the U.N.’s existing carbon credit scheme and drive large-scale forest protection in developing nations. A key part of REDD is to ensure local communities get a substantial share of the revenue as an incentive to keep the forests standing and to provide alternative livelihoods. “The regulations need to be clear as to the roles of the various levels of government,” said Devine. “There has been a theme of central government control running through the various drafts to date, requiring all projects to be approved by central government bodies before being licensed as REDD projects,” he told Reuters. He said there also needed to be clarity on the sharing of REDD benefits between developers and government and also how the government’s share is further distributed. Global environmental group WWF backed the need for the rules but said they should also tackle the drivers of deforestation. “Drivers of deforestation can come the forestry sector, it can come from agriculture, plantations, mining and infrastructure,” said Fitrian Ardiansyah, WWF’s program director for climate and energy in Indonesia. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=22http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-01-22ReutersCarbon offset dailyPress release

The world's most popular global benchmark standard for greenhouse gas reductions, the VCS, has recently added avoided deforestation schemes to their standard, and will start to issue forestry-based credits that can be sold on the global Carbon market

The world's most popular global benchmark standard for greenhouse gas reductions, the VCS, has recently added avoided deforestation schemes to their standard, and will start to issue forestry-based credits that can be sold on the global Carbon market.They believe that halting deforestation is a vital move towards stopping climate change, as David Antonioli, CEO of the VCS Association (VCSA) says: “This is a watershed moment and a shot in the arm for the world’s forests, the world’s climate, and the global carbon market. The new VCS rules will drive much needed investment into protecting the world’s threatened forests as a means to stabilize our global climate.” Others are also taking their view:The Coalition for Rainforest Nations is urging the UN to establish a governing body for the regulation of rainforest carbon credits, and the UN-REDD Programme is fighting to add forestation to the new post- Kyoto UN climate change arrangements.Similarly, a hot topic at theinternational climate change negotiations in Ghana was creating new mechanisms to halt deforestation of tropical rainforests, with an "overwhelming consensus" that new methods of tackling deforestation are essential, according to Luiz Figueiredo Machado, Brazilian expert chairing parts of the talks. Although the news is just out, many companies have already invested in forestation generated carbon offset credits- a bright move at just the right time.Banking giantMerrill Lynch has recently agreed a deal to buy a minimum of $9M of forestry credits, and even much smaller companies, such as Silva Tree S.A., responsible for arainforest conservation project in Costa Rica, are already “growing their own credits” from avoided deforestation and selling them to the voluntary market, with a move to break into the much larger mandatory market in the future.Keren Katz, Director of Silva Tree says: “The Carbon market is big business.With credit prices growing and demand still increasing, we decided to move away from property and financial products and get into something that not only makes money, but also does something good for the environment.The work we are doing directly helps to fight climate change and the more we grow our business, the more of a positive impact we can make” Forestry projects are a particularly attractive investment as they offer the unique added value of protecting biodiversity in addition to the carbon and financial value they offer.Similarly, these projects will bring much-needed sustainable income to tropical countries, turning financial values on their head in areas where previously deforestation was a large source of income. Not only have Silva Tree invested in this growing market themselves by launching the project, they are now facilitating expansion by allowing investors to join them.By purchasing plots of land for small amounts of money, investors can make annual returns of over 15% from credit sales.With prices increasing steadily, Silva Tree are boasting a projected overall return of no less than $2M on an initial investment of just $12000. Now the move by VCS strengthens their investment product even further:“For the first time ever, investors can rely on robust rules for crediting AFOLU project activities, creating valuable new market opportunities.”With this recent move by the VCS to include forestation credits in their standard, they have given an enormous boost to forestation based carbon projects as buyers can invest knowing that the product will be independently verified, accredited, permanently monitored and registered. Critics have argued that carbon credits created by avoided deforestation do not meet additionality requirements, and that the trees currently being protected might not survive, but now the new VCS standard hopes to diffuse concerns about the validity of forestry credits.Toby Janson-Smith, director of Conservation International says: "Today's launch of the VCS rules will not only boost market confidence in forest carbon activities but also, for the first time, enable projects that benefit local communities and biodiversity to access significant new global investment,"Forestry projects are bound to grow into a profitable and hugely environmentally beneficial sector, with those who have invested already leading the way.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=17http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-01-21Press release

Forestation Based Carbon Credits Get Green Light The world's most popular global benchmark standard for greenhouse gas reductions, the VCS, has recently added avoided deforestation schemes to their standard, and will start to issue forestry-based credits that can be sold on the global Carbon market.They believe that halting deforestation is a vital move towards stopping climate change, as David Antonioli, CEO of the VCS Association (VCSA) says: “This is a watershed moment and a shot in the arm for the world’s forests, the world’s climate, and the global carbon market. The new VCS rules will drive much needed investment into protecting the world’s threatened forests as a means to stabilize our global climate.” Others are also taking their view:The Coalition for Rainforest Nations is urging the UN to establish a governing body for the regulation of rainforest carbon credits, and the UN-REDD Programme is fighting to add forestation to the new post- Kyoto UN climate change arrangements.Similarly, a hot topic at theinternational climate change negotiations in Ghana was creating new mechanisms to halt deforestation of tropical rainforests, with an "overwhelming consensus" that new methods of tackling deforestation are essential, according to Luiz Figueiredo Machado, Brazilian expert chairing parts of the talks. Although the news is just out, many companies have already invested in forestation generated carbon offset credits- a bright move at just the right time.Banking giantMerrill Lynch has recently agreed a deal to buy a minimum of $9M of forestry credits, and even much smaller companies, such as Silva Tree S.A., responsible for arainforest conservation project in Costa Rica, are already “growing their own credits” from avoided deforestation and selling them to the voluntary market, with a move to break into the much larger mandatory market in the future.Keren Katz, Director of Silva Tree says: “The Carbon market is big business.With credit prices growing and demand still increasing, we decided to move away from property and financial products and get into something that not only makes money, but also does something good for the environment.The work we are doing directly helps to fight climate change and the more we grow our business, the more of a positive impact we can make” Forestry projects are a particularly attractive investment as they offer the unique added value of protecting biodiversity in addition to the carbon and financial value they offer.Similarly, these projects will bring much-needed sustainable income to tropical countries, turning financial values on their head in areas where previously deforestation was a large source of income. Not only have Silva Tree invested in this growing market themselves by launching the project, they are now facilitating expansion by allowing investors to join them.By purchasing plots of land for small amounts of money, investors can make annual returns of over 15% from credit sales.With prices increasing steadily, Silva Tree are boasting a projected overall return of no less than $2M on an initial investment of just $12000. Now the move by VCS strengthens their investment product even further:“For the first time ever, investors can rely on robust rules for crediting AFOLU project activities, creating valuable new market opportunities.”With this recent move by the VCS to include forestation credits in their standard, they have given an enormous boost to forestation based carbon projects as buyers can invest knowing that the product will be independently verified, accredited, permanently monitored and registered. Critics have argued that carbon credits created by avoided deforestation do not meet additionality requirements, and that the trees currently being protected might not survive, but now the new VCS standard hopes to diffuse concerns about the validity of forestry credits.Toby Janson-Smith, director of Conservation International says: "Today's launch of the VCS rules will not only boost market confidence in forest carbon activities but also, for the first time, enable projects that benefit local communities and biodiversity to access significant new global investment,"Forestry projects are bound to grow into a profitable and hugely environmentally beneficial sector, with those who have invested already leading the way.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=18http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-01-21Silva TreePress release

Silva Tree announces their project will be accredited according to the VCS standard now that avoided deforestation schemes have been officially approved.

The world's most popular global benchmark standard for greenhouse gas reductions, the VCS, has recently added avoided deforestation schemes to their standard, and will start to issue forestry-based credits that can be sold on the global Carbon market.They believe that halting deforestation is a vital move towards stopping climate change, as David Antonioli, CEO of the VCS Association (VCSA) says: “This is a watershed moment and a shot in the arm for the world’s forests, the world’s climate, and the global carbon market. The new VCS rules will drive much needed investment into protecting the world’s threatened forests as a means to stabilize our global climate.” Others are also taking their view:The Coalition for Rainforest Nations is urging the UN to establish a governing body for the regulation of rainforest carbon credits, and the UN-REDD Programme is fighting to add forestation to the new post- Kyoto UN climate change arrangements.Similarly, a hot topic at theinternational climate change negotiations in Ghana was creating new mechanisms to halt deforestation of tropical rainforests, with an "overwhelming consensus" that new methods of tackling deforestation are essential, according to Luiz Figueiredo Machado, Brazilian expert chairing parts of the talks. Although the news is just out, many companies have already invested in forestation generated carbon offset credits- a bright move at just the right time.Banking giantMerrill Lynch has recently agreed a deal to buy a minimum of $9M of forestry credits, and even much smaller companies, such as Silva Tree S.A., responsible for arainforest conservation project in Costa Rica, are already “growing their own credits” from avoided deforestation and selling them to the voluntary market, with a move to break into the much larger mandatory market in the future.Keren Katz, Director of Silva Tree says: “The Carbon market is big business.With credit prices growing and demand still increasing, we decided to move away from property and financial products and get into something that not only makes money, but also does something good for the environment.The work we are doing directly helps to fight climate change and the more we grow our business, the more of a positive impact we can make” Forestry projects are a particularly attractive investment as they offer the unique added value of protecting biodiversity in addition to the carbon and financial value they offer.Similarly, these projects will bring much-needed sustainable income to tropical countries, turning financial values on their head in areas where previously deforestation was a large source of income. Not only have Silva Tree invested in this growing market themselves by launching the project, they are now facilitating expansion by allowing investors to join them.By purchasing plots of land for small amounts of money, investors can make annual returns of over 15% from credit sales.With prices increasing steadily, Silva Tree are boasting a projected overall return of no less than $2M on an initial investment of just $12000. Now the move by VCS strengthens their investment product even further:“For the first time ever, investors can rely on robust rules for crediting AFOLU project activities, creating valuable new market opportunities.”With this recent move by the VCS to include forestation credits in their standard, they have given an enormous boost to forestation based carbon projects as buyers can invest knowing that the product will be independently verified, accredited, permanently monitored and registered. Critics have argued that carbon credits created by avoided deforestation do not meet additionality requirements, and that the trees currently being protected might not survive, but now the new VCS standard hopes to diffuse concerns about the validity of forestry credits.Toby Janson-Smith, director of Conservation International says: "Today's launch of the VCS rules will not only boost market confidence in forest carbon activities but also, for the first time, enable projects that benefit local communities and biodiversity to access significant new global investment," Forestry projects are bound to grow into a profitable and hugely environmentally beneficial sector, with those who have invested already leading the way.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=19http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-01-21Silva TreeSilva TreePress release

Silva Tree Launch "Grow Your Own Credits" Carbon Offset Project for Businesses

A carbon offset is a financial instrument representing a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide. One carbon offset represents the one metric ton of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. In the voluntary market, environmentally minded organisations, businesses and individuals purchase carbon offsets to neutralize their greenhouse gas emissions caused by transportation, electricity consumption, travel and other sources. Not all companies, however, have an environmental budget that stretches far enough to purchase sufficient Carbon offset credits to reduce their Carbon footprint sufficiently, regardless of their environmental sensibilities and good intentions. The price of a Carbon offset credit can range from 10 USD to 90 USD, and many small to medium companies simply do not possess the ability to pay these prices. Silva Tree S.A is now marketing the Carbon Offset Forestation Project in Costa Rica. This groundbreaking new product originally created by lawyers, tax advisors and environmental experts is aimed at environmentally conscious individuals or corporations who wish to offset their carbon emissions for a fraction of the price of buying credits. Silva tree S.A purchases plots of primary rainforest and plots for reforestation which generate varying levels of carbon offset credits. Investors then lease part of the forestry project thus giving them the rights to the credits produced by their land. By cutting out the credit brokers, investors can enjoy literally "growing their own credits" for a fraction of the price of buying them. One credit acquired by investing in the Silva Tree Carbon Offset Reforestation project will set the investor back just $1.30. The only snag is that, this being a project not a credit bank, the investor has to pay for the next 50 years' credits upfront. The minimum investment is $12000, which will buy 5000m2 of rainforest with a production of 200 carbon offset credit per year. This land will be the property of the investor for 50 years, offsetting an average of 200 tons of CO2 per year for that duration. Although the investment is a small one, buying offset credits form a broker can be done gradually with an annual budget rather than coughing up the whole amount upfront- it is a toss up between value for money and cashflow. Perhaps one factor that will tip the balance is this: investment in an actual project allows companies to take advantage of the PR benefits: One can use the name of the project, its logos, pictures and other materials in company marketing, newsletters and packaging. "Companies can send their staff over to the project as a team building exercise, give away free trips to their customers, whatever they want really. There is a great hands-on feeling when you are directly involved in a project and customers will notice this", says Keren Katz, Director of Silva Tree S.A. It is usually impossible to invest directly into an environmental project at such a low level but Silva Tree believe everyone should be able to do their bit without breaking the bank. "We want everyone to be a part of our project, why should only huge companies with millions to spend be able to invest into a project which helps our planet?" says Keren Katz. A further advantage of being a part of the project is that any surplus credits can be sold via the usual brokers for $10, bringing a return on investment. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=20http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-01-21Silva Tree staffSilva TreePress release

In the current financial climate, investors are looking for sustainable products and safe commodities. Silva Tree S.A., a conservation and reforestation initiative, have come up with a new way to raise capital for their rainforest project.

We might as well forget about the property markets for a while, because lets be honest there aren’t many regions in the world that have been unaffected by the current global financial turmoil. However if you want a bona fide investment opportunity in an industry which is expected to reach a global value of over $5.5 billion by 2011, then this is your chance to do something good for the environment and make money in the process! The carbon offset market is a highly lucrative, topical and high profile industry that has become one of the best investment routes in today’s markets. A carbon offset is a financial instrument representing a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide. One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide. In the voluntary market, organisations, businesses, individuals and governments purchase carbon offsets to neutralize their greenhouse gas emissions caused by transportation, electricity consumption, travel and other sources. Artists such as the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd have made albums and tours carbon neutral. Events such as the G8 summit and organisations like the World Bank are involved in offset schemes to become carbon neutral. It is accreditation such as this, which has helped make carbon offset credits one of the most lucrative investments available today. Silva Tree S.A is now marketing the Carbon Offset Forestation Project in Costa Rica. This groundbreaking new product originally created by lawyers, tax advisors and environmental experts is aimed at environmentally-minded individuals or corporations who wish to cash in on the commodity of the future. Silva tree S.A purchases plots of primary rainforest and plots for reforestation which generate varying levels of carbon offset credits. Investors then lease part of the forestry project thus giving them the rights to the credits produced by their land. It is at this point that the simplicity and ingenuity of this product become clear. Whether an individual or a large corporation, this is truly an armchair investment. There is no property, therefore there is no mortgage, upkeep or tenancy worries. As for an exit strategy, this comes in the form of each year when you receive your credits from Silva Tree S.A. Then you are entitled to sell your credits thus providing a yearly income. Keren Katz, Marketing Director of Silva Tree S.A said, “CO2 credits have become an enormously valuable commodity which you could say have been borne out of thin air! The global market for voluntary carbon offset credits tripled in value last year and this should give potential investors an indication as to just how fast this industry is moving. Endorsed by governments, celebrities, corporations and you the individual investor, it has suddenly become big business, with the demand for carbon offset credits at an all time high. In these troubled times when regular investment avenues continue to fail in the face of unprecedented financial upsets, this has to be one of the safest and most profitable investment opportunities available.” The primary rainforest creates approximately 360 credits per hectare per year and reforested areas create as much as 1000 credits per hectare per annum, with each credit valued at $10 - $15. There is a first year guaranteed 8% return with subsequent years projected at a minimum of 15.75% return. Land prices are averaging an 8% increase per annum and credits are increasing by approximately 10% per annum.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=21http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-01-21Silva TreeSilva TreeEnvironment

Latest research shows global market enjoyed strong performance in fourth quarter despite economic downturn. According to the latest figures, the global carbon market doubled in size to €92bn ($125bn) last year, while traded volumes soared by 83 per cent year-on-year to 4.9 giga tonnes of carbon

Further evidence emerged today backing up predictions that the carbon market will shrug off the worst of the economic downturn, as Point Carbon became the latest analyst firm to confirm that the global carbon market enjoyed record growth throughout 2008. According to the latest figures from the company, the global carbon market doubled in size to €92bn (US$125bn) last year, while traded volumes soared 83 per cent year-on-year to 4.9 giga tonnes of carbon. The release of the research comes just days after rival analyst firm New Carbon Finance reported that the global carbon market almost doubled to $118bn last year. It also predicted that the market would still enjoy a growth rate of 27 per cent this year, despite the slowing global economy. The new Point Carbon study did not offer predictions for the scale of the market in 2009, but Endre Tvinnereim, senior analyst and author of the report, said that there were encouraging signs during the fourth quarter of the year that the sector could resist the worst impacts of the global recession. “There was steady growth in traded volumes throughout 2008, with brisk EUA trading in the fourth quarter and high activity in the secondary CER market,” he said. Veronique Bugnion, managing director of trading, analytics and research at Point Carbon, added that the rapid growth expected from new cap-and-trade schemes such as the recently launched RGGI scheme in the US meant that the outlook for the sector remained upbeat, despite the recent slide in carbon prices experienced by the EU emissions trading scheme. ” “The fact that global carbon markets have now broken the 100 billion dollar mark is more than symbolic,” she said. “It represents a market that has doubled in size in an otherwise depressed environment. It is all the more remarkable since the prices of European Union Allowances have in fact dropped significantly in the past months.” http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=15http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-01-15Businessgreen staffBusinessgreenForestry

Despite the creation of protected areas in the Amazon and other tropical regions, rain forests worldwide are still being destroyed for a simple reason: They are worth more cut down than standing. But with deforestation now a leading driver of global warming, a movement is growing to pay nations and local people to keep their rain forests intact.

Environmentalists attempting to preserve the vanishing Amazon rainforest now confront a stark paradox: Never before have they succeededin protecting so much of the world’s largest tropical forest, yet neverbefore has so much of it simultaneously been destroyed. The keyquestion today is whether new models of conservation — including anincreasingly popular, market-based program known as REDD — will be ableto reverse the steady loss of tropical forests, not only in the Amazon,but also in Indonesia, Borneo, and Africa’s Congo basin, where virginwoodlands continue to be razed at an unprecedented rate. Since 2000, foreign donors, working with the Braziliangovernment, have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to place 386,000square miles of the Amazon — an area nearly as large as France andSpain combined — in protected areas. Yet during that same period,logging, farming, ranching, and development in the Amazon havedestroyed a forest area half the size of Norway. With land prices fast appreciating, cattle ranching andindustrial soy farms expanding, and billions of dollars of newinfrastructure projects in the works, development pressure on theAmazon will only accelerate. And the situation is worse in Indonesia’stropical forests, now being felled for timber and the creation of oilpalm plantations. Indeed, since 2001, deforestation in Brazil andIndonesia alone has led to the loss of 116,000 square miles of forest. If these trends continue, one of the world’s greatestecosystems — its tropical forests — will be whittled away piece bypiece, with dire consequences not only for the diversity of life onearth but also for the world’s climate, already warming at an alarmingrate. Hope for avoiding the worst outcomes in the Amazon, Indonesia,and other tropical forest regions increasingly rests today on thebelief that markets will soon pay for the services provided by healthyrain forests, which include biodiversity maintenance, rainfallgeneration, carbon sequestration, and moderation of the world’sclimate. This idea is quickly gaining momentum as a wide range ofinterests — including global banks and financiers, development experts,government policymakers, and environmentalists — have embraced theconcept that the best way to keep forests intact is to pay rain forestnations, and the people who inhabit the forests, not to chop them down. The concept is known as REDD — “reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation” — and it is more than an abstract theory: On Sumatra, which is suffering from an epidemic ofdeforestation, the global financial firm Merrill Lynch — now owned byBank of America — is working with the local governor and internationalconservation groups to create a $432 million investment fund topreserve large swaths of the rain forest in Aceh province, while alsoencouraging sustainable development. In Guyana, a London investment firm has purchased the rights to theso-called “ecosystem services” in a 1,432-square-mile patch of tropicalforest — rights it hopes to eventually market so that funds can be madeavailable to the area’s 7,000 inhabitants for limited development. In Borneo, an Australian investment outfit has established a globalfund to reduce forest fires and restore the rain forest canopy in aforest reserve that has been illegally logged. For the moment, these efforts are isolated and halting. To create acritical mass, the world community must mandate sharp reductions ingreenhouse gas emissions and place a price on carbon. Meetings aretaking place this week at a U.N. climate conference in Poznan, Poland,on these very topics, in advance of an effort next year to replace the1997 Kyoto Protocols with new limits on greenhouse gases. The goal is to get to the point where, thanks to caps ongreenhouse gas emissions and a global carbon market, billions ofdollars are raised each year to invest in REDD, or “avoideddeforestation”, projects. While corporations pursuing commercialinterests could end up protecting forests worldwide, poor countriescould find a new way to capitalize on their natural assets withoutdestroying them. "Forests fall because they are worth more cut down thanstanding," says Andrew Mitchell, director of the Global Canopy Program,a tropical forest research and conservation group. “This is a classicexample of a market failure, but ecosystem services could change that.” Despite its promise, REDD remains controversial and faces manychallenges, including ensuring land rights and financial benefits forforest inhabitants; establishing baselines to accurately measurereductions in deforestation rates; causing “leakage”, when conservationmeasures in one area shift deforestation to another; and concerns thatdeveloped countries would merely invest in REDD projects as a way ofcontinuing to emit large quantities of greenhouse gases. But with theweakness of traditional conservation measures becoming glaringlyobvious as deforestation rates increase, and with growing awarenessthat destruction of tropical forests is a major source of greenhousegas emissions, there is growing support for the idea that amarket-based approach to preserving forests may be the best hope. The conservation group WWF once opposed REDD programs out ofconcern that they were a mechanism to absolve rich countries of theneed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But in September, in the faceof ongoing forest loss, WWF president and CEO Carter Roberts said hisgroup would now support REDD projects as a critical component ofaddressing climate change, as roughly 20 percent of the world’sgreenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation. Noting that if theAmazon were a country, deforestation there would place it in the topseven emitters of greenhouse gases worldwide, Roberts said, “Unless theworld has policies that recognize the value of standing trees andforests, we will have failed.” The concept that developing countries should be compensatedfor reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation hasbeen around for more than a decade, but it had failed to gain tractionnot only because of fears that wealthy nations could buy their way outof emissions cuts. Some feared — and still worry — that the rights andinterests of indigenous people would be ignored as governments, carbontraders, and speculators secure rights to the ecosystem servicesprovided by tropical forests without the consent of the people wholived there. In places where land rights are poorly defined, suchclaims could be used to evict people from lands upon which they havebeen living for generations. “REDD (projects) . . . will only achieve lasting results ifthey are adapted to conditions on the ground and help meet the needs oflocal people,” the Forests Dialogue on Climate Change — a coalition ofindigenous people, trade unions, governments, and others — said in astatement last month. Emerging REDD efforts have been taking those interests intoaccount. And many tropical forest experts say that avoideddeforestation programs may offer a better alternative than the statusquo, which has long led to the displacement of native peoples fromtheir lands at the hands of loggers and developers. REDD advocates are also winning support from non-traditionalpartners, including humanitarian organizations, faith-based aid groups,governments, and the World Bank. Research suggests that once a viable international carbon marketexists, pure economics alone may boost REDD. In areas whereinfrastructure is poor and forests are abundant, REDD may offerattractive economic returns for rural communities. Several studies inIndonesia and Brazil have shown that locals could earn far more if theyreceived REDD funds toSeeing the enormous potential, governments and investors are already positioning themselves for a forest carbon market.support sustainable development than they would from conventionallogging or conversion of forests to farming. The world’s only sizablecarbon market, in the European Union, prices carbon at $20 per ton. Ifinvestors seeking carbon offsets were to pay even a fraction of thatamount to help preserve tropical forests in Indonesia, for example, itwould dwarf the financial benefits the country receives from forestry –currently only $0.34 per ton of carbon released, one study has shown.Further, because REDD is compatible with sustainable harvesting offorest products and low-impact ecotourism, it could become an integralpart of rural development schemes. The Woods Hole Research Institute estimates that using REDDprograms to reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon to nearly zerowithin a decade would cost $100 million to $600 million per year. TheEliasch Review, a British government-commissioned report on REDD,estimates that a cap-and-trade system that includes forest carbon couldgenerate more than $7 billion per year — ­primarily through purchase ofcarbon offsets — to finance forest conservation. Seeing the enormous potential of REDD, governments andinvestors are already positioning themselves for a forest carbonmarket. Last December, Merrill Lynch became the first major U.S. bankto invest in an avoided deforestation project, putting $9 milliontowards rain forest conservation in Sumatra. The bank hopes to lock upforestry carbon credits while they are cheap and sell them at a higherprice if carbon markets emerge. The deal — involving Australia-basedCarbon Conservation, Merrill Lynch, Flora and Fauna International, andthe provincial government of Aceh — could generate hundreds of millionsin carbon financing over the next 30 years by preventing logging andconversion of forest to oil palm plantations. Aceh Governor Irwandi Jusuf sees the initiative as a key step in theregion’s recovery from the devastating 2004 tsunami and three decadesof civil war. To support the project, Irwandi has imposed a moratoriumon logging, hired more than 1,000 former fighters as rangers, and laidout plans for the development of environmentally sustainablebusinesses. In March a private equity firm took the unprecedented step ofpurchasing the rights to environmental services generated by a1,432-square-mile rain forest reserve in Guyana. London-based CanopyCapital is effectively banking that the services generated by a livingrain forest will eventually see compensation in international markets.Eighty percent of the profit will go to local communities throughmicro-credit loans to sustainable economic activities. “The only way we are going to turn this thing around is through aprofit motive,” said Hylton Murray-Philipson, director of CanopyCapital. “This is what is needed to harness the power of markets. Butit doesn't stop with making a profit—we are also going to have todeliver a better living for local people. We need to start valuing theintrinsic parts of the forest as an intact entity rather than having toconvert it for something else.” The World Bank is helping jumpstart projects in more than twodozen countries with its $300-million Forest Carbon PartnershipFacility, designed to help nations earn compensation through REDDprojects. Brazil favors a different approach, outlined at this month’sclimate talks in Poznan, Poland. Brazil plans to establish a voluntaryfund into whichdeveloped countries, companies, and other entities pay to reduceemissions from deforestation. With complete control over how the fundsare spent and no allocation of conventional carbon credits tocontributors, the initiative maintains Brazil’s sovereignty over theAmazon and gives it an unprecedented financial incentive to preservethe region’s forest cover. The fund aims to raise $21 billion by 2021,and Norway has committed up to one billion to the scheme by 2015,contingent on Brazil’s success in reducing deforestation. What Brazildoes is crucial, since it is home to more than 60 percent of the Amazonand accounts for nearly half of global tropical forest loss annually. Brazil has been vague on how the funds will be used, but theBolsa Floresta program in the state of Amazonas could serve as a modelfor compensating rural populations for avoiding deforestation. Theprogram, launched last year, pays forest families living near theUatuma Reserve about $25 per month in return for not clearing andburning primary forest lands. Residents are also provided with healthcare, clean water, and greater access to education. Though experts disagree on methods, few dispute that the worldmust try a new approach to tropical forest conservation — and fast.Daniel Nepstad, a leading tropical forest ecologist who now heads upconservation at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, suggests we arealready approaching a critical tipping point in the Amazon where theworld’s largest rain forest will no longer be able to supply the vitalecological services it currently provides. “The Amazon rain forest has already entered a dieback, inwhich the vicious cycle between land use, seasonal drought, and fireare rapidly degrading enormous swathes of rain forest each year,” saidNepstad, noting that if present deforestation rates continue half ofthe Amazon will be burned, cut or degraded by 2030. He maintains that,in addition to greatly reducing future cutting, 100,000 square miles ofdegraded Amazon land must be regenerated. Those measures, says Nepstad,would help ensure that roughly three-quarters of the original Amazonrain forest remains intact, an important factor in stabilizing regionaland global climate systems. Brazil’s target – a 70 percent reduction in net deforestationover the 1996-2005 baseline by 2018 – is less ambitious but is anacknowledgement of both the importance of maintaining substantialforest cover in the Amazon and the potential of forest carbon as aneconomic asset. In the long run, improved governance, new market-basedcompensation systems that reward environmental performance, andcontinued expansion of protected areas are all key to saving forestslike the Amazon. http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=14http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-01-14Rhett ButlerYale UnivesityInvestment

Environmental business practices are becoming increasingly attractive to investors andproviding fresh hope for a planet in trouble. Not onlyare the emerging markets for alternative power booming but many companies are also increasingly aware that there arereal costs associated with doing nothing.

Green isn't usually thought of as being good for business, and industry is rarely linked to a healthy environment But a complex mix of push and pull factors are making environmentalbusiness practices increasingly attractive to investors and with that,some say, providing fresh hope for a planet in trouble. Not onlyare the emerging markets for alternative power booming -- and corporateefficiency initiatives looking more attractive -- as fossil fuel pricesrise, but many companies are also increasingly aware that there arereal costs associated with doing nothing. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change argued in 2006 that we faced losing a fifth of the world's wealth through unmitigated climate change unless we act. "Now is a really critical time," says Penny Shepherd, Chief Executive of the UK Social Investment Forum. "With the financial crisis upon us this is a time to consider newinvestment opportunities. There is an unfreezing of opportunities thatjust wasn't there before; goodness knows it's important. The green investment decisionswe make now will shape a future that, if we don't solve these problems,the current financial crisis will seem like a local sideshow," she toldCNN.But apart from buying shares in wind turbines and solar panelmanufacturers, what are the emerging investment opportunities? And isthere real money to be made? Professor Stuart Hazeldene,professor of geology at the University of Edinburgh, thinks so."However many green renewals we build it's inevitable that fossil fuelswill continue to provide most of the world's energy until 2050," hetold audiences at a recent debate organized by the environmental NGO,Earthwatch. "All of this energy involves combustion andreleasing carbon... We have to decrease these emissions forsustainability in the future. That's what carbon capture and storageallows you to do." Hazeldene believes carbon-capture technologycould offer bold -- and wealthy -- investors, like oil companies, avery good return over the long term. "It is a very big business opportunity," he says. By bringing carbon-capture technology to power stations and other majorpolluters, Hazeldene believes we could reduce emissions dramaticallywhile limiting the number of "decisions" needed to move ahead. Carbon capture works by removing carbon chemically and turning it into a liquid, which is then piped away for safe storage. "Carbon capture and storage is legal, possible and we can build thetechnology now," he says. "It can also be profitable if the carbonprice is high enough. The first plant won't be the most efficient, butthen the first airplane wasn't a jet. We need to start now to get onthe road to technological improvement. "You won't get your moneyback in five years; it is a much more long-term strategic decision. Butthe biggest risk is not investing in CCS, it's not investing in thetechnology. . .if we don't, and we continue with business as usual,then we're not just looking at a high tide in Greenwich [England],we're talking about Venus." Realizing the value of ecosystems Another investment opportunity that advocates argue can help save theplanet while keeping one eye on the bottom line is the nascent marketfor monetizing the landscape itself. As companies increasingly realizethe value of the ecosystems they use, they are willing to pay for themto be protected. "Ecosystem services are the services we as asociety need to survive: fisheries, timber, agriculture," says AnnelisaGrigg, director of environmental markets at Fauna and FloraInternational, who work with companies including Rio Tinto and BritishAmerican Tobacco to minimize their impact on their environment. She cites the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, which found that 60percent of ecosystems are degraded or in decline, as evidence of howurgent the situation is. "This decline in ecosystem services isleading to a compelling business case for companies to understand theirdependence on these services and minimize their impact," says Grigg."The problem is at the moment the costs are felt by society, not by anindividual company or investor. But this is changing." Already companies are investing in ecosystems, either as carbon offsets or because their productivity depends on them. French mineral water company Vittel pays farmers on the land above itsaquifers to use fewer chemicals. In the U.S. the legislativeenvironment has encouraged "wetland banking" where companies thatdevelop on wetlands must compensate for that development. Investment firm Merrill Lynch has signed a deal with the governor ofAceh, Indonesia, to preserve 750,000 hectares of rainforest,principally as a carbon offset. "The reality is at the momentthat the most widely understood market is in water and carbon," saysGrigg. But she believes that as we grow to understand our financialdependence on a healthy natural environment, markets will develop inmany other areas. However, some activists argue that monetizingthe environment creates a change of mentality in local communities thatis not good for them or the environment. "They pay peasants tobe 'service providers' and it changes their view of the land aroundthem," says lawyer-activist Camila Moreno, who campaigns on behalf ofenvironmental and social causes in Brazil. "Then when the money doesn'tcome for some reason they say, 'You haven't paid, so we'll destroy theforest.' It upsets the balance that has existed for hundreds of years." Friends of the Earth International also fears that UN plans to slowdeforestation by making rich countries pay to protect rainforests areopen to abuse by corrupt leaders or illegal loggers. Chopping down trees for crops One of the main causes of deforestation is agriculture. And one of themajor challenges facing the planet is feeding a growing populationwithout sacrificing more wilderness ecosystems to the plow. Vivian Moses, visiting professor of biology at University College ofLondon, believes that genetically modified foods are the only way forhumanity to keep feeding itself without turning the globe's remainingwild places into farmland. He also believes they offer excellent investment opportunities. "Agriculture depends on technology and has done since the beginning,"he says. "In the next 50 years or so we need to double our agriculturaloutput, partly because of the growing size of the population and partlybecause of growing wealth. "There is not muchmore land that we can or should devote to agriculture. If you add tothat the growing population will build houses and factories, taking upmore land. . .we have to increase productivity."http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=13http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2009-01-14Matt FordCNNForestry

A formal global market for forestry-related carbon credits moved a stepcloser yesterday as the UN's latest round of climate talks in Ghana closed. Speaking following the week-long summit, UN top climate change official Yvode Boer said that delegates had agreed to deliver a draft text on potentiallegislation and mechanisms for tackling global warming ahead of the next roundof talks in Poznan, Poland, in December. "We may have something in Poznan pretty close to a negotiating text," De Boertold reporters, adding that the agreement meant the negotiations were still ontrack to deliver a deal at the Copenhagen conference scheduled for December2009.

A formal global market for forestry-related carbon credits moved a stepcloser yesterday as the UN's latest round of climate talks in Ghana closed. Speaking following the week-long summit, UN top climate change official Yvode Boer said that delegates had agreed to deliver a draft text on potentiallegislation and mechanisms for tackling global warming ahead of the next roundof talks in Poznan, Poland, in December. "We may have something in Poznan pretty close to a negotiating text," De Boertold reporters, adding that the agreement meant the negotiations were still ontrack to deliver a deal at the Copenhagen conference scheduled for December2009. There was also widespread support among delegates for proposals to improveforestry protection, through increased taxation on the logging industry, newforestry investment funds and the inclusion of forestry protection schemes inthe global carbon market. De Boer said that delegates had recognised that "we cannot come to ameaningful solution on climate change without coming to grips with deforestation". However, while most attendees expressed optimism that the negotiations wereback on track after a disappointing meeting in Bonn earlier in the year, otherscounselled that they were still a long way short of a formal agreement and thatmuch would depend on the actions of the next president of the US. Further misgivings were also voiced about the UN's current carbon tradingsystem, the Clean DevelopmentMechanism (CDM) with both the World Bank and representatives of the carbontrading sector claiming it was still taking too long to approve those low carbonprojects applying for the right to issue carbon credits. In anofficialdocument submitted at the conference, the World Bank said that the processesfor approving projects were "expensive and time consuming", while theCarbon Market and InvestorsAssociation (CMIA) offered an equally withering submission, claiming thatdelays were resulting in "losses with regards to both opportunity costs and realcosts to CDM project developers". It recommended that the UN should invest more in the approval process toensure that the office tasked with checking and processing applications wasproperly staffed. "A process that can take three meetings, delaying a project byfour [to] five months, could be expedited if a full-time [member of] staff wasavailable to consider project issues more frequently," the association noted. Adam Nathan of the CMIA warned the future of the entire CDM would be injeopardy if the UN does not act to streamline the project approval process. "The current arrangements hamper this transfer [of capital to carbonreduction projects] and bring the CDM itself into question in terms ofeffectiveness from both the perspective of potential new project developers andpotential new sources of investment," he said. "Needless to say, in terms of afuture international agreement, the effectiveness of the CDM will come undersignificant scrutiny and the more we can streamline the process now the better."http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=11http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2008-12-19James MurrayBusiness GreenForestry

Delegates at the latest round of international climate change negotiations inAccra, Ghana this week are reporting that the talks are making good progress,despite continued disagreements over proposed moves to curb deforestation andemissions from heavy industries.

Delegates at the latest round of international climate change negotiations in Accra, Ghana this week are reporting that the talks are making good progress, despite continued disagreements over proposed moves to curb deforestation and emissions from heavy industries. The UN's top climate change official Yvo de Boer, said yesterday that the talks were proceeding "pretty well now", telling reporters that "We're getting beyond some of the rhetoric, people are beginning to understand each other better." The news follows warnings at the opening of the conference last week that the delegates were falling behind schedule if they wanted to have an international deal to succeed the Kyoto Agreement in place by the end of next year. The latest round of talks are focusing on measures to help halt deforestation of tropical rainforests and Japanese proposals for emissions caps on some of the world's most carbon intensive industries, such as cement and steel manufacture. Echoing the optimism expressed by de Boer, Luiz Figueiredo Machado, a Brazilian expert chairing parts of the talks, told Reuters that the meeting was exceeding expectations. "The chances that it [a new UN scheme to slow deforestation] will go ahead, in my mind, are much higher," he said, adding that there was "overwhelming consensus" that new mechanisms for tackling deforestation are essential. He also hinted that Japanese delegates had enjoyed some success with their proposals for a so-called "sectoral approach" to tackling emissions. The proposals for international standards and emission caps that would force producers of cement and metals to cut emissions had faced criticism from emerging economies who suspected that any standards could be used to impose trade barriers against their less carbon-intensive heavy industries. However, the Japanese delegation insisted that caps would vary from country-to-country and initiatives to enhance the efficiency of industries in developing economies such as China and India would be supported by international development funds. "What I saw and heard in our debates on sectoral actions and approaches was a very fruitful debate," Machado told Reuters. "It clarified the issue." However, several dissenting voices remained with newswire AFP reporting that delegates are divided on how best to cut emissions from deforestation. The UN is proposing a mechanism whereby projects that protect tropical rainforests would be able to sell credits on the global carbon market, providing governments with a financial incentive to expand forested areas. But critics claim this will simply provide the developed nations that buy the credits with a justification not to curb emissions at home, while failing to address the underlying pressures on land use that contribute to deforestation. Meanwhile, chief US negotiator Harlan Watson poured cold water on the widely held belief that the next president will sign up to the deep emission cuts endorsed by European leaders. Speaking to Reuters, Watson said that any targets the US does sign up to are likely to fall short of those being called for by other countries. " It is going to be a heavy lift," he said, adding that the next president would have to deal with the reality that any measure that raises electricity prices will present a major "political problem".http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=12http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2008-12-19Businessgreen.com staffBusiness GreenForestry

Cutting forests is the third-largest source of climate-warming carbon emissions today, larger than the emissions produced by either the US or China. Including them in a "carbon market" is a tempting solution.

Cutting forests is the third-largest source of climate-warming carbon emissions today, larger than the emissions produced by either the US or China. Including them in a "carbon market" is a tempting solution. It comes down to this: Today, trees are worth more dead than alive. This despite the fact that they stash away billions of tons of carbon in their soil and themselves and constantly inhale more carbon from the atmosphere. They also help regulate the earth's climate in other ways, influencing rainfall patterns far away, including in the US. And they contain unique plant and animal life, the economic value of which is only beginning to be understood. Yet no dollar figure is placed on these vital services. Instead, tropical forests are cut down in favor of enterprises such as palm oil plantations or cattle grazing, endeavors that make money here and now. It's easy to see why rain forests continue to disappear at an alarming rate. A report to the British government this month suggests that the way to recognize the true value of forests is by including them in carbon markets. Polluters around the world could earn credits to offset their own carbon emissions by paying for forest preservation. If developing countries earned credits for preserving forests, the pace of deforestation might be cut by 75 percent by 2030, the report says. Saving forests, in turn, could reduce the cost of cutting the world's greenhouse-gas emissions by half. Emissions need to shrink to 50 percent of their 1990 levels if the vital goal of keeping global warming to only 2 degrees C by the end of the century is to be met. Britain's "Eliasch Review" – named after businessman Johan Eliasch, who has bought up some Amazon rain forest himself – also says that the world's forests should become "carbon neutral" by 2030, meaning that any deforestation still continuing would be balanced by the planting of new forests. A carbon market, sometimes called a cap-and-trade plan, has been operating in Europe for several years, and a similar measure is expected to be enacted in the US under the next president. Such markets have inherent problems, though, including difficulty pricing credits properly when first issued and determining whether the carbon reductions being credited might have happened anyway. A tax on carbon is a more direct and effective way to decrease emissions. Adding "avoided deforestation" to the mix of carbon credits raises questions of whether corrupt or incompetent governments in parts of the developing world would step on the needs of their own people in a rush to grab the money, or simply take the funds and still fail to protect their forests. Adding forest-preservation credits could also wreak havoc with the carbon markets themselves, bringing down the value of the credits and ruining the market. Talk of adding forest protection into carbon-market schemes does spotlight an important fact: Forests have a value that so far has not been fully reflected in the world economy. Until it is, trees will be cut in favor of other land use. Nonprofit groups have worked tirelessly for years to preserve forests. But their efforts alone will never solve such an immense problem. Some means of recognizing the true economic and environmental value of the world's forests still must be found.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=8http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2008-12-17Editorial BoardThe CS MonitorForestry

Merrill Lynch throws weight behind avoided deforestationcreditsInvestment bank predicts strong demand for credits that itclaims willdeliver biodiversity benefits alongside carbonreductionsPaying people not to do something may conjure up images ofdubious protectionrackets, but according to growing numbers of expertsit could also prove one ofthe most cost effective means of curbingglobal carbon emissions. That is certainly the view of investmentbanking giantMerrill Lynch,which this week became the latest firm tation.

Merrill Lynch throws weight behind avoided deforestation credits. Investment bank predicts strong demand for credits that it claims willdeliver biodiversity benefits alongside carbon reductionsPaying people not to do something may conjure up images of dubious protectionrackets, but according to growing numbers of experts it could also prove one ofthe most cost effective means of curbing global carbon emissions. That is certainly the view of investment banking giantMerrill Lynch,which this week became the latest firm to underline its interest in carboncredits from avoided deforestation projects, inking a deal with Australian firmCarbon Conservation that willsee it buy a minimum of $9m of carbon credits from an avoided deforestationscheme in Aceh Indonesia. Under the terms of the agreement, Carbon Conservation and its NGO partnerFauna and Flora International willcommit to delivering a huge reduction in deforestation across 750,000 hectaresof tropical forest in Aceh's Ulu Masen region, although a small amount ofdeforestation will be allowed to continue to provide local communities withtimber. The project will then be awarded carbon credits that will be sold on anexclusive basis to Merrill Lynch. The bank has agreed to buy a minimum of $9m worth of credits, has an optionto buy further credits from the scheme and has committed to sharing profits withthe project if it can sell the credits at a premium. Critics of avoided deforestation schemes have argued that it is extremelydifficult to accurately verify that carbon emission reductions have beenachieved, but Abyd Karmali, global head of Carbon Emissions at Merrill Lynchinsisted that the criteria governing the Aceh project are extremely robust. "Carbon Conservation and Fauna and Flora have been working in the region fora long time so there is substantial base line data on which to base carboncalculations," he said. "The calculations are also in line with theClimate Community and BiodiversityAlliance, which take an extremely conservative view on how many carboncredits can be issued [as a result of avoided deforestation projects]." Karmali said that the company was expecting to see strong demand fromcustomers for the new credits, which he argued delivered a number of benefitsbeyond mere carbon emission reductions. "Merrill Lynch's thesis on the carbon market is that the days of vanillacredits [that simply deliver emission reductions] are nearing an end," he said."Companies will be looking for credits that deliver more benefits and the Acehproject is a prime example of this approach – there are five endangered speciesin this region that will benefit from biodiversity protection while the incomewill also aid development in an area badly affected by the 2004 tsunami." Financial mechanisms for curbing deforestation are currently the subject ofintense debate at the UN where proposals have been put forward to includeavoided deforestation credits in the UN's carbon trading schemes. Advocates ofthe plans argue they would provide governments with a clear financial incentivefor protecting forest regions. Karmali said that the value of credits from the Aceh project could beexpected to increase significantly if these proposals are included as part of apost Kyoto agreement. However, he insisted the project would be able to "standon its own two feet" even if it has to continue to issue voluntary credits. However, some negotiators, most notably from the US, have argued that avoideddeforestation schemes should not be granted official UN approval on the groundsthat it would mean people are effectively being paid not to do something that isalready illegal. Karmali countered that such arguments ignored the reality of illegal logging,adding that it was essential that a means is found that allows countries torealise the financial value of their forestry assets without recourse tofelling. "According to the IPCC avoided deforestation would cut emissions by upto 25 per cent, while almost every economic analysis of climate change shows itis one of the most important actions we can take," he said. "We need to find ameans to incentivise countries such as Indonesia to reduce deforestation."http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=9http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2008-12-17James MurrayBusinessGreenForestry

New standard to help forestry projects enter carbon market. Voluntary Carbon Standard extended to include forestry and agricultural projects. A new global standard launched today will put in place a robustassessment scheme for ensuring agriculture and forestry protectionprojects are environmentally sustainable and credible providers ofcarbon offsets.

A new global standard launched today will put in place a robust assessment scheme for ensuring agriculture and forestry protection projects are environmentally sustainable and credible providers of carbon offsets. Projects to tackle deforestation and reduce the carbon impact of agricultural practices can now be verified against the new Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and issue credits that can be sold on the global carbon market. David Antonioli, chief executive of the VCS Association (VCSA) said the new standard will help boost investment in forestry projects, which in the past have been criticised for struggling to adequately demonstrate whether the carbon offsets they sell relate to real emission reductions. "The new VCS rules will drive much needed investment into protecting the world’s threatened forests as a means to stabilise our global climate," he said. Experts hope the move means that developing nations will eventually be able to make more money from protecting forests and land than they can from clearing forests for agriculture and timber. Agriculture and forestry practices together account for about a third of all global greenhouse gas emissions, and improving their sustainability is seen as vital to slowing climate change. Until now, most projects to improve their sustainability have been excluded from international carbon markets because of concerns over the extent to which emission reductions can be accurately measured. For example, critics have claimed that offset credits issued on the assumption that trees planted as part of an afforestation scheme will last 100 years have no way of absolutely guaranteeing those trees will survive. They have also argued that it is difficult to prove that tracts of forest would not have survived, regardless of the funding generated by selling offset credits. As a result, forestry credits are not included in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, are difficult to certify under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and are avoided by some carbon offset providers. However, the new standard hopes to address concerns about the validity of forestry credits. The standard has been reviewed by an independent panel of leading risk experts, verifiers, investors, NGO representatives and project developers to ensure that all projects are worthy of credits and are additional – or would not have happened without the funding generated through selling credits. It also requires more vigorous verification of project's environmental credentials by two independent parties, features clearer guidelines on how projects should avoid negative environmental and social impacts associated with some previous schemes, and sets out guidance on which types of scheme are most appropriate for different parts of the world. Earlier this year, the proposed standard secured support from the Stockholm Environment Institute, which released a report claiming that it addresses " many permanence and additionality concerns" that have previously held back the take up of such projects in global carbon markets. Toby Janson-Smith, a director with Conservation International said the standards should help improve confidence in forestry projects. "Today's launch of the VCS rules will not only boost market confidence in forest carbon activities but also, for the first time, enable projects that benefit local communities and biodiversity to access significant new global investment," he said. The standard could also help provide a boost to the sector ahead of critical UN talks at Poznan in Poland next month, where the international community will again discuss better incorporating forestry projects in the CDM. It was agreed at the last round of talks in Ghana that forestry credits should be incorporated into the CDM, but precisely how this will be achieved is yet to be finalised.http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=10http://www.www.silvatree.com/news-reader.html/n=2008-12-17Tom YoungBusinessgreen