By Gerald Prolmann
Photography by Filip Cederholm
New York, NY, July 6, 2020, Everland, the exclusive representative of the largest portfolio of high-impact, forest conservation projects across the globe launched its inaugural webinar event REDD+, A Force of Nature presenting the Wildlife Works Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project in the DRC highlighting the critical importance to protect the Congo Basin Rainforest.
REDD+ is an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, a climate change mitigation strategy introduced by the United Nations that is an essential part of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The REDD+ mechanism was designed to help stop the destruction of the world’s forests which is contributing massively to the climate crisis. REDD+ allows local landowners in the developing world to monetize their forest and biodiversity assets whether they are governments, communities, ownership groups, or private individuals.
The Congo Basin Rainforest is the second largest intact tropical forest on earth and left standing, offers the world an immediate low-cost climate solution that also protects habitat for threatened wildlife and a way to bring sustainable development benefiting the local the forest community.
Leading sustainability and corporate social responsibility executives, impact investors, policy makers and media from 26 countries were in attendance.
Expert speakers explained how REDD+ offers one of the most effective tools we have right now to combat the climate crisis.
June 30th is significant as it is Independence Day in the DRC which had experienced a long history of colonial oppression and post-colonial exploitation and put the country in a position of dire need of development.
Today, a progressive new coalition government in the DRC is focused on meeting the needs of its people, eager to find ways to address extreme poverty and to preserve the country’s natural resources for the benefit of all.
REDD+ as a market-based mechanism offers the DRC an approach to solve both the needs of its population and the environment.
To address the climate crisis, the DRC has demonstrated longstanding leadership in UN Climate negotiations, representing Africa and advocating for the importance of forest conservation.
Since 2011, Wildlife Works has been working with the DRC government on the country’s national and subnational REDD+ program.
Her Excellency Madame Jeanne Ilunga Zaina, Vice Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development for the Democratic Republic of the Congo discussed the DRC’s ambition for
a green new future and praised Wildlife Works for its numerous achievements to stop deforestation and bring much needed benefits to the local forest community.
Basabo Boot’Ombala, Chief of Batwa Pygymy Village of Ikita, one of 23 villages in the project area, was interviewed and she spoke about life in Ikita and what the Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project means to the Indigenous Batwa Pygmy community.
Speakers included:
– Armin Sandhoevel, Chief Investment
Officer Infrastructure Equity,
Allianz Global Investors
– Mike Korchinsky, Founder and
President, Wildlife Works
– Jean-Robert Bwangoy, DRC Country
Director, Wildlife Works
– Anna Lehmann, Global Climate Policy
Director, Wildlife Works
– Naomi Swickard, Chief Program Officer,
Verra–Filip Agoo, Documentary Impact
Photographer, Create The Change
– Josh Tosteson, Chief Operating Officer,
Everland Moderated
by Pamela Brazier, Vice President of
Business Development, Europe, Everland
About Everland
Everland is a specialized marketing company representing the largest portfolio of high-impact, forest conservation projects, across the globe, that are focused on stopping deforestation. The company brings together forest communities and corporations in a common cause to protect some of the world’s most important and vulnerable forests.
www.everlandmarketing.com
About Mai Ndombe
The Mai Ndombe REDD+ project protects 300k hectares of critical bonobo and forest elephant habitat within the Congo Basin, the world’s second largest intact rainforest which also contains one of the most important wetlands of the planet. This project supports some of the world’s most impoverished and marginalized people in one of the least-developed places on Earth. The Mai Ndombe REDD+ project, developed and managed by Wildlife Works, utilizes carbon finance to address the basic development needs of 180,000 people that previously had little to no access to basic social services.
https://www.everlandmarketing.com/projects/mai-ndombe/
About Wildlife Works
Wildlife Works is the world’s leading REDD+ program development and management company with an effective approach to applying innovative market-based solutions to the conservation of biodiversity. Over its 24-year history, Wildlife Works established a successful model that uses the emerging marketplace for REDD+ Carbon Offsets to protect threatened forests, wildlife, and communities.
https://www.wildlifeworks.com
