GBM Blog

She is not dead,
Who leaves to us this great heritage of remembering joy.
She is still alive in our hearts,
In the happiness we knew, in the dreams we shared,
Big dreams of a greener and cleaner world.

In July I attended a public debate in London on the potential for REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) to make international forestry more just. The debate brought together a wide variety of stakeholders in REDD in order to assess its possibilities and its frailties. The panel leading the discussion included John Vidal from the Guardian and representatives from DFID, ODI, and FERN among others. What became increasingly clear during the debate is that although the international community appeared to be pushing on with REDD, it remains a highly contested and confused idea.

The European Union (EU) has formally recognised that illegal logging is a pervasive threat to biodiversity and is taking legal action to prevent it!

My interest in policy issues led me to attend the last All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) meeting on Agro-ecology before the summer parliamentary recess. These meetings are a way for the general public, NGOs and other members of civil society to interact with the legislature and ultimately help to shape policy.