The Prince's Rainforest Project - An Emergency Package for Tropical Forests
The Prince of Wales has long been concerned about climate change and the role of tropical rainforest loss. In 2007, following reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Lord Stern and others, he established The Prince’s Rainforests Project (PRP) with the aim of encouraging consensus as to how the rate of tropical deforestation might be slowed. The PRP has sought to understand the economic drivers of deforestation, to design an equitable, effective mechanism to compensate Rainforest Nations for not deforesting, and to identify ways that action could be financed.
The project has received input from senior politicians, business leaders, Non-Governmental Organizations and other interested stakeholders from around the world. This has involved discussions with government, civil society and the private sector in Africa (Cameroon, Congo Democratic Republic, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania), Central and South America (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana and Peru) and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea). The PRP has also made a close study of the programmes being developed by other organizations to address tropical deforestation.
Through this process of consultation, the project has developed a proposal for an Emergency Package for tropical forests. Its goal is to achieve a significant reduction in tropical deforestation in the near-term by helping Rainforest Nations embark on alternative, low-carbon economic development paths. It would generate substantial funding quickly through an innovative public-private partnership in developed countries. Some of these ideas are already being considered by governmental and non-governmental institutions around the world. The PRP hopes that this proposal can act as a catalyst for coordinated global action.The proposal is complementary to forest carbon mechanisms currently being negotiated through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is designed to fill the funding gap that will arise before the UNFCCC mechanisms are implemented at scale and to facilitate and accelerate the transition to these future arrangements. The Emergency Package would also provide an important economic stimulus to developing countries during the current global recession and help spur their growth along a lowcarbon trajectory.
