CTrees

CTrees is headed to New York Climate Week, and we hope to see you there!🌎 With Brazil hosting COP30 in #Belém next year, global attention is turning towards the important role of #forests in addressing climate change and the urgent need to finance their protection. Join us on Tuesday, September 24, for an in-person panel discussion focused on action needed to ensure that jurisdictional carbon finance is a cornerstone of climate action. Policy leaders and scientific experts on this year's panel include: Carlos A. Nobre, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, Institute for Advanced Studies, USP - Universidade de São Paulo; Co-Chair, Science Panel for the Amazon Sassan Saatchi, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech; co-founder and CEO, CTrees Frances Seymour, U.S. Science Envoy, Office of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, U.S. Department of State Mary Grady, Executive Director, Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART)(to be confirmed) Professor Lee White CBE, Ph.D., Special Envoy, Science Panel for the Congo Basin (moderator) Spots are limited and advanced registration is required. Register today: https://lu.ma/2aqhk9kd

Headed to the Sustainable Commodities & Land Use Forum in Amsterdam next week? So is CTrees research & engagement specialist, Aijing Li. Reach out directly to Aijing if you'd like to connect or schedule a time to meet.

#LUCA IN ACTION: Nicaragua’s forests are at risk. The Environmental Performance Index, a metric developed by the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, finds that the health of Nicaragua’s forests have declined by over 11% throughout the last decade. Recent reporting in Mongabay points to unlawful encroachment of cattle ranching, mining, and logging into the country’s protected forests. The impacts of these activities are particularly visible in Indio Maíz and Bosawás, two large biosphere reserves located on the eastern and western borders of the country. In both reserves, forest disturbance alerts in 2024 have already far surpassed that of 2023, according to data from the CTrees LUCA platform. In Bosawás, total disturbance alerts in the second quarter of 2024 reached 34,943 total hectares – a nearly 68% increase from the same timeframe in 2023. In Indio Maíz, the 1,323 hectares of disturbance alerts in April 2024 were roughly equal to total disturbance alerts for all of 2023. With its biweekly alerts, LUCA locates where and when forest disturbances take place in Nicaragua and beyond. LUCA allows users to visualize and quantify alerts in any administrative area or custom boundary. Based on ESA Sentinel-1 radar data, and backed by a peer-reviewed scientific methodology, the platform provides biweekly forest land use change alerts for all forest biomes. Development of LUCA is led by CTrees research scientist Adugna Mullissa, Ph.D.

CTrees’ Daniel Melling reports this week from Ucayali, Peru, where leaders of tropical forest states are gathering for the annual meeting of the Governors' Climate & Forests Task Force, a coalition of states covering 1/3 of global tropical forests. CTrees’ partnership with the GCF Task Force and its member states includes data exchange and engagement for use of our satellite data tools, which measure carbon and activity in forests at relevant scales for decision making. Subnational governments like Ucayali in Peru, Pará in Brazil, and Santa Cruz in Bolivia, all represented here alongside indigenous peoples and task force partners, are key to implementing policies and experimenting with new approaches. We look forward to building on our engagement with the task force states this week, and supporting their efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation while building sustainable rural economies.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at our #ClimateWeekNYC fireside chat, “A Photographic Journey Through Forestry Carbon Projects” last week! seeing the real impact #CarbonDoneCorrectly can have on the planet and its people left us feeling inspired, motivated, and ready keep taking real #climateaction. A special shout out to our panel, including our own Dee MacLeod Lawrence and Jodi Manning, as well as CTrees' Sassan Saatchi and Bronson Griscom from Conservation International — your insight, stories, and real-world experience on the front lines of the fight against rising emissions truly made this event a memorable one.

At a CTrees event today in New York, Helder Barbalho, governor of Pará state in Brazil, shared details of a landmark $180 million deal for carbon credits that represent reduced emissions from deforestation in the state. The deal is the first such agreement for any state in Brazil. Following his remarks, Barbalho joined a panel discussion with distinguished speakers including Carlos A. Nobre, co-chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon; Frances Seymour, Senior Advisor for Forests with the Office of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, U.S. Department of State; Christina Magerkurth, Managing Director, Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART); and Sassan Saatchi, co-founder and CEO, CTrees. Daniel Melling, CTrees' head of marketing, served as moderator. The discussion focused on the role of jurisdictional finance in addressing tropical deforestation and forest degradation, which are major sources of global greenhouse gas emissions. With Pará hosting COP30 in Brazil next year, the conversation addressed how science, policy, finance, and industry can support forest protection and ecosystem restoration across the tropics. Read a press release about the event from the state of Pará: https://lnkd.in/g-uZ_qUW See coverage of the deal in Reuters: https://lnkd.in/eCkAsugH Through the Governors' Climate & Forests Task Force, CTrees is working with Pará and other member states on access to advanced remote-sensing data to support efforts to reduce deforestation and restore ecosystems. Photos by Raymond Song

Among the speakers at our #ClimateWeekNYC panel next week, Carlos A. Nobre, Ph.D. is a senior scientist at the USP - Universidade de São Paulo and co-chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon. A Nobel laureate and one of Brazil’s leading climate scientists, Nobre is known for his work on biosphere-atmosphere interactions and climate-ecological impacts of Amazon deforestation and global warming. Throughout his career, he has played a key role in implementing scientific experiments across the Amazon and communicating the science of climate change. We look forward to the insight and expertise that he will bring to the discussion. 🔗 Please register by this Friday to hear from Nobre and other distinguished panelists at our event on Tuesday, September 24: https://lu.ma/2aqhk9kd

CTrees scientist Ricardo Dalagnol da Silva Dalagnol will speak at the GisForest conference tomorrow, sharing his latest research on mapping selective logging and road construction throughout the tropics. More details below ⬇️

#ClimateWeekNYC update!📢 We’re just two weeks out from our event, Road to Belém: Raising Ambition for Jurisdictional Forest Finance, and we’re excited to share that Christina Magerkurth, managing director at Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART), has joined our panel. A twenty-year veteran of carbon offset projects and standards, Christina oversees ART's efforts to establish a global quality benchmark for jurisdictional REDD and mobilize finance for forest protection🌳 🔗 Register today to join us and hear from Christina and other leading experts on September 24: https://lu.ma/2aqhk9kd

#LUCA IN ACTION: The government of Laos aims to restore 70% of the country’s forest cover by 2025, but the effects of shifting cultivation are making this goal hard to reach. Shifting cultivation is an agricultural practice in which plots of land are temporarily cultivated, abandoned, and left to regenerate during a fallow period. In the last three decades, shifting cultivation has become the leading cause of forest disturbance in Laos. Population growth and the recent construction of a railroad connecting Laos with China have further increased pressure on the country’s forests. Data from our Land Use Change Alerts (LUCA) platform reveals that the area of forest disturbance in the Luang Prabang province reached 72,756 total hectares, an area roughly the size of New York City, in the second quarter of 2023. This is the highest quarterly total for the province since LUCA data became available in 2018. With its biweekly alerts, LUCA shows where and when forest disturbance takes place in Luang Prabang and beyond. 🌎 Access and explore the LUCA platform: https://lnkd.in/gJQZC2Ka 🌾 Read more on the challenges of monitoring shifting cultivation in Laos: https://lnkd.in/eugVAMZv 🚄 Learn more about the impact of new train lines on forests in the region: https://lnkd.in/eHKnnBSU LUCA allows users to visualize and quantify alerts in any administrative area or custom boundary. Based on ESA Sentinel-1 radar data, and backed by a peer-reviewed scientific methodology, the platform provides biweekly forest land use change alerts for all forest biomes. Development of LUCA is led by CTrees research scientist Adugna Mullissa, Ph.D. 📝 Find further information on the methodology behind LUCA: https://lnkd.in/gWQMb_nP