WRI Week in Review

It's another week to be thankful for at WRI!  Before I left for Abdoulay's interview in Senegal, WRI and The Access Initiative (TAI)  won an award from the Sustainable Brands London Conference for an environmental justice film our Communications team put together.  It's only two minutes long and gives me chills every time I watch it (especially when the music shifts!).  (Remember before Thanksgiving when TAI hosted a viewing of The Power of the Poor - yeup, it's them again here!)


Last week, I had my mind stretched yet again as I learned more about a soon-to-be-introduced tool from the World Wildlife Fund that "monitors protected area downgrading, downsizing and degazettement," which is " the legal process through which protected areas become smaller, weaker, or are removed completely."  Read here to learn more about this incredible tool (very user friendly) and to learn more about the definitions of the words PADDD with relation to forests.   My concern is that these tools, while useful, are sometimes slow to download with my internet - what is it like in places like West Africa where the connection isn't as good as it is here? 

Here are five articles I've read recently and some thoughts on them:

Doha, Forests and the Production Tax Credit: On Track to Burn, Baby, Burn

It's frustrating to read about these huge conferences (this most recent one on climate change held in Doha, Qatar (and also like Rio+20) where the general takeaway is that there wasn't much progress and everyone was underwhelmed.  I'm also curious about tree plantations in West Africa that are exporting to the UK for their wood-burning needs - do they really have expendable wood?

Central Africa: Regional Countries Meet Over Forest Conservation

Looks like they need some Interactive Forest Atlases to improve communications here!  Central to many of these articles about forest conservation (and any conflict, really) is a need for clear communication.  Noted here: "conflicts are common among those in the forest department, mining and the agriculture sector basically on land use and who takes responsibility of effects caused by their joint activities."

Congo-Kinshasa: Africa's Wealth and Western Poverty of Thought

I was especially interested to read this article since I just finished reading Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, which addresses many of the topics brought up here.  There are so many different factors influencing the current fighting going on in the DRC and I'm just beginning to scratch the surface of understanding them.  

Ben Affleck and Theo Chocolate Collaborate on Congolese Jobs 

I'm curious what kind of an impact Ben Affleck and Theo Chocolate will have on Congolese farming if only 3% of arable land is currently farmed - how many thousands of acres are they planning to put toward Cacao plantations with their fair trade choclate?  

Also, apparently the Tintin comic books are not racist (at least, according to the Belgian judiciary system) - what do you think?  I never had them around as a child and I don't know much about them.

Mali has a new prime minister, Diango Cissoko, after somewhat of a second coup last week.  Please keep her in your thoughts!