CNN Television has broadcasted a brief documentary on REDD-ALERT project activities by Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) in Indonesia. The programme was aired with the title 'Indonesia aims to halt deforestation'  on 27 November 2010, which can be viewed using the following link.

Global Steering Group meeting of Alternative to Slash-and-Burn (ASB) Programme was held during 18-20 October 2010 in Lima, Peru. Nine participants (Dr Robin Matthews, Dr Peter Minang, Dr Meine van Noordwijk, Ms Joyce Kasyoki, Dr Glenn Hyman, Dr Jim Gokoski, Dr Valentina Robiglio, Dr Martin Tchienkoua and Dr Fahmuddin Agus) from the REDD-ALERT Team participated the meeting. During the meeting, REDD projects were reviewed, the implications of the restructuring of the CGIAR system were discussed, and future directions and funding opportunities on the evolution of swidden cultivation systems were outlined.

Second Annual Meeting of the Project was organised in Lima, Peru during 13-16 October 2010. Twenty five participants representing the 11 partner organisations attended the meeting. Work over the last year was reviewed, followed by planning for work in year 2 of the project in each of the field study countries, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cameroon, and Peru, with particular emphasis on drawing all this together. This was then followed by a field visit to the study area in Pucallpa in the Peruvian Amazon, where we met with farmers involved in deforestation to grow subsistence crops and oil palm, as well as a vast project to reforest 8000 ha of degraded pasture with indigenous species, including mahogany.

Workpackage Co-ordinators Meeting was organised during 17-18 June 2010. The Meeting was hosted by the VU University in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Dr. Robin Matthews, Dr Meine van Noordwijk, Dr Peter Minang, Prof. Eric Lambin, Prof. Edzo Veldkamp, Prof. Joyeeta Gupta, Dr. Onno Kuik and Dr. Madhu Subedi participated in the meeting. On the sideline of this meeting, WP 1, 4 and 5 harmonisation meeting was organised on 16 June 2010. 

Dr Robin Matthews and Dr Peter Minang visited Peru during 7-21 April 2010 to visit project partners - the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Extension Agraria (INIA). Three workshops were held (two in Lima and the third in Pucallpa) during his visit to discuss REDD issues, roles and responsibilities in the field work, and the REALU sister project.  

Recently, Dr Jose Eloy Cuellar Bautista has been appointed as the new REDD-ALERT contact point for the Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Extension Agraria (INIA) in Peru. We welcome Jose to the REDD-ALERT project and look forward to working with him on REDD issues in Peru.  

Robin Matthews participated at the conference 'After Copenhagen: the new climate change and energy challenges for Scotland and the UK' in Edinburgh, UK on 5 March 2010.  

Jenny Farmer left for Indonesia in March to begin her PhD field work on carbon dynamics and GHG emissions following land use change on tropical peatlands in Sumatra, Indonesia. She is working closely with colleagues from the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the University of Goettingen in Germany, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the Indonesian Soils Research Institute (ISRI), and the University of Jambi.  

Prof Joyeeta Gupta and Dr Onno Kuik visited Macaulay Institute during 9-10 March 2010. The objective of the meeting was to coordinate joint activities under WP4 and WP5 and develop the workplan of WP4. Robin Matthews, Maria Nijnik, George Dyer, Laura Poggio, Innocent Bakam and Madhu Subedi from Macaulay Institute took part in the discussion with Prof Gupta and Dr Kuik.  

Dr Innocent Bakam travelled to Cameroon from 10 to 30 January 2010 to organise field studies with IITA and IRAD partners. The purpose of the visit was to select study areas, to design a questionnaire to gather data on land use decision-making rules at household level and to discuss a detailed work plan with local partners. [Trip report  ].

Dr George Dyer has joined the Macaulay REDD-ALERT team to work on modelling the impacts of REDD mechanisms at the local and subnational level. George is an economist in the Socio-Economic Research Group (SERG) at Macaulay Institute, and worked previously on modelling the impact of maize prices in Mexico.  

COP-15 Conference

Eric Lambin (UCL), Robin Matthews (MLURI), Elisabeth Lipiatou (EU), Will Steffen (ANU), and Meine van Noordwijk (ICRAF) discuss the REDD-ALERT project at the EU session “Deforestation, Forest Conservation and the Climate Change Challenge” at the COP-15 conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

• Presentations for the above event.
• Clips of the session that were broadcast on EU satellite television.