Trading Trees
How a quiet revolution in forests offers hope to the human race.
By Jeffrey Barbee
+27 82 420 0437
Jeffrey.barbee@gmail.com
A remarkable report from the front line of the battle for the future of the planet, where the emerging carbon-based economy meets the reality of deforestation, climate change, drought and famine.
The film will surprise, intrigue and educate people about how the new carbon economy is making a difference among the poorest of the poor by saving forests and helping to reverse climate change. This new economic paradigm, created by the Kyoto protocol, attempts to prevent the destruction of the world's forests and ultimately bring about their restoration. Worldwide, project developers, governments and NGOs are using this new economy to secure a cleaner energy future and renew or reserve forests that mitigate climate change. This is the story of the struggles and successes of these projects, it is the story of the winnable battle for the planet’s forests.
Project Summary
Key Points:
Themes, issues covered in the project: Community action, aligned with government assistance, business investment, and funded by carbon trading, is preserving forests around the world.
Key messages conveyed in the project: How the emerging carbon economy can make money flow to development when people’s forests and streams are given financial value and a cash incentive to be preserved. How carbon trading can and is being used to empower and develop impoverished communities. From government sponsored top-down incentives to community-driven bottom-up project development, a revolution in forest preservation is already afoot.
How a local/global link will be established: Is there a possibility that the green economy could play a role in the world’s economic recovery, especially in the developing world? Forest security and its link to water security, and in turn food security; these three topics are totally dependent upon each other and that is lesson for the whole planet. Carbon forestry as a viable alternative to certain aid projects in the developing world. This project aims to share options in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia that save forests through communities participating in the carbon economy, and inspire communities in countries like Canada to adopt some of these unique approaches..
Target groups: Anyone concerned by Global Climate Change and what they can do about it, with particular instances of communities in action that inspire viewers in a relatable way. Consumers and voters in countries like Canada who have the power to influence the next generation of the Kyoto Protocol. People who want information about a clean way to do business, or how to offset their own carbon emissions. Companies willing to invest in carbon credits but not sure how to do so. Corporations that want their carbon-offset credits to be well spent. PR agencies that are interested in the best possible green profile for their clients. Students studying carbon trading. Test audiences in Africa and Europe have all responded very positively to the project’s trailer piece, shown on Forest Day at the Copenhagen Climate Convention.
Synopsis:
From the Mbaula Chitetezo (environmental protection) stove in Malawi to the lowly yet powerful Spekboom tree of South Africa, indigenous solutions to climate change and forest protection are leading the fight against severe deforestation throughout the developing world.
Coupled to the emerging carbon market that sees first world polluters paying for these initiatives, a revolution is under way. It is one that is changing the face of communities reliant on forests for energy and food, and providing an economic incentive to keep the trees standing.
As the United States gets ready to pass its own Cap and Trade bill, injecting billions into carbon "offsetting" in the third world, the projects outlined in this documentary are examples of “best practices” and an important guideline for companies, individuals and governments who want to offset their carbon emissions.
In the words of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: "Industrialized countries which lack space or cost-effective options for expanding forests on their own territories may partially compensate for their greenhouse-gas emissions by paying for the establishment and maintenance of forests in other countries". If this all sounds like Greek, that problem is exactly what this film seeks to translate for viewers, answering in graphic and clear terms:
What is carbon forestry and does it really work?
How can it help forests?
What role is technology playing in these carbon forestry projects?
What is already happening around the world?
What needs to be done to make it work better?
This 55 minute film starts in Africa’s tropical forests, in the countries of Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa and sets the stage for what is possible in on-the-ground projects that are working today. It moves on to Amazonas state in Brazil, where the destruction of the Amazon forest has been slowed. In the year 2000, more than 17,000 square kilometres of Amazonian rain forest was lost every year.
That number is now down to about 400. The film will explore the insights of carbon traders and forest researchers in the Amazon, the most famous environmental battleground in the world, and show how the carbon economy has played a vital role in this temporary reprieve for the world’s lungs.
Not only has the struggle to stop deforestation come from community based efforts, but governments around the world are crafting a forest preservation system as well. Quietly, behind the scenes, at talks like the Copenhagen Climate Convention, a program called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD seeks to engage governments who rule over the remaining large tracts of forest, and pay them to stop their destruction.
Within this new framework is billions of dollars (In Copenhagen the US and UK pledged 22 billion) for carbon forestry programs in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia.
The similarities of stories, from Africa to Brazil, and finally to Borneo helps tie together this fascinating narrative of environmental destruction and hope.
If the front lines of the battle for human civilization rest within our world’s forests, and the programs highlighted in this documentary can become common practice throughout the world, then we have hope of slowing and eventually reversing anthropogenic climate change.
Style
Shot in high-definition video with saturated colours, tight close-ups and following establishing shots. Lots of broll images that follow the dialogue of the interview subjects dynamically. Interviews not only with the experts but with the people who are benefiting (or not) from these projects on the ground, who explain in detail how their lives really have changed through the projects. Aerial images, people working on the ground, cut-aways of total devastation mirrored to the real progress of preserved lands all set the stage for an in-depth and clearly presented story of an issue that concerns the entire human race.
The project to date
The filming in Africa is finished, and a 10 minute short is available for viewing. Production costs to date have been met by the film-maker. The remaining 43,000 Dollars is being sought to finish the project and complete the post-production. No rights have been given out, and no distribution has been secured to date. For a full budget and project overview please contact the film-maker.
Expert Assistance and Interviews
Experts who will or already have contributed to this project, and will appear in the final cut:
Marina Silva, United Nations “Champion of the Earth”, Climate Campaigner and former Environmental Minister of Brazil
Lester Brown, Environmentalist and author of Plan B, 4.0
Henk Za, Head of the African office for Ecosecurities, the largest carbon trading developer in the world.
Conor Fox, owner and CEO of Hestian Innovations, one of the most successful forestry carbon offset solution providers in the developing world.
Sir Nicholas Stern, The former head of economics at the World Bank and Chair of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner from Kenya, founder of the Green Belt Movement.
Condensed Shot List
Africa
Malawi:
Hestian Innovations, Carbon Trading by reducing emissions through applied, accessible technology in rural Malawi. Success and the difference between Voluntary Carbon Markets and the Clean Development Mechanism.
The forests of Mt Mulanje and Mount Mabu (Mozambique)
Deforestation throughout the country
The Charcoal Trade
Chitetezo Mbaula (Environmental Protection) Stoves
Aerials/ lake and forests
Intro to carbon trading
Tanzania:
Mapanda Tree Plantation
Mapanda’s Community School’s Tree plantation
Ndente Village’s tree crops
Charcoal Production from renewable trees
Communities planting trees
Forest Reserves in Tanzania’s Central Highlands
The problem of the current carbon-trading model in saving forests
South Africa
The Bavianskloof aerials
Blighted lands, loss of forest cover
Spekboom planting
Farmer Pieter Kruger in his drought-scarred farmscape
Local communities planting trees
Carbon Trading sequence with project implementers
Ecosecurities office and interviews in Johannesburg
Coal Power generation on the high veld, and interview with Dept of Water Affairs and Forestry
South America
Brazil
Brazil’s REDD projects, and interviews (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Destruction
Amazonas State, aerials of the Amazon with Governor
Fish Farming Projects that rely on forest cover
Carbon off-setting in the Amazon/ how carbon projects have brought income to the local communities.
Forest Products, and how keeping forests standing sequester carbon and provide food and cash
Columbia
Oro Verde program, regenerating and renewing Columbia’s rainforest out of Medellin through community partnerships and carbon offsetting
Mounatin forest destruction patterns and forests as rainfall creators.
Aerials of the forest, and the impact of US Cocaine use on forest destruction (snorting the forest)
Interviews with Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Carolina Diaz Costa, about the future of Columbia’s forests.
Asia
Borneo
Green Kampong, and the social/environmental use of permaculture in forest preservation.
Willie Smit’s efforts to regrow Borneo’s rainforest, and the success of his project in increasing rainfall, reducing temperatures and increasing community incomes.
REDD initiatives in Borneo, and project developer’s hopes and struggles in trying to secure carbon funding.
Saving the forest for Orang-utans and people.
Condensed Budget
Raised and spent on the Africa segment: 17,223 US$s
Needed to complete the project in Brazil and Borneo: 59,396 US$s
See attached budget for a full breakdown of costs.
Timeline (to date)
October 2009:
Interview on US public Radio Station KAJX about the proposed project.
Project starts in Tanzania, where the group Green Resources has a tree planting and carbon trading project near Sao Hill.
Ten days of production on three tree planting projects and their effects in the local communities, as well as the difficulties inmaking carbon trading work.
November 2009:
20 minute interview with Canadian Broadcasting Nationwide about the Documentary Trading Trees and carbon trading in 3rd world forests.
Travel to South Africa's Bavianskloof area, where the South African government, local farmers, and the living lands partnership are trying to reverse dire climate change that has seen hundreds of farmers leave their lands by planting the hardy carbon-sucking Spekboom Tree.
November/December 2009
10 days of production in Malawi, meeting villagers and Irish carbon trading company Hestian Innovations, who are trading carbon by distributing technology to thousands of villagers reliant on wood for their daily cooking needs. The technology reduces wood consumption and emissions from drying kilns and cooking fires by 60%, and is locally produced, sourced and maintained.
December:
8 days post production for a rough-cut of the African section of the documentary to show at the Copenhagen Climate Convention.
January 2010:
7 minute trailer completed.
Revised budget available, covering the remaining shooting in Brazil, Columbia, and Borneo.
The proposal has been sent to the followingcompanies/organizations:
Green Resources
Ecosystem marketplace
UNFCCC
The Green Belt Movement
Ecosecurities
Global Post
Documentary Educational Resources (DER)
Some footage has been or will supplied to the following groups/organizations:
The South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
Living Lands
Green Resources
My Weblog
Film-Maker’s Bio
Jeffrey Barbee is a film producer who works with the New York Times, the BBC, NOS Tv Holland, Smithsonian, Global Post, RTL News, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, the LA Times, National Public Radio, and many others. As a contract producer and part owner of Global Post, he provides international television and multimedia content through Reuters, CBS, PBS, and The Associated Press.
For a radio piece about the project, with presenter Rick Macinnes-Rae at CBC radio.