Avoided Deforestation Partners

Avoided Deforestation Partners, or AD Partners, is a non-profit organization involved in the global effort to solve the climate change challenge.^[1] In particular, the group promotes the concept of “avoided deforestation,” a term coined within the context of international climate change discussions. “Avoided deforestation” refers to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by not clearing forests.^[2] This approach decreases the impact of climate change while conserving biodiversity and protecting the 1.5 billion forest dependent peoples.^[3] Deforestation has become a heated scientific and legislative issue because loss of trees causes nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of the world's entire transport sector.^[4]

The group says that its mission is to “dedicated to advancing U.S. and international climate and resource protection policies. AD Partners brings together public, private and civil society leaders to inspire decision makers to implement strategies that promote sustainable agriculture that is free of deforestation.”^[5] To this end, AD Partners has convened international events that support United Nations efforts such as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation)^[6] and the Green Climate Fund (see subhead: Support for International Forest Protection). In addition, the organization has developed partnerships between industry and government that promote resource conservation and the significant reduction of deforestation via sustainable agricultural practices (see subhead: Public-Private Partnerships). The group has also worked with U.S. congressional legislators to shape forest protection policies (see subhead: American Clean Energy and Security Act).

AD Partners has supported initiatives that monetize forests’ carbon storage capacity, thereby providing carbon credits that governments and industry can buy to offset their emissions. This initiative essentially pays developing countries to protect and effectively manage their forests. The effort is intended to counter the lucrative practice of clearing rainforests in such countries as Brazil and Indonesia to be used for cattle grazing, planting soy, oil palm and other high-demand crops. However, some critics suggest that this top-down forest management approach does not adequately address the needs of communities on the ground.^[7]

Jeff Horowitz, Founder, Avoided Deforestation Partners

Jeff Horowitz, Founder of Avoided Deforestation Partners

The organization‘s founder, Jeff Horowitz, began the organization by bringing together leaders in government, the private sector and civil society to advance practical, scalable solutions to protect tropical forests. His philosophy is that big environmental solutions can be achieved by forging alliances among groups that are not always accustomed to working together. His first successful application of this approach was in 2008-09, when Horowitz convinced a significant number of environmental NGOs, corporate representatives, and U.S. Government agencies to participate in developing a common approach to ending deforestation. Many viewed this strategy as the only way significant forest protection provisions would be inserted into the Waxman-Markey climate bill. Horowitz’s work lead to the inclusion of a suite of provisions that carried an estimated annual value of US $15 billion for reducing international deforestation. Businessweek and Politico say Horowitz played a key role during the drafting of U.S. Climate legislation to protect the rain forests, and helped to build consensus among a diverse group of players in the debate.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} Horowitz continues to serve as a facilitator for major environmental consensus-driven strategies for protecting international forests (and thereby the climate) across both for- and non-profit sectors.

In his role of Founder of Avoided Deforestation Partners, Horowitz is frequently called upon to participate in high level international climate change discussions. Recently, he was invited by the IUCN to attend their World Parks Congress 2014 and served as moderator for their panel, “World Leaders’ Dialogues: The Future Is Not What It Used To Be – how parks can help build a more resilient future.”^[13] Panel members included Paula Caballero, Senior Director, Environment and Natural Resources Management Global Practice, The World Bank Group; Sally Jewel, Secretary of Interior, United States of America; President Tommy Esang Remengesau, Jr., the eighth President of the Republic of Palau; Margareta Wahlström, Secretary-General, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction; and Zhang Xinsheng, President of International Union for Conservation of Nature, Executive Chairman of the Eco-Forum Global, and President of China Education Association for International Exchange.

Horowitz’s rainforest advocacy includes mainstream media audiences, and he has written guest columns for such outlets as the Huffington Post^[14] and Mongabay.com.^[15]

Public-private partnerships

First formal meeting of the Tropical Forest Alliance in Washington, D.C. Attendees included leaders of industry, non-profit organizations and U.S. Government officials.

Since 2011, AD Partners has been working with the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), a consortium of some of the largest retailers and manufacturers in the world. CGF members include Unilever, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Coca-Cola, Walmart, and Kraft Foods; all told, CGF companies represent $3.1 trillion in annual sales.^[16] AD Partners has been working alongside the CGF to help facilitate their ambitious pledge to achieve zero net deforestation by 2020.^[17][18] By mid-2012, AD Partners had brokered a partnership between the Consumer Goods Forum and the U.S. Government that would offer support to their deforestation-free sustainable supply chain initiatives. This partnership was announced by Ambassador Don Steinberg, USAID Deputy Administrator, during the AD Partners’ Rio+20 event on June 21, 2012.^[19][20] Event co-chairs Dr.Jane Goodall, DBE, and Sir Richard Branson also voiced their support for this initiative. Elsewhere at the Rio+20 conference, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton noted that the U.S. “is working with…the Consumer Goods Forum to combat deforestation through sustainable supply chains.”^[21]

The U.S. Government followed up on the announcement of their partnership with the CGF by convening their first formal meeting on Nov. 28, 2012, with leading CEOs of the CGF. The meeting was co-chaired by Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator and Paul Polman, the CEO of Unilever.

Along with the public-private partnership formed by the U.S. Government as a result of the AD Partners Rio+20 meeting, the non-governmental organization, Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 (TFA2020) was founded. The TFA2020's goal is to mobilize key private sector, governmental and civil society entities to help achieve zero net deforestation in tropical forest countries by 2020. The Consumer Goods Forum is a key member of this group.^[22]

Support for international forest protection

Jeff Horowitz (far left) moderated this panel of distinguished environmentalists: Sir Richard Branson, actor/conservationist Edward Norton, and Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE

AD Partners advocates for global forest protection policies, such as REDD+, and convenes high level international events to demonstrate support and momentum for such policies during important conferences such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) and on Capitol Hill in the U.S. AD Partners events are used to advance forest protection strategies and as forums for special announcements that highlight key government and industry initiatives. For example, at the AD Partners’ event during COP15 in Copenhagen, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the U.S.’s pledge of $1 billion, which encouraged five other nations to commit monies to REDD start-up funds, bringing the total available to $3.5 billion.^[23] Other speakers at the COP15 event included President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, UNDP head Helen Clark (former Prime Minister of New Zealand), Governor Eduardo Braga (Amazonas State, Brazil), Sir Richard Branson, Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg, and Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, as well as the heads of IUCN, WWF-US, NRDC, EDF, TNC, CI, and high level executives from American Electric Power and Duke Energy.^[24]

In 2010, during COP16 in Cancún, Mexico, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was the keynote speaker at the AD Partners event. The Secretary General offered his support for the REDD+ initiative then being discussed in the negotiations.^[25] Walmart’s Chairman of the Board, Rob Walton, announced his company’s commitment to use only sustainably-sourced palm oil in the manufacturing of its private label products by 2015.^[26] Other event highlights included comments by Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who announced progress in his country’s large-scale funding of forest-protection projects in Brazil and Indonesia.^[27]

For COP17 in Durban, the AD Partners event featured a tribute to the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai.^[28] Event highlights included video messages from U.S. President Barack Obama,^[29] former U.S. President Bill Clinton,^[30] and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who each communicated wholehearted support for the protection of international rainforests.^[31] Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (who also won the Nobel Peace Prize that year) spoke through her foreign minister, Dr. Toga Gayewea McIntosh, and emphasized the urgent need for the Parties to embrace the Green Climate Fund as a critically important opportunity to help countries like Liberia meet the real challenges Africa is facing due to climate change.^[32]

Major Media Project: Emmy Award-Winning Showtime Series Years of Living Dangerously

Executive Producer David Gelber accepts the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series on behalf of the “Years” crew.

To broaden its audience base for their message about the important connection between deforestation and climate change, Jeff Horowitz joined the Showtime docu-series, Years of Living Dangerously as the co-producer of the episodes related to deforestation, and secured the participation of actor/conservationist Harrison Ford as the story's correspondent. The executive producers for this landmark climate change series were James Cameron, Jerry Weintraub, and former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with Emmy Award-winning former 60 Minutes producers Joel Bach and David Gelber, and climate expert Daniel Abbasi. Dr. Joseph Romm (ClimateProgress.org) served as the chief science advisor. The nine episode series aired in Spring 2014.^[33] The show won the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Best Nonfiction Series.^[34] In addition to recognizing the show's executive producers, the Emmy also acknowledges the work of co-executive producer Solly Granatstein, supervising producer Jennifer Latham, senior producer Adam Bolt, and producer Jacob Kornbluth.

The goal of Years of Living Dangerously is to galvanize a national conversation on climate change that inspires people to share their own stories and empowers them to get involved in solutions. Years reports on the crippling effects of climate change-related weather events and the ways individuals, communities, companies and governments are struggling to find solutions to the biggest threat our world has ever faced. An all-star cast of correspondents goes into the field to meet the people and see the places affected by climate change. The cast includes: Jessica Alba, Mark Bittman, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, America Ferrera, Harrison Ford, Thomas Friedman, Michael C. Hall, Chris Hayes, Olivia Munn, M. Sanjayan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ian Somerhalder and Lesley Stahl.^[35]

For the deforestation segment, AD Partners worked closely with actor Harrison Ford as the story’s correspondent. Mr. Ford is a passionate conservationist, currently serving as the Vice-Chair of Conservation International’s Board.^[36] Mr. Ford's interview with Indonesia's Forestry Minister about the state of the forests in Tesso Nilo National Park continues to resonate.^[37]

In addition to advising the executive producers on an episode that highlights problems of and solutions to deforestation, for the Indonesia segment, AD Partners secured interviews with key governmental officials and civil society personnel.^[38] Carrying the story back to the U.S., AD Partners developed the narrative about the ways in which sophisticated monitoring techniques can be used to track the culprits of deforestation. For this piece, AD Partners obtained permission to film at NASA Ames Research Center and Google Earth, and to interview key scientists engaged in democratizing access to forest monitoring satellite data. AD Partners also put together a segment on how current agricultural practices – particularly those involved in the production of pulp and paper, cattle ranching, soy and palm oil – are largely responsible for widespread global deforestation, and how a group of manufacturers and retailers^[39] is leading the transformation of agricultural supply chains, and thereby creating a market for sustainable, deforestation-free goods.^[40]

U.S. climate legislation

The American Clean Energy and Security Act passed by the House of Representatives in June 2009 set a goal of conserving the carbon trapped in forests equal to 10% of U.S. emissions, and in doing so, set aside 5% of total emissions allowance value from carbon auctions, which could bring $3–5 billion a year, to the protection of forests in developing nations. The forest provisions of the so-called Waxman-Markey bill are informed by the 14 principles which comprise the "Tropical Forest and Climate Unity Agreement," a consensus document forged by AD Partners.^[41] The Senate’s Kerry-Lieberman bill had the same broad goal for conserving forests but devoted no specific funds to stopping deforestation. ADP believes the unfunded mandate in the Senate bill is a blow to large scale implementation of the REDD process.^[1]

Tropical Forest and Climate Unity Agreement

In May 2009, groups including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Duke Energy and American Electric Power signed the "Tropical Forest and Climate Unity Agreement," a set of 14 specific principles endorsing market and non-market mechanisms to protect tropical forests as part of U.S. climate policy. The agreement, signed by groups who are typically at odds with one another, was facilitated by Horowitz.^[42][43][44] Signatories include: American Electric Power, Marriott International, Mercy Corps, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, NorthWestern Energy, Ohio Corn Growers Association, PG&E Corporation, Republicans for Environmental Protection, Starbucks Coffee Company, The Walt Disney Company, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Virgin Group.^[45] There are some indications (though they are not yet confirmed) that this agreement has become guidepost for the U.S. Government’s forest-climate policy.

Origins

AD Partners was founded in 2007 by a small group of forest protection activists headed by Jeff Horowitz and Dr. Charlotte Streck. As the organization evolved, Horowitz became the driving force behind its initiatives, and of the partnership it forged among an international coalition of businesses and non-profit organizations. The group's original corporate partners included American Electric Power, Duke Energy, PG&E, and El Paso Gas. Major non-profit partners include Conservation International, The Sierra Club, and The Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, and others.

AD Partners is an informal network of individuals who donate their time and resources to advancing U.S. and international climate and energy policies along with business solutions that include robust incentives to protect tropical forests. AD Partners convenes public and private sector leaders to inspire decision makers to implement strategies that reduce deforestation.^[46]

Margaret Dick, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of AD Partners. Ms. Dick is responsible for communications strategy, international event coordination and implementation, and research projects.^[47] Previously she was a professor in the Communication Department at Saint Mary’s College of California. She also has extensive experience in public relations and corporate communications. She holds a Ph.D. in rhetoric and communication from Purdue University and is co-author of Communication and Social Understanding (2009).^[48]

References