Posted on October, 27 2017

Sometimes Pandas venture into the wild in groups. Dandy Yela Yolemba, Communications Manager for WWF-DRC, Maria Fernanda Jaramillo, Knowledge Sharing and Learning Manager for WWF Forest and Climate, and Emelin Gasparrini, Communications Program Associate for WWF Forest and Climate, all pictured at right, travelled to the Andean Amazonian Piedmont region of Colombia, to learn about the programs taking place in the region and share lessons and stories from their work.

Both Colombia and the DRC support communities to shift to sustainable methods of production at the local level by targeting specific drivers of deforestation – cattle ranching and charcoal production. “Being able to visit our colleagues and see their landscapes and partners with our own eyes is so important,” said Dandy. “We are facing the same challenges even though the drivers are different, and the connections between our two places is so clear when we see it in person.” Partnering with local communities protects forests while improving livelihoods, illustrating the diversity of approaches in the conservation world. Stories collected from this trip will be published in future issues of the Canopy.


In September, Naikoa Aguilar Amuchastegui, WWF Forest and Climate’s Director of Forest Carbon Science, organized a UK workshop on forest carbon finance. The objective was to gather evidence in support of climate finance for the preservation and consolidation of existing forest carbon stocks. 

Forest carbon stocks – like those contained in national protected area systems and intact forest landscapes – are often considered “the low hanging fruit” of REDD+, acting as carbon sinks and a kind of insurance against forest destruction in other areas. However, there is a general lack of climate finance for the preservation and consolidation of forest carbon stocks, potentially leaving part of the forest solution to climate change out of the equation. The evidence gathered during the workshop is intended to be useful for mobilizing additional climate finance in support of forest carbon stocks and the benefits they provide.

The findings of the workshop will be consolidated into a peer-reviewed article, to be published in 2018.


Josefina Braña Varela, Senior Director of WWF Forest and Climate, participated in the 3rd International Conference on Community Land and Resource Rights held in Stockholm, on October 4-5.  The Stockholm Conference brought together community, government, and private sector representatives working to advance land rights for conservation, sustainable development, and social equality outcomes. 

Josefina participated in a panel focused on strategies and actions undertaken to increase community land and resource rights as a key component of conservation outcomes, sharing examples from WWF’s work in Guyana, Indonesia, and Peru, and discussing the importance of linking global policy discussions and implementation on the ground. The other participants of the panel included the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, and representatives from the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, The Nature Conservancy, and Conservation International. Read more about the conference here and here.