2011 Success Stories

Each year, WRI releases our “Top Outcomes” – success stories that reflect a positive change in the world resulting from WRI’s analysis, innovative solutions, and global partnerships.

Core to our mission, outcomes help us monitor and evaluate our commitment to ourselves, to our donors, and to the environment and people we aim to serve. They are at the heart of our “Managing for Results” system, and push us to design robust strategies and hold ourselves accountable.

This slideshow features the stories that stand out as our most significant, largest scale, and highest impact accomplishments of 2011. Read about our outcomes for previous years.

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Full Stories

A Landmark Agreement to Save Canada’s Boreal Forest

Canada’s majestic boreal zone stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, covering 307 million hectares of forest and woodland and another 245 million hectares of natural landscape. One of the world’s most important ecosystems, it harbors biodiversity, provides livelihoods for local communities, stores large quantities of carbon, and produces paper and timber for use across the world. While much of it remains intact, industrial activity has been invading the old-growth forest.

In response, 21 forest products companies and nine leading environmental organizations, together with Canadian First Nations, signed an historic agreement in 2010 to protect a large swath of this forest and its species at risk, such as the Boreal caribou. The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement suspends new logging in 29 million hectares of forest land until 2013, and calls for the highest environmental standards of forest management within an area of 72 million hectares – twice the size of Germany. Additional forest will be added as the agreement broadens.

WRI and its Global Forest Watch network first put the issue of Canadian old-growth forest loss on the map – literally. We produced a ground-breaking set of maps documenting old-growth forest loss and areas of surviving intact forests. Global Forest Watch Canada’s maps were accepted as objective, accurate, and credible by activist groups, government officials, and companies. They supported advocacy efforts by explaining the global significance of the forests at stake. And they provided key data for the development of the Boreal Forest Agreement, part of an ongoing effort among environmental groups to fully protect 50 percent of Canada’s boreal forest from industrial development.

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Jaipur Takes First Step Towards World Class Transport System

Jaipur, in northern India, is a tourist destination well known for its forts, palaces, and gardens. The city is also witnessing a rapid growth in its trade and manufacturing industries, and an influx of people from small villages and nearby towns in search of employment, education, and a better standard of living.

Facing high transport demand and lacking a formal public transport system, the city is partnering with EMBARQ India to help manage the reorganization of bus services, as a crucial first step toward a modern, sustainable transport system. Technical assistance from EMBARQ, WRI’s Center for Sustainable Transport, included guidance on fare structures and contract negotiations to reduce operational costs. We also helped develop tools for bus schedules and for monitoring performance to improve quality of service.

The public response has been overwhelmingly positive. Ridership on the Jaipur bus system increased from 65,000 in July 2010 to 172,000 in March 2011, and the city is planning to expand the system from 200 to 400 buses. India’s Ministry of Urban Development recognized Jaipur’s new bus system as a best emerging initiative at its annual urban mobility conference.

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Improving the Effectiveness of Climate Financing

Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed countries have committed to mobilize $100 billion to support developing country efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a changing climate. This new and additional climate financing, together with technology and capacity-building support, will be made available by 2020.

Tracking these funds and ensuring that they are delivered effectively is a huge undertaking. Developed countries report their climate finance contributions in periodic national communications submitted to the UNFCCC. However, because countries use multiple methods for reporting and often provide insufficient information, the data gathered are of limited use.

WRI was one of the first organizations to emphasize the importance of transparency of climate finance as part of any new international climate agreement. In the lead up to the UNFCCC conference in Cancun, held in December 2010, our climate team assessed existing finance reporting systems, provided specific guidelines for improvement, and put forward a common reporting format. The team then helped mobilize coalitions to secure support. The result was a mandate at Cancun calling for revised and enhanced reporting guidelines. If fully implemented, these will help donors and recipients better assess and understand the flow and effectiveness of climate finance, and ensure its alignment with other development priorities.

WRI remains active in the UNFCCC process because we believe all nations must act to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions if we are to contain rising temperatures within the limits to which humanity can adapt. Our work on climate finance and in other key policy areas is making a difference in the international climate negotiations.

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A New Approach to Resource Management in Gabon

Spanning six nations and 500 million acres of land in Central Africa, the Congo Basin contains the second largest contiguous tropical rainforest in the world and is home to a wealth of biodiversity and wildlife. More than 75 million people rely on it for food, fresh water, and shelter. Global demand for the region’s forest and mineral resources is high and growing.

Nowhere is the pressure more intense than in Gabon, a nation with 80 percent of its territory covered by dense tropical forest. With resource use demands spiraling in recent years, Gabon urgently needs better forest management planning if the government is to achieve its goal of becoming an emerging economy while preserving the country’s natural resources.

WRI’s forestry team has been working in Central Africa since 2002 to help nations collect and publish accessible information on forest concessions, logging infrastructure, and protected areas, thus improving transparency and governance in the forest sector.

With assistance from WRI and World Wildlife Fund, Gabon is improving transparency and access to natural resource information by combining forestry, mining and conservation land use data into a single, public, information atlas. Recognizing the need for vastly improved coordination between various land allocation ministries, as well as the importance of reliable, high quality information for decision-making, the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum, and Hydrocarbons led the initiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Forests. As a result, Gabon can begin to tackle conflicting land use claims and plan for comprehensive and coordinated land use allocation at the national level. In addition, industry and the public, armed with information, can participate more actively in decision-making and monitoring activities.

This multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral, and transparent approach is setting the foundation for improved land use and management in Gabon.

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Indonesia’s Ambitious Forest Moratorium

On May 20, 2011, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a two-year moratorium on new permits for use of natural forest and peatland on 74 million hectares of land - about three times the size of Great Britain. The bold initiative is the pillar of a $1 billion Indonesia-Norway partnership agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation (often referred to as REDD+).

Indonesia is the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter, due mainly to deforestation. The country has major timber and paper industries and is a leading producer of palm oil, aiming to double production of the commodity by 2020. The moratorium will allow time for Indonesia’s government to review and improve national processes for issuing new permits for forest concessions.

Its operation will be monitored via a map to be published by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry and a REDD+ Task Force. This will be reviewed every six months and open for public comment, including by civil society groups and the media. This openness and transparency is vital for the partnership’s credibility and accountability.

For seven years, WRI and its Indonesian partners have worked to strengthen the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry’s capacity to document the country’s extensive forest resources and concessions. WRI’s work in support of Indonesia’s new national strategy for palm oil production on degraded land has included mapping, economic and legal analysis, and a pilot project designed to divert planned oil palm concessions away from virgin forests onto nearby degraded land. This strategy provided a powerful argument for the government to use with industry in pushing for the moratorium. WRI’s forestry and climate experts also worked with the Indonesian and Norwegian governments to make data and maps related the moratorium publicly available.

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Celebrating the Growth of Environmental Enterprise in Emerging Markets

Labeled the “queen of the forest” for its size and beauty, the Brazil nut tree plays an important social and environmental role in the Amazon. During the annual harvest, from November to March, when both its seeds and nuts are collected, the tree also provides a critical supplementary source of income for communities across the region.

While other natural resource management activities risk increasing deforestation in the Amazon, nut harvesting is not harmful to nature, since it depends on the forest’s continued existence. Local company Ouro Verde was created with this in mind, selling Brazil nut products marketed as sustainable, including extra virgin nut oil, nut butter and granulate. Ouro Verde created 47 jobs, and many more new business opportunities in the Amazon region, placing an economic value on the rainforest for local communities. About 1.3 million hectares of rain forest are sustainably managed by Ouro Verde supplier partners.

Ouro Verde is a shining example of the type of company WRI’s New Ventures project was created to support. Founded in 1999, New Ventures identifies, mentors, and provides promising small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with access to investment. New Ventures supports companies in six rapidly growing emerging markets – Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, and Mexico – where the environment and development decisions being made today will impact the entire world. To date, we have facilitated more than $225 million in investment and worked with 346 innovative enterprises.

In 2010, SMEs supported by New Ventures reduced CO2 by 135,021 tons, the equivalent of removing over 112,000 cars from the road for one year. In addition, 1,490,448 hectares of land – an area larger than Connecticut - was placed under sustainable management by New Ventures companies or was conserved by sustainable land use companies in the New Ventures portfolio.

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India’s Green Tribunal Fully Functional and Accessible

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Act, passed by the Indian Parliament in May 2010, established a court to deal with environmental disputes throughout the country. Though hailed as a progressive mechanism for victims of pollution and environmental degradation to seek redress, the government delayed putting in place the needed infrastructure, staff, and judges for over a year. The deadlock was broken when environmental groups that are part of The Access Initiative in India took the issue to the Supreme Court., which ruled in their favor, forcing the government to implement the tribunal.

This turn of events underlines the influence and effectiveness of The Access Initiative (TAI) which is co-led by WRI. Established in 1999, TAI is the largest network of civil society organizations in the world dedicated to ensuring that citizens have the right and ability to influence decisions about the natural resources that sustain their communities. TAI-India has become a visible and influential player in India’s environmental governance arena.

Following the Supreme Court’s intervention, India’s National Green Tribunal started functioning on July 4, 2011, hearing thirty-five cases in the first two weeks. TAI India members won another victory when they brought to the media’s attention a stipulation in the Act requiring petitioners, when filing for environmental damages, to pay one percent of the compensation claimed. Following media coverage, the Minister for Environment and Forests, immediately withdrew the regulation requiring fees, which would have deterred poor people from seeking the tribunal’s help.

Indian citizens will now have unfettered access to an environmental court – an important step in advancing environmental rights in the world’s largest democracy. Although the court now functions in only New Delhi, the government plans to expand its presence to five other locations.

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Greener IFC Lending Standards

With a lending portfolio of $18 billion in 2010, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) promotes private investment in developing countries. Its lending has been guided since 2006 by a set of Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability which the IFC applies to all investment projects to minimize their impact on the environment and on affected communities. Large-scale infrastructure projects, extractive industries operations, and other projects often pose serious environmental and social risks, including to human rights.

Over the past decade, WRI has been leveraging its expertise on ecosystems and biodiversity, climate change, and governance to help shape the environmental and social policies of international financial institutions like the IFC, and to promote sustainable private investment in client countries.

WRI actively advised IFC on its 2011 revision of the IFC performance standards which strengthened the environmental and social safeguards it applies to projects worldwide. IFC staff making a case for robust requirements to assess risks on ecosystem services, climate change, and indigenous peoples’ rights, also had access to the following WRI body of work:

• Our effort to mainstream ecosystem services in decision-making and the documented use of our ecosystem services review tools within the private sector.
• WRI tools and leadership on greenhouse gas accounting.
• Our work demonstrating that the concept of “Free Prior Informed Consent” makes a good business case for large-scale, high-impact projects to ensure local civil society buy in.

IFC standards are globally influential among international project financiers seeking to manage the environmental and social risks of projects in the developing world. More than 60 leading international institutions have committed to adhere to IFC’s Performance Standards in their project-finance lending under the rubric of the Equator Principles. Banks in emerging economies including China and Brazil often refer to the IFC Performance Standards as they develop national environmental and social guidelines.

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Fairer and Cleaner Energy in South Africa

Decisions about how to generate, deliver and pay for electricity have a profound effect on people’s lives. WRI’s Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI) promotes transparent, inclusive and accountable decision-making in the electricity sector, with the goal of helping countries can develop more equitable and sustainable electricity policies. The partnership works in India, Indonesia, Thailand, South Africa, and the Philippines, five countries with rapidly growing emissions from power generation. Since 2005, we have worked with civil society organizations to complete national assessments of electricity governance and advocate for improvements. More than thirty organizations around the world are partners in the Initiative.

In 2010 EGI helped influence South Africa’s electricity plan for 2010-2030 which includes a 50 percent increase in the share of renewable energy and greater focus on energy efficiency.
This breakthrough resulted from the opening up South Africa’s national electricity planning process, in which EGI played a key role.

Civil society organizations were invited to participate in a new open and consultative process to develop the Integrated Resource Plan for 2010-2030. EGI partners in South Africa produced and shared relevant and timely analyses of the draft plan, held public workshops with government officials, parliamentarians, and civil society groups, and drew media attention to key components of the plan. The result was the government’s heightened focus on the clean energy options of renewables and efficiency. In addition, the South African Department of Energy committed to develop a research agenda to address issues that arose during the public process.

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New Tools Help Businesses Measure Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Managing carbon is not just good for the environment. It’s also a way for business to save money, cut risks, and create new business opportunities.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP), created by WRI and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), is the leading international standard for companies to measure their carbon emissions so they can manage, report on, and reduce them.

In 2011, the GHG Protocol launched two new standards in response to demand from both the market and stakeholders for greenhouse gas emissions information across a company or product’s value chain. The Corporate Value Chain Standard can help a company identify which parts of its value chain it should target to reduce emissions. The Product Life Cycle Standard may be used to develop new low-carbon product lines that can give companies a competitive edge or pinpoint climate-related risks in a product’s life cycle.

The new standards took three years to develop. Close to 2,500 partners worldwide participated and 60 companies from 17 countries road-tested the standards. Even before their release, two major initiatives – The Sustainability Consortium and the Consumer Goods Forum – committed to use the standards. Their endorsement is a breakthrough and a clear signal that the new standards will be widely adopted by companies globally. The Consumer Goods Forum, for example, represents over 400 companies and retailers with a combined three trillion dollars in sales.

By enabling corporations to reduce their use of carbon, the new GHGP standards can play a role in significant global GHG emission reductions.

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Photo Credits

• Greener IFC Standards: flickr/Amirjina
• New Tools for GHG: flickr/Sprengben
• Climate Financing: flickr/Michael Oko, World Resources Institute
• Indonesia: Selka
• Canada: D. Langhorst/Ducks Unlimited
• Gabon: Matt Steil
• India: flickr/sduffy
• South Africa: flickr/worldbank
• Jaipur: Umang Jain, EMBARQ India/World Resources Institute