Over the coming for years the Xerox Corporation is expected to invest an additional $1 million in the second phase of its partnership with The Nature Conservancy. The aim of the scheme is to promote forest conservation and sustainable forest management around the world.
The partnership between Xerox and The Nature Conservancy was formed in October 2006 with an initial investment of $1 million and an agreement to build on the work of the Forest Conservation Partnership.
During the first phase of the partnership much of the work was focused on the protection of the Boreal forest in Canada. The launch of the Boreal Data Centre was supported by Xerox, which allows forest data and information to be accessed by users across the world. The goal of which was to improve resource management, monitoring, conservation and planning.
A key tool for identifying priority habitats is the High Conservation Value (HCV) concept in the Boreal forest, which also supported by the partnership. In order for a forest to be considered of critical importance or of outstanding significance factors such as biodiversity, conservation and social values must be taken into consideration first.
“Our work will help stem the tide of forest loss and degradation that contributes approximately 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere each year,” said Bill Ginn, chief conservation officer, The Nature Conservancy. “Xerox has demonstrated real leadership in promoting responsible forest management — both in areas that they source from and in other key geographies around the globe. It’s partnerships like these that are starting to change how forests are managed and how areas of High Conservation Value are treated within working landscapes.”
In addition the partnership has influenced the Canadian, Brazilian and Indonesian governments to make policy decisions that support effective land use. It is in this way that the partnership has forged strong international sustainable forestry standards that will promote biodiversity and conservation.
“Collaborating with The Nature Conservancy over the last three years resulted in real economic, social and environmental benefits, creating a solid foundation to build on,” said Patricia Calkins, Xerox’s vice president for Sustainability, Environment, Health and Safety.
Work on the second phase of the partnership began in January of this year and focuses on three main areas.
The first stage is to develop a better forest carbon methodology for improved forest management, which would allow landowners to achieve forest certification and also act as a platform for potential carbon benefits. The second stage is to strengthen the High Conservation Value (HCV) approach; this could be done by building a consistency across the projects and by increasing standards and training assessors through international and regional HCV networks. The last stage is to promote responsible forestry through the implementation of forest management standards. Xerox has already done this somewhat by working with suppliers and other land managers at two of their sites in North America.
“The work we are doing with The Nature Conservancy directly aligns with our core values and our goal of creating a sustainable paper cycle,” said Joe Cahalan, president, The Xerox Foundation. “We feel there is so much more to be done to minimize the impact on the world’s forests and their ecosystems. This investment has the potential of paying big conservation dividends now and in the future.”
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April 20th, 2010 at 2:19 PM
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