Speaking at an event titled "New Pathways and Partnerships to Advance REDD+," Zoellick explained that the Wildlife Premium Initiative will focus on species like tigers, lemurs, elephants, great apes and others that require large forest areas.
8 December 2010: World Bank President Robert Zoellick announced a Wildlife Premium Market Initiative, which will provide additional incentives to protect endangered animals as part of financing for REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable use of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks).
Speaking at an event titled “New Pathways and Partnerships to Advance REDD+” sponsored by Avoided Deforestation Partners during the Cancun Climate Change Conference, Zoellick explained that the Wildlife Premium Initiative will focus on species like tigers, lemurs, elephants, great apes and others that require large forest areas. The Wildlife Premium Market Initiative aims to complement REDD+ programmes by giving value to forest wildlife and make payments to local communities for wildlife protection. Other speakers at the event, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Conservation International CEO Peter Seligmann, and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner, stressed the need to act now to protect the world’s forests. Zoellick also stressed that a formal decision on REDD+ in Cancun would help scale up efforts in forest conservation and wildlife protection, but that interested parties should proceed with actions in any event. [Zoellick’s Statement] [UN Secretary-General Statement] [Avoided Deforestation Partners Press Release]