Articles by ecothrust at Technorati Headline Animator

Friday, September 23, 2011

Goldman Ropes In WWF to Turn Forest Into Commodities

http://bit.ly/7XwAG

Crafty Wall Street Banker Goldman Sachs is not  satisfied with inducing volatility in oil, spiking the metal trade or corn and wheat and shorting the Euro-zone Bonds. Now it has roped in The World Wild Life Fund and plans to involve it into co-promoting forest bonds. Strictly the Forest Bonds is not being floated by Goldman Sachs but by an a company called Climate Bonds Initiative but has  the blessings of the Wall Street Banks who usually  like to devise such instruments staying at the background.   Turning forests into commodities is no new concept for big Banks. What is new is that in all possibility the WWF unaware of the pitfalls, has been roped in the deal.



They have been trying it since the last decade only the form and delivery mechanism keeps changing. First it was Carbon Credits issued by the EU ETS and REDD which caused high level of deforestation and replacement of the natural rain forests and replacement  of evergreen species by the palm forests, eucalyptus and other fast growing  species. Now the monetization  of ecological bio-diversity by Deutsche Bank front company TEEB  and climate bonds of Goldman Sachs are the new offerings encouraging Governments to raise capital on the basis of forest wealth of nations. Since forest products like wood is a high value asset it is can be easily turned to a salable commodity in case of default by nations.

For example if Kenya or Congo gets trapped into issuing forest bonds and Goldman Sachs issues the bond and follows it up with a Credit Default Swap Derivative, then speculators can drive the bond  markets up and down the roller coaster as they are doing with Euro-zone Bonds today and ultimately cause default if these economies are not alert and strong enough to fend off the predatory hedge funds and Wall Street Banks. Goldman can go laughing all the way to the Bank with forest assets in their kitty and the WWF can say, we never knew this could happen.

The next United Nations climate change talks, in Panama in early October and South Africa in December, will be  focus on these innovative options for financing forest conservation. WWF, says that its Global Canopy Programme and Climate Bonds Initiative are calling on governments to take action to close the gap between current financial commitments and the resources needed to conserve the world's forests.

Is there really a need for debt financing with forest wealth as collateral. Who will bear the costs if politicians in democratic or autocratic nations fail to ensure their timely repayment?  Please register in the oncoming WWF  Webinar  on  Climate Bonds and express your concerns next Thursday 29th of Sept at morning 9 AM EDT on how you feel about  TURNING FORESTS INTO COMMODITIES  In case this WWF  link does not work try


https://wwfevents.webex.com/mw0306ld/mywebex/default.do?nomenu=true&siteurl=wwfevents&service=6&rnd=0.481939712913645&main_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwwfevents.webex.com%2Fec0605ld%2Feventcenter%2Fevent%2FeventAction.do%3FtheAction%3Ddetail%26confViewID%3D279970657%26siteurl%3Dwwfevents%26%26%26








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