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In September 2009, The Walt Disney Company and Conservation International (CI) signeda landmark agreement through which Disney will provide nancing for development oflarge-scale Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) demonstrationactivities in Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The new agreementunder which Disney will provide an initial contribution of $4 millionrepresents the single largest corporate commitment to date for activities that reduceemissions from deforestation. In addition to the climate benets, the program will protecthigh biodiversity tropical forests and provide long-term economic benets for localcommunities.

the investmentThe new Disney forest preservation commitment ts within the companys overallenvironmental leadership strategy, which was developed in collaboration with CI andannounced in March 2009. Veried emissions reductions achieved through the multi-benetforest carbon activities will complement Disneys ambitious goals for energy efciencyimprovements and use of renewable energy.

Disneys investment will protect forests and safeguard natural environments in the Taynaand Kisimba-Ikobo Community Reserves in eastern DRC and the Alto Mayo ProtectedForest (AMPF) in Peru. The sites are located respectively in the Congo Basin and the

Amazon, two of the most important tropical forest regions in the world. The protectionof these areas will not only prevent carbon emissions, but secure vital watersheds andhabitat for a wide-variety of plants and animals, many of them threatened or endangered.These include gorilla (Gorilla gorilla graueri) and okapi (Okapia johnstoni) in Congo and the

Andean spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) and the yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Oreonaxavicauda) in Peru.

In addition to contributing towards global greenhouse gas emission reductions, the activitieswill provide direct economic benets for local communities as well as secure criticalecosystem services that improve water and food security. One important objective is toprovide models that will help DRC and Peru develop the legal and nancial framework, as

The Walt Disney Company & CI:Commitment to PreservingForests

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well as the technical and institutional capacity, to support global efforts to mitigate climatechange through the reduction of deforestation.

To provide assurance that these demonstration activities achieve real emissions reductions,protect biodiversity and provide benets to local communities they will be independentlyvalidated under the rigorous requirements of the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) andthe Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards (CCBS) the worlds leading voluntarystandards for assessing these kinds of activities.

The funding will support a range of activities, including: Refurbishing clinics to provide medical care to local communities; Protecting intact forests and restoring degraded areas; Ensuring the provision of water supplies to local communities; Operating and managing small scale hydropower systems; Guiding the disbursement of future revenues to local people involved in community

conservation.

corporate commitmentAs public concern has escalated about climate change and other threats to the globalenvironment, the bar has been raised for what constitutes leadership in the corporateworld. Customers, employees and shareholders continue to expect companies to lead onsustainability even during the nancial downturn.

CI works with corporate, government and civil society partners to mobilize private sectorinvestment in forest conservation as a climate solution while beneting local communities.Deforestation is responsible for about 16 percent of global greenhouse gas emissionsmore than all the worlds cars, trucks, planes, and ships combined. The world cannot solvethe climate challenge without protecting its remaining tropical forests and restoring forests

on degraded lands.

Protecting forests is one of the most cost effective and immediate ways to reducegreenhouse gas emissions, and it creates multiple benets for local communities. We helpour corporate partners to address the major drivers of climate changeenergy use anddeforestationwhile also conserving threatened biodiversity and creating sustainablelivelihoods for vulnerable communities.

By making a commitment to protect the Tayna and Kisimba-Ikobo Community Reservesin eastern DRC and the Alto Mayo conservation area in Peru, Disney is demonstrating thebusiness case for pursuing innovative climate solutions. Disneys commitment will prevent

more than 900,000 tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere over the next veyears.

REDD policyAt the December 2009 United Nations climatechange conference, REDD+ (ReducingEmissions from Deforestation and ForestDegradation plus conservation, thesustainable management of forests andenhancement of forest carbon) was included inthe Copenhagen Accord as well as in the drafttexts for ongoing negotiations. This recognitionthat REDD+ is essential to effectively mitigateclimate change quickly and cost-effectively is acritical rst step and enables further progress.

In another important step, $30 billion in funding

for the years 2010-2012 was included in theAccord to support mitigation and adaptationinitiatives in developing countries, includingREDD+. This funding will enable progress inREDD+ readiness as well as immediate action toslow deforestation.

The U.S. House and Senate climate bills bothcontain strong provisions for REDD, and provideregulated companies with incentives to supportforest conservation activities as one element of

their strategies to reduce global emissions.

While Disney is supporting investment in REDDefforts on a voluntary basis, their leadershipdemonstrates to policymakers and othercompanies around the world the viability andvalue of high quality forest carbon activities toreduce tropical deforestation as a means to helpstabilize the Earths climate, while generatingother social and environmental benets.

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Peru Project

Disneys commitment to this demonstration activityaims to reduce deforestation on approximately300,000 hectares (more than 740,000 acres) ofpristine forestlands, held within the AMPF and itsbuffer zone, and to progressively restore degraded

lands in several sub-basins of AMPF, such as inthe Yuracyacu, Naranjos, Naranjillo, Aguas Verdes,Serranoyacu, and Rio Huasta sub-basins. CI hasengaged with the local communities of the Alto Mayosince 2008 using conservation agreements to securethe protection of the forest while beneting the localcommunities.

climate change,social and biodiversity

impactsThe Alto Mayo watershed, located in northwesternPeru in the Region of San Martin, is an area oftremendous value for the conservation of biodiversityand freshwater resources. The watershed harborsmany threatened plant and animal species foundno where else on Earth, and forms part of the 14.6million hectare (nearly 35 million acre) Abiseo-Cndor-Kutuk Conservation Corridor. Runoff fromthe Alto Mayo forests gives rise to several majorrivers which ultimately ow through the t ropicalforests of the Amazon Basin and provide a source ofclean water for local communities.

Conserving the Alto Mayo via this REDDdemonstration activity will: Help protect a variety of threatened or

endangered species, including the yellow-tailed woolly monkey, the Andean titi monkey(Callicebus oenanthe), and the Andean spectacledbear;

Reduce the historical deforestation rate by 30%;and

Ensure the nancial sustainability of more than8,000 downstream families and about 35,000regional inhabitants.

DRC Project

Disneys commitment will develop two contiguous,community-based REDD demonstration activities at asingle site in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC), which includes two government-sanctionedNature Reserves comprising 3,370 square kilometers

(1,300 square miles). The program is being managedby CIs Central Africa program in partnership withDian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, which worksdirectly with local non-governmental organization(NGO) partners.

climate change,social and biodiversityimpactsThe DRC has the largest forest area in Africa,which comprises about sixty percent of the secondlargest tropical forest ecosystem in the world (afterAmazonia). The country has an abundance ofresource wealth, yet the population of more than sixtymillion people is one of the poorest in the world, andits people are highly dependent on forest resourcessuch as fuel wood, bushmeat, and other non-timberproducts for their livelihoods.

This REDD demonstration activity can provide asustainable revenue stream that will: Provide signicant funding for local economic

development, leading to poverty reduction andimprovements in human well-being;

Provide funding for long-term and localmanagement of these reserves, which willprotect signicant biodiversity such as theeastern lowland gorilla, eastern chimpanzee(Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii), forest elephant(Loxodonta cyclotis), and okapi.

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Peruprogress to dateCI has signicant experience in Peru and elsewherein implementing and monitoring the impacts ofclimate change mitigation. Working with a localpartner, CIs team used both Landsat images andground sampling work to determine the historicaldeforestation rate, the rate of CO

2emissions

within the site and potential for leakage. Localand municipal government agencies, such as themunicipal water management agency of NuevaCajamarca and community Watershed ManagementCommittees, will be instrumental in coordinatingstakeholder engagement and managing legal issues.CI Peru and its local partners have pioneered theimplementation of conservation agreements tosecure the protection of forest and the watershedand ensure that local communities benet out of theirconservation efforts.

This demonstration activity will contribute to the

implementation of the Program for Conservation ofTropical Forest of the Ministry of Environment of Peru,and is likely to become a model for many other areasin the Andes region.

partnersCommunities in and around the Alto Mayo nationalreserve; NGO partners including Association forInvestigation and Integral Development (AIDER),Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA),Asociacin Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN) andAsociacin de la Virgen de la Medalla Milagrosa(AVMM); Government of Peru (Ministry ofEnvironment).

DRCprogress to dateLocal communities organized as Congolese NGOshave been managing two Nature Reserves for morethan eight years; these two reserves were ofciallyapproved by the central DRC government in 2006.

Since 2003 local communities have developed and

implemented the community-managed university,the Tayna Center for Conservation Biology. Thisgovernment sanctioned university, which hasgraduated more than 200 students, is serving asthe training center for the carbon demonstrationactivity. During 2009, more than 200 local scientistsand traditional chiefs have already received fourtraining workshops on technical aspects of REDD,government and international policy related toREDD, and the fundamentals of climate change. Thedemonstration activity is now ready to move into itsformal phase in which the design documentation andmonitoring protocols will be developed in order to

validate and retire CO2 emissions.

partnersCommunities in and around the Tayna and Kisimba-Ikobo areas that are NGO members of UGADEC(Union of Associations for Gorilla Conservation andDevelopment in Eastern DRC), Dian Fossey GorillaFund International, Government of DRC (Ministry ofEnvironment).

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