Subject: Fwd: CCI Forestry program and personnel status
From: "D. James Baker" <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:16:24 -0500

Dear John,
I thought you would be interested in seeing how the CCI forestry program 
is evolving, recognizing the slowness of the REDD+ process.  We think we 
have a good way forward, and Norway and the Australians appear eager to 
fund us.
I would be happy to talk with you about this if you would like to know more.
Sincerely,
Jim

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	CCI Forestry program and personnel status
Date: 	Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:11:11 -0500
From: 	D. James Baker <[email-masked]>
To: 	Bruce Lindsey <[email-masked]>, Terry Sheridan 
<[email-masked]>
CC: 	'Molly H Bartlett' <[email-masked]>, Stephen 
Devenish <[email-masked]>, Jennifer Rockwitz 
<[email-masked]>, Ira Magaziner 
<[email-masked]>, Chris Johnson 
<[email-masked]>

Dear Bruce,

Terry Sheridan relayed your request for information about the program 
funding and personnel status for the CCI Forestry program.  As we 
discussed when we met last August, our overall plan has been to wind 
down the program by the dates for which we have funding for each part of 
the program while at the same time attempting to secure new funding 
which supports a new program strategy.We have written grant proposals to 
Australia, Germany, Norway and the MacArthur Foundation to support a 
broad program that goes beyond carbon and a dependency on international 
climate negotiations to a strategy that includes land use and natural 
resource planning, food and water security and broader economic 
development objectives.This new strategy recognizes that REDD+ as a 
policy option will be slower to implement than originally hoped.

The Australia and Norway proposals, totaling about $14 million for the 
next three years, are close to fruition - there is no competition from 
other organizations, the governments have tentatively agreed to funding, 
and we are working with each of them to come to final agreement on terms 
of reference and exact amounts.  We have been told that Norway will give 
us the final word on funding by the end of March, and we expect that 
Australia will come to agreement by the end of April or sooner. 
Currently we have several other proposals pending (amounting to another 
almost $12 million) which are likely to be completed in the next few 
months.

So that you will have a clearer picture of where we are, where we came 
from, and where we are likely to be headed, I've included a brief 
summary of our accomplishments under our existing grants, an outline of 
our new program strategy, as well as copies of the short proposals that 
outline the work we will likely be starting with Australia, Norway, and 
President Jagdeo of Guyana.I have also attached a table showing the 
grants we've applied for, how much money could result, who would be 
supported, how likely they are to succeed, and when we will hear.

With these things in place, we would like to work with you on a plan to 
transition the program in an orderly way, while at the same time not 
costing the foundation any money. We believe that it's particularly 
important to have a smooth transition to maintain President Clinton's 
reputation with various heads of state who have supported the Forestry 
program including Norway, Australia, Indonesia, and the five host 
countries with whom we've been working in partnership.

Depending on the Foundation's objectives, this transition could mean one 
of the following: continuing CCI Forestry as part of the Clinton 
Foundation but with a new strategy and funding sources in place; merging 
CCI Forestry with a different initiative within the Foundation such as 
CDI; separating CCI Forestry as a legal entity distinct from the 
Foundation as was done with CHAI and CGI; or merging CCI Forestry with 
an outside organization as was done with the Cities Program.We would 
like to discuss which of these possibilities makes the most sense for 
CCI Forestry and the Foundation as soon we have fully secured our new 
grant money.

In the meantime (until the new funding is finalized) we will continue 
our current work obligations under the Rockefeller and NORAD grants 
while working with Terry on a plan to wind down the program if no 
funding comes in.Of course, if there is no new money we would plan to 
close the program, but as you will surely recognize, it does not make 
sense to only plan for the negative result or to shut down the program 
prematurely.

In terms of personnel, I've attached a spreadsheet that gives the 
details as we know them right now.   In short, because of the different 
end date of our existing grants, some personnel are fully funded until 
mid-2013 (The NORAD grant)and others will come to the end of their 
funding in mid-2012 (this is true just for parts of the Rockefeller 
grant - the end date for the full grant is 31 Dec 2012).We will work 
with Terry to come up with timing for notification and the specific 
funding required assuming that there is no new money.  Rockefeller has 
informed us that it is possible to charge severance costs to the grant, 
but any such costs will have to be approved in advance by our program 
monitor, Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio.  For one employee, Jackson Kimani, 
the severance costs would be related to his work with CHAI and HDI 
before he came to CCI Forestry.

To conclude, the CCI Forestry program is continuing the Clinton legacy 
of forest protection dating back to the 1999 Heritage Forestry program 
and the Roadless Area Conservation rule that preserved nearly 60 million 
acres of our nation's last wild forests.With the protections developed 
with our help for Guyana, that forest nation's area of 36 million acres 
can be added to the Clinton legacy as can forests in Indonesia, 
Cambodia, Kenya and Tanzania - bringing the total close to 100 million 
acres.  We've also contributed to the Clinton legacy by building 
stronger relationships and continued interactions with donor countries 
like Norway, helping them to achieve their objectives, and with 
recipient countries by helping them mitigate and adapt to climate change 
while at the same time improving per capita and national GDP.

I would be glad to talk with you at your convenience about how we can 
move forward.

Sincerely,
Jim

-- 
D. James Baker
Director, Global Carbon Measurement Program
The William J. Clinton Foundation
[email-masked]
Cell: (215) 939-2021