Report on Forest Governance Sets Out China Pathway to Better Tackle Global Deforestation

Jul 20, 2022 | Business

Beijing – WEBWIRE –

  • World Economic Forum launches report on China’s role in promoting global forest governance and combating deforestation
  • Despite domestic advances in sustainable forestry, China can do more to promote deforestation-free commodities if it is to deliver on its Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land use pledge
  • Report suggests China’s private sector can play a strong role in driving progress on forest governance
  • Read the report here

The World Economic Forum – in collaboration with China-UK Collaboration on International Forest Investment and Trade, the World Wide Fund for Nature China and The Nature Conservancy – has launched a new report that sets out how China can do more to address global commodity-driven deforestation.


The report, China’s Role in Promoting Global Forest Governance and Combating Deforestation, provides insights into the many ways China can step up on global leadership in combating commodity-driven deforestation. Given that soft-commodity value chains such as soy, beef, palm oil and forest products cause at least 40% of global deforestation and China is a major importer and consumer, the country has a critical role to play in addressing deforestation.


Such action is in China’s own interest, strengthening the resilience of supply chains, boosting its food security, and is also aligned with its stated ecological civilization goal and pledge to promote the greening of the Belt and Road Initiative.


The report points to the many domestic advances from bilateral and multilateral cooperation and the development of market mechanisms, such as in promoting timber legality, forest certification, sustainable overseas forest management, greening of supply chains and legislation. These experiences can be used to inform China’s promotion of other deforestation-free commodities in the future to help tackle the global challenge.


The report also challenges some of the traditionally held myths among experts and professional networks in China, such as:

  • Given the soaring trade figures – that both import and export of forest product increased more than sixfold from 1998 to 2018 – there is no evidence that fear of legislation, standardization and supervision creates a ‘green trade barrier’, which has previously been put forward as a concern.
  • ‘Non-interference’ – often cited as a concern by some stakeholders – is not conflicting with China’s overall national strategic diplomacy, rather it is contributing to delivering China’s international commitment and responsibilities on forest and land use, climate and biodiversity targets.
  • The private sector in China has an important role to play as the driving force of China’s forest governance progress which is not always a common accepted view in the country.

“International cooperation must be strengthened to achieve deforestation-free supply chains,” said Gim Huay Neo, Managing Director, Centre for Nature and Climate, World Economic Forum. “We need more joint public-private dialogues and collaborative action across bilateral and multilateral platforms. This report highlights learnings and insights for all stakeholders to work together and co-create solutions.”


The report strongly advocates for the need to strengthen global cooperation to harvest collective action. Zhu Chunquan, Head, China Nature Initiatives, World Economic Forum, said: “Collective action is indispensable, both at home and overseas. In China, the Forum is working with the Chinese government on its high-level integrated national strategy to regulate soft commodity green value chains. This requires both an inter-ministerial and a multistakeholder cooperation mechanism that includes the private sector, civil society, think tanks and individuals. It also requires associated synergies with China’s peak emission, carbon neutrality and global biodiversity framework target.”


China’s Role in Promoting Global Forest Governance and Combating Deforestation has support from the China-UK Collaboration on International Forest Investment and Trade, World Wide Fund for Nature China, The Nature Conservancy, Forest Trends, the Research Institute of Forestry Policy and Information at the Chinese Academy of Forestry, the Forest Stewardship Council, and Beijing Zhonglin Union Forestry Planning and Design Institute. It has been worked on since January 2020, with five rounds of physical, hybrid and virtual consultations from more than 70 experts. The report draws on collective insight from the China’s forest experts over the past 20 years.


About the Tropical Forest Alliance


The Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) – a multistakeholder partnership platform with more than 170 alliance partners, including companies, government entities, civil society, Indigenous peoples, local communities, and international organizations, and hosted by the World Economic Forum – was initiated to support private-sector commitments to remove deforestation from palm oil, beef, soy and pulp and paper supply chains through forest-positive collective action. The TFA China community was established in 2019 during the Annual Meeting of New Champions in Dalian. TFA China (guided by its steering committee) focuses on engaging key cross-sector business stakeholders to make commitments on forest positive actions and joint roadmaps, and on enhancing the policy update for China’s national strategy of soft commodity green value chains and the inter-ministerial cooperation mechanism.



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New Report From Liftoff and Singular Shows That Mobile Shopping Is Still Hot Despite Physical Store Reopenings and New Policies from Apple

Jul 12, 2022 | Business

, through May 1, 2022—which spans 182 billion ad impressions and 2.4 billion clicks across 16.5 million installs to deliver key takeaways on shopping app engagement worldwide.


About Liftoff

Liftoff is a leading growth acceleration platform for the mobile industry, helping advertisers, publishers and game developers scale revenue growth with solutions to market and monetize mobile apps. With a suite of solutions including Vungle, JetFuel, GameRefinery and Tresensa, Liftoff supports over 6,600 mobile businesses across 74 countries, including gaming, social, finance, ecommerce, entertainment and more. Liftoff is proud to be a long-term partner to leading advertisers and app publishers since 2012. Headquartered in Redwood City, CA, Liftoff has a growing global presence with offices around the world.


About Singular

Singular’s next-gen attribution and analytics powers marketers to grow faster by uncovering accurate, granular, and timely performance insights. World class teams from brands like WB Games, Twitter, Lyft, Rovio, Airbnb, Activision, Homa Games, EA, LinkedIn and more use Singular to make smarter user acquisition decisions and analyze the impact of every ad dollar with full-funnel marketing analytics, best-in-class ad fraud prevention, and automatic loading directly into one’s BI tools.

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New report examines the economic impact of short-term rentals in Colorado

Jun 2, 2022 | Business

WEBWIRE –



Key Takeaways



– Short-term rental visitors spent an estimated $1 billion across Summit, Grand, Eagle, Pitkin and Routt Counties in 2020.



– This spending supported 14,700 jobs – representing 15 percent of all jobs across these five counties in 2020 –  generated nearly $600 million in worker earnings.

 


Airbnb is today releasing a new report – Colorado Short Term Rental Impact Study: Findings and Recommendation – by HR&A. This report was commissioned by Airbnb to understand the economic benefits of short-term rentals in five counties across Colorado – Summit, Grand, Eagle, Pitkin and Routt Counties – as well as any potential impact of short-term rentals on the availability of workforce housing in the region. 


The HR&A report concludes that short-term rentals create clear financial opportunities for Colorado mountain towns as well as statewide, with minimal effect on local housing supply. In fact, the report finds that — across the five counties — both the total number of vacant units and the share of seasonal, recreational or occasional use units have been stable, suggesting that occupied homes are not being converted to short-term rentals at high rates.


’’Every day, Airbnb Hosts across Colorado not only welcome visitors to their communities, but also encourage them to spend their dollars locally, in restaurants, shops and attractions. As this report shows, Hosts are playing a crucial role in both the statewide and local economies, from bringing in millions of dollars in tax revenue to supporting tens of thousands of jobs. Airbnb looks forward to continuing to work with elected officials across Colorado to empower residents to both supplement their income by sharing their homes and drive this valuable economic impact.”


—Ayisha Irfan, Airbnb public policy manager


On the economic impact of short-term rentals, key findings include: 

  • Short-term rental visitors spent an estimated $1 billion in the five counties in 2020. Approximately 60 percent of this spending was spent on something other than lodging, including food, arts, entertainment, recreation and retail.
  • Short-term rental visitor spending supported 14,700 jobs, representing 15 percent of all jobs in five counties in 2020. This spending generated $599 million in worker earnings across the five counties in 2020 – 12 percent of overall worker earnings in the region.
  • In total, short-term rental visitor spending also generated $1.5 billion in economic output in 2020.
  • In 2020, short-term rental visitor spending produced $73.9 million in tax revenue for the State of Colorado and its local municipalities. 
  • Of the approximately 5.2 million tourists to the five counties in 2020, short-term rental visitors comprised about 30 percent of all visitors, with over half of them staying in Summit County.

On the impact of short-term rentals on the local housing market in the five counties, key findings include:

  • Across the five counties, both the total number of vacant units and the share of seasonal, recreational or occasional use units have been stable, suggesting that occupied homes are not being converted to short-term rentals at high rates.
  • While listings vary monthly, there were approximately 49,200 total short-term rental units available through different platforms across the five counties as of 2021. This is approximately equal to the number of seasonal, recreational or occasional use units, indicating that the existing short-term rental inventory has historically been used as tourism-related lodging or was occupied part-time.
  • At the same time, the inventory of housing in the five counties has grown by about 8,600 from 2010 to 2019 – or about 8 percent – compared to 17 percent in overall job growth.
  • In addition, the inventory of renter-occupied housing units, serving low- and moderate-wage workers, has stayed relatively stagnant while those jobs have grown, forcing workers to compete for limited rental supply.

As the travel revolution continues to unfold, Airbnb is helping to keep the economic impact of tourism in the communities where it happens. Hosts keep up to 97 percent of what they charge, and the typical US Host earned more than $13,800 in 2021 – equivalent to over two months of pay for the median US household. To date, Hosts around the world have earned a total of $150 billion welcoming guests through our platform – and new Hosts in Colorado alone earned approximately $60 million in 2021. Women Hosts in the US, who make up 60 percent of Airbnb’s US Host community, earned more than $12 billion in 2021.


Along with the significant tax revenue generated in Colorado alone, Airbnb has collected and remitted more than $4 billion in tourism taxes around the world, including more than $1.5 billion in US communities in 2021.


Airbnb promotes the kind of tourism that supports Hosts, guests, and local communities. As cities and towns continue to plan for their recovery from the pandemic, this report shows that short-term rentals in Colorado can be an important tool for economic revitalization – with tax revenue even serving as resource to help invest in local housing supply – and Airbnb stands ready to work with policymakers and stakeholders to make that a reality.


About HR&A


HR&A Advisors, Inc. (HR&A) is an employee-owned company advising public, private, non-profit, and philanthropic clients on how to increase opportunity and advance quality of life in cities of all scales. We believe in creating vital places, building more equitable and resilient communities, and improving people’s lives. We help clients turn vision into action by analyzing, strategizing, and implementing solutions to address complex challenges across a broad range of places and issues, including how to enable, deliver and benefit from urban tech and innovation.

About Airbnb

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to 4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Travel on Airbnb keeps more of the financial benefits of tourism with the people and places that make it happen. Airbnb has generated billions of dollars in earnings for Hosts, most of whom are individuals listing the homes in which they live. Among Hosts who report their gender, more than half are women, and one in five employed Hosts are either teachers or healthcare workers. Travel on Airbnb also has generated more than $4 billion in tax revenue around the world. Airbnb has helped advance more than 1,000 regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals, including in 80% of our top 200 geographies. In late 2020, to support our continued expansion and diversification, we launched the City Portal to provide governments with a one-stop shop that supports data sharing and compliance with local registration rules. We continue to invest in innovations and tools to support our ongoing work with governments around the world to advance travel that best serves communities.

Canada – Final Report of the Expert Panel on MAID and Mental Illness

May 15, 2022 | International

Backgrounder

The Expert Panel on Medical Assistance in Dying and Mental Illness Final Report was tabled in Parliament on May 13, 2022. As required by former Bill C-7, the most recent legislation on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), the Ministers of Health and Justice established the Expert Panel to undertake an independent review of the recommended protocols, guidance and safeguards that apply to requests made for MAID by people who have a mental illness.

The Final Report of the Expert Panel on MAID and Mental Illness was tabled in Parliament on May 13, 2022.

As required by former Bill C-7, the most recent legislation on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), the Ministers of Health and Justice established the Expert Panel to undertake an independent review of the recommended protocols, guidance and safeguards that apply to requests made for MAID by people who have a mental illness.

The Expert Panel dedicated the past nine months to carefully considering Canada’s existing legal framework, safeguards in other jurisdictions and those proposed by Canadian organizations on this topic, international experience, and current evidence from the academic literature and professional practice community.

The members of the Expert Panel were chosen for their expertise in their respective fields and come from a broad range of disciplines, spanning clinical psychiatry, MAID assessment and provision, law, health professional training and regulation, mental health care services, as well as lived experience with mental illness.

The members are:

Mona Gupta (Chair)
Rose Carter (Vice-chair)
Jennifer A. Chandler
Justine Dembo
Sara Goulet
Karen Hetherington
Trevor Morey
Leora Simon
Donna Stewart
Cornelia (Nel) Wieman

More information on the Expert Panel, including member biographies, is available in the Expert Panel’s report.

Although the Expert Panel’s mandate refers to “mental illness”, in order to support greater clarity for practitioners, the Expert Panel chose to use the term “mental disorder” throughout its report. This is because “mental disorder” is the term used by major diagnostic classification systems in Canadian psychiatric practice.

The Expert Panel has made 19 recommendations for establishing a MAID regime that addresses situations regarding incurability, irreversibility, individual capacity, suicidality and the effect of structural vulnerabilities (structural vulnerabilities being the effects of interactions between a person’s sex, gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, sexuality, or institutional location, with one’s position in society). The recommendations address these concerns in a manner that respects individual autonomy and Charter-protected rights, while at the same time supporting safety and equity.

The Expert Panel also concluded that many of these concerns are neither unique to requests for MAID from persons with a mental disorder, nor applicable to every requestor who has a mental disorder. In the view of the Expert Panel, their recommendations should apply to any case where similar concerns may arise, regardless of the requester’s diagnosis. However, in keeping with their mandate, the Expert Panel did pay particular attention to the concerns in the context of mental disorders.

The 19 recommendations are explained in the executive summary of the report and focus on:

developing MAID practice standards,
interpreting the grievous and irremediable medical condition eligibility criterion,
addressing potential vulnerabilities including an individual’s capacity, structural vulnerability, whether the decision has been made voluntarily, and suicidality,
supporting a robust assessment process, and
implementing measures to improve the functioning of MAID.

While some of the Expert Panel’s recommendations are directed at federal, provincial and territorial governments, the Panel suggests that the current framework and safeguards for MAID in Canada’s Criminal Code are sufficient and that its recommendations can be fulfilled without further legislative amendments.

The Government of Canada is reviewing the recommendations of the Expert Panel as it shapes future direction in this area. The report will be referred to Parliament’s Special Joint Committee on MAID. The work of the Expert Panel will assist the Committee as it continues its hearings and deliberations in the lead up to its own interim report and recommendations on MAID and mental illness later in June 2022.

Canada – 2021 Annual Report | Together in a New Reality

May 4, 2022 | International

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 3, 2022 – Ottawa – Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada

The Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada’s (MPCC or the Commission) 2021 Annual Report, tabled in Parliament today by the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of National Defence, outlines how the Commission has overcome multiple challenges to usher in a “New Reality” for the organization.

Despite a 30% increase in its caseload, the Commission has continued to meet the significant challenges posed by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In addition, the MPCC is working with the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal (CFPM) and the Office of the Judge Advocate General and other stakeholders to establish a plan to implement changes to Part IV of the National Defence Act (NDA) which will improve the effectiveness and fairness of the military police complaints process proposed by the Independent Review Authority.

The Commission was an active participant in the Independent Review process of the NDA, led by former Supreme Court Justice Morris Fish. In his April 2021 report, Justice Fish endorsed many of the MPCC’s key proposals for strengthening its capacity to provide effective and credible oversight of military policing.

The MPCC also had a very productive year in its treatment of complaints, its primary responsibility.

In 2021, the Commission completed Interim Reports in three of four ongoing Public Interest Investigations and issued Final Reports in two of these cases. In one of the cases, the MPCC felt that the military police investigation was so flawed, and the issues raised by the incident so serious, that, for the first time in its 22-year history, it initiated a conduct complaint itself.  The complaint was subsequently converted into a Public Interest investigation, which is ongoing.

In the past few years, but especially in 2021, the military justice system has been under considerable scrutiny and criticism for its handling of allegations of sexual misconduct within the Canadian Armed Forces. Concerns raised about military police performance regarding sexual misconduct have tended to focus on questions about military police competence and independence: the very attributes which the MPCC’s oversight mandate is meant to strengthen and support.  The MPCC’s role, and its capacity to fulfill it, has never been more vital to Canadian military policing.

The 2021 Annual Report, Together in a New Reality, also summarizes selected conduct cases completed by the MPCC in 2021 and includes updates on financial management and the digital transformation underway to better support employees in a virtual environment.

The Annual Report also highlights the many mental health and wellness activities conducted by the Commission in 2021, and its commitment to an inclusive work environment where everyone feels supported and respected. The MPCC was recognized in the media in 2021 as one of the top two organizations in the Federal Public Service for engagement and employee happiness indicators.

In 2021, Hilary C. McCormack retired after six years as Chairperson.  Commission Member Bonita Thornton has taken over as Chairperson on an interim basis. Michel Seguin also retired as a member of the Commission after seven years of service, which included a period as Interim Chairperson. The MPCC has welcomed two new Commission Members, Leslie-Anne Wood and Mark Ferdinand, to the team.