Had another hilarious debate with Jouke from The Pure Gospel on the Flat Earth last night. Craig kindly hosted our debate on his Fight the Flat Earth’s channel: https://youtu.be/fisOm1YBFB4. My debunk of Jouke’s video is available here: https://youtu.be/imJqdjjxx3E.
Just in: Center for Analysis and Development on American and European Regions 2018 Palm Oil Diplomacy (click here for PDF).
Hard-core flerfer Jack “Humpty” Dunphy (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClchUlR1KQErN_WdNb0IPHg) decided to reply to my comments on a YouTube video by my favorite flerfer Jouke (https://youtu.be/K-CLgG9uyD4). No surprise, he took the bait of my channel name (Jack of all Trades) and flaunted his ignorance of the full line it refers to. Yes, there is indeed a part stating ‘master of none’ but there is more, so much more! Watch till the end as the trap closes and all the King’s horses and all the King’s men cannot put Humpty together again.
View the video here.
A warm thank you to Bu Meti and her team at Ekonomi Sumberdayaalam dan Lingkungan (ESL) at IPB University for the opportunity to give a guest lecture on certification and conservation in natural resource management (PDF available here).
Indonesia has ample experience with attempts to create synergy between various standards, with a very simple conclusion: standards are like water and oil. Mixing standards requires ample effort, either by mechanical excitement or high-tech chemistry. Even then they tend to separate out due to false perceptions of superiority, i.e. one standard is “better” than the other. The futility of such wet dreams becomes clear once we see these standards “in action”. The very same auditor verifying the “superior” standard also verifies the “inferior” standard and both tend to get reduced to the lowest common denominator.
This bring us to the weakest link in certification: the auditor and CABs. Publications like Who Watches the Watchmen (EIA 2015; see also Lawson 2007, WWF & WB 2006) – and many informal discussions – point to a crucial issue concerning all standards using using third party verification: the competence of auditors. Some stakeholders argue that auditors are hired by the company and therefore will falsify their findings in its favour. Auditors reject this conspiracy theory, but there is ample evidence that competence amongst auditors is declining, and they are currently the weakest link in certification/verification.
However, if we keep these characteristics in mind there is ample opportunity for synergy between various standards.
Download the presentation here.
A “discourse” with Jouke Elsinga from ‘The Pure Gospel on the Flat Earth’, with the obvious conclusions:
The “come-backs” by him and his wife are ever so entertaining!
EU 2019 Report … on the status of production expansion of relevant food and feed crops worldwide (draft)
GFW: “Loss” indicates the removal or mortality of tree cover and can be due to a variety of factors, including mechanical harvesting, fire, disease, or storm damage. As such, “loss” does not equate to deforestation. (http://commodities.globalforestwatch.org/#v=map&x=4&y=-26.07&l=3&lyrs=tcc%2ChansenLoss) For more information, see http://earthenginepartners.appspot.com/science-2013-global-forest/download_v1.5.html.
Ergo, no link between EU’s ‘expansion’ and the identified tree cover loss.
Download the presentation here.
“From 2014 to 2016, an average of more than 800,000 hectares of primary forest was lost annually, but large-scale plantations accounted for only 25 percent of it,” Austin said. “So although the overall rate of deforestation grew, other causes were responsible for most of it.”
Read more here.