Known as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation or REDD such projects allow wealthy nations to reduce the cost of emissions reduction

Known as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD, such projects allow wealthy nations to reduce the cost of emissions reduction by paying to keep forests standing in poorer nations. The proposal appears similar to schemes proposed by global conservation groups that Brazil has largely resisted that would pay rain forest residents to prevent deforestation that causes 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. “The small (agricultural) producers that plant trees in areas that were degraded, we’re going to pay them $51 per month.” He did not offer further details on the program. “We need to think about how to make those people feel that they will make more money by planting trees than by cutting them down,” Lula said in an interview after a ceremony to inaugurate the “Green Arch” program to protect the Amazon. The effort may help stave off growing international pressure on Brazil to reduce deforestation that scientists say spurs global warming, providing alternative livelihoods to poor Amazon dwellers who live off timber exploitation.

* Move may help stave off global pressure * Lula says it’s time to change deforestation habits * ‘We want to be reasonable’ By Stuart Grudgings and Brian Ellsworth BRASILIA, June 19 (Reuters) – Brazil will pay small farmers to plant trees in deforested Amazon areas to slow rain forest degradation, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday as he unveiled a broad plan to protect the region. Davis is cooperating with federal authorities.Bail was set for the two accountants at $100,000 each in Houston.Nigel Hamilton-Smith, the Antiguan official named to oversee the liquidation of the offshore bank that was run by Stanford, has accused the tycoon of using client funds to pay for jets, lavish homes and yachts.Stanford’s Antiguan liquidators and the company’s U.S.-based receiver have been locked in a battle over control of the offshore bank.(Writing by John Whitesides; Additional reporting by Chris Baltimore in Houston and Jim Vicini in Washington; Editing by Frances Kerry) France. She was arrested by the FBI in February and later freed on bail. His wealth-management clients once included professional golfer Vijay Singh and he owned homes in Antigua, St. Croix, Florida and Texas.Until now, the only Stanford official to have faced criminal charges was Pendergest-Holt. and Antigua and Barbuda citizenship, became the first American to be knighted by Antigua and Barbuda in 2006 and is known as “Sir Allen” in the Caribbean.A fifth-generation Texan, he made his first fortune in real estate in the early 1980s and expanded the family firm into a global wealth management company.Before the SEC leveled the fraud charges, his personal fortune was estimated at $2.2 billion by Forbes magazine. [nN19447277]‘PERSONAL PLAYGROUND’The new SEC complaint on Friday said Pendergest-Holt and James Davis, his one-time roommate at Baylor University, misappropriated billions of dollars and falsified company financial statements.It said Davis, Lopez and Kuhrt developed elaborate methods to handle and hide financial information, transferring it to portable memory drives and deleting it from U.S.-based servers and flying paper files on Stanford’s private jets to Antigua, where they were burned.Stanford used some of the funds to finance his “personal playground” in Antigua, the complaint alleged, including a restaurant called the “Sticky Wicket” and “Stanford 20/20,” an annual cricket tournament boasting a $20 million purse.Stanford, who holds dual U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission — brought in February — that he fraudulently sold $8 billion in certificates of deposit with improbably high interest rates from his Stanford International Bank Ltd, headquartered in Antigua.The SEC filed new civil charges on Friday against the company officials and the Antigua regulator, saying they aided Stanford in the Ponzi scheme. Stanford, who has a mustache and salt-and-pepper hair, was dressed in a white shirt and dark pants.Stanford and executive Laura Pendergest-Holt, accountants Gilberto Lopez and Mark Kuhrt and Antigua’s top regulator, Leroy King, were hit with 21 charges alleging they concocted a broad ruse to deceive investors, fabricate financial statements and hide their fraud.”This scheme was carefully orchestrated to make sure the true information never saw the light of day,” said Robert Khuzami, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement unit.Stanford, who lived lavishly and whose passion for cricket translated into generous backing for the sport in the cricket-loving West Indies, has denied any wrongdoing. Magistrate Hannah Lauck.”To go to Texas, yes ma’am,’” he said when Lauck asked if he preferred to have his bail hearing in Houston or Virginia. FranceA federal judge in Virginia ordered Stanford, a flamboyant 59-year-old financier, to be transferred to Houston for a hearing on whether he should be granted bail on charges he orchestrated the fraud through his bank on the Caribbean island of Antigua.He could face life in prison if convicted on all of the charges brought by a grand jury in Texas, assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer told reporters in Washington.Stanford, who surrendered to FBI agents outside his girlfriend’s house in Virginia late on Thursday, entered a Richmond federal courtroom in ankle shackles and sat straight with his chin in his hands during a brief hearing before U.S. RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) – Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, three associates and a top Caribbean regulator were indicted on fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges in an elaborate $7 billion pyramid scheme to bilk investors, U.S Justice Department officials said on Friday. The university says there is no genealogical connection between the two and sued Stanford Group in October for infringing on its trademark.(Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher in Miami and Anna Driver in Houston, editing by Vicki Allen). But it’s hard work.”Back in the United States, he stirred controversy by claiming family ties to Leland Stanford, who founded Stanford University in the 1890s.

But his image suffered when he was captured on camera with a British player’s wife on his knee. And even before the match the England and Wales Cricket Board intimated they would review ties with him.Before the scandal surfaced, Stanford credited his success in part to avoiding investments in subprime mortgages that snowballed into a global financial crisis.Asked by CNBC television in September if it was fun being a billionaire, he smiled and replied: “Yes, yes, yes I have to say it is fun being a billionaire. British media were merciless, calling the Texan “gaudy” and an affront to English sensibilities.His “Stanford Superstars” side of West Indian cricketers became instant millionaires after beating England’s team at his Stanford Cricket Ground in Antigua. and Antiguan-Barbudan citizenship, Stanford has homes sprinkled across the region — from Antigua to St Croix in the U.S Virgin Islands to Miami.

Those residences and other assets have been frozen by court order since February.Knighted in 2006 in Antigua — he was known by many islanders simply as “Sir Allen” — he was an ardent cricket enthusiast whose financial muscle helped rehabilitate West Indian cricket.But he often walked a fine line between his critics and admirers, provoking uproar and scorn with a $1 million-per-player “Twenty20″ tournament that was widely ridiculed in the British media last year.Months before the tournament, he landed a gold-plated helicopter at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, often called the home of British cricket, and unveiled a case packed with $20 million in cash. Forbes put his personal wealth at $2.2 billion last year and his list of wealth-management clients included professional golfer Vijay Singh.’FUN BEING A BILLIONAIRE’A generous patron of several sports, he lived lavishly with a fleet of private jets, expensive yachts and opulent Georgian-style headquarters atop a hill in the twin-island Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, where he was by far its largest private employer and investor.With dual U.S. Hell if I know,” he said.Many burned investors, including thousands across the United States and Latin America, have clamored for criminal charges, accusing Stanford of being from the same mold as Bernard Madoff, who admitted in March to orchestrating the biggest financial swindle in Wall Street history.Friday’s indictment and the SEC’s revelations of Stanford’s empire — stretching from the Caribbean island of Antigua to Houston, Miami, Caracas and Europe — complete the picture of a finance king who somehow lost his Midas touch along the way.A fifth-generation Texan, Stanford made his first fortune in Houston, snapping up distressed real estate in the early 1980s before inheriting the insurance and real-estate company his grandfather founded in 1932. Asked why the SEC singled him out, he replied: “I don’t know.”"Maybe post-Madoff they needed to make somebody the scapegoat. Securities and Exchange Commission says Stanford and two fellow executives fraudulently sold $8 billion in high-yield certificates of deposit issued by Stanford International Bank Ltd in Antigua.In what may be a preview of his defense, Stanford asserted in an April interview with Reuters that his companies were well-run until the government seized them in February. BOSTON (Reuters) – Allen Stanford, the once high-flying Texas billionaire with a Caribbean knighthood and a penchant for publicity and cricket, has been brought down to earth with a thud as he faces criminal charges.The founder and chairman of Stanford Group once credited his grandfather with giving him “the inspiration to dream” and “an unwavering desire to build a business that is second to none.” Since February, that business has all but evaporated.On Friday, the brash 59-year-old mustachioed financier was indicted on fraud, conspiracy and obstruction charges after surrendering to the FBI, four months after regulators accused him and three of his companies of a “massive ongoing fraud.”The U.S.