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Patrick Wieland Forests sequester and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide and play a fundamental role in global climate regulation. Yet deforestation and forest degradation of tropical areas is accelerating dramatically. Forest loss is responsible for between 3.6 and 4.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, representing 17-20% of global greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2007). The carbon sequestration and storage functions of the world's forests are a type of ecosystem service. Ecosystem services are generally taken for granted: we benefit from the clean air and carbon offsetting services that forests provide, but do not equally share the costs for their preservation. To correct this situation, mechanisms to value ecosystem services through economic incentives have arisen as an international strategy. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is one such incentive scheme.

For those investors following Spanish distressed opportunities, there is much more to the market than the traditional distressed corporate debt and NPL portfolios held by financial institutions.

Daniel Futej Daniel Grigel Big changes to the Slovak Commercial Code came into force on October 1 2012. These changes toughen the criteria for incorporating limited liability companies and for transferring majority ownership interest in those companies. Further changes seek to toughen the criteria for voluntary value added tax registration for certain defined high-risk entities. Under the new rules, a limited liability company may not be incorporated by a person who has tax arrears exceeding €170 ($217). Tax arrears means any amount owed on any type of tax which has become overdue (income tax, value added tax, excise tax or local tax). This change is intended to prevent natural and legal persons from incorporating limited liability companies when those persons have incurred that tax obligation and have failed to pay the tax owed by the time they are attempting to incorporate a limited liability company. All persons intending to incorporate a limited liability company will first have to prove they have no tax arrears by requesting the tax authority's written consent to the registration of a limited liability company in the Commercial Registry. Provided there are no tax arrears, the tax authority will provide consent within three business days of lodging the request.

The effect of reeling in speculators?

Mian Muhammad Nazir From a shariah perspective, it is necessary that any dispute under a shariah-compliant contract must be resolved in accordance with the principles of shariah which govern the relevant shariah-nominate contract. This principle has been reiterated by International Fiqh Academy in its resolution on the subject of governing law for shariah-compliant transactions. Despite the resolution and the importance of the governing law for shariah-compliant transactions, the matter has not received any significant attention from stakeholders. The main reason why the parties are reluctant to choose the principles of shariah as governing law is uncertainty surrounding the recognition of principles of shariah as a system of law by judicial and quasi-judicial authorities and tribunals. Apparently, this indifference accorded to shariah is largely attributable to lack of understanding of the Islamic jurisprudence and its principles. It is often said – indeed it has become a cliché among the legal fraternity – that the principles of shariah are mostly a set of discretionary rules laid down or inferred by a scholar or a school of Islamic jurisprudence based on his or its understanding of Qur'an and Sunnah (the two main sources of Islamic jurisprudence). Surprisingly, this notion has received considerable strength from judgments in a few cases and arbitration proceedings in some jurisdictions. Unfortunately, the Islamic banking industry, which owes its genesis to Islamic jurisprudence, has not made any effort to dispel this misconception.

A first-of-its-kind private placement has linked US institutional investors with Brazil's project market – and revealed them to be a perfect a match.

UK lawyers have called for banks and law firms to consider recognising redenomination as a risk factor in deal documentation.

Issuers must be a little less reserved Regulation S high-yield issuers in Asia should disclose information to a rule 144A standard and pay close attention to their email trails, lawyers have warned. Market participants predict regulation S high-yield deals to become more common over the next year. But it is expected that deals under rule 144A would eventually become the market standard.

On July 20 2012, the Government of Vietnam promulgated Decree 58/2012/ND-CP, implementing a number of provisions on the Law on Securities. Decree 58 took effect on September 15 2012, replacing a number of legal instruments, including Decree 14/2007/ND-CP, Decree 84/2010/ND-CP and Decree 01/2010/ND-CP.

The difficult economic situation in Europe has increased the focus on bank deleveraging. In Ireland, this is just the latest phase in a process which has seen Irish banks dispose of significant non-core assets located outside Ireland throughout 2011 and 2012. In 2013, the focus will shift to Irish assets and, in particular, loan portfolios connected with Irish real estate. Frequently, these portfolios involve multiple privately-owned companies and investment structures with individuals participating as borrowers and guarantors. The Irish tax system and the real estate focus of the loans means that Irish loan acquisition vehicles offer some distinct advantages over non-Irish vehicles.