The Hottest REDD Issues: Rights, Equity, Development, Deforestation and Governance by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities

This briefing note is a "contribution to the debate about policies and incentives to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). It focuses on the potential of governance of forests by indigenous peoples and local communities, and discusses implications of envisaged REDD regimes for local rights. The note discusses why equity and community engagement should be a paramount consideration of REDD regime and highlights opportunities as well as potential complications and pitfalls. It argues that crucial links need to be drawn between effective REDD regimes, biodiversity conservation, and human rights instruments like the UN [United Nations] Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."

The document discusses implementation of the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), which "clearly recognized the role of forest conservation in climate mitigation by obliging Parties, as far as possible and as appropriate, to conserve forests and other carbon sinks and reservoirs", as an opportunity to analyse the impact of climate change/ forest-related agreements on Indigenous Peoples in the context of equity and human rights. Three features of the territories and lands occupied or used by Indigenous Peoples and other traditional local communities (ICCAs) relevant to this document are the following:

• "a strong relationship between a given ecosystem, area or species and a specific Indigenous People or local community concerned about it because of cultural, livelihood-related or other strongly felt reasons;
  
• the community possesses - de facto if not also de jure - the power to take and enforce the key management decisions regarding the territory and resources; and
  
• the voluntary management decisions and efforts of the community have lead to (or are leading to) the conservation of biodiversity, ecological functions and associated cultural values, regardless of the objectives of management originally set out by the community." [Footnotes removed by the editor.]

Supporting the need for clarifying and supporting the role of ICCAs are statistics showing that, for example, 80% of forests in Ecuador are in ICCA areas and that recognising territories as ICCAs in Brazil has been the most effective policy to halt deforestation, as stated here. The concern is that new instruments of negotiation on carbon usage, e.g., carbon markets, may not be sensitive to Indigenous traditional land use and cultural norms on forest protection and property rights and may constitute resource appropriation by elites at a time when Indigenous People are trying to assert territorial rights.

The document concludes with recommendations to reshape the discussion about a cross-cutting compliance regime to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. Communication-related recommendations include:

1. Ensure policy compliance and coherence between different international agreements in the field of forests and forest peoples' rights through “innovative cooperative structures at the international and national level between the institutions responsible for implementing these agreements” and through taking into account the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” for a more equitable climate change regime - including ensuring financial compliance by parties involved;
   
2. Respect rights and address underlying causes:
   • ensure full and effective participation and engagement of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in all stages of the development and implementation of REDD policies and projects. In certain cases, this might imply revisiting policies that have developed without such engagement;
     
   • ensure equitable treatment of Indigenous Peoples, communities, and countries that have successfully conserved forests and/or reduced deforestation. This implies that incentives should be de-linked from emission reductions;
     
   • take into account the gender dimension of different policies and incentives to conserve forests and fully respect the rights and needs of women in forest policies;
     
   • respect traditional and local institutions for natural resource management, effective forms of representation in co-management bodies, and participatory democracy in general.
3. Provide a broad range of positive incentives for ICCAs:
   • provide a broad range of social, cultural, legal, and economic incentives for forest conservation and sustainable use...Conservation is and should be part of cultural identity and pride;
     
   • ensure that incentive schemes and other forest policies recognise, respect, and/or are based on the historical territorial and use rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities;
     
   • ensure that such incentive schemes do not undermine the customary governance systems of Indigenous Territories and community conserved areas, and the values that have led to their success in terms of forest conservation and that they recognise and support the significance of community conserved areas.

Click here to access a video from the Global Forest Coalition on carbon credits.