Stakeholders Involvement,

Indigenous Rights and Equity

issues in REDD

Susan Chomba

Alternative to Slash and Burn (ASB)

Partnership for the Tropical Forest

Margins (ASB)

Outline of presentation

• Introduction: The two sides of the REDD coin

• REDD stakeholder involvement

• Equity and rights issues under REDD

• Stakeholders, rights and equity under current REDD negotiations and other international instruments

• Conclusions : How do we achieve REDD and avoid doing harm?

The two sides of the REDD coin

• REDD has the potential to alleviate poverty,

protect human rights, improve governance,

conserve biodiversity and provide other co-

benefits

• However, REDD also has the potential to

generate (unintended) negative consequences

for the poor and powerless if implemented

without appropriate safeguards

REDD phased approach and key safeguards

Phase Phase one:

REDD Readiness

Identification and

prioritization of key

policy and institutional

capacity building

Measures for both

state and non state

actors

Phase two:

•Development of

MRVs,

•Putting in place

enabling policies and

measures that allow for

the implementation of

REDD

Phase three:

Market mechanisms

and performance based

payments

Safeguards •Transparency

•Participation and

representation

– Stakeholder

platforms

– Social and

environmental audits

– Governance and

legality audits

– Free prior and

informed consent of

indigenous peoples

– MRV system

– Transparency

– MRV system

– full and effective

participation of IPs,

subject to free prior and

informed consent of

indigenous peoples

– Social and

environmental audit

– Financial audit and

accounting guidance

from the Financial

Accounting Standards

Board and the

International Accounting

Standards Board

REDD Stakeholder involvement: Why?

• Multi-stakeholder involvement in REDD contributes to equitable participation and diminishing potential conflicts

• Eliasch Review (2008): Multi-stakeholder dialogues: good models that can contribute to higher levels of trust between governments, the private sector, NGOs and community groups

REDD Stakeholder involvement: How?

• Stakeholder involvement should be built on the many national experiences in forest law enforcement and governance processes

• The process should include women, youth and indigenous peoples to ensure the 3E’s: effectiveness, efficiency and equity

Who are the national & Sub-national

REDD stakeholders? • Government (national, provincial/state and local

levels) and government agencies (e.g. ministries of environment and agriculture

• Environment law enforcement community such as forest guards, police and environmental enforcement agencies

• Multilaterals and the private sector (e.g. loggers, ranchers, energy producers)

• NGOS and civil societies, indigenous people and other vulnerable groups such as women & youth

• Local communities, pastoralists and farmers who depend of forests in one way ore the other for their livelihoods

Indigenous peoples rights and equity

There are genuine concerns that indigenous

and forest dependent communities will not

benefit, or worse will suffer harm under REDDBond et al. 2009

•over 60 million indigenous people

•400-500 million people who live in or close to forests and depend on them for survival

Equity and rights (& governance)

issues under REDD

• Prof Elinor Ostrom

• The efficiency and

equity of benefits

from REDD will

come from the

presence of

democratic

processes.(adopted from Ribot J.C 2002)

Key Rights and Equity issues in

REDD

Rights as sellers of carbon and equity in distribution of carbon benefits

Rights to forest land and continued use of forests to support livelihoods

Rights to make decisions about management of the forests

Equity in payment levels and terms –vulnerable communities may be subjected to exploitative contracts.

So far, small scale REDD projects have

demonstrated benefits to local communities, but…

e.g. Nhambita community forest project in Mozambique

• “if and when REDD payments are implemented at much larger spatial scales and/or where governance is weak, facilitators and brokers will have to guard against elite capture and more attention will have to be given to strengthening the land tenure of local communities” Bond et al.2009

Stakeholders, rights and equity

under current REDD negotiationsParagraph 1(b) (iii) of the Bali Action Plan (Policy

approaches and positive incentives)

“In accordance with relevant international agreements[, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,] and taking into account national circumstances and legislation, respect the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples [,including their free, prior and informed consent,] and members of local communities and promote the full and effective participation of all relevant stakeholders in actions referred to in paragraphs 2 and 5 above”

Some international human rights instruments

relevant to REDD

• The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights• The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of

Indigenous Peoples• The Convention on Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination against Women• The UN Convention on Access to Information, Public

Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the so-called ‘Aarhus Convention’)

• Principle 10 of the Rio declaration (1992)Source (Angelsen, 2008).

Conclusions : How do we achieve REDD

and avoid doing harm?

• Ensure transparent, inclusive and

accountable forest governance

• Encourage local process to clarify and

strengthen tenure, property and carbon

rights

• Harmonize REDD financial flows and

national level implementation with other

pre-existing international commitments

Conclusions contd’…

• Use multi-stakeholder dialogue to minimize conflict and promote trust

• Actively involve indigenous people and forest dependent communities in decision REDD decision making from design to implementation

• Governments to legitimize and finance community mapping and related social processes for negotiating and identifying local rights of ownership, access, management, and use in forest areas.

THANK YOU

Merci