Forest peoples demand their seat at the table in climate change talks.

Forest peoples demand their seat at the table in climate change talks.

This August, the Rainforest Foundation UK helped bring more than 50 representatives of forest-dependent communities from over 30 countries to a United Nations climate change conference in Ghana, where governments were discussing how to save the world's rainforests, and by so doing, halt one of the major causes of global warming. The gathering was a first. Never before had so many forest peoples and civil society representatives taken part in a meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - the governing international agreement on the fight against global warming. To date, forest peoples have been left out of the United Nations discussions about how protecting rainforests can help prevent catastrophic climate change. In Ghana, the participants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America spoke out on behalf of the millions of people who live in and depend on rainforests around the world. Their message to governments was clear: forest peoples are the traditional protectors of the rainforest and they must play a central role in any future plans to save forests and fight climate change.

Forest destruction releases more CO2 each year than all the cars on the planet. Healthy forests absorb and store vast quantities of carbon, helping to regulate temperature and generate rain. Quite simply, if we lose rainforests, we lose the fight against climate change. Rainforests are home to millions of people around the world; we can't save the forests without them. As RFUK's experience over the past 20 years have shown, one of the best ways to keep forests standing is to ensure that forest peoples have a stronger say in how their local environment is protected. To do that, they must have a seat at the table when decisions are being taken about the future of the forests. That's why, from August 18-27 in Ghana, we helped bring together representatives of forest-dependent communities and civil society organizations from Africa, Latin America, Asia, Oceania, Europe and North America, to share information, develop strategies, and engage with the government officials who are busy hashing out a new global deal on climate change.

Their common objective was to ensure that any future agreement includes effective measures to protect rainforests and to secure the rights and livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. At a three day strategy meeting before the start of the UN discussions, the civil society participants issued a statement outlining key principles and processes that must be in place before any mechanism for avoiding forest destruction or reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) can be implemented. This shared vision formed the basis for the participants' active engagement in the UNFCCC government meetings that took place throughout the subsequent week (August 21-27). To see what was discussed at the United Nations meeting, click here. Although they came from different countries and contexts, the participants agreed that any policy on forests and climate must:

• secure the rights of indigenous and local communities to their lands and resources;
• recognize and reward the role these communities have played and continue to play in preserving the forest;
• ensure that forest protection in developing countries is additional to, and not instead of, steep reductions in emissions in industrialized nations;
• respect the principle of free, prior and informed consent and enable full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in decision making process regarding the use of forests;
• guarantee that local communities benefit from any payments for forest protection;
• and prevent the actors who are historically responsible for forest destruction and degradation, such as industrial logging companies and agribusiness, from benefiting from climate-related schemes to finance forest protection.

Civil society representatives from the Congo Basin, the world's second largest rainforest, also issued their own statement, outlining key priorities for protecting rainforests and tackling climate change in central Africa. This statement will be available online here shortly.

Similar concerns were also voiced by the Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change in their statement, which stressed the need to include indigenous peoples in the decision-making process around strategies for combating climate change.