Deal to save forests in danger as rich countries stall on targets and financing

BARCELONA - Negotiations on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in Barcelona, a month before the crucial Copenhagen meeting, are not showing progress needed to reach an agreement. This reflects a wider lack of progress that has dogged these talks, as industrialised countries have failed to match their rhetoric with positive actions on agreeing the necessary cuts in emissions and providing adequate financing for developing countries.

With the prospects for a legally-binding agreement in Copenhagen fading there is concern that REDD might be agreed under a separate decision to try to salvage the failed negotiations.

"A REDD deal on forests might end up as a greenwashing exercise if there is no legally-binding climate change agreement at Copenhagen," said Nathaniel Dyer of Rainforest Foundation UK. "Runaway climate change will devastate tropical forests and forest-dependent peoples even if a separate decision on REDD is reached."

Forest protection must, according to scientific advice, be in addition to deep emissions cuts in rich countries, and not a substitute for it, but many want to use REDD as a mechanism to offset their emissions and further weaken emissions targets.

"We cannot allow a bad REDD deal to be a loophole that sabotages a genuine solution to climate change. Industrialised countries have a historical responsibility for human-induced climate change and a REDD deal will not work without commitments from these countries to reduce their domestic emissions by at least 40%," said Alejandro Alemán of Centro Humboldt, Nicaragua.

The latest negotiating text on REDD includes serious risks that financing intended to keep forests standing would lead to violations of indigenous peoples' and local communities' rights, especially to land, and would fail to protect intact natural forests. Members of the Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change explained their deep concerns.

"We need a common set of safeguards for REDD projects and only a global deal can deliver that," said Adrien Sinafasi of Dignité Pygmée, Democratic Republic of Congo, "every day we hear of new private-sector and bilateral REDD projects but there is no sense in protecting the forest in one small area if deforestation will just shift to another region or country."

Over 60 million people worldwide live in forests and rely on them for their daily needs. "Any REDD deal needs to respect the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, especially their rights to territories, land, natural resources, and free, prior and informed consent as set out in UNDRIP (UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples). We can be part of the solution to ending deforestation and tacking climate change but only if our rights are respected. In these processes there should be full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities," said Juan Reátegui Silva of AIDESEP, Perú.

"The great hope of REDD is in danger," said Bhola Bhattarai of the Federation of Community Forestry Users, Nepal (FECOFUN), "we need to see clear financing for protecting natural forest and small-scale community-managed forests rather than industrial-scale logging which is anything but sustainable. Despite the rhetoric of political leaders all I'm hearing in the real negotiations is ‘no we can't'."

The Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change is a group of representatives from civil society and Indigenous Peoples' organizations from nearly 30 countries who have been following the REDD negotiations in the UNFCCC since August 2008 in Accra, Ghana.