Anti-REDD movement

Indigenous peoples groups have a strong presence at the conference today, holding prominent demonstrations and protests against REDD inside the Bella Center.

I spoke with one of the indigenous representatives, and they have several important concerns with the current REDD structure.

The primary issue with the proposed REDD program is that it could lead to one of the largest land grabs in history. Most indigenous people do not have legal rights to their lands; instead, they have customary rights that have been passed down for generations. If REDD is passed, foreign investors could quickly buy up forests from the government and lock them up as carbon offsets, inhibiting access to the forest lands for more than 100 million indigenous and forest-dependent people around the world.

Another problem seems to be compensation. Some of the existing programs have given less compensation to indigenous peoples as compared to other citizens, and these groups want to make sure that this situation is not repeated for REDD.

As the program stands now, the language for the REDD mechanisms as they relate to indigenous people are extremely unclear. Many questions are pending: what is the impact on indigenous people's rights? how will they be compensated? how will the land grabs be averted?

It seems, however, that the pressure to approve the program during the COP-15 conference may take precedence over creating explicit guidelines for these very important issues.

Discussing these issues and hearing from this group definitely gave me a new perspective on REDD. Although the REDD program would be an exciting step forward in helping to mitigate climate change, we must not forget about the rights of the people who have lived sustainably on these lands for generations.