Global debates about the role of forests and plantations in climate negotiations have paid little attention to the views of the 300 million or so forest people who inhabit them. Historically marginalised and denied recognition of their rights, forest peoples are demanding that their voices be heard and that they be respected as the rightful owners of their forests. While scientists are still unsure whether or not forests and plantations do or do not act as long-term reservoirs or sinks, politicians are already arguing about whether forests should or should not be treated as commodities in the global carbon trade. Countries like the USA, which are finding it hard to curb their emissions, are keen on the idea of paying companies or countries in the South to 'create' carbon sinks so unsustainable economies in the North can carry on polluting. And some people in the South are keen to take the money and not ask difficult questions.
There are clear risks and some possible advantages to be gained by forest peoples if forests are made part of a global carbon economy. The most obvious risks are that powerful interests in the industrial North and in energy and forestry businesses in the South will gain a determining stake in deciding what should happen to forests, once again overwhelming forest peoples from making effective decisions about their future. Likewise lucrative deals between carbon emitters and carbon storers will provide powerful incentives for large enterprises to take over community lands for plantations. Previous issues of this bulletin have noted all too many examples of this process. On the other hand, it is possible that recognition of the value of standing forests as carbon stores could free up money to pay conservationists and forest peoples to look after forests and protect them from destruction. The drawbacks of such approach were highlighted in WRM bulletin 37 ("Can CDM money be acceptable for forest conservation?"). In weighing up the pros and cons, forest peoples have reached different conclusions about what they should be demanding in the global negotiations.
All are agreed that indigenous peoples and other forest-dwellers should be centrally engaged in climate negotiations and not relegated to the side-lines. They have been divided, however, over whether or not they should accept the inclusion of forests in the ‘Clean Development Mechanism’ (CDM). In a powerful statement to the sixth meeting of the Climate Negotiations in The Hague last year, indigenous spokespersons from 22 different countries and representing 28 distinct cultures, rejected the inclusion of forests in the CDM and called for the establishment of a fund for use by Indigenous Peoples to address the impacts of climate change. "Our intrinsic relation with Mother Earth obliges us to oppose the inclusion of sinks in the CDM because it reduces our sacred lands and territories to mere carbon sequestration, which is contrary to our cosmovision and philosophy of life. Sinks in the CDM would constitute a worldwide strategy for expropriating our lands and territories and violating our fundamental rights that would culminate in a new form of colonialism. Sinks in the CDM would not help reduce GHG emissions, rather it would provide industrialized countries with a ploy to avoid reducing emissions at source."
A different opinion has been voiced by other forest peoples, notably from Brazil, who have been working with the US NGO Environmental Defense, itself an advocate of the carbon trade. "Our people have proposals and projects for the protection of forest and for the lives of our peoples. We need the means to expand and multiply these. The CDM must not exclude forests and must not exclude our peoples. We support the inclusion of forest protection, community-based forest management, sustainable production, and economic alternatives for indigenous and traditional peoples in the CDM." In June this year, representatives from the Brazilian organizations and Environmental Defense toured Europe to explain their position. The meetings highlighted the need for further discussions about the implication of the CDM for forest peoples.
By: Marcus Colchester, Forest Peoples Programme, 12 July 2001.
Sources: Declaration of the First International Forum of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change, Lyon, France, 4-6 September 2000. Indigenous Peoples' Declaration to the Sixth Session of the UN Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, The Hague, 11-12 November 2000. Indigenous and Traditional Peoples of Brazil, Bolivia and Mexico: Climate Change and Forests 21 November 2000. Amazon Grassroots Groups Want Forest Protection in Climate Treaty, Conselho Nacional Dos Seringueiros, Press Release, 21 June 2001. "Can CDM money be acceptable for forest conservation?"
