UN money does grow on trees for indigenous forest loggers

This heralded a number of media investigations into private carbon traders operating in PNG in an effort to win over forest leases from Indigenous leaders, seeking to profit from future carbon rights. Most prominently, SBS television in Australia broadcast a series of four programmes about Australian carbon traders in PNG, including one SBS television Australia report in which Abilie Wape, the head of a landowner group in Kamula Doso, said he was threatened at gunpoint to sign away the carbon rights to the forests.

And now, Indigenous peoples from the Kalimantan forest in Indonesia have called for Australia to stop its $100 million Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership, after failing to consult and gain proper permission from local communities.

Revelations such as these have prompted a number of changes within the U.N.

In their 2011-015 Program Strategy, UN-REDD has committed itself to better engaging with Indigenous peoples, recognizing and respecting their rights through a rights-based approach to project implementation, and finding means of integrating local and Indigenous communities in at all stages of the REDD+ process.

However, the holistic fulfilment of Indigenous rights requires far more than open-ended policy statements, and may not even be possible given the current institutional framework of REDD+. As such, there are many who believe that if REDD+ is ever going to properly engage with Indigenous peoples, that what it needs is not only a touch-up, but a full make-over.

Recently, a paper in Environmental Science and Policy has argued that in order to assure that Indigenous rights are protected and may be fulfilled, it is essential to reconstruct REDD+ in a manner that supports local governance structures as essential elements in the global decision-making matrix surrounding REDD+.

Others have shown that effective institutional frameworks that support indigenous empowerment and autonomy may also be the most effective means of protecting forests from deforestation and degradation.

Given that REDD+ is due to be implemented in 2012, Indigenous rights and REDD+ are focal points of discussion at COP 17 in Durban. However, it will be interesting to see exactly how these rights are framed.

If there is more vague discussion on better human rights protections, you can be assured that improvement will be minor. But maybe, just maybe, if you hear talk of localised leadership and indigenous decision making powers being granted through REDD+, we may be able to turn this amazing conservation initiative into an empowering one as well.

And that is a win-win situation for all.