Seeing REDD

In Peru, demonstrations in June of 2009 against government plans for forest use ended in violence that left dozens dead.

REDD = Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and environmental  Degradation.

[The Culture of Climate Change is not for those who wilt at the sight of acronyms.   I used to have such an aversion to acronyms that I literally could not read documents sprinkled heavily with these consonant-heavy capitalized clods.  They seemed to me somehow an indication of modern barbarism, and I am not sure that is not the case.  Still, I have had to put that behind me in order to research climate change issues.  Every issue, policy, or program comes with at least one, usually several, of these spell-check-defiant, not-quite neologisms.   ]

REDD is mostly the baby of the Norwegian government, with the backing as well of the UK.  It seeks to establish forest policies that preserve large tracts in less developed countries so that these can continue to absorb carbon emitted around the globe.  The largest forests are in the Amazon and in the Congo Basin.

If these forests are preserved, the carbon rights to them can be sold in the developing international carbon markets.

Question: who, within participating states,  gets the REDD money?  who gets the money from selling the carbon rights to these forests?  what happens to that money?

Question: what happens to the people who live in these forests? (see stories about deaths in Peru)

The Answers are still to be determined, but consider the following:

On the global level, billions of dollars each year will be allocated via these forest programs.  For example, it is projected that by 2015 from $10 to $20 billion will be allocated annually to forest programs.  The policies set in place by Copenhagen (and the pre and post Copenhagen processes) will determine how these funds flow from the global programs to national governments.

Such a huge flow of funds from the international community into forestry projects operated at the national level raises major issues of rights.

REDD is an initiative that is evolving via international negotiations centered around the United Nations and the World Bank.  Nationals governments with forests that can qualify for the REDD initiative are also making plans and participating in negotiations.  The overall shape of the REDD initiatives will arise out of this mixture of international and national decision making and policy expertise.

The interface between national governments and multilateral funds is a common focal point for many of these meetings.  It is crucial to develop this interface via a process that engages civil society and indigenous people and yet such engagement runs counter to the cult of expertise and statism.