UNREDDY – a Critical Look at REDD+ and Indigenous Strategies for Comprehensive Forest Protection

UNA critical REDDlook at REDD+ and indigenous strategies Y for comprehensive forest protection

This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. “From Overconsumption to Solidarity – enhancing citizens’ competences with regard to Europe’s responsibility for global sustainability” is a joint awareness-raising project of eight European and eight Southern civil society organisations, co-financed by EuropeAid. It aims to increase critical understanding and competence amongst European citizens with regard to Europe’s responsibility for the social and ecological impact of its overconsumption. The project’s objectives and issues derive from the problems that our Southern partners are facing caused by greenhouse gas emissions, the © Silke Lunnebach, Climate Alliance extraction of resources and forced Foreword deforestation or land-use change.

The link between climate protection actual causes of climate change by, amount of carbon dioxide (the carbon and forests and the significance of and tie up resources that are then no budget of our present-day climate). Of indigenous peoples as important longer available for the necessary course, the plants living today do bind stakeholders of a global climate transformation processes. The actual carbon dioxide from the atmosphere protection strategy was the idea drivers of deforestation are thus not again, but they also return this again behind Climate Alliance’s founding reached. Compensation instruments after their death, combustion or more than 25 years ago. However, the moreover harbour the danger that decay, whereby the carbon dioxide relevance of forests to the climate has the impression will be given that we can remain in the upper layers of only gradually found its way into the are able to “buy our way out” with soil as humus or peat for a long time. international climate negotiations. The certificates trading. For the concept of This biological carbon cycle occurs approaches proposed to date continue offsetting has meanwhile also entered in cycles of dozens of years, with the to pursue the primacy of the market, our everyday lives: from holidays total carbon turnover between the and thus support the very structures in the Seychelles to conferences, biosphere and atmosphere essentially considered the causes of destructive publications to cinema visits, these remaining the same. Models that economic activity. days we are able to render virtually ignore the difference between fossil any activity “climate neutral”. Or at and biological carbon ultimately The REDD+ climate protection least this is what the providers of such only serve to further legitimise the instrument,1 which became a topic of offsetting models promise. continued use of fossil fuels. There discussion latest at the 2007 climate is also the danger here of a major conference in Bali, demonstrates this What’s more, the REDD model is loophole opening up in the reduction approach very clearly: protection of based on a severe (eco)logical fallacy: obligations (INDCs) submitted by the the forests as carbon sinks should it purports to offset carbon dioxide states in the run-up to the climate be made financially attractive. from fossil carbon with carbon dioxide conference in Paris. Over 90 countries Climate Alliance was very critical that plants absorb. This is simply foresee measures in the forest of this concept from the outset. The wrong. If we extract oil, gas, coal or sector in their plans – and above all resolutions of various Climate Alliance oil shale from the ground and burn reforestation measures. The danger members draw attention to the danger this, we release ancient carbon into exists that the reduction plans that the generation of market-based today’s atmosphere – without the foreseen will be watered down and not emissions certificates to offset the possibility of ever being able to return contribute to the formal aim set out lack of reductions in CO2 emissions it to the source, the atmosphere of the in the Paris agreement to limit global in industrial countries will pass the carbon’s time some 360 to 300 million warming to significantly below 2°C years ago, as it is not possible to turn and, where possible, to below 1.5°C. back time. Thus, we irreversibly fill our The aim formulated in the agreement 1 Reducing Emissions from Deforestation atmosphere with ever-new releases to achieve emission neutrality in the and Degradation (REDD) and the role of conservation, sustainable management of from times past. However, today’s second half of the century will, in forests and enhancement of forest carbon atmosphere can only absorb a limited all likelihood, reinforce the role of stocks in developing countries UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

criticised instruments such as REDD+ as well as global emissions trading. Contents A whole host of studies meanwhile Hope for forest protection? ...... 2 also confirm the ineffectiveness of Climate Alliance and ASTM approaches like REDD+: neither do they help solve the causes of deforestation REDD – the great disillusionment ...... 6 nor do they yield long-term advantages Thomas Fatheuer for the populations living from and in the forests – as our indigenous The reality of REDD+ project implementation – a critical reflection...... 9 partners in the Amazon rainforest Jutta Kill have themselves experienced. The promises of immense sums of money INDIGENOUS APPROACHES AND CLIMATE ALLIANCE’S SUPPORT that should be generated for forest protection through REDD+ have instead REDD+ Indígena Amazónico (RIA / Indigenous REDD+) tended to lead to divisions – within Progress and challenges...... 14 families, communities and political Roberto Espinoza, AIDESEP organisations. Alternative forest protection concepts in Colombia: With the present brochure prepared the CMARI pilot project...... 18 within the scope of the EU project OPIAC “From Overconsumption to Solidarity”, we wish to take a critical look at How local forest protection serves global climate protection development of the REDD+ instrument “Protection of the natural resources in the Amarakaeri protected area”: and to present the alternative the partnership between the Hanseatic city of Rostock approaches of indigenous peoples and the Harakmbut indigenous people of Peru...... 20 dwelling in Amazonia. While these Holger Matthäus, Hanseatic City of Rostock alternatives also require financial support for their implementation, Kawsak Sacha – the living forest: Proposal of the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, Ecuador considering climate change ...... financing via the compensation market 22 Sarayaku community, Ecuador is not ruled out. Examples from Colombia and Peru where Climate Perspectives of indigenous women ...... Alliance member municipalities have 25 Teresita Antazu López and Jhenny Muñoz Hileres from Peru committed to helping to protect the in interview with Thomas Brose, Climate Alliance rainforest show that these approaches are not merely theoretical. Climate Alliance’s partnership with the people of the Rio Negro region...... 28 Johann Kandler, Climate Alliance Austria We would like to thank all those who have contributed to successful Forest protection in times of climate change in the urban environment publication of this brochure. ¶ Are the forests being overexploited in the name of climate protection?...... 31 Uwe Schölmerich Thomas Brose, Climate Alliance Dietmar Mirkes, ASTM

PUBLISHER: Climate Alliance of European Cities with Editing: Silke Lunnebach, Indigenous Rainforest Peoples Sara Schmitt Pacífico, European Secretariat Climate Alliance Galvanistr. 28, 60486 Frankfurt am Main, Germany with support from Annika Sutter This publication has been produced with the assistance of the Telephone: +49 69 71 71 390 Texts: Thomas Brose, Silke European Union within the framework of the project “From [email protected] Lunnebach, Sara Schmitt Overconsumption to Solidarity – enhancing citizens’ climatealliance.org Pacífico / Climate Alliance, competences with regard to Europe’s responsibility for global Annika Sutter, Dietmar Mirkes, in cooperation with ASTM and the respective article sustainability”. The contents of this publication are the sole Climate Alliance Luxemburg/ authors. responsibility of the editor and can in no way be taken to ASTM (Action Solidarité Tiers Monde) reflect the views of the European Union. astm.lu Printed on 100 % recycled paper klimabuendnis.lu (Blauer Engel) [email protected] © Climate Alliance, overconsumption.eu Frankfurt am Main, 2015

1 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection Hope for forest protection?

Climate Alliance and ASTM

Thanks to the traditional ways of life Yet after many years of pilot projects In the first part of this brochure, of indigenous peoples, the rainforests in which international institutions we provide an overview of the of Amazonia remain largely intact such as the World Bank, United relationship between forests and and therefore do not receive financial Nations and other state stakeholders climate protection in addition to support according to the REDD+ have attempted to set standards that the role of indigenous peoples. We criteria. This is the perverse logic should be included in an “official” moreover outline development of the of a market-based instrument that REDD+ approach, the problems REDD+ instrument within the scope of has dominated discussions within and weaknesses of this instrument the international climate process. the international climate process for are becoming apparent. Jutta Kill The second part of this brochure years now. considers these difficulties in greater comprises a compilation of critical depth in her article. contributions to the concept and These discussions concern an implementation of the first pilot imaginary scenario as, to date, The present publication not only projects, along with details of their there have only been pilot projects considers the structural shortcomings impact on the local population. and the expectations are above all of the approaches declared as REDD+ The third – and for us most characterised by hope. The idea behind projects to date. Climate Alliance important – part of this brochure is REDD+ is that it will generate billions above all strives to outline the devoted to alternative concepts and in revenue, which will above all benefit approaches that are being pursued by approaches developed by indigenous those who have been responsible for indigenous peoples, whose situation communities and organisations. destruction of the forests to date – so the discussions on REDD have hardly These have been presented at not the indigenous peoples and other improved. Quite the contrary in fact: international conferences, such as forest-dwelling communities. However, the prospect of quick profits has led the COP21 in Paris, and discussed the discussion is also fuelled by the innumerable dubious companies to with representatives from state and hope that REDD+ will help prevent conclude non-transparent contracts non-state stakeholders. Indigenous further forest destruction and thus with indigenous communities, women from Peru also have their constitute an effective contribution who have been taken in by these say: they have prepared a declaration to climate protection. Though none companies’ promises in their quest for on climate change from their of these assumptions have been met sources of income to safeguard their perspective. to date, a great many state and non- traditional ways of life. state stakeholders are still placing We conclude with a contribution their hopes in this instrument of At COICA’s first regional conference, on the topic of forest protection international climate diplomacy. which was held in the Brazilian city in Germany and would thereby of Manaus in 2011, the concept of like to highlight the role of forests Even keen supporters of an an indigenous REDD was presented throughout Europe by using this international REDD+ market and discussed with the indigenous German example – even though instrument admit that it cannot organisations from the Amazonian many different approaches to forest compete with the huge profits that rainforest for the first time. Since this protection are used thoughout lead to systematic destruction of the time, COICA, which primarily strives Europe. ¶ rainforests through the cultivation of to safeguard indigenous rights, has oil palms and soya beans in addition attempted to win support for its to mining activities. projects.

2 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection © Silke Lunnebach, Climate Alliance © Silke Lunnebach, Climate Alliance

3 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

REDD+ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable forest management, and forest carbon stock enhancement in developing countries.

At the 2007 climate conference in Bali, the Climate (change) decision was reached to include forested areas in and indigenous the negotiation process peoples under the acronym of Forest destruction and REDD (Reducing Emissions Indigenous peoples are degradation cause 16% from Deforestation and particularly affected to 20% of global CO Forest Degradation). This 2 by climate change. As emissions. A study co- mechanism has since mediators of traditional published by COICA in been developed further knowledge and protectors the run-up to the 2014 and complemented of the forest, they play a climate conference In light of the close with measures such decisive role in the global in Lima revealed that connection between humans as reforestation and climate: over 55% of the carbon and nature, particularly sustainable forest dioxide contained in the indigenous territories indigenous peoples management. These animals and plants cover 240 million hectares emphasise the forests’ additional measures led to could be found in in the entire Amazon region. diverse functions. the designation “REDD+”. indigenous territories Not only do they store large Forests are ... and other protected quantities of CO , they 2 • protectors of the soil, areas. are also home to a wealth water and air of flora and fauna. As a • CO2 sinks, climate consequence, they also help regulators and adjusters regulate the water cycle far • learning spaces beyond the Amazon region. • living spaces • tourism and travel The Amazon destinations • leisure and recreational ecosystem spaces The climatic conditions in • suppliers of food the Amazon ecosystem • sources of raw materials lead to exceptionally high • medicine cabinets biodiversity. There are alone over 45,000 species of plants. Five hundred species of trees and over 93,000 individual plants have been counted on a surface area of just 200 square kilometres.

4 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

The indigenous cosmovision

Criticisms of the REDD+ instrument • Reduces the forest to its function as a carbon sink Deforestation in • Links the life prospects facts & pictures of indigenous peoples • Annual decline in to a CO2 logic primary forest (2000- • Increases the financial 2010): 42,000 km² pressure on forests $$$ $$$$ There is a specific risk • Alone in Brazil (2002- that REDD+ will become 2013): clearance of a $$$$ a further instrument total of 161,000 km² for emissions trading A total of 225 football The Paris and thus open a new The CO2 emission rights are fields of rainforest are agreement determined by country loophole enabling re- destroyed in Brazil just in duction obligations to be the time it takes to play a The reductions in shirked. 90-minute game of foot- emissions from forest ball. destruction and degradation in addition to forest protection have been included in the new climate agreement reached in Paris. The Unused authorizations can be sold additional advantages of forest protection (non- carbon benefits) continue $ © Instituto Socioambiental Instituto © to be emphasised. $ $ Carbon credits are generated Deforestation and sold Indigenous territory © Gleison Miranda, FUNAI

5 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

REDDThe great disillusionment Thomas Fatheuer

The REDD process has gained the concept of preserving forests momentum since the 2007 climate was taken up into the concept. change conference in Bali. At the start, hopes and expectations were Eight years after Bali, the situation is high. Reducing deforestation was to more than sobering: the anticipated no longer be a burden, but rather a cash flow has failed to materialise, good business. This simple message and REDD certificates cannot be electrified the forest sector, which traded on the major emissions took the prospect of billions of euros markets and instead remain limited for international forest protection to the relatively small voluntary seriously. carbon market. And yet, REDD has become a hot topic in the forest

means plausible: if CO2 emissions Nations have set up billion-euro Thomas Fatheuer studied social could be avoided by reducing programmes; Norway and Germany sciences and classical philology deforestation, then this avoidance are also investing considerable in Münster, Germany. Between could in turn be quantified and sums in a bilateral cooperation. 1992 and 2010, he lived and expressed in euros or dollars. REDD readiness processes have worked in Brazil. From 2000 After all, CO is also traded – or been initiated in almost all countries to 2003, he worked for the 2 rather, the reduction in CO can be of the world with forested regions. German Development Service 2 (DED) and later the German converted into tradable certificates. In the space of just a few years, the Technical Cooperation (GTZ/ This logic is based on a measurable international corporation in the forest GIZ) in the field of tropical forest reduction in CO2. Doubts rapidly sector has experienced a formidable preservation, acting as a consultant surfaced, however: couldn’t such “REDDification”. A whole REDD to the Brazilian Ministry of the a mechanism favour exactly those package has been prepared during Environment. From 2003 to 2010, who have benefited the most from the climate negotiations. However, the he was appointed the director of deforestation to date? Couldn’t it funds are lacking – for an approach the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Brazil. Since 2011, he has worked become something of a reward initiated as a financing mechanism, as a consultant and author in for the “bad boys”? And what not an entirely unimportant detail. Berlin, and is a board member about those, who have preserved of the Kooperation Brasilien e.V. the forest? In the wake of such Over the years, the underlying REDD (KoBra) network. questions, REDD became REDD+ and concept has undergone an important

6 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

transformation. It soon became on a large scale. That being said, not the rights of indigenous peoples, clear that the funds expected from indigenous peoples and traditional but rather the intended project the sale of CO2 certificates would communities naturally also create outcomes. To achieve this, a complex not suffice to compete with the fields in forested areas and farm the project concept must be developed: a earnings from deforestation if the land. Hence scenarios for increasing baseline determined, “business-as- previously forested areas were to deforestation can also be construed usual” scenario conceived, the CO2 be used for commercial agriculture. here and the REDD reduction measured. Such projects can only REDD simply cannot compete with mechanism consequently applied. be developed and implemented by the cultivation of soya beans or oil This works all the better the larger consulting firms or larger NGOs. The palms. Advocates of REDD also no the threat: the more deforestation is consequence: indigenous peoples are longer dispute this. feared, the more it can be reduced. now becoming dependent on them. Exactly those people whose use of REDD therefore does not work as the forest has not destroyed it are In the early days of the REDD an economic incentive to encourage being branded forest destroyers in process, particularly indigenous the key actors in deforestation to the logic of REDD projects. groups (and the NGOs working with preserve forests. However, for them) insisted that if there were no groups making extensive use of However, for the indigenous peoples rights, there would be no REDD. This natural resources, the prospective and traditional communities, was based on the assumption that financial compensation can by inclusion in the REDD logic has one forest protection is only possible all means prove attractive. Thus further serious implication: support with the involvement of the people REDD has increasingly become is now linked to a quantifiable (“forest-depending people”) and that even more of a mechanism for and verifiable reduction in CO2. legal protection (and particularly indigenous peoples and traditional In the language of international land rights) for indigenous peoples communities – so for exactly those, cooperation, this is known as being and local communities was an who have not destroyed the forest “results based”. The starting point is essential requirement. Official © AIDESEP ©

7 of the safeguards as too non- committal. Ultimately, this criticism is of no consequence. The REDD process continues.

Many non-governmental organisations accompanying the REDD process saw and see in the safeguards the guarantee that they are “getting REDD right”. This is not in fact the case: the safeguards relate to the implementation of REDD, not to the guaranteeing of rights. The aim is not to guarantee rights, but rather to minimise risks during project implementation.

REDD links the life prospects of

indigenous peoples to a CO2 logic.

© Silke Lunnebach, Climate Alliance This is fundamental and anything but trivial – as is seen in the implementation of REDD projects and approaches. In these life prospects, Indigenous rights the rights of indigenous peoples become “non-carbon benefits”. It is The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 169 guarantees not the needs of the communities that indigenous peoples legal protection and entitlement to a variety of basic rights. structure a project. Rather, these

To date, the “Convention concerning Indigenous Tribal People in Independent must be adjusted in the CO2 logic. Countries” is the only international law that safeguards indigenous rights in In terms of its logic, REDD is not a this way. Adopted in 1989, the Convention has so far been ratified by a total of bottom-up approach. Indigenous 22 states. peoples have a long history of battles and demands. It is not known

Besides ILO 169, the right of indigenous peoples to participate in decision- that reducing CO2 emissions was making processes affecting them is also anchored in other international ever among these. REDD is perhaps conventions, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People the world’s largest top-down tool in (UNDRIP), and the national legislation of a few countries: the principle of free development cooperation. This is no and prior informed consent (FPIC) grants indigenous communities the right to different when projects are allegedly come to a self-determined consensus according to their principles and to give or implemented according to the withhold their consent to a proposed project. principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). For indigenous peoples are always confronted with sources also repeatedly emphasised international agreements and an approach whose logic has already the importance of clarifying and laws should respect the rights been set that they are at best able to safeguarding rights. Solving legal of indigenous peoples and local modify. issues is anything but trivial and communities. so the foreseeable soon happened: The fact that indigenous peoples land rights went from being a Safeguards are not binding, however. and local communities still condition to being a question that Rather, the recommendation in participate has to do with the huge had to be considered and included one of the opening paragraphs financial expectation that REDD in the development. The place is that they “should be promoted brings with it – and the lack of to take rights into account are and supported”. A weaker wording alternatives. At any rate, REDD has the safeguards, which constitute is barely possible; indeed, even already achieved one foreseeable guidelines for implementation. “moderate” non-governmental outcome: it has divided many The REDD safeguards state that organisations criticised the wording indigenous organisations. ¶

8 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection © Gleison Miranda, FUNAI

The reality of REDD+ project implementation – a critical reflection Jutta Kill © Heinrich Böll Foundation, Stephan Röhl Stephan Foundation, Böll Heinrich ©

Between 2000 and 2012, Jutta Hundreds of millions of euros happens when REDD+ projects and Kill coordinated the climate have been spent to pioneer the their proponents arrive in the forest. campaign run by the non- REDD+ concept ever since the The 24 examples discussed in the governmental organisation, proposal for “Reducing Emissions publication ‘REDD: A Collection of FERN, and published countless from Deforestation and Forest Conflicts, Contradictions and Lies’ articles on the subject of Degradation” (REDD) was adopted are all known to have caused harm emissions trading at the 2007 UN climate meeting in and given rise to grievances from In her work, she examines Bali, Indonesia. The World Bank communities in the project area. the field of tension between and governments in favour of Many more examples exist where consumption in industrial linking forest protection with a perceptions and experiences of countries and its impact on forest carbon trading mechanism have forest peoples and forest-dependent usage and protection in the organized meetings and funded communities contrast starkly with global south. Kill takes a critical programs to promote their version the stories of local communities stance to the economic valuation of REDD+. Consultants have rejoicing to participate in the REDD of nature and the consequences prepared methodologies for REDD project that REDD proponents tell. for traditional forest peoples and projects, carbon companies and However, documenting the realities smallhold farmers: she primarily conservation NGOs implement REDD of REDD+ projects is complicated by considers voluntary certification pilot initiatives and model projects, the fact that they are often located in schemes, emissions trading and and another set of consultants remote, hard-to-reach places where the economic valuation of nature certifies those projects and the access to and contact with those as instruments that facilitate methodologies used in REDD+ critical of the project is easy for ecologically unequal trade. She project documents. project proponents to control. has documented the local impacts of countless projects offering What can we learn from these Recurring patterns of conflicts and tradable emission credits. Since nearly 10 years of experience with restrictions on traditional forest 2010, market-based instruments REDD+ project implementation and use make REDD+ a threat for forest for forest protection and trading countless community workshops, peoples with biodiversity credits from booklets and handbooks that projects in Latin America and promote REDD+ initiatives? In Even the limited selection of Africa have formed the focus of early 2015, the World Rainforest experiences presented in the WRM her research. Jutta Kill currently Movement (WRM) published a report publication shows a disturbing trend lives in Berlin. that provides insights into what in REDD+: almost all REDD+ projects

9 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

and programmes featured blame Laos: “[T]he approaches taken deforestation on forest peoples REDD misses the big in REDD so far have tended to practicing shifting cultivation and view smallholder livelihoods on small-scale peasant farming! picture of destruction in relative isolation from the But the assumption that “‘slash- larger drivers of deforestation and-burn’ agriculture is the main Most REDD+ projects seem and degradation in which they driver of deforestation” has been to assume that they make a are enmeshed. […] While most shown to be false many times.[1] contribution to slowing climate projects identified at least one Shifting cultivation plays a central change through reducing of the “other” major drivers role in the social fabric and is often deforestation – yet very few – industrial tree plantations, enshrined in the legal or customary convincingly demonstrate how infrastructure development, timber fabric of ascertaining forest usage they are addressing the major extraction, mining and hydropower rights. Those who put the blame drivers of deforestation. In fact, – as important to their particular for deforestation on small-scale those perpetuating the claim that landscape of intervention, shifting agriculture regularly overlook these shifting cultivation is a key driver cultivation and non-industrial (i.e. complexities. They also fail to focus of deforestation more often than small-scale) agricultural expansion on land grabbing for agricultural not remain silent about how to are almost exclusively the drivers commodity plantations as a factor in tackle the real drivers of forest with which projects choose to driving shifting cultivators towards loss – and climate change. A engage”[2] . Underlying causes of ever shorter rotation cycles where recent CIFOR report on REDD+ deforestation – extraction of oil, traditional shifting cultivation activities in Laos describes a coal, mining, infrastructure, large- practises are altered and contribute situation that appears to be valid scale dams, industrial logging and to forest degradation. beyond the specific examples in international trade in agricultural commodities – routinely remain unaddressed in REDD+ initiatives.

This then raises the question of what contribution REDD+ is actually making to climate protection if it is proving unable to tackle the major drivers causing forest loss! Even carbon market proponents such as a US group Forest Trends warn that REDD+ focussed on small- scale farming is missing the point. Their report in 2014 highlighted the extent of large-scale, often illegal deforestation as a key driver of deforestation: “nearly half (49%) of all recent tropical deforestation is the result of illegal clearing for commercial agriculture. […] Half of this illegal destruction was driven by overseas demand for agricultural commodities including palm oil, beef, soy, and wood products.” [3] REDD+ will by definition of a market-based mechanism not address those 50% of the illegal deforestation.

But REDD+ will also fail to stop most legal but destructive deforestation that is linked to large-scale monocultures of soya and palm oil expanding ever further into forests. The profits from this large-scale destruction are orders of magnitude

10 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection © AIDESEP ©

of CO2 for REDD+ credits traded on with the 15.1 million ha of the total the voluntary market and REDD+ area in central Kalimantan, at REDD fuels conflict ‘performance payment’ deals least 83 per cent of which will be such as the German government’s converted or destroyed through in and among REDD Early Movers Programme either oil palm, monoculture pulp or the World Bank Forest Carbon plantations or mining permits communities Partnership Facility Carbon Fund. issued by the relevant authorities. […] Emissions from such a huge Another recurring feature of The Central Kalimantan-based NGO area will drastically overwhelm the REDD+ initiatives is that when they Yayasan Petak Danum Kalimantan insignificant and small reduction arrive in communities, they risk Tengah, Indonesia, and 11 other from the KFCP site, assuming fuelling conflicts over access to groups also succinctly made that KFCP will eventually lead land and provoking violence against the point that the now cancelled to emission reduction, which community members or generating Kalimantan Forests and Climate is an unrealistically optimistic conflict within communities over a Partnership was missing the big assertion.”[4] The same could project motivated by a cause from picture of destruction: “the KFCP be said about almost all REDD+ the outside: industrialised countries’ project with a 120,000 ha […] projects mentioned in the WRM unwillingness to live up to their project area pales in comparison publication. historic responsibility to drastically

[1] [2] [3] [4] Gokowski et al, 2005. Dwyer MB and Ingalls Sam Lawson et al. (2014). Yayasan Petak Danum The Forest Margins of M. 2015. REDD+ at the Consumer Goods and Letter to the Australian Cameroon. In: Cherly crossroads: Choices and Deforestation: An Analysis Delegation to Central Palm et al..Slash and Burn tradeoffs for 2015-2020 in of the Extent and Nature Kalimantan, February Agriculture, the Search for Laos. Working Paper 179. of Illegality in Forest 2011, RE: Community an Alternative. Columbia CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia. Conversion for Agriculture Concerns with the KFCP. University Press. and Timber Plantations. A http://www.redd- Forest Trends report. monitor.org/wp-content/ http://www.forest-trends. uploads/2011/02/YPD- org/documents/files/ Letter-to-Australian- doc_4718.pdf Delegation.pdf

11 is that surveillance and monitoring measures focus on community use of forests, not large-scale deforestation or biodiversity destruction. The use of little aeroplanes for surveillance of customary land use in the WWF and Air France project in Madagascar is just one example of the intrusion REDD projects can cause.

Many REDD+ project also rely on community members to patrol and report on violations of REDD project rules. The tasks of such ‘environmental agents’ or ‘REDD monitors’ include passing information to the REDD+ project owners about community members opening new forest gardens or engaging in other activities that are prohibited by REDD project rules. REDD proponents often count the employment of community members as patrols as a social benefit of their REDD activity. “There is something […] troubling about conservation policy that seeks to undermine local social cohesion by asking people to report other members of their community, or even their relatives, for environmental ‘crimes’ defined © Gleison Miranda, FUNAI largely by outsiders,” Ivan Scales writes about a similar practice that conservation organisations reduce and phase out fossil fuel When they are eventually informed use in conservation projects in use. Or consumers’ unwillingness about the REDD+ project, the Madagascar [5]. to accept that there is a large cost information provided to communities to the consumerist lifestyle that has often been biased or incomplete: is paid by others and that cannot many promises of benefits and be remedied by certified ‘green employment are usually made by REDD a risk to rights consumption’. Only in very few of project proponents if the community the examples were communities agrees to the proposed REDD REDD+ initiatives almost always informed that the carbon credits the activity. What the villagers get in fail to fully acknowledge the REDD+ project on their territories return for the promises, however, complexities, uncertainties and would generate would be sold to is mainly harassment, restrictions potential or existing conflicts over polluters in industrialised countries. on the land use that provides their rights and access to forests in the The buyers include some of the livelihood and blame for being chosen project locations. At best, largest corporations whose business responsible for deforestation and the issue is condensed into a project is built on fossil fuel extraction – and causing climate change. objective to be addressed sometime thus destruction of the territories of during implementation of the REDD indigenous peoples elsewhere. project. Where communities did receive Experience with REDD+ projects benefits or are offered jobs, these Sometimes, REDD+ initiatives also shows that in stark contrast often increase inequalities within include securing land title or to the talk of ‘participative project the community: benefits go primarily customary rights as one of the implementation’, communities are to local elites and restrictions project objectives. But even where rarely involved in the conception applied mainly to marginalised such rights might be recognised of the forest carbon project to be community members. Another on paper, implementation of REDD implemented on their territories. disturbing aspect of REDD+ projects projects – especially those that

12 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

generate carbon credits – is likely families enter into are not clearly offsets generated by those who to lead to forest peoples effectively explained or are described in have contributed the least to the losing the control over their ambiguous terms that can easily be climate crisis and are pushed to territories. Tradable REDD credits misinterpreted. Seeking legal advice alter the land use that provides are a form of property title. Those on such technical documents is their sustenance allow the most who own the credit do not need to complicated by the fact that almost affluent members of society, who own the land nor the trees on the all REDD contracts contained strict have a historic responsibility for land. What they do own is the right confidentiality clauses. Many of the climate change, to pay their way to control and restrict traditional contracts and project documents out of the responsibility to change usage practises on the land; to are also written in English, with only their lifestyle. When, for example, monitor what is happening in the a partial or no translation into local a company offers its clients the territory and to request access to languages, which further restricts opportunity to offset their carbon the territory at any time they choose the possibility for communities to emissions by financing a REDD+ as long as they own the carbon fully inform themselves about REDD project in a remote tropical forest credit. projects presented to them. area, it equates carbon emissions from leisure activities (air travel for This has been confirmed in holidays, the purchase of a computer, research by CENSAT – Friends the FIFA World Cup, a Formula of the Earth Colombia. In 2013, REDD offsets: One motor racing event, etc.) with they undertook research into the carbon emitted to meet basic needs contracts of REDD projects that immoral and unjust and fundamental rights (feeding involved communities directly oneself using shifting cultivation and (often, communities are not involved REDD projects, and carbon offsets in traditional forest gardens). but are only affected by the REDD general, raise an ethical ‘problem’: project’s activities) [6]. CENSAT the burden to reduce what are found that many REDD contracts essentially sustenance emissions were full of “words written with the linked to a very low-carbon way of REDD is fatally flawed intention of not being understood, life falls to the poorest members not being fulfilled”. Often, the of society who have very little The examples of REDD+ projects obligations that communities or scope with which to adapt. REDD and programmes described in the WRM publication ‘REDD: A collection of conflicts, contradictions and lies’ and many other, less well documented REDD+ initiatives reveal some disturbing patterns that explain why – despite the rhetoric of forest peoples being the main beneficiaries of REDD+ – in reality, REDD+ fails to address the underlying causes of forest loss and climate change and has turned into a threat to forest peoples’ way of life.

[5] Ivan R. Scales (2014). Conservation and environmental management in Madagascar. Chapter 15. Routledge.

[6] CENSAT (2013). Contratos REDD: Despojo ilegítimo, por vías legales’. In: December 2013 issue No 79 of Biodiversidade: Leyes, políticas y economía verde al servicio del despojo de los pueblos. http://www.wrm.org.uy/html/ wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Esp_ © Climate Alliance Biodiversidad_12_2013.pdf

13 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection REDD+ Indígena Amazónico (RIA / Indigenous REDD+) Progress and challenges

Roberto Espinoza, AIDESEP

The climate catastrophe is no longer achieve this aim is the trading of a future scenario: the effects of emission credits (offsets), we arrive unchecked global warming are at the wrong solutions. The basic idea increasingly visible, whereby it has behind REDD+ of assigning the carbon meanwhile been proven that climate dioxide stored in forests a monetary change is caused by us humans. The value does not lead to climate-friendly present-day consumption-oriented development. Instead, the necessary social model is based on the principle fundamental change by civilisation of extractivism and thus on the fails to materialise and indigenous destruction and exploitation of nature. peoples are deprived of control over However, current suggestions for their forests. For these tools place solutions do not sufficiently address responsibility for the forests in the causes such as deforestation and the hands of investors. REDD+ thus resulting emissions. becomes a threat: so-called “carbon cowboys” violate indigenous rights and As such, the REDD+ concept affords environmental regulations. dual significance: both with regards to the aim of REDD+ and to one of The response of the indigenous

its tools. The aim of reducing the peoples of the Amazon basin to this (http://www.iisd.ca/rri/dfgcc12/) IISD/ENB © emissions from forest destruction development is called the REDD+ and degradation caused by industrial Indígena Amazónico, or RIA for short. Roberto Espinoza has worked for agriculture, logging, mining for fossil The indigenous REDD+ was developed AIDESEP and COICA as a technical resources, etc. is today decisive to in Peru in 2010 by AIDESEP as a consultant in the environmental the survival of humankind and our creative alternative for the indigenous field for many years now. He was planet. However, when the tool to peoples of Amazonia, and has been instrumental in development of the supported by COICA throughout the alternative strategy for REDD+, the entire Amazon region since 2011. indigenous REDD of the peoples of Neo-extractivism We meet the global REDD+ process the Amazon basin. with this concept and transform This term describes a post- potential threats into opportunities neoliberal variant of the classic for indigenous peoples and their economic model based on the forests. RIA thus makes a concrete (*) Abbreviations: FIP, Forest Investment export of raw materials and over- contribution to mitigating global Programme – FCPF, Forest Carbon Partnership exploitation. It is mostly used warming. Facility – GCF, Green Climate Fund – GHG, Greenhouse Gases – INDC, Intended National to refer to Latin America where Determined Contributions for the reduction of governments use the earnings to Similar to the conventional REDD+, greenhouse gases – MRV, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification – RPP, plan de preparación de finance development and social RIA pursues the aim of reducing REDD – SIS, Safeguard Information Systems programmes – with all their the emissions from deforestation. negative environmental and social It should not be reduced to the consequences. mere establishment of a profit-

14 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

based emissions trading market though. RIA refers to compliance RIA with the rights outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of The REDD+ Indígena Amazónico (RIA), which is also known as the indigenous Indigenous Peoples (Resolution 61/295 REDD+, was proposed by COICA as a socially-acceptable alternative to the adopted by the General Assembly) in UN-REDD+ programmes. It contributes to climate protection based on the addition to the International Labour sustainable management of indigenous territories in the Amazon basin. RIA Organisation’s Convention No. 169 on strives to gain legal recognition for indigenous territories to support the cultural adaptation. If national policy inhabitants of these regions in the protection of their forest living space. must be adjusted to the cosmovisions and rights of indigenous peoples with One central component of RIA is the measurement, reporting and auditing of regard to education, health, forests, REDD+ activities by indigenous peoples. The territorial monitoring of climate agriculture, etc., then the same also changes is thus placed in their hands. applies for REDD+.

The eight central elements of RIA, which must be developed further, are:

projects and national REDD+ policies 1. The long-term (such as the FIP, FCPF, RPP, UN-REDD* 3. Holistic forest programmes). This also counts among national and local the “early safeguards” to include in the management SIS* and can serve as an indicator for “development plan” the (lack of) progress within REDD+ The climate protection, adaptation (Carbon Fund, Green Climate Fund). and resilience processes, which (plan de vida plena, are today considered separately from one another, must be linked. PVP) Sustainable management based on AIDESEP the traditional indigenous concepts REDD+ should not constitute the combines productive use with template for how the community The Asociación Interétnica de simultaneous protection. This type should develop in the long term, but Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana of forest protection is more effective rather the development plan (plan AIDESEP is the interethnic and efficient than straightforward de vida). This document determines association for development of the “museum-like” nature protection. and defines how benefits and Peruvian rainforest. Established An analysis of satellite images remuneration should look within RIA. in 1980, the association comprises makes clear that exactly the areas As such, the plan de vida plena goes a total of 65 regional and local traditionally used by indigenous beyond the mere aspects of CO2 and organisations, and campaigns on communities remain extensive areas climate, without disregarding the the national level for the rights of intact forest. “Holistic” forest forests’ carbon sink function. Self- of more than 650,000 indigenous management involves the indigenous determination of indigenous peoples people and recognition of their peoples and their respective culture forms the central basis according territories. AIDESEP’s primary in their natural surrounds – instead to which every process – including concern is the situation of of separating them from these. REDD+ – must be oriented. indigenous peoples dwelling in the Peruvian Amazon region. Curbing the uncontrolled The association is working extractivism, which is the real on alternative development driver of deforestation, means 2. Territorial security models that take the indigenous climate protection. This would help cosmovision and ways of life into counter the negative climatic effects The legalisation of indigenous account. (adaptation) and thus contribute territories with collective rights titles Climate Alliance supports to restoration and regeneration for the communities, which secure AIDESEP in addition to regional (resilience) of the forests. Within control over the surface soil, subsoil, and local member organisations. this, it becomes apparent that forests and waters, counts among aidesep.org.pe the three approaches of climate the key conditions for local REDD+ climatealliance.org protection, adaptation and resilience

15 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection Silke Lunnebach, Climate Alliance © ©

are linked. The political sphere to measure the compensation values contradictory methods used for this continues to treat these separately down to the smallest detail. This is render even the trading of emissions despite the fact that combining the immensely complicated, however, certificates impossible (cf. Munden three approaches (e.g. in the INDCs*) as individual measurements Project report). could help achieve efficiency, must be taken in the tree trunks, effectiveness and sustainability. leaves, fruits, surface soil and subsoil. What’s more, the different,

4. Ecosystem Financing instruments for REDD+ programmes measurements of the The UN-REDD, Forest Investment Programme (FIP), and international Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) are just a few of the multilateral “living forest” instruments providing financial support in the implementation of REDD+ projects. Instead of complex measurement processes, simple methods are The UN-REDD programme was initiated in 2008 to support states in the sufficient to guarantee preservation preparation and implementation of national REDD+ strategies. More than of the forests’ up to 24 ecosystem 53 partner countries have since been supported within the scope of this functions. Thus, the consideration programme. and evaluation of satellite images with regard to forest cover and The FCPF and FIP are two World Bank funding programmes. sample lots is sufficient to estimate the carbon sequestration. Only While the FIP was initiated in 2008 and meanwhile supports pilot projects emissions trading (offsetting) in eight countries, a total of 37 countries have been supported by 13 funders requires the separate measurement thanks to the FCPF. of CO2 on the micro level to be able

16 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

5. Compensation via 7. Effective reduction public mechanisms of deforestation and

The REDD+ funds should be public and greenhouse gases thus under public control – so neither private nor state controlled. They RIA empowers indigenous should be controlled by civil society communities in their historic battle with the involvement of indigenous for territorial and collective rights, peoples, as is already the case in which is why the concept guarantees Brazil and Peru. The indigenous the continued resistance against the communities should be remunerated threats presented by extractivism and for their historic contribution to well- so-called progress. The states bow to managed forests. Within this, not only the interests of capital when it comes the carbon sink function but also other to the so-called “mega drivers”, which ecosystem functions such as light is why the INDCs* are only formulated refraction, evaporation, etc. should in such a vague and unconvincing be taken into account. The “carbon manner. RIA stands for the effective cowboys” emerging as a result of the net reduction in greenhouse gases prospect of emissions trading and and does not “exchange” them for the lack of state controls must be impunity for extractive activities prevented. Hence national regulations through emissions certificates from regarding the accreditation, REDD+. monitoring and sanctioning of bad practices among pioneering initiatives (such as the German REDD+ Early Movers initiative) are necessary. 8. Integrated Climate AllianceClimate © approaches to © 6. Autonomous, adapt to climate RIA has progressed since 2010 indigenous, change with special and is attracting attention and meeting with recognition as an state-recognised consideration of alternative counterproposal to REDD+ from the indigenous monitoring (MRV*/ indigenous women peoples of Amazonia. RIA has become a component of national MRVI) It is very likely that the climate crisis plans for REDD+ in addition to will worsen and the formation of the climate change fund in Peru. Monitoring and reporting in the savannah and destruction of forests Progress is also being made in indigenous territories is today will continue. Adaptation by the the implementation of RIA pilot known as MRVI, which stands indigenous peoples is unavoidable projects on indigenous territories for the measurement, reporting and urgently needed for their in Peru (e.g. Reserva Comunal and verification work conducted survival. RIA offers an integrated Amarakaeri), Colombia (e.g. by indigenous communities. concept for climate protection Resguardo Inírida) and Brazil (e.g. Responsibility for the use of new and adaptation to climate change. Território Igarapé Lourdes). early warning systems with regard to As recognised in the INDCs*, the “mega drivers” and degradation both approaches complement The Paris Agreement (COP21) (e.g. through palm oil plantations, one another. In contrast to the is not sufficient to halt the industrial agriculture, mega projects, bureaucratic and ineffective state planet’s suicide. Within this exploitation of fossil fuels, mining, adjustment processes, within RIA, framework, the contributions of road construction, illegal logging adaptation plans are among others the indigenous peoples and their and settlement) should be placed in contrasted with the fundamentals territories with over 240 million the hands of the indigenous peoples. of water catchment areas, which hectares and the proposals for The information they obtain must be have been developed by indigenous the INDC*, SIS* and climate fund recognised and taken into account by communities (with a decisive role based on RIA are of decisive the state. played by indigenous women). importance. ¶

17 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

philosophy is preservation of the rainforest as living space: they only Alternative forest extract as much as is necessary to live and is reasonable for nature.

The people need national and protection concepts in international support to preserve this unique natural habitat with all its biodiversity and cultural wealth: Colombia: the basic supply and control of indigenous territories must also be safeguarded with the support of state the CMARI pilot project stakeholders. Besides the intrusion of settlers from other parts of Colombia, the biggest OPIAC threats to the protected area are primarily the illegal exploitation of resources and the strong presence The CMARI (Cuenca Media y Alta del For generations, the around of guerilla groups. However, the Río Inírida) indigenous area is located 400 families living in the CMARI greatest danger lies in migration of in the province of Guainía in the east of protected area have preserved their the indigenous peoples themselves: Colombia. It was declared a protected living space, protected the area from many young people move to the area in 1989. Since 2012, it has been one deforestation, and thus made an nearby cities. This is due to the in of the pilot projects initiated by COICA important contribution to climate part extremely precarious health (Coordinadora de las Organizaciones protection. conditions and educational offerings Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica), as well as the poor infrastructure the umbrella organisation of indigenous The rainforests’ immense biodiversity and mobility. At the same time, the organisations of the Amazon basin, is the region’s natural asset and this consequences of climate change are within the scope of the REDD+ Indígena also forms the basis of the peoples’ already tangible: lengthy periods of Amazónico (RIA). livelihoods. Hunting and fishing, drought endanger their livelihoods. gathering and agriculture secure the The area is almost the size of Belgium food supply. Both the construction The indigenous population has (27,625 km2), which corresponds materials and also jewellery and protected and preserved this area to 2.4% of the total surface area of medicinal plants originate from the of high biodiversity. Their presence Colombia. The protected area is home rainforest. The ways of life of the is essential; if the Puinave and to more than 2,000 people belonging to Puinave and Curripaco peoples are Curripaco leave the protected area, the Puinave and Curripaco indigenous based on the premise that the natural the forests will disappear. peoples. They live in 17 communities habitat offers everything they need that lie along the Inírida River. to provide for their families. Their CMARI – a RIA pilot project

CMARI was initiated in 2012 as one of the six RIA pilot projects of the OPIAC (Organización de los Pueblos Indígenas de la Amazonía Colombiana) national organisation and COICA.

With a surface area of more than 2.7 million hectares, it is one of the largest carbon sinks in the world. Industrial logging is relatively limited in the protected area – as it is throughout the entire province of Guainía. As such, this area is © OPIAC in fact less attractive for REDD+

18 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

Guainía numerous workshops and meetings OPIAC in the area. The pilot project is well Guainía is a department in the received by the local population Organización de los Pueblos Amazon region of Colombia and has been met with widespread Indígenas de la Amazonía that is home to an estimated support from the local indigenous Colombiana 36,000 people. It borders on organisations on the international, Venezuela in the east and Brazil in national and local levels. This Established in 1995, OPIAC is the the south. Over half the population will undoubtedly contribute to the national organisation of indigenous lives in the capital of Iñírida. While project’s success. peoples in the Colombian Amazon agriculture dominates, gold and region. It represents 56 indigenous diamond mines can also be found CMARI serves as a model for groups comprising a total of in the border regions. all indigenous territories that around 76,000 people. Their aim: are (still) virtually untouched by political support for indigenous industrial logging and in which organisations, protection and programmes. However, the the natural balance remains recognition of indigenous biodiversity and intact rainforest largely in equilibrium. For these territories, self-determination are extremely important and worth areas to continue to withstand the for indigenous peoples, and protecting for the people dwelling in pressure from outside, supporting recognition and respect for the forest as well as for the global programmes in direct cooperation indigenous rights. climate. Exactly these factors speak with the people living in the area and for the RIA pilot project. the according political measures are opiac.org.co necessary. With over 100,000 hectares of forest, the strength and expertise of the local In contrast to conventional REDD+ indigenous organisation, the land programmes, RIA focuses on the Conclusion rights secured, and the (political) people – so the local indigenous support of the local indigenous communities who protect and Political strategies for action and communities, CMARI fulfils the four preserve their forest habitat and thus financial measures should not only criteria that are prerequisites for RIA their ways of life and culture. Support be developed for areas affected by projects. The OPIAC and ASOCRIGUA must be provided here. widespread deforestation and forest (Asociación del Consejo Regional degradation. Far from market-based Indígena del Guainía) have organised emissions trading mechanisms, the people who have for centuries protected and preserved their forests must be supported. It must be ensured that these areas remain

© OPIAC in the hands of those who live there and manage these sustainably. At the same time, support for the indigenous population is necessary: their lives must be improved – above all to prevent the younger generations from leaving the region. Such a strategy can in turn help prevent deforestation and guarantee the binding of many million tons of carbon.

The major difference between RIA projects and initiatives within the scope of REDD+ strategies is that RIA does not only take effect when the deforestation and thus degradation of the forests is well advanced. Exactly this should be avoided – to protect indigenous peoples and contribute to protection of the global climate. ¶

19 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection How local forest Climate AllianceClimate © © protection serves global climate protection “Protection of the natural resources in the Amarakaeri protected area”: the partnership between the Hanseatic city of Rostock and the Harakmbut indigenous people of Peru Holger Matthäus was born in Warnemünde in 1964. He studied physics before going Holger Matthäus, Hanseatic City of Rostock on to work for Rostock’s municipal administration from 1989 on development of the Over 400,000 hectares in Peru’s biodiversity. However, this diversity, environmental field, among tropical rainforest should be protected resources such as wood, and the others with responsibility for – the city of Rostock is campaigning for wealth of natural resources in the climate protection. He has been just this within the scope of its Climate region also harbour dangers: in their the Senator for Construction Alliance membership. search for precious raw materials, and the Environment in the settlers and gold prospectors intrude Hanseatic city of Rostock since In April 2014, the parliament of the into the area and destroy the living 2008. In 2015, he was appointed Hanseatic city of Rostock agreed a space for humans and nature. The the Chairman of Climate climate master plan known as the unabating hunger for resources Alliance’s executive board. Masterplan 100% Klimaschutz. and financial greed endanger the Rostock thus committed to reducing rainforests – and thus also the global greenhouse gas emissions by 95% climate. and energy consumption by 50% by 2050. This plan primarily focuses on The absence of monitoring systems, the local level and pools the measures insufficient involvement of indigenous of local stakeholders. By linking their communities in decisions regarding local climate protection activities the use of resources, illegal mining, with protection of the Amarakaeri and lack of cooperation between the protection area in Peru, the inhabitants and administrators of Hanseatic city also meets its global the protection area are the source of Harakmbut responsibility. many conflicts and challenges for the Amarakaeri protected area. An estimated 5,000 Harakmbut Known as the “Peruvian capital indigenous people live in the of biodiversity”, Madre de Dios is To support the Harakmbut in their Madre de Dios region of south- located in the south-east of the endeavours to protect their territories, east Peru, close to the border with country. Tropical rainforests, which the Hanseatic city of Rostock entered Brazil. are renowned for their biodiversity, into a partnership with the indigenous cover almost the entire area. The people in 2014, and supports the The word Harakmbut means Amarakaeri Communal Reserve project for the protection of the ‘people’. The Harakmbut live in (Reserva Comunal Amarakaeri, RCA) natural resources in the Amarakaeri countless small communities, is one of seven protected areas in protected area. The key aims of some of which speak different this region. It has been home to the this project are demarcation of the languages. Some Harakmbut Harakmbut indigenous people for boundaries of the protected area choose to live in the protected centuries now. They are considered through the planting of trees with a Amarakaeri Communal Reserve. the guardians of the untouched natural certain type of flower, involvement ecosystem and preservers of the of the indigenous groups living in the

20 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection FENAMAD FENAMAD © © © © FENAMAD FENAMAD © © © ©

area in decision-making processes, Recognition of the land rights of also count among their tasks. This and set-up of a monitoring system. indigenous people is essential for includes the education and health conservation of the rainforest and the infrastructure as well as economic This support by the Hanseatic city preservation of biodiversity. Given that activities, for example. Development of Rostock enables the improved the rainforests are their living space, plans must also be prepared for the monitoring and analysis of illegal there is more to their preservation than future, as natural resources should activities in the protection area. just protection of the global climate. only be used in such a way that they The cooperation between the local In the long term, support for the local are not destroyed and that future population and the administration of Amazonian population is the most generations dwelling in this area can the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve effective way to protect the rainforests. also live from them. (Servicio Nacional de Reservas Naturales Protegidas, SERNANP) has In its assumption of responsibility been strengthened and preliminary for future generations, the project measures also taken against the illegal Indigenous peoples as can for example encourage mutual activities. Both the local population learning processes to help safeguard and RCA employees in addition to municipal rainforest our existence and encourage the representatives from SERNANP are responsible use of the natural involved in the monitoring, which custodians resources available to us. aims to prevent the intrusion of illegal loggers and gold prospectors. A forest Territories managed by indigenous The partnership between Climate border aims to protect the areas most communities have similar functions to Alliance member Rostock and the at risk. While the first trees have municipalities. Their inhabitants are as Harakmbut indigenous people already been planted as part of the responsible for “maintenance” of the constitutes active protection for the project, the boundary has been marked forest as municipalities are for their rainforest, and was also presented at a with information boards in other area. At the same time, safeguarding number of events held during the 2015 places. and improving the living conditions climate conference in Paris. ¶

21 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

Kawsak Sacha – Sarayaku The Kichwa-speaking community of Sarayaku people dwells beside the Bobonaza River in the province of Pastaza in the Ecuadorian the living forest Amazon region. The estimated 1,200 members of this community of five villages have lived in this area covering 135,000 hectares for Proposal of the Kichwa generations. The name Sarayaku has existed for hundreds of years and means ‘river of corn’. 95% of the Sarayaku area is people of Sarayaku, composed of primary forest. Through conservation and sustainable use of the natural resources available in their area, Ecuador considering the community pursues its vision and mission of reinforcing the concept of Sumak Kawsay (Buen Vivir, “Good Living”) and the continued existence of Kawsak climate change Sacha (the Living Forest). The community has opposed oil exploitation in its territory since the Sarayaku community, Ecuador late 1980s. sarayaku.org

Kawsak Sacha (The Living Forest) is Kawsak Sacha, understood as sacred forest is neither simply a landscape for a proposal for living together with the territory, is the primordial font of aesthetic appreciation nor a resource natural world that grows out of the Sumak Kawsay (Buen Vivir, “Good for exploitation. Rather, it is the most millennial knowledge of the Indigenous Living”). Not only does it provide a exalted expression of life itself. It is for Peoples who inhabit the Amazonian home for all of its inhabitants, it also this reason that continued coexistence rainforest, and it is one that is also emotionally, psychologically, physically, with the Living Forest can lead to buttressed by recent scientific studies. and spiritually revitalizes them. In Sumak Kawsay. This encourages us Whereas the western world treats this way it regenerates the Indigenous to propose that maintaining this lively nature as an undemanding source of Peoples who live in community with space, based on a continuous relation raw materials destined exclusively for these sylvan selves. That is, the Living with its beings, can provide a global human use, Kawsak Sacha recognizes Forest nourishes and augments life. ethical orientation as we search for that the forest is made up entirely of better ways to face the worldwide living selves and the communicative Kawsak Sacha is where we transmit ecological crisis in which we live today. relations they have with each other. our knowledge and ways of being In this manner Sumak Kawsay can These selves, from the smallest plants (yachay). It is where our wise people become a planetary reality. to the supreme beings who protect the (yachak) interrelate with the supreme forest, are persons (runa) who inhabit beings of the forest in order to receive the waterfalls, lagoons, swamps, the guidance that leads them along the mountains, and rivers, and who, in path of Sumak Kawsay. This continuous Proposal: declaration turn, compose the Living Forest as a relation that we Indigenous People whole. These persons live together have with the beings of the forest of Kawsak Sacha (the in community (llakta) and carry out is central, for and it depends on the their lives in a manner that is similar continuity of the Living Forest, which, in Living Forest) to human beings. To summarize, in the turn permits a harmony of life among Living Forest the economic system is many kinds of beings, as well as the 1) Our Concrete Proposal consists in an ecological web; the natural world is possibility that we all can continue attaining national and international also a social world. to live in the future. In essence, the recognition for Kawsak Sacha

22 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

to communicate to outsiders the delimitation and existence of the area categorized as Kawsak Sacha. Any outsider can thus appreciate the beauty of the Living Forest and the living presence of Mother Earth (Pachamama) thanks to a multi- colored cloak of flowers. At the same time it creates the possibility of beginning to dialogue with the beings that make up the Living Forest. In this way the Frontier of Life creates a permanent forum for communication among beings. This can help the entire world recuperate the original understanding of Mother Earth as a shared home. Furthermore, since it produces flowers and fruits that feed the beings of the forest, the Frontier of Life fosters the life of the forest. Finally, its regular maintenance by community members seeks to teach our youth the basic principles of Kawsak Sacha. In sum, the Frontier of Life is a symbol of life that manifests Kawsak Sacha’s principles at the same time that it serves as a tool for its protection.

©©Climate Alliance The message it delivers is aimed at the entire world with the goal of reaching the hearts and minds (the Living Forest), as a new legal That is, by protecting the forest’s of human beings everywhere, category of protected area that would sacred places Kawsak Sacha encouraging us all to reflect on be considered Sacred Territory and ensures a healthy territory free of the close relation between Human Biological and Cultural Patrimony of contamination as well as abundant Rights and the Rights of Nature. the Kichwa People in Ecuador. Our productive land that can help goal is to preserve the territory of preserve food sovereignty. In this Kawsak Sacha is a robust proposal Indigenous Peoples, and especially way Kawsak Sacha aims to serve as capable of defending the Rights the material and spiritual relations a viable economic model. of Nature as it is enshrined in the that we establish in the Living Forest Ecuadorian Constitution, which, in with the other beings that inhabit it. 3) Understood as Territory, the addition, also legally recognizes the This implies that these areas have to Living Forest, thanks to forty importance of maintaining healthy be declared zones that are free of oil, years of communal effort, is now ecosystems as a foundation for mineral, and lumber extraction. demarcated by a border of flowering Sumak Kawsay. Regarding the Rights and fruiting trees visible from of Nature, our proposal emphasizes 2) The Living Forest proposes a the air. We call this vital cordon a that in order to extend rights to way of achieving Sumak Kawsay Frontier of Life or Trail of Flowers Nature, one must first recognize its by means of the application and (Jatun Kawsak Sisa Ñampi). By entities as persons (and not mere execution of Life Plans (Plan de means of the flower’s ephemeral objects). As persons, the beings of Vida) that are sustained by the beauty, the Frontier of Life conveys the forest relate to one another as three foundational pillars of the the fragility of life and the fertility well as to the Indigenous People Sumak Kawsay Plan: Fertile Land of the Living Forest that it both that share their land. So, based on (Sumak Allpa); Living in Community surrounds and protects. In keeping our continuous life together with the (Runaguna Kawsay); and Forest with the central pillar of Kawsak beings of the forest, Kawsak Sacha Wisdom (Sacha Runa Yachay). As a Sacha – that the forest is composed emerges as an authentic way of space for the development of Sumak entirely of communicative relations guaranteeing the Rights of Nature in Kawsay, the Living Forest proposes among the various selves that make those spaces that have not yet been another way to think about wealth. it up – this Frontier of Life aims decimated.

23 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

reason that the Rights of Nature We make manifest that the gradual Conclusions are so closely related to our Human disappearance of this ensemble of life Rights as Indigenous People, that Kawsak Sacha seeks to sustain We urge the world community to guardians of the Living Forest. is nothing more and nothing less than make an effort to achieve a real Nevertheless, this link is ignored by “ecocide” – that is, it is the systematic metamorphosis (tiam). We need to the State and whichever government extermination of an ensemble of living shift from a modernizing model of happens to be in power. Worse yet, interrelated selves. And this crime development – a model that treats in its desire to civilize, develop and against Humanity and Nature, has, nature as material resource – to the modernize, the State ends up violating until now, gone unpunished. alternative of Kawsak Sacha, which the very rights of this conjuncture of recognizes that forming community human and nonhuman life, in which With the hope of putting a brake with the many kinds of selves with we, Indigenous People, take part. It on this violence, our proposal is an whom we share our world is a better seems hypocritical to us that the very urgent call to the world community way to orient our economic and governments that put forth solemn to respect the Rights of Nature and political activities. discourses criticizing imperialism, of the Indigenous Peoples, who, here capitalism, and colonialism, are and now in the twenty-first century, Kawsak Sacha proposes an promoting, in the supposed name with strength and vigor, affirm our indissoluble link between human of democracy, large-scale neo- responsibility to continue defending beings and the visible and invisible colonialist extractive projects on our the Living Forest for the good of our beings of the forest. It is for this lands, thus threatening Mother Earth. Mother Earth, and for our present and future generations.

To conclude, we summarize our Kawsak Sacha proposal: the entire world is peopled by beings that sustain our planet thanks to their way of living in continuous interrelation and dialogue. This vision is neither a quaint belief nor a simple conservationist ideal. It is instead a call to the people of the world to learn once again to feel this reality in their very being. This metamorphosis will only be possible once we learn to listen to and dialogue with these other beings, which are part of a cosmic conversation that goes well beyond the dialogue of the deaf until now carried out exclusively among us humans. Entering into this broader conversation with all living beings can be the foundation Sarayaku ©

© for a more sustainable economic life, one that is more respectful of Mother Earth. And it would be the Kawsaymanda kanwa – the “canoe of life” from the basis for conceptualizing, building, Amazon to the Seine and disseminating a genuine Sumak Kawsay in our world – a world that The canoe is the work of men and women from the Sarayaku community (minga) today is threatened by an ecological and was made using traditional skills. Carved from a pinchi tree felled by the crisis of planetary proportions. ¶ wind, it represents the hummingbird fish (kindi challwa) that forms part of Kawsak Sacha (the Living Forest). With the canoe of life that made its way from the Amazon River to the River Seine in Paris, the message of the indigenous Kichwa people was carried beyond its borders to the COP21 and out into the entire world. People are called upon to pursue the concept of Sumak Kawsay (Buen Vivir, „Good Living“). The canoe symbolises the concept of the “living forest” that the Kichwa people propose to the world community as ethical guidelines and an instrument to overcome the challenges of climate change. kawsaksacha.com

24 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection Perspectives of indigenous women

In May 2015, indigenous representatives from the Peruvian Amazon region signed a declaration in which they outlined their strategies for climate change action.

Teresita Antazu López and Jhenny Muñoz Hilares from Peru in interview with Thomas Brose, Climate Allaince

Jhenny What is your opinion of REDD+? Muñoz

NGO Reflex Hilares © Teresita: At the start, hopes were high © that REDD would also yield economic benefits for the indigenous peoples. This hope was fomented by the countless advisors, who informed us of REDD. The further the discussion advanced, the more the concerns regarding the instrument grew. Only the advantages were discussed; there was little mention of the problems. Some Asháninkas began to select a few areas for the REDD approach. When they were then told that they would no longer be able to pursue their traditional activities such as Teresita Antazu hunting and farming in these areas, López the approval and interest waned. They said: “If we are no longer able to plant anything and only receive alms Jhenny Muñoz is from Atahualpa, a village situated beside the Rio Negro in the in return, then we do not wish to be central Peruvian Amazon region. She obtained a diploma in administration and involved.” There were subsequently IT from the T. Rivera Tape Institute and a degree in public administration from also discussions on the indigenous the Universidad Peruana Los Andes. From 1999 to 2001, Jhenny worked at the REDD (RIA), which is more oriented nursery school in the village of Rio Bertha. From 2003 and 2007, she was the first to our reality. RIA brought greater coordinator of the office for the sustainable development of indigenous villages clarity to the discussion. There were in the Rio Negro district. She then went on to spend two years helping to coordi- still countless unanswered questions nate grass-roots projects with NGOs. Besides countless positions of responsibility, for example as a town councillor, as well as civil society involvement on the prior to this. Many of our indigenous local level, Jhenny has attended congresses and events in Europe since 2005 as a representatives are often also not delegate representing the Asháninka people within the scope of the city partner- sufficiently informed and pass on ship with Munich. confusing information. Within RIA, the focus is on legalisation of our Teresita Antazu is from the province of Oxapampa in the central Peruvian territories. The most important Amazon region. Between 1983 and 1986, Teresita worked for the Federation of point for us is that our territories are Native Yánesha Communities (Federación de Comunidades Nativas Yánesha, legally protected, and there is still FECONAYA) in the field of “women”, and was active as a town councillor and a great deal to do here. Many areas coordinator of the women’s committee in the Yarina indigenous community in have already achieved preliminary the years that followed. In 1994, she founded the indigenous organisation UNAY (Unión de Nacionalidades Asháninka y Yánesha) and was elected the represent- recognition but are now awaiting legal ative of indigenous women three years later. She was subsequently a member of recognition. We also call for a number AIDESEP’s board, held the office of “cornesha”, which is the highest leadership of the areas to be surveyed again, role within the Yánesha community, and acted as president of UNAY. Teresita as a great many errors were made, campaigns for the rights of indigenous peoples – and, above all, of indigenous which has led to unrest within the women – within countless local and national organisations. She has attended a communities. great many international congresses.

25 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

We have also held a number of workshops specifically for women. For they are mostly the ones responsible for working the fields and must take care of the daily chores whilst the men often seek work outside of the community or are involved in the organisations. The women are more familiar with the local situation and must find Eli Melcher, Nord SüdForum Münchene. V.

© pragmatic solutions for changes. © Another problem is that land titles within a community are mostly issued to the husbands. We call for it to become possible for women to also be registered as the owner. For if a man leaves his wife, they are often left to fend for themselves and their children, and do not even have a right to the land on which they live.

What connection do you see between the land rights and your life in the rainforest?

Teresita: The forest is our only asset. It allows us to be Eli Melcher, Nord Süd Forum München e. V.

© independent. We are able to grow © food on our chakras (small forest gardens); the forest is home to the animals and plants we use as medicine. In the cities, we need money for everything. My grandparents taught me that the earth is our mother. The sun, the rain, the animals are all living creatures belonging to one big family. The trees are happy, as we use them to make furniture, which is very useful to us. The forest is also our pharmacy and Asháninka our supermarket. However, there are already areas that no longer With an estimated population of 80,000, the Asháninka are the largest afford this wealth. We must also indigenous group in the Peruvian rainforest. They live in small settlements always remain connected with or individual estates, mostly close to a river. Wherever possible, the village our community. It is very difficult communities are self-sufficient. for city dwellers to understand our relationship with nature. They The Asháninka have no privately owned land. If they succeed in securing laugh at us. Only those who live this official land titles, the land becomes the property of the village as a whole and relationship can truly understand is shared by the entire community. it. I have taught my grandson the importance of nature and used the Due to the growing threat to and destruction of their livelihood, the Asháninka example of how a tree grows its are fighting for survival. The city of Munich has entered into a partnership with roots on a hillside so that we are the Asháninka within the scope of its Climate Alliance membership. The focus able to use them as steps to safely is on education and information campaigns, backing Asháninka projects, and access the slope. Now, every time providing political support. that he goes down the slope, he

26 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

the process of exchanging our more resistant seeds with the women from other regions for plants that are resistant to wetter soils.

J: We have the problem that families are convinced by government advisors or NGOs to participate in projects Silke Lunnebach, Climate Alliance ©

© that are rapidly discontinued when the advisors are no longer there. We must take a more targeted approach and offer projects that families are also able to continue for themselves. Adjustment to the changing conditions must also entail using regional plants. Almost everything brought in from the outside is unsustainable.

Do you have any recommendations for us?

J: It has become clear to me during my travels how important it is to work with children. They must be familiarised with the different realities – ours and theirs – for only in this way will they also develop an awareness for this. This is important so that they can also make apologises to the tree for Every time that Do you have a special a contribution to saving the planet. treading on its roots but he goes down view on climate change They must play their part, reduce explains at the same time as women? emissions and change their ways that he simply must walk the slope, he of life. Consumption is too high and there. apologises to T: Yes, the women there are too many unnecessary the tree for have a special view products. Networking between the Jhenny: One of the treading on its on climate change, as individual groups is also important. problems that we have in roots. they are involved in the Satipo is the increased procurement of food T: There must be a change in migration of smallholder in everyday life. Take unsustainable lifestyles. Greenhouse farmers from the Andes region. the phenomenon of fish migration, gas emissions must be reduced. We They often receive their individual for example, which has shaped our must develop a new awareness that land titles faster than our indigenous dietary habits for centuries. In June/ the forests are a part of our life. brothers. Because they are not July, the fish migrate up the rivers Without them we and you cannot familiar with the local conditions, to smaller tributaries and lakes. In survive. Children are more receptive they clear large swathes of land. October/November, they then migrate to such messages. Teenagers are In contrast, we do not claim land back down again to lay their eggs. already far less receptive. We must titles individually but rather as a This is the time in which we normally take the views of the indigenous community. The authorities take their have an abundance of fish and roe. peoples far more into account in our time to issue these titles though. This year, however, the migration work. My suggestion for a future trip did not take place and the women would be to invite those who work T: The individual land titles pose a therefore sought alternatives for in our protection areas to exchange huge risk to our communities, as the future, such as breeding fish in with the protection areas in Europe. they allow individuals to sell their the lakes themselves. We now also We must foster the exchange of areas while communal titles cannot plant other plants, which are more experiences. ¶ be sold. So there is a government resistant to heat. People notice this, strategy behind the issue of too, as the number of skin burns has individual land titles. increased – something we did not experience in the past. We are also in

27 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

to be both extremely effective and also affordable in the endeavours to Climate Alliance preserve these. One successful example of sustainable preservation of the rainforests is the Brazilian union of partnership with the local organisations of indigenous communities and groups dwelling in the Rio Negro river basin known as FOIRN (Federação people of the Rio das Organizações Indígenas do Rio Negro). The indigenous organisation has been supported politically and financially by Climate Alliance Austria member Negro region municipalities and states since 1993 and by the Austrian Development Johann Kandler, Climate Alliance Austria Cooperation since the end of 2012. Besides this reliable, long-term support, the cooperation with the The indigenous peoples of Amazonia Austrian NGO HORIZONT3000 have long fought for recognition of and the Brazilian organisation their rights, particularly in areas ISA (Instituto Socioambiental) for in which they have been living and the implementation of a regional working since time immemorial. For development programme adapted them, these areas above all mean to the local environment, society Climate Alliance AustriaClimate ©

© preservation of their living space as and culture is also important. a basic requirement for their survival as peoples with their own cultures A partnership with the Colombian and ways of life. region of Chocó was also established with the west Austrian state of Climate change has led to Vorarlberg in parallel to this, which recognition of the global significance has been supported by all member of rainforests, and indigenous municipalities and the federal state examples have shown themselves since 1991.

Johann Kandler, Coordinator for the Climate Alliance partnership with FOIRN, climate justice Johann Kandler studied oenology and pomiculture at the HBLA in Klosterneuerburg before going on to spend 20 years working in development cooperation, advising and organising smallhold farmers and peoples of the rainforest in Brazil. He has worked for Climate Alliance Austria since 1993. Among his areas of responsibility count public relations work for the partnership with indigenous peoples and rainforest communities, presentations on indigenous partners dwelling beside the Rio Negro, and development policy issues – particularly those relating Climate Alliance AustriaClimate to climate change. © ©

28 Indigenous people are the best guardians of the rainforest We live in two very different worlds. And yet FOIRN represents 23 indigenous peoples comprising a total of around the partnership we have 40,000 people who live in 750 villages built benefits both sides! and a number of small towns along the Rio Negro to the north-west of the Brazilian metropolis of Manaus. Since Almerinda Ramos de

1996, the organisation has achieved Alliance AustriaClimate © Lima, President of FOIRN state recognition of 122,000 km² as © indigenous territory, which equates to an area approximately one and a FOIRN half times the size of Austria. This is in turn determine the fish migration Federação das the most efficient form of rainforest and the lives of forest animals, as protection – as comparative studies represented in the third and fourth Organizações Indígenas have shown. For while the traditional circles. The fifth circle shows the do Rio Negro population preserves 99.9% of the seasonal processes in the plant world rainforest in indigenous areas, in other and the accompanying activities in The umbrella association FOIRN protected areas, forests are destroyed the fields and forests. The associated is the union of local organisations to varying degrees – among others by rituals and blessings conducted by the of indigenous communities and loggers, gold prospectors, etc. shamans to ensure equilibrium with groups in the Brazilian area of the “invisible guardian spirits” and to the Rio Negro river basin. It was prevent diseases are ordered in the founded in 1987 with the aim of sixth circle. Finally, the moon phases working together to campaign Traditional agriculture are also depicted. for the recognition of indigenous territories by the Brazilian recognised as cultural government and to represent the around 90 indigenous member organisations. FOIRN is organised Climate Alliance AustriaClimate

© into coordination groups, each Other studies have shown that of which is responsible for indigenous uses enhance biodiversity. activities in one of the five regions. The ecosystems’ adaptability to climate Around 50,000 indigenous people change is also improved, not to mention belonging to 23 groups live in the the economic potential. In 2010, Rio Negro river basin. Climate traditional agriculture beside the Rio Alliance Austria first joined forces Negro was recognised by the Brazilian with FOIRN back in the 1990s government as an intangible cultural to campaign together for land heritage. Mindful forest clearance, field rights and resource protection, recovery periods lasting several years, democracy promotion and human the composition of mixed cultures with rights, food security, resource the most varied of plants, the use of management, and political co- over one hundred types of manioc, and Tailored education determination. other techniques ensure food supplies klimabuendnis.at > Archive > despite the nutrient-poor soils. systems and FOIRN

The “cosmological calendar” of the marketing are key to Tukano people of the Rio Tiquié, a organisations from the Rio Negro tributary of the Rio Negro, illustrates sustainability region have completed a variety of the good adjustment to the ecological activities in recent years to preserve conditions. At the centre are the The relationship between indigenous and develop this further. These include: astronomical constellations, which peoples and their natural surrounds determine the rainy and dry periods at is based on centuries of observations • developing an indigenous education the celestial equator, and thus foresee that have given rise to a culture of system, fluctuations in the river levels. These holistic sustainability. The indigenous • using local methods to farm fish,

29 • marketing traditional handicraft products made from local materials, • producing “pimenta baniwa” (chilli), honey, etc.

The experiences have been systematically passed on to the government as an “indigenous programme for sustainable regional development” so that they can be incorporated into public policies. However, despite positive reviews, very little has actually been implemented, which is why FOIRN continues to fight for the preservation of its living space.

Assessment of the partnership between Austria and the Rio Negro region Together with the In Germany, the forests growing in The continuous support from Austria municipalities in Europe, the areas surrounding towns and helps to reinforce FOIRN as an cities regularly assume a number independent advocate and aids in indigenous peoples are of different functions. It is possible the long-term planning. Initially, the strategically important to roughly differentiate between focus was on securing land rights stakeholders, who are usage, protection, recreational and preserving culture as basic and educational functions. requirements for the survival of already contributing to Multifunctionality is typical of German indigenous peoples. In recent years, climate protection today. forest management, whereby all forest though, new threats have emerged Whether in indigenous functions are sustainably preserved due to mining interests, fishing on all areas, albeit with different tourism and commercial fishing territories or urban focuses. In rural areas, for example, in addition to the advance of the settings, all stakeholders the focus is more on the production monetary economy and consumer pursue a holistic of raw materials, though the function goods. At the same time, the state as a holiday recreation area is also invests too little in education, approach that must borne in mind. In urban settings, the health and infrastructure, which take all areas of life into forests primarily serve as recreational exacerbates migration from the account when it comes areas, but also represent important region. nature reserves and local climate to climate protection regulators. The multifunctional model The positive outcomes in Austria and to preserving and utilises existing synergies, such as must also be taken into account strengthening the region. maintenance of a network of trails for in assessment of the partnership timber transportation and recreational beyond the protected areas of traffic. In contrast, federal states rainforest and the successes in Simply reducing CO2 with a large surface area and low the Rio Negro region. The focus emissions will no longer population density often segregate on indigenous cultures and the the forest functions. Parkland areas personal encounters with partners be enough to halt global purely for recreational purposes have furthered the understanding climate change and lie alongside wood plantations and of global contexts and development prevent the associated untouched nature protection areas. policy commitment. ¶ impact on humans and Compromises are of course also More information: klimabuendnis.at their ecosystems. necessary where the functions cannot

30 Forest protection in times of climate change in the Uwe SchölmerichUwe © urban environment © Are the forests being overexploited in the name of climate protection?

be combined without conflict. Conflicts The aims of forest management have Uwe Schölmerich, Manager of the frequently exist – between intensive changed numerous times over the past Rhine-Sieg-Erft Regional Forest regeneration and nature protection 200 years. Beginning with a function Office in Eitorf/Bonn and the wish for old and deadwood primarily focused on wood for fuel and and firewood, for example. The raw construction, this was complemented Uwe Schölmerich was born material function also should not be at the turn of the penultimate century in Marburg in 1955. After neglected in forests located close to with a recreational function, which has completing his Abitur school- urban areas, particularly in light of the continued to grow in importance to the leaving examinations, he studied global perspective. Germany is already present day with the increase in leisure at the Faculty of Forest Sciences a net importer of wood and wood time. Since the 1970s, nature protection at the University of Freiburg. products today. Every cubic metre of has played an ever more important In 1980, he began preparatory wood not obtained here must instead role – as is also reflected in the desire training at the national forestry be felled abroad – often under dubious to decommission around 5% of our service of the state of North conditions. forests. Rhine-Westphalia. After passing the state examination, Germany North Rhine- Rhine-Sieg-Erft he was employed as a forestry Westphalia Regional Forest commissioner by the Rhineland Office Chamber of Agriculture in 1982. A number of different roles in the Forested area (ha) 11.1 million 910,000 60,000 Rhineland region followed before Proportion of forested area (%) 31% 27% 23% he was appointed the manager of Ville forest office in Brühl in 1987. Public forests (%) 56% 36% 57% In the wake of the first structural Private forests (%) 44% 64% 43% reform in 1995, he assumed Forest per inhabitant (m²) 1,200 500 250 responsibility for the Bonn- Kottenforst-Ville forest office, Timber stocks (total m³) 3.4 billion 271 million 13 million which later merged with the area Timber stocks (m³/ha) 320 311 217 that lies to the east of the Rhine during the second reform in 2007 Deciduous/coniferous forests (%) 40/60% 57/43% 61/39% to form the Rhine-Sieg-Erft Forest Employees (forest and wood 1,200,000 180,000 Office. Based in Eitorf, there is a cluster) second office in Bonn-Röttgen.

31 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

The forest functions can be fulfilled A glance back in history presents a exceeded growth led to widespread particularly well in areas of so-called corresponding example. Systematic devastation. The development phase “permanent forest”. These forests overuse led to the widespread initiated in the mid-nineteenth century are characterised by refraining from destruction of German forests at the – interrupted by two world wars – clearcutting, tailored technology, end of the eighteenth century. Prior subsequently led to the restoration selective usage, mixing, stability and to the discovery of coal, the forests of productive forests. However, structural diversity. were the sole source of energy, coniferous monocultures of the which also had to provide timber same age were planted, which have Forest legislation and the certification for construction purposes and leaf gradually been converted to mixed of forest management as part of the litter for stables as well as serve as deciduous-coniferous forests over Programme for the Endorsement grazing pastures. Leaching of the soil, the past few decades. The storms in of Forest Certification (PEFC) or the ongoing destruction of the natural recent years, such as Kyrill in 2007, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), regeneration, and usage that far to which primarily spruce and pine which has meanwhile been introduced, means that German forests are not overused or destroyed. Quite the contrary in fact: every 10 years, an inventory is conducted that has revealed a growth in forested areas, timber volumes, deadwood volumes, ages and proximity to nature for 30 years now. The last inventory was completed in 2012. However, there has been a decline in the areas of spruce in favour of deciduous trees, such as beech and oak trees. This development worries the sawmill industry.

Attempts to boost the role of forests in the supply of renewable energies could change this situation however. Due to the existing forest and growth conditions, a further clear increase in Uwe SchölmerichUwe the direct thermal use of forest timber © © is no longer possible.

32 UNREDDY – A critical look at REDD+ and indigenous strategies for comprehensive forest protection

forests of the same age fell victim, also contributed to a rethink with regard to monocultures.

Forests are of vast important to the local and global climate. In the regional context, forests help mitigate temperature extremes, improve air humidity, and ensure the permanent cleansing of dust and gases. The urban climate – of Bonn, for example – is rendered far more pleasant for humans by the surrounding forests. On the global scale, forests can help reduce the greenhouse gas of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through carbon sequestration. Every cubic metre of wood contains approx. 0.25 tons of carbon, which in turn corresponds with approx. 0.9 tons of bound carbon. One might think that unused forests would be the most Uwe SchölmerichUwe © suitable for carbon sequestration. The © storage capabilities of forests have hit biological limits, however, as growth and decay maintain the balance above game population that enables the maximum wood volume that a Regional forest office natural regeneration of the forests, forest can accumulate. Younger, considerate usage techniques, a unused forests initially have high Rhein-Sieg-Erft portion of unused forests (such storage potential; in contrast, older as the wilderness development forests are approaching this state of The regional forest office is areas in North Rhine-Westphalia) equilibrium. It therefore makes sense responsible for a total of 62,000 and sufficient amounts of old and to conserve wood from sustainable hectares of land, of which 23,000 dead wood. The forests’ stability usage for as long as possible in hectares are state-owned forest can be further increased by mixing the form of products, for example – making it the largest in the the species of trees, planting trees construction timber, furniture and Federal Republic of Germany. on the same area at different flooring, and to determine the carbon Forest Manager Uwe Schölmerich times, and the existing natural that is bound. It is moreover helpful to is also the Regional Chairman for regeneration. Even if a storm then replace fossil fuels such as oil, coal North Rhine-Westphalia’s forest fells a portion of the older trees, and gas as well as energy-intensive management working group. He the forest ecosystem can rapidly materials such as aluminium with has been a lecturer on silviculture regenerate thanks to the existing wood. and forest management at the regeneration – the forest affords Faculty of Agriculture at the greater flexibility and stability. The In North Rhine-Westphalia, a study University of Bonn since 1994. more stable and flexible a forest has investigated the impact of forest ecosystem is, the more reliably and wood management on the state’s it can have an impact on climate carbon budget. According to the means that wood is used several times, protection. report, approx. 6% of the annual CO2 for example in the furniture-chipboard- emissions in NRW are compensated fibreboard-energetic usage chain. For urban dwellers, the forests by the storage capabilities of the are today the area closest to our forests (5 million tons/year) and the The forests’ productivity is very original nature and can thus have substitution of energy and materials important to climate protection. The a balancing effect on the psyche. (13 million tons/year). This is of course faster trees grow, the more carbon can Neither fields, settlements, roads only a small contribution alongside be bound. nor parks can replace the emotional the considerably more important CO2 impact of forests. Hence forest avoidance strategy. Implementation of the concept of management must also satisfy comprehensive sustainability forms human expectations through the The positive impact on the climate the core of forest protection in the most natural forest design possible can be further enhanced through the urban environment. This includes and the preservation of cultural cascaded use of wood. This essentially protection of the soils, a controlled resources within forests. ¶

The link between climate Climate Alliance Climate Alliance protection and forests and Luxembourg / ASTM the significance of indigenous European municipalities in peoples as important partnership with indigenous Motivated by founding of the stakeholders of a global rainforest peoples – the world’s international Climate Alliance largest city network taking local association, five Luxembourg climate protection strategy action on global climate change. communities and the non-profit was the idea behind Climate organisations Mouvement Ecologique Alliance’s founding more than For more than 25 years, Climate and Action Solidarité Tiers Monde 25 years ago. Alliance member municipalities (ASTM) established Klima-Bündnis have been acting in partnership with Lëtzebuerg in 1995. The two NGOs The relevance of forests indigenous rainforest peoples for the are responsible for the administration to the climate has only benefit of the global climate. With as well as for the environmental and gradually found its way into over 1,700 members spread across north-south educational and lobby work. the international climate 26 European countries, Climate Today – in 2015 – there are a total of 37 negotiations. The approaches Alliance is the world’s largest city member communities, which are home proposed to date continue network dedicated to climate action to two out of three Luxembourg citizens. and the only one to set tangible to pursue the primacy of the targets: each member city, town and ASTM has supported the NGOs of market, and thus support the district has committed to reducing farmers and indigenous peoples on very structures considered the its greenhouse gas emissions by ten the three continents of the southern causes of destructive economic percent every five years. Recognising hemisphere for 40 years now, among activity. the impact our lifestyles can have on others in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, the world’s most vulnerable people Togo, India and the Philippines. They With the present brochure and places, Climate Alliance pairs contribute their experience in the prepared within the scope local action with global responsibility. fields of tropical agriculture and of the EU project “From The network fosters cooperation with forest management to the educational Overconsumption to Solidarity”, indigenous peoples, runs awareness work in the member communities in we wish to take a critical look raising campaigns and develops Luxembourg. tools for climate action planning. at development of the REDD+ It provides ample opportunity for Klima-Bündnis Lëtzebuerg is financed instrument and to present participation and exchange while by the member contributions from the the alternative approaches of representing members’ interests communities, the Ministry of Foreign and indigenous peoples dwelling in at the national, European and European Affairs, the Department of the Amazonia. international levels. Environment, and EuropeAid projects.