rights, climate change and multilateral organizations
DESCRIPTION
by Michelle Medeiros, Africa Forest Coordinator, Greenpeace InternationalTRANSCRIPT
Status of rights in current climate change and forest negotiations and within major multilateralorganizations
October 2008
Key Multilateral Organizations:
• UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
• Convention on Biological Diversity• The World Bank
– Climate Investment Fund– Forest Investment Fund– IFC’s - Carbon Partnership Facility
• UN REDD
UN Framework Convention Climate Change• The UNFCCC (1992) & The Kyoto
Protocol (1998)
– “Each Party included in Annex I shall strive to implement the commitments mentioned in paragraph 1 above in such a way as to minimize adverse social, environmental and economic impacts on developing country Parties, particularly those identified in Article 4, paragraphs 8 and 9, of the Convention.”
• refers to the LDC’s and developing countries at increased risk of climate change impacts, including “Countries with arid and semi-arid areas, forested areas and areas liable to forest decay” Art 4(8)(c)]
More on the UNFCCC
• CoP 13 – Bali Roadmap – “Recognizing also that the needs of local and indigenous communities should be addressed
when action is taken to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries”
• SBSTA 28 Report 07/2008 Draft Conclusions from the Chair - 7. Cross-cutting issues – (e) Any implications of methodological approaches for indigenous people and local
communities; – (f) Implications for the promotion of co-benefits taking note of the aims and objectives of other
relevant international conventions and agreements;
• Summary by the Chair on the REDD Workshop, AWG LCA Accra 2008
• The view was broadly held that in order for mitigation actions to be effective, participation of stakeholders, local communities and indigenous peoples should be secured.
Convention on Biological Diversity• Article 8(j) of the CBD encourages
states to, • '…respect, preserve and maintain
knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities…'
• Article 10(c) of the CBD encourages states – '…to protect and encourage customary
use of biological resources in accordance with traditional cultural practices that are compatible with conservation or sustainable use requirements…'
World Bank’s Climate Investment Fund• Approved July 2008 - donors pledged US$6.1billion (Australia, France, Germany
Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, the US) more than 20 times as much as has been pledged to the UN funds
• “Fast tracking” funding for adaptation and mitigation while negotiating a post 2012 climate agreement
– Clean Technology Fund - $3-5 billion mitigation fund for transformation projects such as energy and transportation
– Strategic Climate Fund – 3-5 years pilot projects in 5-10 countries climate resilience, greening energy access and Sustainable Forest Management – Adaptation Fund Technical Assistance $1-2million and up to $100 million for additional support to fund investments
WBs Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
• Readiness Mechanism – technical assistance for REDD• Carbon Finance Mechanism – emissions reduction markets• The FCPF governance structure does not provide for
participation of forest dependent and indigenous communities.– Participants are only donor and recipient governments and other private entities
(private sector, large NGOs) who contribute financially. – NGOs and indigenous peoples are observers to Participants meetings– No FPIC, not bound to comply with the UN Declaration on the rights of
Indigenous Peoples.
“The Readiness process should ensure that activities and strategies will not cause adverse social and environmental impacts, while also striving to enhance benefits for local communities and the environment.”
Other World Bank Initiatives:
• Forest Investment Fund/Program – includes sustainable forest management and protection of carbon reservoirs targeted end of 2008/early 2009– “to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and to
promote improved sustainable forest management, leading to emission reductions and the protection of carbon reservoirs”; and will be “developed based on a broad and transparent consultative process”
– The target size is 1 million - with 100 million dollars so far. Designed to fill the gap left by the FCPF, since FCPF does not address institutional and governance issues related to REDD
– 3 public consultation meetings before the end of the year. First one today and tomorrow in WDC.
Past Lessons Learned by the WB• 1991 Forest Policy Paper – 2000 OED Review of Strategy and
Implementation– “…inadequate reflection of social, technical, institutional and political realities on the
ground in project design; omission of key-stakeholders during project preparation and implementation…”
• WB’s 2002 Forest Strategy – 2007 Mid-Term Review of Implementation– “…but in many others poverty concerns and the impacts of forest interventions on
forest-dependent peoples have not received adequate attention, either in the Bank’s analytical and economic and sector work or in its lending programs.”
• World Bank’s Inspection Panel Report on DRC Forest related lending– The Inspection Panel found that the Bank had violated its own safeguard policies,
including the Policies on Environmental Assessment and on Indigenous Peoples. The Inspection Panel notes that the logging industry has not contributed to reducing poverty and that the World Bank failed to take into account that DRC’s rural population of about 40 million relies heavily on forest resources for subsistence.
• Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group – June 2008 (Review of WB and IFC)– “Given the demand-driven nature of Bank programs at the country level, global public
goods, including environmental quality and sustainability, tend to receive insufficient priority”
UN Collaborative Program on REDD • The UN-REDD initiative (FAO, UNDP, UNEP working
closely with GEF, WB, and members of Collaborative Partnership on Forests )
• Aimed at sustainable management of forests so that economic, environmental and social goods and services benefit countries, communities and forest users while also contributing to important reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
• “Quick Start” actions implemented in the lead up to Copenhagen.– Build capacity of developing countries to implement REDD action to
maximize emission reductions and testing preliminary concepts and scenarios for REDD (success and failure). Pave the way for the long-term of inclusion of REDD in carbon market
UN REDD
• The program will be guided principles of the UN Development Group Guidelines on Indigenous People’s Issues (UNDG): – The purpose of the Guidelines is to
assist the UN system to mainstream and integrate indigenous peoples’ issues in processes for operational activities and programs at the country level.
Conclusion – Markets Driven Solutions
• Could negatively impact the rights of those least responsible and most vulnerable to climate change
• Could negatively impact the rights of indigenous and local communities who depend on forests by setting up a system whose bottom line is theprice of carbon (ie the creation of cheap forest offsets)
• Creates perverse incentives to log more to be paid to stopped – thus potentially creating a ‘land grab scenario”
