REDD-plus, forest people’s rights and nested climate governance
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A forthcoming editorial in the journal Global Environmental Change discusses three broad principles for protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and members of local communities under REDD-plus actions.
Thomas Sikor, Johannes Stahl, Thomas Enters, Jesse C. Ribot, Neera Singh, William D. Sunderlin, and Lini Wollenberg show how climate change negotiators can operationalize the "rights of indigenous peoples and members of local communities" acknowledged by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action at the last UNFCCC Conference in Copenhagen.Pointing to recent experience with the recognition of forest people's rights, they suggest the need for forest people's participation in political decision making, equitable distribution of forest benefits, andrecognition of their particular identities, histories and experiences.
Only if the future climate agreement recognizes all three principles will forestry overcome forest people's historical dispossession, political exclusion and cultural marginalization. In addition, they emphasize that global-scale institutions will be important but not sufficient in themselves for the recognition of forest people's rights. Effective and equitable REDD-plus requires nested forest and climate governance, including decision-making processes at multiple scales and related across
scales.
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