Expert warns of potential conflicts from REDD

An expert has warned that the REDD emissions reduction scheme designed to protect forests could be prone to conflicts between rich and rainforest nations, including Indonesia, which could in turn threaten bilateral relations because of complicated mechanisms involved in  the monitoring of the scheme.

Nautilus Institute Australia director Richard Tanter said Friday that implementing the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) scheme without strong assurance of legal and commercial integrity would likely to generate deep conflicts.
“This could be a new version of a conflict between the West and the rest,” he told a discussion on climate change, security and the military at the Office of the State Minister for the Environment.
The reduction of emissions of rich countries will be highly dependent on REDD projects in Brazil, the Congo, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
“What will happen is rich nations will be very angry if rainforest countries fail to stick to the pledged contracts,” Tanter said.
On the order hand, selling countries such as Indonesia would retaliate by saying “it is not fair for rich nations to impose ecological debts on developing countries”, he said.
“This will make the REDD scheme prone to conflicts.”
Tanter, a professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), said politicians in richer nations would use the failure to implement REDD as a tool to pressure forested countries in the international arena.