Rainforest dwellers caught between business, green groups

Marlowe Hood, Yahoo News 8 Oct 08;

Indigenous leaders in five Amazonian nations, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia on Wednesday demanded a larger say on how best to manage tropical forests to fight climate change.

More than a billion poor people who depend on forest ecosystems risk economic and cultural devastation if efforts favored by rich nations to reduce greenhouse gases fail to respect their rights and needs, they said at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

The clearing of rainforests by developers for mining, slash-and-burn agriculture, cash crops and livestock have all severely reduced the ability of tropical forests to absorb the atmospheric carbon dioxide that drives global warming.

Many governments, scientists and green groups favour an international carbon trading scheme that would compensate developing countries for curbing their exploitation of their forests.

"Conservationists want to prevent us from using our forest lands for economic purposes, and businesses have government concessions to extract ore, water and biofuel from lands that have been ours for generations," said Tony James of Guyana, president of the Amerindian Peoples Association.

"We have been hearing more and more about the carbon trade, but indigenous people are not being included in the discussions. We want to know: who will own the carbon, and what will be the impact on us?"

Native groups should play a key role in crafting any financing scheme for forests that might be included in a broader UN climate change agreement on how to curb greenhouse gases, James said.

Without their input, he added, this so-called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation mechanism, or REDD, would undermine the land rights of forest communities throughout the tropical world.

"We need to solve the topic of property and the issue of autonomy," said Jorge Furagaro of the Witoto people in Colombia. Local leaders in so-called protected areas "have no real authority to negotiate, so too often we lose out."

During the Barcelona congress, members of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), composed of more than 200 governments and 800 NGOs, will vote on whether to recommend that forest communities be granted a decisive role in negotiations.

But previous attempts to pass such non-binding declarations have failed, noted Marcus Colchester, director of the Forest People's Programme, based in Britain.

"As land pressures mount and new rules are developed for mitigating climate change, recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples to 'free, prior and informed consent' is essential," he said.

"But we see more rhetoric than we see real defence of the territories and rights," he added, pointing out that these principles are set forth in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Forest leaders at the congress detailed ways in which their communities were buffeted by both conservation and development forces.

Even as flooding caused by mining is destroying crops and disrupting fishing in Guyana, government agencies continue to expand mining licences in forest areas, they claimed.

Efforts by conservationists to stake out forest areas for parks and preserves in Colombia and Bolivia have restricted how indigenous people use their own land, they say.

And in Indonesia, the Dayak peoples of West Kalimantan are seeking to curb widespread logging and the expansion of palm oil plantations.

"We are the ones best placed to protect the world's most vulnerable tropical forests," said Juan Carlos Juntiach, a Shuar leader from Ecuador and leader of the Amazon Alliance.

"But this will not happen by following the old path of negotiations between governments and conservation agencies."

The IUCN meeting brings together more than 8,000 ministers, UN officials, NGOs, scientists and business chiefs to brainstorm for 10 days on how to brake species loss and steer the world onto a path of sustainable development. It runs until October 14.

Consensus takes form on forests and climate change
Marlowe Hood, Yahoo News 8 Oct 08;

An elusive consensus on the best way to reduce forest carbon emissions took shape Wednesday with the release of a joint statement by forestry companies, green organisations and indigenous peoples.

All these groups have clashed in the past, sometimes violently, on how to exploit the resources of tropical forests, which provide a livelihood for more than a billion of the world's poorest people -- or whether to exploit them at all.

The Forest Dialogue Initiative on Forests and Climate Change is the first initiative to produce a common platform endorsed by all the actors with a stake in rainforests in Amazonia, central Africa, and Asia, especially Indonesia.

It was unveiled at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.

"Forest leaders, business representatives, donors, and community groups not only agreed on the pivotal role that forests can play in mitigating climate change, but also mapped out a consensus action plant on concrete steps," said Steward Maginnis of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which organised Congress.

The six key points elaborated in the initiative leave room for disagreement.

But those behind it say they want it to serve as a guideline for United Nations climate change negotiations on a global agreement, slated for completion by December 2009.

"One of our hopes is that by giving more unified message we can encourage governments to go further than they might have in dealing with the link between climate change and forests," said Maginnis.

One point of consensus was that protecting the carbon storing capacity of forests "must be one of the world's highest priorities."

The clearing or destruction of rainforests for mining, slash-and-burn agriculture, cash crops and livestock has severely reduced their ability to absorb the atmospheric carbon dioxide that drives global warming.

Nearly 20 percent of atmospheric CO2 is absorbed by forests in a carbon cycle that helps keep the planet cool.

At any given time, the world's vegetation -- especially in the tropics -- houses five times the amount of carbon in the air.

Among the large forestry companies that endorsed the statement were Weyerhaeuser in the United States and Aracruz Celulose in Brazil, said Gary Dunning, Executive Director of The Forest Dialogue, based at Yale University in Connecticut.

Another key point addresses, if only obliquely, the role of governments in managing forest ecosystems and the rights of indigenous people.

"For forests to fully achieve their potential to address climate change their governance must be improved and processes established to empower disenfranchised people," it reads.

Warren Evans, head of the World Bank's environment department, endorsed the effort, but said that tackling corruption was the key. "We need to address the drivers of deforestation," he said.

The IUCN meeting brings together more than 8,000 ministers, UN officials, NGOs, scientists and business chiefs to brainstorm for 10 days on how to brake species loss and steer the world onto a path of sustainable development. It runs until October 14.

Forest CO2 Storage Plans Should Aid Poor - Alliance
Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 9 Oct 08;

BARCELONA, Spain - Forest protection can help fight climate change but any UN-led projects must also ease poverty and safeguard rights of indigenous peoples, an international alliance said on Wednesday.


The group, spanning 250 representatives of business, trade unions, forestry companies, governments and local and indigenous peoples, laid down guidelines for an international drive to tap forests to help soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide.

Deforestation, with trees burnt to clear land for farming from the Amazon to the Congo, accounts for 20 percent of world emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. Trees store carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they die.

"Forests have a unique ability to simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions, capture carbon and lessen the vulnerability of people and ecosystems to climate change," the declaration by the Forest Dialogue alliance said.

They said projects should aim to curb poverty, strengthen land rights, safeguard indigenous peoples, improve forest management and should not be a substitute for deep cuts in industrial emissions of greenhouse gases by rich nations.

"This is a step forward for us," Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, head of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, told Reuters.

Many indigenous peoples from Brazil to Indonesia fear forests will be bought up by rich investors and deprive them of access to forests for food, clothing or building materials.

Under UN plans as part of a new climate treaty to avert everything from heatwaves to rising seas, tropical nations could get tradeable credits for slowing the rate of deforestation or restoring forest land.

Such a scheme might generate billions of dollars in credits a year and soak up huge amounts of greenhouse gases.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), hosting an Oct. 5-14 congress in Barcelona, said the declaration was an attempt to guide 190 nations who are due to agree a new long-term climate treaty by the end of 2009.

"We now ask the world to work with us in putting these guiding principles into action," Stewart Maginnis, head of the IUCN's Forest Conservation Programme, told a news conference.

Warren Evans of the World Bank's environment department, involved in the alliance, said protection could help improve livelihoods of people in developing nations and protect animals and plants. He said the principles laid down by the alliance were "already making a difference" to the World Bank's planning.

Backers said the global financial crisis, sapping donor nations' budgets, should not distract from the plans. By some estimates, destruction of the natural world represents losses of a staggering US$2-$5 trillion a year, Maginnis said.

"A few billion dollars is a very good buy. The costs are marginal compared to the benefits," he said. (Editing by Janet Lawrence)