Apart from the carbon sequestration dimension of REDD, I also saw in it a major potential for reforesting countries such as the Philippines, which had been denuded in the 20th century. I encouraged Catholic Development Agencies such as Caritas Internationalis, CAFOD and Trocaire to get involved in REDD. Since Bali I have been following other areas involved in the Convention, such as Adaptation. But this year REDD is back again. I am going to leave the 2007 article intact but will add a sequel in bold print at the end.
Tropical deforestation has taken a huge toll on the Philippines. When the Spaniards left the Philippines at the end of the 19th century almost 75% of the tropical forests were still intact. The onslaught on the forests began in earnest after World War II. Companies (initially, Foreign companies U.S. Japanese, Korean with connections with Filipino elite families) were given permission to clear-cut large tracts of forests. Legal commitments to reforest were seldom honoured, without any sanctions against the company or its owners. The tribal peoples, who lived in the areas, were never asked for permission to destroy their habitats, which they had managed for hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of years. A few people made enormous fortunes, while the majority of the Filipinos, especially Tribal Filipinos and the environment suffered. Today, less than 10% of the Philippines is covered with tropical forests. Sustainable agriculture in a tropical archipelago like the Philippines demands about 50% forest cover. Without it, soil erosion will increase dramatically and expensive irrigation systems will become useless, because the forests will not secrete water slowly into the rivers to sustain the flow during the dry season. (Extreme weather associated with climate change will worsen all these outcomes in the coming years).
What happened in the Philippines is mirrored world wide. Between 2000 and 2005 tropical forests disappeared at approximately 10.4 million hectares each year. These forests contain about 70% of the world’s biodiversity, and, about 60 million people, many of who are among the poorest of the poor on the planet.
One initative which is being pursued here in Bali is called REDD. The initials stand for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. Apart of sequestering carbon, the REDD initiative has a number of priorites. It aims at preserving forests which contain significant levels of biodiversity, or are important for what is now called, ecosystems services (I find this term,which attempts to put a money value on everything, particualarly inappropriate when referring to the living world. But it is now widely used even by some people such as Dr. Edward O Wilson, formerly of Harvard University, who has so much through his resarch and writings to sensitize people to the overwhelming importance of protecting biodiversity ). These include water regulation, flood control and the protection of local species.
CANCUN 2010. (I have taken a fairly jaundiced view of carbon markets from the very beginning. Market-based mechanisms to promote climate change were introduced into the Kyoto Protocol process by the U.S. in 1997. At that time, there was a feeling among elites across the globe that Markets, if properly structured, could do anything, and were much better instruments for promoting policies, than governmental regulations. Light touch regulation is in vogue! Viewed from the perspective of 2010, we all know that light touch regulation was responsible for the collapse of the financial markets in 2008.
On my way to Cancun I picked up the current edition of The New Yorker, (November 29, 2010). In 10 page article entitled, “WHAT GOOD IS WALL STREET? John Cassidy wrote a searing critique of markets. One of his main conclusions is that “much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless.” The same critique applies to the carbon market which is growing, except that almost all it does is ecologically worthless. In fact it is worse, because it fuels an acquisitive drive and takes attention away from real, concrete efforts which will be necessary to reduce emissions. I remember attending a lecture at Nairobi (2006) which was sponsored by an international financial services company. Afterwards a carbon trader approached me and encouraged me invest in the carbon market if I wanted to get a real good return on my money.
REDD could deliver multiple benefits in the area of climate change, protecting biodiversity and securing a sustainable agricultural base for many countries, where food security is becoming a major issue. I am cautiously optimistic that the ground-work for a REDDs initiative could be negotiated here in Bali.
Their second objective is that all Parties should collectively aim to conserve existing natural and modified natural forests by 2020. This is also in line with the recently concluded Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan. More and more people are seeing that issues around climate change, water and biodiversity are all inter-linked.
CAN believes that some funding must be used to train people and build their capacity to manage their forests in a sustainable way. From my own experience of reforestation in Lake Sebu, I know how important capacity building is for the success of a project.
The land tenure rights of Indigenous People must be given priority under REDD. These include their rights to land, food sovereignty, biodiversity, cultural practices and their traditional way of life. As it is, most indigenous people are under tremendous cultural and financial pressure in the contemporary world. Tribal people and their languages are also facing extinction. This is a great impoverishment for humankind.
CAN is also aware that the destruction of tropical forests is not just an issue for countries of the South. Someone in the North buys the lumber, so CAN is calling on all Parties to address the pressures which drive deforestation and degradation in the South, rather than leaving all the responsibility with Southern countries.
The CAN group tracking REDD reported to the daily meeting on October 30th 2010, that serious negotiations have not started on REDD issues. I will keep you posted.
In my book, Greening the Church (1995), I give a number of examples of how SAPs hastened the destruction of tropical forests in Asia, Africa and Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s. Critics of the World Bank point out that it still spends more money funding fossil fuel energy projects in the South and emerging economies than it does on renewable energy. Most Southern countries want the financing of REDD to come under the COP itself, rather than the GEF.
MORE ANON AS THE REDD DEBATE HEATS UP