The following excerpts from an article published by the Bretton Woods Projects cast doubts on the World Bank's new policy to reward avoided deforestation” particularly in regards to forest-dwellers rights:

The World Bank is preparing to launch its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) which aims to catalyse the market for carbon emissions credits from avoided deforestation. However” many forestry experts are unconvinced” given the possibility that this framework will benefit industrial scale logging and in light of previous IFI-induced forestry disasters” for example in the DRC.

The FCPF will consist of two components:

• The 'readiness mechanism' to assist 20 interested developing countries to measure their carbon forest stocks” identify forest-related carbon emissions and prepare a strategy to reduce these; and

• The 'carbon finance mechanism' to facilitate payments to a smaller number of countries “that achieve measurable and verifiable emission reductions” by catalysing public and private purchases of credits. Indonesia” Papua New Guinea” Costa Rica” Brazil and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are suggested pilot projects.

Given that land use changes and deforestation account annually for one fifth of greenhouse gas emissions” there is broad consensus on the need to tackle this. But concerns abound on the proposed design and impacts of the FCPF” which are still unclear. Without adequate consultation or prior strengthening of community land tenure rights and forest law enforcement capacity” the FCPF could merely create a new source of revenue for logging companies” governments” and investors without securing genuine long-term reductions in carbon emissions and protection of forest resources from degradation” or equitable benefits for the poor (especially forest-dependent communities). It is also questionable whether the five country-pilot projects for the carbon finance mechanism currently have sufficient capacity to enforce avoided deforestation commitments” given their poor record in forest governance.

Read the entire article here.