REDD+ and Carbon Rights

Background

After the Warsaw Agreement the World Bank and UNREDD seem to be signaling that the “readiness” phase is ending. Many countries are lining up, ready to exploit the market-based carbon opportunities of REDD+. Yet, in spite of explicit recognition by experts around the world that forest tenure reform is a key requisite for making carbon trading in forestlands a success, countries have not made sufficient progress in clarifying tenure rights. This presents a risk for communities, governments, investors, to the forests – and therefore is a risk to the global viability of REDD+ – as a goal or as a carbon market.

Press release: New Research Warns of Unprecedented Carbon Grab Potentially Worse than Ongoing Land Grab as UN, World Bank prepare for Carbon Trading under REDD Report and Conference Ask: Will Carbon Rights Trading Become the Next Natural Resource Investment that Separates Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities from their Forests?

Read the Brief

Launch Event

This research is being released at the Fifteenth RRI Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change: Challenges of Carbon Rights and Implementing new Warsaw Agreement on REDD+. The dialogue will take stock of two far-reaching developments in global efforts to reduce forest-based emissions.

Event details | Agenda | Speaker Biographies

[The event will be webcast live in English, Spanish and French. Webcast viewers can participate in the discussion via Twitter (#LandRightsNow) and Skype (RRIDialogue).]

Additional Resources

Recent Research by RRI

Press Release: New Study: Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities Face Slowdown in Recognition of Rights to Land and Resources despite More Verbal Commitments by Governments, Corporations

• Report: What Future for Reform? Progress and slowdown in forest tenure since 2002
• Report: Lots of Words, Little Action: Will the private sector tip the scales for community land rights?

Research from around the world

• Carbon rights in Australian States (Baker & McKenzie)
• Designing National Legal Frameworks for REDD (Baker & McKenzie and the Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research)
• Unpacking the “Warsaw Framework for REDD+” (Climate Law & Policy)
• Los derechos de las comunidades y los mercados de carbono forestal en México (El Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible)
• Map of Pacific Basin in Latin America (Instituto del Bien Común)
• Summary of Pacific Basin Map