The Rights and Resources Initiative is pleased to announce the release of its latest research on the challenges of establishing carbon rights and its implications on Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

The brief” Status of Forest Carbon Rights and Implications for Communities” the Carbon Trade” and REDD+ Investments” reveals that there are very few legal protections and safeguards regarding forest communities' rights to trade carbon.

In fact” our survey of 23 low and middle income countries” covering 66% of the developing world's forests” found that only Mexico and Guatemala have passed national legislation defining tenure rights over carbon” and none of the countries have a national legal framework that establishes how carbon from REDD+ should be traded.

As carbon becomes a marketable commodity” secure tenure rights to forest land and forest resources — including carbon — is critical. Without clarifying these rights” carbon trade will become yet another source of disenfranchisement for Indigenous Peoples and local communities” deepening the wedge between them and the forests in which they live and depend on.

Read Brief – Status of Forest Carbon Rights and Implications for Communities” the Carbon Trade” and REDD Investments