Questioning REDD

Natural Justice hosted a side event entitled “REDD: Whose Rights, Who's Wronged” on October 20 to explore the deeper issues inherent in the debate about whether climate finance is reconcilable with biocultural conservation. Camila Moreno (Friends of the Earth-Brazil), Simone Lovera (Global Forest Coalition), Alejandro Argumedo (Asociación ANDES), Tom Goldtooth (Indigenous Environmental Network), and Harry Jonas (Natural Justice) presented at the event. Speakers questioned whether the Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) was an inevitability and criticized the exclusion of Indigenous peoples and local communities from being fully and effectively evolved in the debate about its international development and national implementation. They raised the tragic irony evident in lack of commitment by Annex I (developed) countries to commit to legally binding emission reductions, whist at the same time promoting REDD as a means to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Moreno warned against being convinced by the “the dictatorship of the alternative”, meaning that REDD is being presented as being the best of a number of bad options, when real and tangible alternatives exist. The side event ended with Jonas suggesting that participants “keep asking questions”.