REDD-Monitor

The Congo Basin forest is the second largest in the world after the Amazon. It accounts for one quarter of the world’s remaining tropical forest and covers an area of 1.8 million square kilometres. Clearly, whatever comes out of Copenhagen on REDD has to work in the Congo Basin. Two new reports take a critical look at REDD in the Congo Basin. The first, “Global Climate Politics in the Congo Basin: Unprecedented Opportunity or High-risk Gamble?” is written by Korinna Horta of International Finance, Development and Environment, and published by Heinrich Böll Stiftung. The second, “Why Congo Basin countries stand to lose out from a market based REDD“, is written by Kate Dooley of FERN.

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From 11-13 March 2009, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Participants Committee met in Gamboa, Panama. The Bank Information Center took part as an NGO Observer and has posted the following report on its website.

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REDD, or reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, is one of the most controversial new issues in the climate change debate. The basic concept is simple: governments, companies or forest owners in the South should be rewarded for keeping their forests instead of cutting them down. The devil, as always, is in the details.

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The November 2008 report, “Cutting Corners; how the FCPF is failing forests and peoples” is now available in Spanish. The report, produced by FERN and Forest Peoples Programme looks at nine country concept notes presented to the World Bank (so called R-PINs) to get REDD money and finds that none of them has been developed in a proper consultative process, nor do they address issues as rights and governance and the whole process has been in violation of the Bank’s own procedures and guidelines.

The Spanish translation of the report can be downloaded here (pdf file 0.8 MB) and a Spanish description of the report is below. The English version of the report is available here.
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World Resources Institute has produced a Working Paper reviewing 25 “Readiness Plan Idea Notes” (R-PINs) from the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. The review looks at R-PINs already approved by the FCPF trust fund committee and finds serious omissions in the way many of the R-PINs address questions of good governance of forests.

The Working Paper can be downloaded here (pdf file 100 kB).
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“Honest Engagement“, a December 2008 briefing by London-based NGO Global Witness, points out the central importance of transparency and participation in REDD schemes. The briefing notes that “Almost all previous attempts to reform the forest sector have failed when these basic principles have been ignored in decision-making.”

The briefing gives examples of both bad (Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and PNG) and good (Peru) practices, and explains what lessons can be learned from both the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the EU-Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade process. The briefing also sets out some “minimum requirements” for both transparency and participation.
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Interview with Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and Executive Director, Tebtebba.
December 2008, Poznan
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At a side event in Poznan yesterday (4 December 2008), the World Bank, the Norwegian government and various UN agencies presented their plans for REDD. In response to a comment about the World Bank’s record in the forests and the new Forest Carbon Partnership Facility the Bank’s Benoit Bosquet said, “I expect that we will make mistakes.” Not a very promising sign for forest dwelling people or the forests in the tropics.
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At the October 20-22, 2008 meeting of the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) in Washington DC, the facility’s board approved funding for an additional ten countries to develop plans for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). This newest round of approvals, which included Cameroon and the Republic of Congo among others from Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, brings the total number of countries that have access to the Bank’s fund to 25 – ten of them in Africa. But while the governments of forested countries scramble to get at this fresh pot of REDD funds, many outstanding questions remain about who decides who gets the money, how the decisions are made, what the funds will pay for, and who stands to gain.
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