|
The World Bank is positioning itself as one of the major funders of REDD. One of the Bank’s funding mechanisms is the Forest Investment Program. So far, the FIP has held three design meetings. Sena Alouka, Executive Director of Jeune Volontaires pour l’Environnement, Togo is one of the civil society representatives at the FIP meetings. He wrote the following account of the FIP so far in the Global Forest Coalition’s newsletter “Forest Cover“, July 2009.
The World Bank’s involvement in developing and financing REDD is one the more troubling aspects of REDD – at least for anyone aware of the World Bank’s record in dealing with people and forests. True to past form, when the Bank announced its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility in Bali in December 2007, it did so without consulting Indigenous Peoples, let alone seeking their free, prior and informed consent. When the countries involved produced their “Readiness Plan Idea Notes” without consulting Indigenous People, the Bank simply decided that consultation wasn’t necessary. Benoit Bosquet, a “senior natural resources management specialist” is responsible for leading the development of the FCPF at the World Bank. When Bosquet spoke to more than 400 Indigenous Peoples at the Indigenous Peoples Global Summit on Climate Change, in Alaska last month, we might have expected Bosquet at least to offer an apology. He did not. Coming from someone who has acknowledged that “we will make mistakes” on REDD, perhaps we should not be too surprised. The World Bank recently invited comments on the design of its Forest Investment Program. Rainforest Foundation UK and Greenpeace produced the following comments on the FIP design document along with suggestions for concrete changes to the text (available here, pdf file 111 kB). Having noted the “undue urgency” with which the Bank is carrying out this process, Rainforest Foundation UK and Greenpeace focus on the following: strengthening safeguards; increasing transparency; addressing underlying causes of deforestation; including civil society and Indigenous Peoples in decision making processes, design and implementation of FIP; independent monitoring; and excluding from FIP activities that lead to deforestation and forest degradation. The World Bank has requested comments on the latest draft design of its Forest Investment Program, but it’s doing it’s best to keep quiet about it. On 5-6 March 2009, the World Bank held a “Second Design Meeting for the Forest Investment Program” in Washington D.C. The Co-Chair’s Summary of the meeting is available here. The Summary includes the latest draft of the FIP design document which is open for public comment, but only until 27 March 2009. (Several NGOs are currently trying to persuade the Bank to extend the deadline for comments.) Comments should be sent to the CIF Administrative Unit. |
 
 
 
|
 
 
|
|
|
||
