For Immediate Release -
Friday 5 December
Joint release: Global Forest Coalition, The Wilderness Society
and Global Justice Ecology Project
UN
Climate Deal Could Pay for Forest Destruction
Carbon Karma Fortune-telling Action Foretells REDD Profits
Poznan, Poland--Global Forest Coalition,
The Wilderness Society, Global Justice Ecology Project and concerned
youth highlighted the risks associated with the implementation of
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)
in a "REDD fortune-telling" action today at the UN Climate
conference here. In its current form, they argue, REDD could derail
the Climate Convention and undermine a post-2012 Climate agreement.
In a parody of what calculations of carbon
base lines have become, fortune-tellers introduced a new 'methodology'
to predict future deforestation rates. They rounded up delegates from
different countries to read their "Carbon Karma" by gazing
into a crystal ball to see how much the rate of deforestation in the
delegate's country would rise in the future, and hence how much money
they could expect to make from REDD for reducing that predicted rate
of future deforestation (i.e. increasing the rate of deforestation
more slowly).
The action also exposed another major problem
with REDD-that the inclusion of REDD into the carbon market will mainly
benefit the countries and actors that have caused most of the world's
deforestation. These countries would receive the greatest benefits
from REDD, where countries that have successfully conserved their
forests would be left out. Many of the false solutions proposed, like
the "stock-flow approach" or the proposal to work with "flexible
and adaptive country-specific baselines" will further create
massive amounts of false carbon credits, thereby allowing the continued
emissions of carbon from industrialized countries.
Other risks to REDD include the promotion
of tree plantations and the violation of Indigenous Peoples' rights.
Marcial Arias, of the Kuna Indigenous Peoples and Global Forest Coalition
said: "The Indigenous Peoples will lose in the REDD regime as
proposed and most of the funding will go to those who are destroying
the forests".
A statement issued earlier from the International
Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) read: "We
call for the suspension of all REDD initiatives in Indigenous territories
until such a time that Indigenous Peoples' rights are fully recognized
and promoted". [1]
Gemma Tillack, a youth representative from
Tasmania, Australia and a spokesperson for The Wilderness Society
concluded: "If the current definition of 'forests' is used in
REDD, it could lead to the massive direct and indirect replacement
of carbon rich forests by monoculture tree plantations, and the violation
of Indigenous Peoples rights. Some developed countries have been using
a loophole in the definition to convert biodiverse, carbon dense forests
to biologically barren monoculture tree plantations without incurring
any emission penalty, despite the disastrous impact this practice
has on biodiversity, local communities and CO2 emissions".
Global Forest Coalition chairperson, Dr.
Miguel Lovera +48 726 078 399
The Wilderness Society spokesperson, Sean Cadman + 61 437 075 212
Global Forest Coalition media coordinator, Orin Langelle +48 696 723
046
NOTE:
[1] This statement on REDD was adopted by the International Forum
of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change (IIPFCC) during its Preparatory
meeting scheduled November 27, 28, 29, 2008 in Poznan, Poland. The
members of the IIPFCC, is also known as he Indigenous Caucus of the
COP14 of the UNFCCC.
