Village road, southern Bolivia
Literature reviews
Through litterature studies on seven key areas for REDD, we have obtained brackground knowledge for our recommendations. The areas were identified through a review of the report "Making REDD work for the Poor".
- Tenure rights and the poor
- Climate-friendly forest-based livelihoods
- Participation in forest policy
- Experiences from REDD demonstration activities
- Impacts of deforestation on the poor
- Demography and deforestation
- Protected areas and the poor
1. Tenure rights and REDD
Clearly defined property rights are promoted in the litterature as the basis for making REDD wokr effectively and benefit the poor. Included in this is the importance of governmental recognition of forest communitites informal ownership- and user rights.
It is clear that international initiatives, mainly because of their consultative rather than jurudically binding status, have had a positive effect only where national structures aimed at benefiting the poor already exist. For REDD to be an efficient global instrument it cannot only be implemented in countries that already have beneficial laws.
According to the litterature previous reforms have taken a long time, which raises questions regarding whether they are feasible within the time frames of REDD. They have also been limited in respect to rights issues, often taking into account only property rights. A well designed REDD system would benefit from seeing the right to forests not just as a set of rights but also, or possibly instead, as a set of possibilities to manage forest resources in a sustainable manner.
References
2. Climate-friendly forest-based livelihoods
The definitions of forests, deforestation and forest degradation will have great impact on the degree to which REDD can achieve a reduction of the rate of deforestation. Rural livelihoods in a varied lanscape, where crops, shrubs and trees are integrated risk exclusion from the REDD forest definition. These livelihoods are important in many countries, where they contribute to poor peole's food security and income. Excluding these livelihoods affects already vulnerable groups negatively.
The definition of forest degradation is also problematic and including degradation in a future REDD agreement presents many challenges. Many forest living people manage their lands through slash-and-burn practices in the fringes of forest areas. These practices are widely spread in som countries and studies from Brazil show that they provide relatively good livelihoods for poor people. However, slash-and-burn practices degrade the forest and if tere is no regeneration it leads to deforestation.
It is hard to measure degradation, which leads to high costs, and it requires knowledge that is not in the common domain. Some management practices, such as slash-and-burn, risk being treated unfairly by a REDD scheme according to some definitions of degradation. There is risk that REDD investments will mean that poor slash-and-burn farmers will suffer reprisals from the government.
The definition of forest, deforestation and forest degradation differ between countries. How they are ultimately defined will have consequences for the distribution of REDD-payments, within and between countries.
References
3. Participation in forest policy
Participation is generally seen as an important part of REDD. In the UN declaration on indigenous peoples rights it is stated that indigenous peoples shall be consulted and states should recieve ther free, informed prior constent to the adoption and implementation of law and administative measures that may affect them.
According to the PEP report, information is an essential factor when it comes to engaging the poor in REDD. The report emphasises that without knowledge about REDD it is impossible for the poor to participate in negotiations or benefit from REDD. The UN-REDD also sees it as an important part of their work to stpread information about REDD.
Most REDD litterature consider REDD a prerequisite for the success of REDD, but the question is what concrete benefits participation can bring the poor. To achieve real change, participation must be adapted to local conditions. This means that positive experiences cannot necessarily be generalised and transferred to other contexts.
4. Experiences from REDD demonstration activities
- The lessons learned from payment for ecosystem services (PES) and similar shemes cannot easily be generalised.
- As long as participation is voluntary and there are no great asymmetries in information there is no reason to believe that REDD participants would be worse off from participating. Consequently, the question is to what degree individual land-owners will be forces to participate in REDD.
- - Making the consolidation of land tenure rights a part of REDD schemes can be a way of facilitating participation of the poor and improving outcome for them. The question is to what extent this is feasible beyond the areas where it has already been achieved.
- Schemes that want to include poor small land-holders should be designed to facilitate the organisation of environmental service providers in order to minimise transaction costs.
- Including agroforestry in permitted activities can make participation more feasible for poor people.
- Effects are likely to be more negative on non-participant poor in terms of for example lost employment opportunities and higher food and land prices.
- All in all, there is a lack of fully implemented demonstration activities for evaluating effects on poverty and poor people on a national scale.
5. Impacts of deforestation on the poor
Deforestation is often assumed to be driven by national and international corporations, often in cooperation with the political or military elite, whilst local, poor people are portrayed as essentially opponents of deforestation who may be mobilised to defend forests.
Deforestation is considered to be driven by the land uses that replace it. Forests are often home to the poorest of the poor, and a transition to an agricultural landscape may have potential to lift people out of poverty. In such a context, reduced deforestation creates a theoretical duty to compensate the poor in order for REDD to reduce poverty.
The actual process of deforestation may also potentially be lucrative for poor people, if it provides incomes either from logging or land clearance. Timber production tends to generate less employment opportunities than agriculture per unit area. the overwhelming majority of the jobs in the deforestation process are limited to woodfuel production, such as fuelwood or charcoal. This woodfuel production often follows in the footsteps of agricultural expansion. Again deforestation is driven by the land uses that follows.
Infrastructure construction is often a consequence of deforestation, since logging companies need roads to transport their timber. Apart from providing employment opportunities in building the roads, road networks provide a number of other benefits to the poor, such as lowering transportation costs and increasing access to previously non-profitable resources.
In order to benefit the poor despite being denied the above mentioned benefits from deforestation, a number of extensive reforms are required: (a) continuing tenure transfer of forests to rural communities, (b) promote market access for the poor and nullify anti-poor legal structures, (c) support community forestry models designed to alleviate poverty and (d) Establish pro-poor payments for forest environmental services. Supported by REDD investments, such policy recommendations could encourage an integrated approach that tackles poverty issues and benefits forests conservation as well.
References
6. Demography and deforestation
Poor people may not reside permanently in one place, but instead often move in and out of forest areas. This raises questions about whether REDD has the ability to benefit poor people moving in complicated migration patterns, and also whether it should be able to handle these issues.
This review indicates that there is an opportunity costs for people that move to an area under deforestation. However, it would be very difficult for REDD to handle this, especially the task of judging who should be compensated for avoided deforestation. "Downstream" solutions, where areas that are considered to suffer from reduced access to forest resources are identified and compensated can reduce the risk of pilotical distrust in REDD, which would undermine its potential as a global instrument.
There is a threat to poor poeple of forced displacements as a consequence of conservation for REDD purposes. Yet, in this case, the identification of the group of poor people with an entitlement to compensation is far more realistic. The challenge is to both respect national sovereignty and to provide a safety net for people who are poorly treated by their national governments.
References
7. Protected areas and the poor
Protected areas have several negative impacts on the poor, including restrictions in land use, forced displacements and loss of employment. Local communitites are often forced to bear the cost of area protection, while the largest benefits are global.
Strict rules for conservation, denying the poor access to forest resources may have disastrous consequences for the poorest members of local communities. Milder restrictions and decentralised decision-making and management of land can benefit the poor.
Whether local communitites recieve their share of the benefits from protected areas depend on political and economic circumstances. The largest lesson from the litterature on protected areas is that every situation is different. The consequences for REDD and poverty is that a REDD scheme designed on a global level is not optimal. Rather, it should be designed through a series of campaigns and interventions ‘downstream’ at national and sub-national levels.
