As the two-week climate summit in Cancun comes to an end, it appears that any real deal will be delayed until next year’s COP17 in Durban, South Africa. There are still a few issues on the table: a $100 billion Climate Fund for adaptation; developing a full program to preserve forests under REDD; implementing emissions monitoring and reporting systems for all countries…but there is little hope for the compromise needed to make significant progress.
This morning, Samuel Nnah Ndobe, an advisor on our International Financial Institutions Board from Cameroon, was the guest speaker on our conference call on Climate Justice. He shared his experience in Cancun, particularly around REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), and the value of grassroots organizing in tackling climate change. Samuel is an expert on forestry, livelihoods, and indigenous people in Central Africa. He’s tackling multinational logging industries that are displacing local Pygmy peoples from their forested homes and the role of World Bank funding in such industrial efforts.
Some of his thoughts from the call (slightly abridged and summarized) are below. Please click the photo to the left for the full interview (approximately one hour).
What is REDD and why is REDD important?
Cutting down forests contributes to 15% of carbon emissions—it’s a significant cause of climate change, but it also presents a very easy solution. If we simply preserve forests, then we can prevent these emissions from entering the atmosphere. It is a very cheap solution to help address the problem of climate change.
How will REDD impact local communities in Central Africa?
Where I come from in the Congo Basin, there are indigenous communities—Baka peoples—who are the oldest inhabitants of the forests. These communities will be impacted by REDD in a way that, with more attention on the forests, they will literally be exported from their land. They will lose their rights, their livelihoods, their homes. We came to Cancun to ensure that whatever develops, it includes the rights of forest-dependent people like the Baka peoples.
Where these people represented in Cancun?
Yes, they were. Venant Messe (right) of the Forest Peoples Program, Okane, who is from the Baka community in Cameroon. He presented the situation of the Congo Basin, where forest management is developing rapidly. In an interview with Global Greengrants Fund’s Executive Director, Terry Odendahl, earlier this week he shared these thoughts:
Here in Cancun I participate to ensure that as African indigenous peoples, in comparison to Latin American, we can give our own point of view and share our experience on what has happened in our areas.”
He also chimed in on what climate justice means to him:
Climate justice for us means if our communities didn’t do anything to disturb the climate, why are we suffering the consequences? If there is any compensation, we need to be sure we are taken into account.”
How can we make REDD stronger, more equitable?
Strong safeguards, not only monitor and report carbon from countries, but also social safeguards—including the rights of the people who live off of an in the forests and protection of biodiversity. There needs to be benefit-sharing: the compensation for protecting these forests must be shared with the communities who are doing the work, or who have relied on the forests for generations. But REDD is not the answer to reducing emissions, we must, in fact, reduce carbon emissions from industry and everyday practices
What is the value of grassroots action at these international climate summits?
The participation of grassroots was very very significant in Cancun. We watched the grassroots action of Via Campesina, which brought together thousands of peasants and climate activists to call for climate justice. These are the people that will be impacted, and they are the ones who are taking action in their own regions.
Supporting this work is making a good contribution to humanity, to social justice, and to environmental sustainability. If we could get some indigenous people into the official delegation, those most affected by climate change, then we might actually see some real progress in Durban next year.