REDD as an instrument for Climate change mitigation, is this another indirect form of land grab???
When I read papers on how large-scale land acquisitions are increasing in the name of agriculture I only but wonder who they are deceiving….. Oh!!! If we go into large scale farming….commercial farming, our food issues will be solved…. Oh!!! Our nation is secured for our children’s future…..I wonder if there will still be land in my village Issele-Azagaba, Delta State for my kids to inherit and do their own stuff if all the land is sold or taken in the name of large scale farming…..”This is land grab” illegal taking of land in our villages and living our poor village people to wallow in poverty because many of them still depend on this land for their livelihoods.
Sweet talks
I quite agree to the issues of climate change, in fact as a Molecular Ecologist and having studied the effects of climate change on plant distribution in West Africa, Climate change is real and any mitigation or adaptation method is very welcomed. The United Nations process on climate change program known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is hailed as "an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands..... "REDD+" any extended form of REDD now emphasizes "the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks." Great!!! Sweet talks but wait!!! Come to think of it, REDD as an instrument for Climate change mitigation, is this another indirect form of land grab??? Let’s take a critical look into REDD and see….
An effort to create a financial value – for the sake of whom?
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is a mechanism that has been under negotiation by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since 2005, with the twin objectives of mitigating climate change through reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and removing greenhouse gases through enhanced forest management in developing countries.
They say it’s an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. I agree with all this but my question is…. For how long will REDD provide these incentives for the locals? Many of these locals have depended on this forest for decades and you now tell them to hands off for the so-called incentives? Do land used by locals for their sustainable livelihood over decades need legal deed titles?
The obvious answer is: No. But in order to effectively execute this new form of grab, locals are made to hands off their land on the claim that they don’t have legal titles…….. Any way the issue of land titles for locals is a story for another day……. Another question is…. Do you have to grab land in the name of nature protection? Many of these locals have confessed to me that this REDD thing will not work for them: “Ahhhhh!!!! Bros oh!!! We dey fear am oh!!! says a man from Ekuri. He continue “This our forest is what we have lived on and sent our children to school with for many years….if this REDD should come, what will we feed them with? Since they say we will not go in to them again. Bros, tell me how we go survive??”- “Bros, they might even jail our children if they enter there” says another Ekuri man: “In fact they should go with their REDD…. We don’t need it. After all this our forest you see, we have been managing it ourselves and we will still do it with or without REDD” says an angry Ekuri woman. Funny isn’t it? But these are real life answers from indigenous people whose forest REDD wants to take over.
Land Grab to protect nature?
Land acquired for ‘green’ purposes such as REDD can become a form of land grab if meets the following according to the International Land Coalition’s Tirana Declaration;
- In violation of human rights, particularly the equal rights of women;
- Not based on free, prior and informed consent of the affected land users;
- Not based on a thorough assessment, or are in disregard of social, economic and environmental impacts, including the way they are gendered;
- Not based on transparent contracts that specify clear and binding commitments about activities, employment and benefits sharing;
- Not based on effective democratic planning, independent oversight and meaningful participation
As far as community members’ from Ekuri are concerned REDD has not met any of these declaration and as is therefore considered a form of “land grab” to them.
How to avoid “Green” Land grab
Can we therefore conclude that REDD as an instrument for Climate change mitigation, is an indirect form of land grab??? If this is not so, then several issues need to be addressed:
- Governments must address local people’s rights to common land, including adhering to standards for free, prior and informed consent, whether approving commercial land investments or extending protected area systems
- Conservation projects and ‘green’ industries (including carbon offset markets and REDD initiatives) must ensure they are not party to ‘green grabs’ that dispossess local people.
- Securing local collective land tenure can offer an effective landscape-scale conservation strategy.
- Governance of Tenure should present opportunities for greater collaboration between conservation and land rights or social justice organizations
- The controversial issue of ‘land grabbing’ should catalyze better and stronger collaboration between environmental and development organizations, and a stronger strategic focus on community land rights by conservation groups and initiatives.
Andrew Chibuzor ILOH is a Molecular Ecologist, he was a delegate at the Fair Future on a Finite World organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin. He writes from Abuja, Nigeria.
- Conservation and Land Grabbing: Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution? was a Poverty and Conservation Learning Group Symposium held on 26-27 March 2013, jointly organized by IIED, the International Land Coalition (ILC), the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Maliasili Initiatives.
- www.landcoalition.org/about-us/aom2011/tirana-declaration
- Land acquisitions and rights September 2013