Sept. 27, 2008 – On the third day of the General Assembly’s 63rd Session, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Prime Minister of Norway launched the United Nations REDD program, a collaboration of FAO, UNDP, UNEP and the World Bank.

The inclusion of forests in the carbon market, or REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) has caused anxiety, protest and outrage throughout the world since it was created at the failed climate change negotiations in Bali and funded by the World Bank.

An estimated 60 million indigenous peoples are completely dependent on forests and are considered the most threatened by REDD. Therefore, indigenous leaders are among its most prominent critics. The International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change declared that: ‘…REDD will steal our land… States and carbontraders will take control over our forests.’

It is alarming that indigenous peoples’ fears and objectionshave now been confirmed by the UN-REDD Framework Document itself.

On page 4 and 5 it blatantly states that the program could “deprive communities of their legitimate land-development aspirations, that hard-fought gains in forest management practices might be wasted, that it could cause the lock-up of forests by decoupling conservation from development, or erode culturally rooted not-for-profit conservation values.”

It is further highlighted that “REDD benefits in some circumstances may have to be traded off against other social, economic orenvironmental benefits.”

In carefully phrased UN language, the document further acknowledges that REDD could cause severe human rights violations and be disastrous for the poor because it could “marginalize the landless.and those with. communal use-rights”.

This is tantamount to the UN recognizing that REDD could undermine indigenous peoples and local communities rights to the usage andownership of their lands.

Could it be that the UN is paving the way for a massive land grab?

To read UN-REDD Framework Document: http://www.undp.org/mdtf/UN-REDD/docs/Annex-A-Framework-Document.pdf

To see photos from the protest against REDD and the World Bank in Bali: http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/gallery.php

To watch the video from the protest against REDD at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtORVi7GybY

I would go a step further than the previous commenter, and say that this whole thing has been set up in order to ensure environmentalists and other activists are confused about their position on land use.

What use is money to your average indigenous person? Not to mention carbon credits.

If you want to get really sceptical, I'd love to know your thoughts on this:
http://bumface.blog.co.uk/2008/09/25/wwf-tool-of-…

(I would have dismissed this before I read various academics saying very similar things. For some reason they don't get much press. Note also the WWFs role in ecological footprinting, half of which is the carbon footprint. I don't know what to think……………)