RF US at Global Climate Change Meeting

More than 20,000 people have been gathered in Durban, South Africa for the last week at a meeting known as the COP17, in the hopes of negotiating a new and improved international climate change mitigation framework. Rainforest Foundation US’ Director of Programs, Marina Campos, is attending the meetings as a representative of the indigenous peoples we work with, to make sure that their voices are heard and their rights respected in the structuring of any programs to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation. Commonly known as “REDD,” such programs would, in theory, pay tropical countries to avoid cutting down their rainforests. Most of remaining tropical forests in the world are located in the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples and other forest communities, meaning that REDD programs would have an impact on their communities. It is crucial that such programs are designed in a way that respects their rights to their lands and resources.



After a week of tough and tense negotiations, the countries participating in COP17 agreed on a draft text on safeguards and REDD. One of the most controversial points of the draft is the absence of an international structure to monitor a REDD project’s compliance with certain important safeguards, such as respect for indigenous lands and livelihoods. The agreed-upon text is very vague and leaves it up to each individual country to apply safeguard measures as they see fit.

Along with advocating for indigenous interest’s in the REDD negotioations, Marina has been busy working to promote what are known as “South-South exchanges,” whereby experts or organizations from a Southern country with expertise in one area share their experiences and foster alliances with experts from other Southern countries. RF-US believes such exchanges can be extremely rich and productive, and while at COP17 we brought together our indigenous partners from Panama and Peru to share information about their challenges and victories in managing forests resources and the actions they have taken to fight against destructive government policies.