In an effort to support the participation of Southern groups and new members or representatives, CAN-International organizes capacity building workshops on various topics. This evening, I attended a session on the REDD strategy (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation/in Developing countries). The way that REDD will be implemented is contentious and various proposals are being presented. The two main proposals are essentially a fund strategy, in which Annex 1 nations (developed countries and economies in transition) would pay into a fund which developing nations can access for projects that would protect forest carbon sinks and sustainable development, or a market scheme in which forests credits are bought and traded on an open market and the revenue generated from this process would be invested in similar projects. There are concerns with each of these proposals and parties are struggling to develop ways to address the concerns through a variety of proposed measures.

The focus of this workshop was the concern of indigenous peoples in tropical forests that a market scheme would lead to the commodification of their forest and undermine both sustainable development and indigenous rights. There was also concern that a fund scheme wouldn’t generate the necessary revenue if it relied on voluntary contributions.


One of the presenters was Juan Carlos of the Amazon Alliance. We will hopefully be posting a podcast of an interview with him next week.

Note: the photo here is from the Amazon Alliance website, www.amazonalliance.org