At Bonn climate negotiations, indigenous people criticize REDD
BONN, Aug 6, 2010 (IPS) - In the view of governments, international bodies and some sectors of civil society participating in negotiations towards new global rules on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the REDD programme is the last chance to save tropical rainforests.
But to the representatives of indigenous peoples who live in the forests in question, REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) is just one of many superfluous mechanisms devised by governments and their allies to undermine native groups' legitimate ownership of their territories and natural resources.
This conflict was again evident this week in Bonn, at the third round of talks in preparation for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change to be held November and December in Cancún, Mexico.
"We don't know what REDD is," said Mina Setra, head of Indonesia's Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago, at the meetings that ended Friday. "But we do know how to manage our territories. For millennia indigenous peoples have drawn on their traditional knowledge to strengthen their resilience and demonstrate their capacity to cope with climate change."