No Rights, No REDD!

Photo: Langelle/GJEP-GFC

This month, Global Justice Ecology Project is featuring a photo taken by Orin Langelle during the UN climate meetings in Poznan, Poland in December 2008.  Prior to, and during the next major UN meeting on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark this December, REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) will be a hotly debated policy item.

During the Poznan talks, Indigenous Peoples organizations protested the exclusion of any reference to Indigenous rights or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from the text of the REDD initiative.  The groups issued a joint statement during the protest.  An excerpt from that statement follows:

“…This is totally unacceptable for indigenous peoples, local communities and supporting NGOs, as the forests which are being targeted for REDD are those which indigenous peoples have sustained and protected for thousands of years. The rights of forests peoples to continue playing this role and being rewarded for doing so has to be recognized by the UNFCCC Parties. Any REDD mechanism that does not respect and protect the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities will fail…”

* For the full text, visit our website article on the subject.

* For up-to-date information about REDD policy decisions, visit the REDD-Monitor.

* For more policy information and reports about REDD implementation projects, visit the Global Forest Coalition website.

Z Magazine Photo Essay by Orin Langelle in Current Issue
Additionally, in the April 2009 edition of Z Magazine, Orin Langelle has a photo essay entitled “Global Organizing: The World Social Forum.”  Z Magazine is on sale now.