“No REDD – A Reader” new publication from Carbon Trade Watch and Indigenous Environmental Network

“No REDD – A Reader is a must read for all who seek to know the truth about this mercantilist tool. It is also highly recommended for those who believe that policies to fight the current climate chaos must see the people and Mother Earth and not merely see trees as commodities for cash and carbon speculation,” – Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth International and Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria.

The report can be downloaded here. Edited by Joanna Cabello and Tamra Gilbertson of Carbon Trade Watch, it features articles by Global Justice Ecology Project, Censat Agua Viva, Amazon Watch, Acción Ecológica, COECOCEIBA, OFRANEH, World Rainforest Movement, Carbon Trade Watch, RisingTide, ETC Group, Indigenous Environmental Network, and REDD-Monitor.

There will be a press conference to launch the book in Cancún on Monday, 6 December 2010 at 9 am in the Moon Palace (Azteca- Luna Room 2).

The following is the introduction to the book, followed by a press release in English (available in Spanish here).

No REDD – A Reader

Introduction

This reader aspires to broaden the debate on the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) mechanism.1 It is not a comprehensive overview on REDD nor does it pretend to be. It aims to highlight critical perspectives that are frequently drowned out by large NGOs, corporate lobbies, governments, carbon traders, international financial institutions and the United Nations.

This collection of articles reveals how REDD is being used to establish a new set of tradable property rights based on trees and other environmental services, while at the same time propping up extractive industries. From an environmental perspective, REDD will not save the climate nor protect forests, nor will it stop dangerous emissions levels. In fact, REDD will offer polluting industries a way to avoid emissions reduction through cheap REDD offsets and allow them to actually increase pollution.

From an indigenous and human rights perspective, REDD criminalises the Peoples who protect and rely on forests. Furthermore, there are no enforceable REDD safeguards at the national or sub-national level that would guarantee protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependent communities. Meanwhile, carbon traders eager for the large sums of money offered by REDD schemes are already forcing Indigenous and forest-dependent Peoples to sign away their land rights. Several examples of how this is already happening are highlighted in this reader.

The articles are clustered in three sections: The first section outlines the relation of REDD with the carbon market and various financing mechanisms. The second section critiques some of the players involved including extractive industries, geoengineering and GMO trees. The third section looks at case studies and how REDD is being implemented at the local level including current impacts and reactions. The annex holds three landmark statements from social movements warning of the dangers of REDD.

REDD is the wrong direction. The grassroots and social movements demand to be heard and this collection allows us to hear and heed some of these brave and inspiring voices.

UN forest scheme risks the climate

New publication exposes links between REDD and carbon trading, International Financial Institutions, extractive industries, GMO trees and biotech

“No REDD – A Reader is a must read for all who seek to know the truth about this mercantilist tool. It is also highly recommended for those who believe that policies to fight the current climate chaos must see the people and Mother Earth and not merely see trees as commodities for cash and carbon speculation,”

– Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth International and Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria

Cancún, Mexico, 6 December 2010. Grassroots groups warn that the UN forest protection scheme being negotiated in Cancún amid the UN 16th Conference of the Parties may severely undermine climate mitigation policies and exacerbate environmental and social problems. No REDD, a Reader, includes groundbreaking research exposing links between REDD and carbon trading, International Financial Institutions, extractive industries, GMO trees and biotech. Moreover, original case study research explores problems with the Socio Bosque Programme in Ecuador, the threat to Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation in Perú, corruption and coercion in the REDD scheme in Papua New Guinea and the real face of “community participation” in Indonesia, among others. The publication highlights how REDD is being pushed by powerful interests to allow continued pollution and increase profits to a series of industries while damaging the rights of Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependant communities and thus, the forests and ecosystems themselves.

“We already know that offset schemes like REDD won’t protect forests or the rights of Indigenous peoples. If we are going to save the climate, we need to focus on real solutions that assure that forests will be left standing and people’s rights are respected,” stated Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network.

No REDD, a Reader exposes the question as how Indigenous and forest-dependent Peoples are being cheated in the name of conservation and development. Looking from the vantage point of communities living where REDD projects are taking place, the articles dive into the layers of contradictions inherent in REDD and its power-base.

Joanna Cabello from Carbon Trade Watch states, “The Ministry of Environment in Peru plans to implement REDD+ on 54 million hectares of the Peruvian Amazon, which would open the doors of more than half of forested territory to the carbon markets.” Chris Lang from REDD Monitor affirmed, “What we do know is that carbon trading in PNG [Papua New Guinea] is a mess. It’s doing nothing to stop the logging of PNG’s forests. And local people are at the back of a very long queue when it comes to benefiting from REDD.”

The groundbreaking new publication, No REDD, A Reader depicts why REDD is flawed, bankrolled by big polluters, intrinsically linked to the carbon market and may result in the largest land grab of all time. This publication is being launched at the Cancún climate summit where a package of market-based forest protections measures called “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation” (REDD) is being pushed as a key outcome, highlighting critical perspectives that are frequently silenced within debates.

Download NO REDD, a Reader in English or Spanish at: noredd.makenoise.org

Please contact for interviews:
Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network
Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project
Ana Filippini, World Rainforest Movement
Silvia Ribera, ETC Group
Tamra Gilbertson, Carbon Trade Watch
Joanna Cabello, Carbon Trade Watch

Press conference: 9am, Monday, 6 December 2010, Moon Palace (Azteca- Luna Room 2), Cancun, Mexico