Colombia could be paid to care for its forests

By: Maria Clara Valencia on December 3rd, 2009

Protecting the world’s forests is now an important part of the strategy to mitigate climate change. It is becoming as crucial as reducing emissions from industry and cars.

One estimate says deforestation and the degradation and conversion of forests to other uses  generates 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, around 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions, although these figures have been challenged recently.

So a global initiative which aims to provide financial compensation to countries that are willing to conserve natural forests is becoming increasingly important. It is REDD – Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. And it is an idea that could be approved at the UN climate change summit  in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, from 7 to 18 December.

This mechanism would allow poor countries to receive money from the rich ones for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. It is also expected to become a tool to fight poverty.

“REDD is important for the mitigation of greenhouse emissions and is urgent,” said Markku Kanninen, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, speaking at the XIII World Forestry Congress, held recently in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

How the initiative will be financed and organised are among the issues to be discussed in Copenhagen. According to Kanninen, the REDD approval process  is well advanced after recent negotiations.

He believes this issue could be easier to negotiate in Copenhagen than the percentage of emission reductions which developed countries must promise, or the budget togive developing nations to help them to create adaptation plans.

But for Gerald Steindlegger, forest programme director of  the influential group WWF, the forestry sector is still missing any sense of urgency and needs to recognise the need for funds very soon to finance projects that will care for forests.

But he says there is widespread concern among negotiators about the destination of funds provided to developing countries. They want to ensure that the money they provide goes to the right target and does not end in the hands of corrupt governments.

Many experts agree that work is needed in developing nations so they ensure the proper use of resources.

Colombia has 6%of the world’s forests and could be one of the countries that benefits from this initiative if it can protect and manage its forest ecosystems. But it will also have to allow communities to benefit from the money.

So WWF’s strategy is to discover how much carbon is currently captured in the Colombian forests. Indigenous groups and people of African descent are involved in the initiative, helping to collect the data. Knowing exactly what resources they have, they will be able to negotiate their share of profits with the government once the country becomes part of a REDD scheme.

“That constant struggle between what is mine by legitimate right and what is not is a problem in the carbon market. But an alternative is to do baselines with indigenous people, supported by university technology and aerial verification”, said Miguel Pacheco of WWF Colombia.

But Raul Dancé, a specialist in trade links and marketing, who works for the Global Forest and Trade Network at WWF, says that while the land belongs to the communities, the subsoil belongs to the state. So negotiating profit-sharing with the government is vital.

WWF says 114 million hectares of Colombia contains half the country’s vegetation cover. Half of that is concentrated in communal property lands occupied by indigenous groups and people of African descent, primarily in the Chocó-Darién Ecoregional complex.

Dancé is convinced that knowing how much carbon the forests retain today makes it possible to settle sustainable farming plans.

Roberto Acosta of the UN’s climate convention told the Congress that climate change is one of the biggest challenges humanity has faced, because it affects biodiversity, the water cycle and people at large.

“This isn’t a problem to be solved in the future: we must act now”, he said. “It is urgent to increase and strengthen technical and institutional capacities of developing countries with forest areas. The recognition and participation of indigenous peoples and local communities is vital if we want to ensure success.”

“Forests are an important part of the solution, but not the only one,” he said. “The eyes of the world are focused on Copenhague.”