Activists have renewed calls to governments worldwide to uphold environmental justice for all, especially for indigenous people and the poor in developing countries worst affected by climate change and deforestation.
During a workshop on climate change and forests on Thursday, activists urged state leaders to provide more advocacy and technical assistance to vulnerable groups that were not normally heard by decision makers.
"We have observed that people who suffer the most are not involved in negotiations. Governments are discussing issues without considering what is happening on the field,"
said Anika Schroeder from Misereor, a German-based NGO.
She said the impacts of deforestation were felt by those whose lives depended on forests.
She said such communities were in a far worse position to adapt to changing environmental conditions.
Rowena Soriaga, a Philippine representative from the Asia Forest Network, shared similar comments, saying that deforestation had marginalized indigenous people and their cultural continuity, and more broadly the poor.
She said the main cause of deforestation in Asia was its direct conversion into large-scale permanent agricultural land, which accounted for 29 percent. This conversion had disadvantaged between 200 to 260 million indigenous people in the region.
"Talking about environmental justice for all, land rights and basic needs are actually the preconditions toward an effective, efficient and equitable climate deal, but the preconditions have so far not been met," she said.
"Civil society also needs more support to convince governments to choose forests over large-scale agriculture."
Both Anika and Rowena feared that Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) had only benefited the elites and had failed to improve the welfare of local communities.
They said the lack of a clear status of indigenous peoples and local communities managing the country's forests would constrain the implementation of programs such as the REDD mechanism, including in Indonesia.
They also said that if REDD was not applied appropriately, industrial countries as major emitters of greenhouse gases would make use of the concept to continue their unsustainable production and consumption activities, maintaining that they had paid poorer countries to carry out the REDD.
Under the REDD mechanism, carbon absorbed in protected forests through the mechanism can be traded to developed nations to help them meet lower emissions targets.
In return, forest countries receive financial incentives for projects, based on the amount of carbon absorbed in the forests.
The financing mechanism for the REDD is likely to be part of a climate protection regime to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|