Avoided Deforestation (REDD) and Indigenous ... - Amazon Fund

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agriculture and non-timber forest products. The long-term productivity and profitability gains, coupled with flows from carbon finance, need to be greater than perceived opportunity costs. Initial data on alternative land uses and the level of finance that the Surui have identified as needed to provide alternatives to deforestation indicate that the Surui project could be carried out within the current range of voluntary carbon market prices (Hamilton et al., 2009 & Hamilton et al., 2010). However, this is not solely an economic calculation, since carbon finance for the Surui is also a mechanism for ensuring the survival of their society, culture, and forest – not simply a comparison of the relative economic returns from alternative land-use options. Structuring a Deal and Securing Finance The Surui Carbon project has been prepared to secure finance in the voluntary carbon market, since there is for the time being no compliance market that would recognize REDD emissions reductions generated by the Surui. However, the project ultimately aims to provide compliance-grade reductions as these mechanisms and markets mature. The project is currently being discussed with a series of potential investors. Contacts and advice are being provided by the Katoomba Incubator and other partners, but the key decisions regarding commitments and terms rest with the Surui as the owners of the forests, as secured by their constitutional rights of permanent possession over their territory and exclusive usufruct and economic benefits thereof. A key challenge is striking a balance between the immediate opportunity to reduce deforestation and the longer-maturing processes of regulatory certainty in Brazil and around the world. Different approaches and structures are being explored to allow for flexibility and equitable outcomes, to reflect uncertainty about future prices and value of these emissions reductions. Terms must simultaneously account for risks to investors – for example that projectbased carbon transactions are not recognized by markets or regulators – while also allowing the Surui to ensure as large a share of future forest carbon value as possible. While the focus has been on preparing the project for a voluntary market buyer, the nascent state of REDD policy and emissions markets means that public or government-mediated finance may play a predominant interim or long-term role. Brazil’s Amazon Fund was created as a mechanism to channel international financial contributions in support of the country’s voluntary commitment to reduce deforestation and could also potentially be an important source of nonmarket finance for projects like the Paiter-Suruí, as could emerging state-level initiatives (BNDES, 120 Av o i d e d d e f o re s t A t i o n (redd) A n d i n d i g e n o u s p e o p l e s: experiences, chAllenges A n d o p p o r t u n i t i e s in t h e A m A zo n c o n t e x t
2009). The Surui are also engaging with state and federal processes to explore possibilities of securing comparable levels of finance to meet their goals as a people through non-market mechanisms. Some Key Challenges & Opportunities Rewarding Stocks and Flows Indigenous communities own and manage 21.7% of the Brazilian Amazon’s forests (Filho et al.,2009), and according to the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam), roughly 27% of the Brazilian Amazon’s forest carbon stocks are found on indigenous lands, approximately 13 billion tons of carbon. However, indigenous communities have traditionally been responsible for a relatively small proportion of Amazon deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. In general, this history of good stewardship works against indigenous communities, if positive incentives for REDD are based on methodological approaches that use historical trends to establish a baseline. To the extent that they have not generated emissions in the past, it can be argued that there is little potential to reduce emissions in future. The moral and equity implications of this are troubling, a concern expressed by the Coordinating Body of Amazon Indigenous Organizations: We are concerned that the post-2012 REDD regime may be used to compensate those that have always cleared our forests: large producers of soy, cattle, and biofuels. We demand that REDD and other mechanisms for compensation for the reduction of carbon emissions prioritize rewarding and distributing benefits to the Peoples who conserve the forest and have resisted economic pressure to deforest (Coica 2009). Though problematic, this focus on reducing future potential emissions is central to the overarching climate change objective – only by truly shifting the world’s development trajectory onto a path that emits fewer greenhouse gases can we reduce the risks of catastrophic climate change. The emerging consensus around REDD+ which encompasses incentives for both emissions reductions and maintenance of existing forest stocks, provides a helpful broadening of the frame, but how incentives will ultimately be allocated, especially within countries, is still very much to be determined. In the case of the Surui, there are real, demonstrable risks of deforestation and future emissions – because they are so clearly located on the jagged edge of the agricultural and ranching Av o i d e d d e f o re s t A t i o n (redd) A n d i n d i g e n o u s p e o p l e s: experiences, chAllenges A n d o p p o r t u n i t i e s in t h e A m A zo n c o n t e x t 121
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Avoided Deforestation (REDD) and In
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Avoided Deforestation (REDD) and In
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Summary Introduction Raul Silva Tel
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Amazon region is currently the pref
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Indigenous Lands and the Climate Cr
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“Amazon biome,” which does not
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approximately 13 million hectares,
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The tables below display data regar
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In practice, the main decisions reg
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Nogueira, EM., Fearnside, PM., Nels
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22 Av o i d e d d e f o re s t A t
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Given the absence of legal definiti
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internal debates on this issue, pre
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which they have traditionally owned
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which Bolivian legislation calls
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consultation” in its articles 30.
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are also facilitated by the strong
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legal risk that these lands can be
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has the duty (and exclusive compete
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derived from them, such as from the
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On the other hand, the Colombian le
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“the special norms which regulate
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framework of ecological function an
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The law permits and stimulates refo
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the use, enjoyment, control, admini
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One of these bills relates to the e
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the constitution which still has no
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Since there is not a specific law r
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communities of the sierra and jungl
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the lands that they possess and tha
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and legal instruments to guarantee
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those recognized “in internationa
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limitation for implementing eventua
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REDD in Venezuela Since REDD mechan
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Page 74 and 75: Can IPs dispose of the forestry res
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Page 80 and 81: did not establish any mechanism to
Page 82 and 83: On the other hand, there is a growi
Page 84 and 85: the co-existence of diverse culture
Page 86 and 87: In accordance with this internation
Page 88 and 89: Indigenous Peoples as Protagonists
Page 90 and 91: e considered a security under Brazi
Page 92 and 93: cannot dispose of the lands they tr
Page 94 and 95: Article 34 of the Indian Statute (F
Page 96 and 97: is a legal obligation and there is
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Page 100 and 101: equired for the acts of civil life,
Page 102 and 103: indigenous peoples could only have
Page 104 and 105: Indigenous Collective Ownership Fin
Page 106 and 107: of their interest is indivisible (L
Page 108 and 109: equired before the benefits may be
Page 111 and 112: The Surui Project: Building Indigen
Page 113 and 114: has decimated much of their forest.
Page 115 and 116: Reducing Risks: Framework for Proje
Page 117 and 118: Michel Pellanders/Hollandse Hoogte,
Page 119 and 120: evitalization. Therefore, the REDD
Page 121: Volume: To assess the volume of the
Page 125 and 126: will be critical, given that eventu
Page 127 and 128: Legal Aspects of the Surui Carbon P
Page 129 and 130: from afforestation, reforestation,
Page 131 and 132: of representing their respective co
Page 133 and 134: they are entitled to participate in
Page 135 and 136: In the case of Brazil, the prolifer
Page 137 and 138: • Article 11, IV of the referred-
Page 139 and 140: Sole paragraph. The rule of this Ar
Page 141 and 142: constitutional rights of Brazilian
Page 143 and 144: of exploitation or use, and belong
Page 145: alignment with the Brazilian consti
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