World Bank’s forest climate fund slammed for sidelining indigenous peoples’ rights and failing to protect forests
DALAT, Vietnam (23 March 2011) – A new report launched today at the 8th meeting of the World Bank’s Forest Carbon
Partnership Facility (FCPF) reveals that the Bank is not fulfilling its promises to protect the rights of forest
peoples. Smoke and Mirrors: a critical assessment of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility by Forest Peoples Programme
(FPP) and FERN exposes the World Bank’s failure to uphold its commitments on human rights and its engagement in
never-ending changes to its social and environmental policies, weakening its accountability to affected communities and
the public. Co-author of the report, Francesco Martone, FPP policy advisor, said:
"The FCPF is backsliding on its social commitments, using a smokescreen of constantly changing standards and guidance
notes that pay lip service to forest peoples’ rights, governance and benefit-sharing without clear binding rules that
would hold the Bank and recipient governments accountable. The whole question of which standards apply to the FCPF has
just become more complicated as the Fund now plans to use different international agencies to implement its projects..."
The FCPF is administered by the World Bank. It is one of the main international climate initiatives set up to fund
developing country schemes for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). The report finds
serious faults in government proposals seeking FCPF funding for planning and preparation activities in support of REDD
schemes. It finds that while proposals for monitoring and measuring forest carbon are well-advanced, plans for
activities that could actually reduce deforestation, such as clarifying and securing land rights and dealing with
corruption and weak governance in the forest sector, are poor. Kate Dooley, FERN’s policy advisor, said:
"In none of the eight REDD preparation plans developed by the governments of Panama, Guyana, Peru, Ghana, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Nepal and Indonesia are land rights adequately addressed or existing land
conflicts acknowledged. Proposals for governance reform are often limited to setting up new institutions to oversee
forest carbon trading, at the expense of legal reform, including land tenure."
Many of the governments applying for funds have laws and national policies which are contrary to their international
obligations to respect the rights of indigenous peoples and forest-dependent communities. Smoke and Mirrors shows that
these shortcomings are ignored in REDD “readiness” proposals and, more worryingly, indigenous peoples and local
communities are often unjustly blamed for deforestation. Onel Masardule of the Foundation for the Promotion of
Indigenous Knowledge in Panama said:
"The FCPF must uphold indigenous peoples’ rights in line with its commitments. FCPF decisions on financing for national
proposals for REDD must respect the demands of indigenous peoples without whom forest and climate schemes will not work.
Full respect for our right to free, prior and informed consent is essential, yet this fundamental safeguard is missing
in FCPF policies and World Bank safeguards..."
In Peru the government plans for REDD have attracted heavy criticism from indigenous peoples’ organisations for failing
to address land conflicts and outstanding territorial claims. Daysi Zapata, Vice President of AIDESEP in Peru said:
"The FCPF says that all its activities will ensure that countries meet their obligations to respect the rights of
indigenous peoples, yet state plans in Peru are not respecting our collective rights, including our rights to
territories and free prior and informed consent. We have not travelled for two days to reach Vietnam for nothing: we
have come here to obtain firm guarantees that our rights will be respected and that the FCPF lives up to its
promises...."
The authors of the report are further concerned that the FCPF intends to move ahead with plans to make agreements to pay
governments from its Carbon Fund before countries have completed the preparatory work that is required to ensure that
future actions to curb forest emissions are fully sustainable.
The report concludes that the FCPF Carbon Fund and finance for emission reduction agreements must not move ahead until
readiness actions are completed and the social and environmental safeguards are strong enough to uphold human rights and
protect the environment.
ENDS