Panamá

Indigenous organization rejects REDD project

Louisa Reynolds

07/07/2013

Opinión

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Government will seek to implement UN-sponsored forestry project without prior consent of indigenous communities.

The National Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples in Panama (COONAPIP), which represents the country’s seven indigenous groups, has withdrawn from negotiations on REDD, a UN-funded climate change prevention program in Panama.

According to COONAPIP, the REDD project does not guarantee full and effective participation of indigenous leaders. Furthermore, it could threaten indigenous communities’ control over their lands and pave the way for the exploitation of natural resources such as wood and oil.

“We thought REDD was going to help us strengthen our rights over our territories because no one looks after the forests like we do, but it sought to do the opposite and we have lost all trust in the UN,” says COONAPIP leader Betanio Chiquidama.

The negotiations included Panama’s National Environmental Authority (ANAM), COONAPIP and UN representatives.

In a preliminary report released during the first week of June, independent researchers appointed by the UN to investigate COONAPIP’s grievances upheld the indigenous peoples’ right to reject the implementation of any UN-funded forestry project in the country.

“This recognition of the right of indigenous authorities to refuse to execute a project that indigenous people consider to be harmful to their interests is without precedent,” said Levi Sucre, coordinator of the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB), a coordinating body of indigenous and community forestry organizations in the Mesoamerican region, including COONAPIP.

Deficiencies and errors

The report’s authors, anthropologist Birgitte Feiring and attorney Eduardo Abbott, a former executive secretary of the World Bank’s inspection panel, point out a number of methodological deficiencies and errors in the program’s implementation and assert that as REDD includes an explicit commitment to respect indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, the project must be halted as a sign of respect, and can only be continued if COONAPIP expresses interest in re-starting the dialogue.

The report was presented at a UN REDD Policy Board meeting in Indonesia in late June. Policy Board members stressed the importance of resolving the conflict through dialogue, and the importance of the Panama experience as a learning process for the entire UN-REDD Programme.

The REDD program aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. According to the Salvadoran Research Program on Development and Environment (PRISMA), Panama has the third largest percentage of primary forests in Central America after Belize and Costa Rica, and 77 percent of the country’s forests are in protected areas or Panama’s self-governed indigenous territories — known as comarcas or tierras colectivas. This is not coincidental. Comarcas land is communally owned and forests are managed according to indigenous practices and spiritual beliefs.

In 2008, the Panamanian government joined the REDD initiative and began to draw up a plan for its implementation. The following year, COONAPIP sent a letter to the ANAM requesting more information on the preparation process for the REDD program. A series of workshops were held but they were mainly informative. The content of the REDD proposal wasn’t modified.

By May 2009, COONAPIP said it disagreed with the proposal, as there had been no prior consultation and “the vision and mission statement that appears in ANAM’s REDD plan is not in tune with indigenous peoples’ reality.”

Added to this, Feiring and Abbott’s report also pointed out that Panama’s deforestation rate had not been properly assessed. To address these concerns, the Foreign Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), gave Panama US$62,000 for an informational campaign in the indigenous community.

Prior consent

In mid-June 2009, ANAM sought UN REDD and FCPF approval of its proposal during their meeting in Montreux, Switzerland. However, the UN decided not to approve it as the indigenous peoples’ consent had not been obtained beforehand.

Three months later, ANAM, COONAPIP and the UN created a technical commission whose findings would be included in ANAM’s proposals. COONAPIP drew up a list of 19 points. They included the strengthening of COONAPIP, the political participation of indigenous people, the promotion of all international treaties and conventions on indigenous rights like the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 concerning indigenous and tribal peoples, training programs for indigenous professionals, and legal recognition that all forests within indigenous comarcas would be collective property. However, not all 19 points were included in the proposal so this year COONAPIP announced its definite withdrawal from negotiations.

According to a report published by PRISMA on the implementation of the REDD initiative in Panama, the country now faces two possible scenarios. First would be for the REDD initiative to advance without COONAPIP, which would raise serious questions about its legitimacy and scope. Instead of including COONAPIP, ANAM would seek to create alliances with specific indigenous groups, which could be divisive and would weaken indigenous institutions. The second would be to scrap the program, leading ANAM to seek other international partners. —Latinamerica Press

http://www.lapress.org/articles.asp?art=6846

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