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Implications of an outcome on REDD+ for East Africa

New proposals to use international financial mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) have radical implications for the ways in which tropical forests are valued internationally. Forest assets which were formerly unattractive are now the subject of increased attention from Northern and Southern governments, financial markets and international NGOs. REDD-net has been engaging Southern CSOs to contribute to this discussion

Hence, REDD+ is a promising outcome from the Cancun talks. But in East Africa, the prospects for effective REDD+ in East Africa are intricately tied to issues of tenure and rights due to multiple use of the forests and the human pressures on the remaining resources. In addition to the particular challenge of rights to trees outside forest reserves, carbon rights are a key bone of contention; not well understood. How carbon rights can be legally defined, and how they will relate to underlying land and timber rights? David Mwayafu (Regional REDD-Net Coordinator for Africa based at Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development) shares his views on this and other issues, based on a recent East African Regional Workshop that took place in Kampala. Read more

Cancun for WHO and for WHAT ?

As the world warms up to the forthcoming Climate talks in Cancun - Mexico (November / December 2010), there are looming and silent questions about who owns this process after all. From an African perspective, the impact of climate change goes on, while news of progress (?) in international negotiations is splashed on our faces day in day out.

At the end of the day, given the highly publicized Copenhagen talks and its outcome, many people would like to know whether their Government delegates have the necessary clout to stand by the options that can enable them jump form the vulnerability that climate change has brought into their lives. Also they need to see more actions and commitments from the rich polluters in this vein.

I will be attending the Cancun Conference in Mexico and I am starting to blog in my mind: What ought to be good news that I can relay back home? Are the delegations ready to represent the views and aspirations of the people of Northern Ghana, Pakistan, Kenya or Uganda that are at the front line of the climate change effects? Will delegations from the rich countries listen better than talking?

In a nutshell, is there anything such vulnerable people can expect out of Cancun or not?