The Viceminister of the Environment and Climate Change speaks in the Seminar on REDD

The TAI coalition in Bolivia, which has been working with the Vice ministry of the Environment, Biodiversity and Climate Change in improving the access to information, observed the lack of information on climate negotiations and that stakeholders are not participating in the design of climate policies. This is why the Vice ministry proposed us to organize a Seminar to discuss REDD jointly with the National Program on Climate Change.

This seminar was held in August with the participation of some of the leading country’s experts on forests and carbon emissions, the Bolivian representatives to climate negotiations, indigenous peoples organizations and environmental NGOs. The seminar objective was to disseminate the existing information on REDD, and to advance towards a participatory elaboration of a REDD strategy.

It is important to mention that Bolivia’s forests cover almost half of the country and the rate of deforestation has rapidly increased from 200,000 hectares per year in the nineties, to 350,000 ha in this decade. Bolivia’s greenhouse emissions are about 0.1% of the world’s, but the bulk of Bolivia’s CO2 emissions come from forest clearing the land for agriculture and cattle ranching. Therefore, Reduction Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is a very relevant topic for the country in the context of climate negotiations.

The government’s position regarding REDD is that forest should not be seen just as carbon sinks but rather in an integral manner, including the many services that they provide. The vice-minister, Juan Pablo Ramos, stated that the government is against the use of market mechanisms in developing countries, and that the funds for REDD should not come from carbon markets. Instead, he said, that the funds should come from developed countries in compensation for their climate debt to developing countries. He also stated that developing countries should design their own forests policies with the participation of indigenous peoples and other forest dwellers.

Some participants contended that developed countries should reduce emissions at home, and not through carbon offsets because these do not lead to a significant reduction of global emissions. Some said that greenhouse emission reporting in developing countries is not very reliable, hence it is easy to cheat in carbon transactions.

The CIDOB, the main organization of indigenous peoples of the Bolivian tropical forests, denounced that some entrepreneurs are asking forest communities to sign documents to accede to carbon markets, while the communities have no information at all. The CIDOB has been developing a Plan for REDD.

PRODENA, said that the best way to deal with forest conservation is the creation a Global Fund for Forests to address no just carbon emissions but the conservation of all the forest services, including the conservation of biodiversity. This organization also proposed measures that can lead to more effective forest conservation, as well as the employment of techniques for non-destructive forest use. It also said that Protected Areas with tropical forests should be included in REDD because poor developing countries often lack resources to control these areas. PRODENA also argued that agro-forestry projects should be eligible for REDD because forest dwellers should not depend on external income. Another important issue is to replace slash and burn cultivation with available techniques for land clearing which do not require burning.

The TAI coalition in Bolivia is determined to work further promoting the access to information and civil society participation on climate negotiations.

Teresa Flores, PRODENA, TAI Bolivia