By Derek Wall

Grassroots groups warn that the UN forest protection scheme being negotiated in Cancún amid the UN 16th Conference of the Parties may severely undermine climate mitigation policies and exacerbate environmental and social problems.

A new report, No REDD: A Reader, is based on groundbreaking research exposing links between REDD and carbon trading, International Financial Institutions, extractive industries, GMO trees and biotech.

The report also includes original case study research which explores problems with the Socio Bosque Programme in Ecuador, the threat to Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation in Perú, corruption and coercion in the REDD scheme in Papua New Guinea and the real face of “community participation” in Indonesia, among others.

The publication highlights how REDD is being pushed by powerful interests to allow continued pollution and increase profits to a series of industries while damaging the rights of Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependant communities and thus, the forests and ecosystems themselves.

"We already know that offset schemes like REDD won’t protect forests or the rights of Indigenous peoples. If we are going to save the climate, we need to focus on real solutions that assure that forests will be left standing and people’s rights are respected,” says Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network.

No REDD: A Reader exposes how Indigenous and forest-dependent peoples are being cheated in the name of conservation and development. Looking from the vantage point of communities living where REDD projects are taking place, the articles dive into the layers of contradictions inherent in REDD and its power-base.

Joanna Cabello from Carbon Trade Watch states, “The Ministry of Environment in Peru plans to implement REDD+ on 54 million hectares of the Peruvian Amazon, which would open the doors of more than half of forested territory to the carbon markets.”

Chris Lang from REDD Monitor affirmed, “What we do know is that carbon trading in PNG [Papua New Guinea] is a mess. It’s doing nothing to stop the logging of PNG’s forests. And local people are at the back of a very long queue when it comes to benefiting from REDD.” 

No REDD: A Reader depicts why REDD is flawed, bankrolled by big polluters, intrinsically linked to the carbon market and may result in the largest land grab of all time.