Social inclusion in REDD+; the way to go

Barely a week after the eighteenth United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP18) ended in Doha, Qatar, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank has organised a key workshop in Nairobi, Kenya for Anglophone countries in Africa.

Participants attentively following a presentation

The workshop, which was meant for regional sharing and capacity development, was dubbed “Social inclusion in REDD+ readiness" and took place from 13th to 16th December 2012. In attendance were participants from Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Kenya, Liberia and Tanzania, highlighting a unique mixture of government and non-government actors from various countries. They exchanged lessons and experiences and developed firsthand country-specific approaches for enhancing social inclusion in REDD+. 

The REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) scheme calls on developing countries to keep their forests standing while wealthier countries pay for that as a way of combating climate change. The plus in the scheme stands for efforts of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.

A review of Ghana REDD+ readiness process by Ghanaian participants at the workshop indicated certain strengths that the country can build on and weaknesses that need to be consciously addressed to improve social inclusion in REDD+. 

Social inclusion bothers on safeguards issues of consultation and participation, feedback and grievance redress mechanism, plus in the specific case of the World Bank readiness initiative (FCPF), the Social and Environmental Safeguards Assessment has been an important advocacy issue for social NGOs such as Civic Response, Forest Watch Ghana Network and international networks such as the Accra Caucus on forests and climate change, among others.

Current strengths as were recorded for Ghana included the existence of a consultation and participation plan, a well established social and environmental assessment tool together with environmental impact assessment frameworks and experience. The existence of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and strong traditional institutions are other strengths that the working group identified.  

It was imperative to however also outline the weaknesses and gaps that exist within Ghana’s REDD+ readiness system to allow for recommendations that the team considered practical and useful. These shortcomings include the non-operational nature of the consultation and participation plan, the lack of a feedback mechanism, unclear land tenure, inadequate financial and technical resources and a weak monitoring culture. 

It was reiterated that consultation should facilitate access to information, facilitate dialogue, exchange of information and consensus building, recognize diverse stakeholders and strengthen the voice of vulnerable groups especially Indigenous Peoples and forest dwellers. Adequate consultation cannot be realized where accurate access to information and time for stakeholders to read and digest the information is missing. Consultation and participation is relevant in all phases of REDD+ from design through readiness to implementation; when this is badly done, all sorts of troubles ensue.

In addition to consultation and participation, Feedback and Grievance Redress Mechanism is also integral to the REDD+ process. The land sector in Ghana has always been with conflicts and so REDD+ and the associated implementation and benefits sharing that comes with it, will be no different.

 Conflicts may arise and these are often more fundamental and deeper underlying issues like tenure. If these conflicts are not resolved, REDD+ is most likely going to be sabotaged by the aggrieved stakeholders. Conflicts may require specific processes like mediation and facilitation, etc.

 To build a grievance redress mechanism for REDD+ in Ghana, the first step is to undertake a gap analysis of the current grievance resolution system in place and then follow it up with an iterative process of designing a feedback grievance redress mechanism that involves various stakeholders.

With social inclusion becoming more visible on the REDD+ agenda, is it safe to assume that it has now been recognized the need to place people in the centre of REDD+ to ensure a successful implementation of REDD+? People have relied and still rely on forests for their livelihoods, social, cultural and religious satisfaction whilst managing the forest resources over centuries. REDD+ is within the same space of forest management except with the added advantage of a country obtaining financial resources for its activities.

Involving various stakeholders especially the local communities /forest communities and not sidelining them is the key to successfully achieving emission reduction of carbon through REDD+ readiness and implementation. Traditional knowledge is important and needs to be recognized and captured in governing REDD+.

As Ghana is often hailed to set the pace in various activities, it is time to demonstrate a high commitment to social inclusion in its REDD+ process in order to put people, governance and development other than carbon and money at the centre of its REDD+ mechanism. This is the only way through which REDD+ will be successful and contribute to managing risk and enhancing the sustainability of outcomes including addressing climate crisis.

Gratitude to Saeed Abdul-Razak, Programme Officer for Climate Governance at Civic Response for this article. It was originally published in the Friday December 21, 2012 edition of the Public Agenda newspaper. You may reach Saeed at saeed@civicresponse.org.