9 December 2009
BIC board member and environmental expert Korinna Horta considers the challenges and opportunities for REDD and forest governance in the Congo Basin region.
Horta, formerly of Environmental Defense Fund, discusses the challenges and opportunities of forest carbon schemes and management in the Congo Basin. The Congo basin region makes up one fourth of the world’s remaining tropical forests and houses a wealth of environmental, economical, and social goods and services. Governance, corruption, land tenure, and indigenous peoples rights are all contentious issues surrounding the basin area’s forest resources. REDD provides a way of mitigating climate and addressing issues of governance surrounding deforestation. Pilot programs established such as the FCPF, UNREDD, and other partnership programs have had limited coordination because of differing views on indigenous involvement. Horta highlighted the importance of ensuring equitable distribution of REDD benefits. The funds could fall in the hands of illegal industrial loggers if policies aren’t in place instead of benefiting the greater Congolese people.
Separately, Greenpeace, Global Witness, and the Rainforest Foundation sent an open letter to Michael Wormser, World Bank Operations and Strategy Director for the Africa Region about REDD programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The group calls for transparency, governance reforms, and greater commitment to prevention of illegal logging.
read more
Global Climate Politics in the Congo Basin Unprecedented Opportunity or High-risk Gamble? by Korinna Horta, Heinrich Boell Stiftung, November 27, 2009 (Acrobat pdf, 155 KB)
NGO Letter to the World Bank on REDD implementation in DRC, December 3, 2009 (Acrobat pdf, 730 KB)