New research from p4ges project and the UK ecosystem services for poverty alleviation programme: Livelihood projects designed to compensate for the local costs of conservation may not be reaching the right people
A team of researchers from the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar and Bangor University in the UK have found that REDD+ social safeguards do not always succeed in identifying and reaching people negatively affected by the development of REDD+ Protected Areas. These findings are based on research on a World Bank funded protected area in Madagascar.
While conservation of tropical forests is essential to prevention and mitigation of climate change, loss of biodiversity, and water scarcity, some conservation methods can have negative impacts on local people whose livelihoods are dependent on forest agriculture and harvesting. Looking at the implementation of safeguards around a new protected area established with World Bank funding in the eastern rainforest of Madagascar, this research demonstrates that compensation went to locals with more socio-political power, greater food security, and more road access. Meanwhile, many of the most vulnerable people likely to be impacted by the project did not receive compensation.
REDD+ Protected Areas have been set up in tropical forests around the world with funding from the World Bank, UN, and other organizations. The Paris Agreement in December 2015 recognized REDD+ as a key policy instrument for climate change mitigation, and recognized the need to respect human rights in all climate actions. However, safeguards will be prone to failure unless those entitled to compensation are aware of their rights and able to seek redress where safeguards fail.
According to Professor Julia Jones of Bangor University,
Avoiding possible negative impacts of protected areas is very challenging; those affected are often widely distributed and hard to reach. Improvements however are clearly needed to ensure that some of the poorest people on our planet are not footing the bill for conservation which has global benefits.
These results of this research were published in Global Environmental Change. The full article is available from Science Direct.
For more information please contact: Julia.jones@bangor.ac.uk or m.poudyal@bangor.ac.uk.