Why indigenous people matter-- new greenhouse gas-cutting initiatives from avoided deforestation and degradation
While progress to achieve an internationally binding agreement against human-induced climate change appears to stagnate, a groundswell of innovative approaches is taking root. Among promising initiatives, is changing the business model of forest management, the third contributor of climate-warming gases. By offering payments for climate stabilizing services to forest-rich countries, avoiding/reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+), as a pioneering concept, works to change cost and benefits of land use investments in favor of valuing standing forests: more as stocks of stored carbon rather than wealth of timber and potential farmlands. Championed by rich western donors, REDD+ initiative injects a new momentum for conservation activities in developing countries. A game changer for sustainable development. REDD+ aims in part, to transform forest sector policy-making, away from ‘’business as usual’’ top-down decision-making to one that is bottom-up and inc...