Carbon rights in REDD plus : exploring the implications for poor and vulnerable people

Policies to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from tropical deforestation and degradation have become a major focus of the international climate change negotiations over the last five years. Much of the debate has centered on the potential for developing new international financial systems through which countries, or the actors within countries, are rewarded for reducing GHG emissions from deforestation and forest degradation compared to a reference emissions level (REDD plus). This paper focuses mainly on questions surrounding the interpretation of rights to emissions reductions in project based and market based REDD plus systems, and national systems where governments link the distribution of REDD plus finance to local level ownership of emissions reductions. It also consider some of the implications that all national REDD plus systems may raise in terms of how governments transfer responsibilities to their citizens and the incentive effects that potentially large financial flows may have on existing rights regimes. The paper aims to address some of the confusion in understanding legal issues surrounding carbon rights. It also considers the implications for the rural poor in different contexts, given that they often have weak rights, an inability to enforce their rights and that REDD plus legal systems could add a new layer of complexity to an already complicated legal landscape in many countries.