Climate change often exacerbates existing patterns of poverty and inequity by placing a disproportionate burden on the marginalized and disadvantaged. Programs to reduce emissions and mitigate climate impact may overlook historically underserved populations, such as Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, youth, and the disabled, among others. These groups may reside in remote and isolated areas, with limited access to infrastructure, health, and education services.
The inclusion of marginalized people is vitally important to ensure that the needs of these unique groups are addressed—especially as they are so regularly overlooked.The FCPF actively includes socially marginalized and disadvantaged groups by engaging directly with recognized Indigenous and traditional institutions.
Engaging all relevant and affected stakeholders in emission reductions programs is essential to making sure that activities around preventing deforestation are conducted effectively and sustainably and that resources are channeled fairly and correctly. This is why the FCPF provides a number of programs and services catered to vulnerable and underserved populations.
TYPES OF ENGAGEMENT
The FCPF believes that engaging those directly affected by emission reductions programs is critical to its mission of achieving success in reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
In its programming, the FCPF follows the World Bank’s Environmental and Social Standards, which include Standard 10 on Stakeholder Engagement and Information Disclosure, and requires the collective consent of affected communities for the activities that affect them. In addition, the FCPF strives to include Indigenous Peoples and local communities in decision-making processes.
CONSULTATIONS
The FCPF grants observer status to a wide range of voices in its Participants Committee, including those of Indigenous Peoples and civil society. Observers help ensure that the voices of marginalized groups in society are included in discussions and decisions about upcoming programs.
Aside from participating in discussions on overarching FCPF strategy and direction, the views and input of marginalized communities are actively sought to be included in specific emission reductions programs through consultations both prior and during the implementation of programs.
Consultations in FCPF countries are an essential mechanism for including the voices of forest-dependent communities in national REDD+ planning and confer an active role to IPLCs for partnering with governments to implement activities. Consultations allow the FCPF to reach marginalized communities, promote understanding of the views of forest-dependent IPs and CSOs, and support potential contributions to REDD+ system design and implementation.
DIALOGUES
Regular dialogues allow marginalized communities (including Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, and the disabled) to amplify their concerns and priorities to the FCPF regarding the implementation of emission reductions programs. Such dialogues take place at the local, regional, and global level to ensure that a range of voices is heard, with communities selecting for themselves representatives to participate at higher-level meetings. Forest-dependent communities have requested support for developing their capacities to engage in REDD+ programs, directly resulting in the establishing of the FCPF Capacity Building Program that provides forest-dependent communities with an awareness and understanding of REDD+.
Over the years, dialogues have supported the continuing mission of the Capacity Building Program. As REDD+ programs reach more and more communities, and as emission reductions programs progress towards implementation, regional dialogues have allowed the Capacity Building Program to respond to new requests and support activities focused on such topics as alternative livelihoods , benefit sharing, land tenure , as well as REDD+ measurement, reporting, and verification.
The FCPF continues to conduct dialogues with a range of stakeholders in order to ensure that emission reductions programs address the concerns of marginalized groups, and that capacity-building activities meet the needs expressed by their recipients. Reports on dialogues are posted here [link to dialogue reports].
Furthermore, the FCPF provides funding to allow representatives of Indigenous Peoples to participate in relevant international fora, such as the Conference of Parties (COP) that monitors and reviews the implementation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The presence and active contribution of Indigenous Peoples in such fora ensures their voices are heard and their case is made at the highest levels of global climate change negotiations.
SOUTH-SOUTH KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGES
As countries design, adopt, and implement emission reductions programs, and as marginalized groups actively engage in those processes, a wealth of knowledge is generated by participants. This includes valuable lessons on successful approaches to sharing benefits, developing mechanisms to lodge grievances, and evaluating past false starts. The FCPF supports South-South knowledge exchanges that allow practitioners in FCPF countries to directly share experiences with their counterparts in other FCPF countries. These exchanges allow participants to improve their understanding and engagement with REDD+ processes as well as avoid missteps that may have been made elsewhere.
South-South knowledge exchanges emphasize a variety of topics ranging from practical afforestation experiences to the adoption and implementation of laws and regulations, and from private sector involvement to ensuring that environmental safeguards are addressed. Through these exchanges, countries in the same regions may share their experiences in similar contexts, while countries in different contexts can seek new, creative solutions to the challenges they face.
- Brazil-Ethiopia-Mozambique, 2015
- Brazil-Colombia-DRC-Ethiopia-Indonesia-Vietnam, 2013
- Costa Rica-Mexico-Ecuador, 2015
- Mozambique-Ethiopia-Ghana-Liberia-Zambia-Gabon-India-Brazil, 2015
- Costa Rica-Guatemala-Chile-Peru, 2014