Cutting corners: how the FCPF is failing forests and peoples Kate Dooley, Tom Griffiths, Helen Leake, Saskia Ozinga, FERN, November 2008
In December 2007 the World Bank launched its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility to act as a ‘catalyst’ to promote public and private investment in ‘REDD’ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and to support demonstration pilot projects for developing and implementing national REDD strategies. To access the funds gathered by the Facility countries had to submit Readiness Project Idea Notes (R-PINs).
This FERN-FPP report analyses nine of the first 25 R-PINs1 approved to try to assess the extent to which the Facility is fulfilling some key social commitments set out in its Charter, and to determine whether or not it is addressing some of the main concerns raised by indigenous peoples and
civil society organizations relating to REDD, including governance, human rights, land tenure, and Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).
“Overall, this review finds the process to date has been rushed, implicitly directed towards a market based REDD and dominated by centralized government, with little to no consultation with indigenous peoples, local communities or civil society organizations. The poor quality of some R-PINs that have been approved suggests that the Bank’s carbon finance unit is keen to get the Facility up and running as quickly as possible, and this accelerated approach has meant that approval of R-PINs has been rushed and corners have been cut. Furthermore, the review finds that the FCPF is not meeting some of the key social commitments it has made.” - Extract from Cutting Corners
The report concludes that both the process and the proposals adopted do not respect the Bank’s own guidelines. The report also includes an annex which details the World Bank funded REDD process.
Download Cutting Corners [pdf]… Also available in French and Spanish.
