(Original Story in Spanish written by WWF Colombia: https://www.wwf.org.co/?390473/Mercados-de-carbono-y-proyectos-REDD)
Strengthening local communities as a whole allows the funding obtained from REDD+ projects to remain as an investment in people, their organizations and the well-being of the ecosystems they inhabit.
REDD+ projects in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) play a key role in combating climate change by reducing emissions caused by deforestation and forest degradation while promoting conservation. These projects also generate income for local communities in rural regions and therefore must be based on fair and equitable agreements that prioritize their rights, participation and autonomy and ensure the equitable distribution of such income to support their vision and objectives for the land they call home.
Community actors and leaders that inhabit the Amazon and Pacific territories in Colombia are essential for REDD+ projects and the VCM to thrive, as they are the owners of the collective territories where these projects are carried out, thus becoming a fundamental part of the value chain for these sustainable projects.
REDD+ projects and the VCM serve as a financing mechanism for the conservation and prevention of forest deforestation; however, in many cases these projects are implemented without guaranteeing the environmental and social safeguards of the local communities and their territories. This impacts the rights and autonomy of the indigenous people who inhabit these lands.
To help mitigate these detrimental impacts, during the last two years WWF Colombia and CCAP, together with community representatives, supported by the British Embassy in Colombia and UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) developed a series of pedagogical tools under the approach of Fair and Equitable REDD+ Agreements.
These tools aim to provide communities with the necessary information before, during and after engaging in a REDD+ project. Two community leaders from Chocó and Nariño share their experience from the REDD+ world.
First steps of Pacific communities in REDD+ projects
The story began more than 18 years ago, when the North American Brodie Ferguson, founder of Anthrotect—the first company to develop REDD+ projects in the Pacific—came to several community councils to talk about REDD+ and the voluntary carbon market. Approaches began with some community councils, indigenous communities and civil society nature reserves. The idea was to gather enough hectares so that the REDD+ projects developed there would maximize both the monetary and carbon (in tons) benefits available for commercialization.
It was there where the Consejo Comunitario de las Comunidades Negras de la Cuenca del Río Tolo y Zona Costera Sur (COCOMASUR), had a private project, and the Consejo Comunitario Acapa y Bajo Mira, from the BioREDD program (financed by USAID), began to be involved in REDD+ projects in the country.
COCOMASUR was the first to generate verified carbon credits 14 years ago. Everildys Córdoba Borja, its legal representative and Ana Castillo of the Acapa and Bajo Mira Community Council recount their initial relationship with the voluntary carbon market.
As women leaders, they saw an opportunity through these projects for their communities. However, they initially approached the situation with skepticism, given that little was known about REDD+ projects—even at the national level.
“It was said that we were selling our territory, but we wanted to bet on the projects because we saw an opportunity,” said Ana, who despite the precautions, chose to learn what these projects were about and discover the opportunities that she, the other women and her community could obtain. “We started a learning process. REDD+ is a complex issue, and with a lack of knowledge it is even more complex.”
There was so much uncertainty and misinformation, leading to some of the community councils to not participate from the beginning. Today these councils have now joined after seeing the positive outcomes that the community has achieved.
In the arena of carbon offsets for the international market
The first developers of REDD+ projects were foreigners, and the standards for issuing certificates were very demanding. Everildys recalls that, “when REDD+ projects came to the communities, it was a new topic. It was not a moving market, nor were there national standards. Those who bought carbon credits were foreign companies, and we had to comply with their standards to obtain the certification to sell carbon credits, which were more demanding. This aspect allowed COCOMASUR to become stronger as a community.”
Likewise, at the beginning, all the documents to develop a REDD+ project were designed by an external person. “That is why today, many of the documents describing the projects are very similar because they are built from the point of view of cooperation and not from within the communities,” emphasized Everildys.
Building capacity in the communities
REDD+ projects in the voluntary carbon market must be based on local environmental conservation actions that promote community development. For this reason, Everildys points out that the first step in COCOMASUR was to strengthen community capacities, enabling its members to acquire skills needed to manage their own development. She also states that they intensified initiatives to establish a community system that would operate for the benefit of the community itself, thus allowing them to maintain their processes without altering their priorities or their management and ethno-development plans.
For her part, Ana highlights the exercise of autonomy that should prevail in the communities within the framework of REDD+ project development. She affirms that for her community, the most important component has been to strengthen the governance of their territories.
“The territory is built by thinking from the inside out,” she said. For Ana, REDD+ projects help to enhance the processes within the territories and contribute to the improvement of their conditions in economic terms, but it is not enough because the needs of the communities must be understood. The best way to accomplish this is to build the projects with the participation of the entire community.
Pioneers in the gender approach to REDD+
With these needs in mind, Everildys and Ana have been a vital part of the “Comadreando” process, in which the 'Gender guidelines for the REDD+ portfolio in the Colombian Pacific' were designed. These are six guidelines developed by afro descendent women from the Colombian Pacific, based on their own experiences and the work carried out over the years at the head of different REDD+ projects accompanied by Fondo Acción. These guidelines are the result of their commitment, leadership and constant effort and represent the roadmap they will follow to continue promoting conservation and healthy living conditions in their communities with a gender perspective from the local level.
In Ana's words, “this is an initiative that was born during the pandemic and sought to unite the women of the Pacific in a virtual way, listening to each other’s experiences.”
They felt it was necessary to create spaces for women's participation to be considered in all decision-making scenarios within the territories and not just to fill out an attendance list. It was then that, with the leadership of the black women's platform and ASOMANOS negras, gender guidelines for REDD+ were developed, which continued to be virtually enhanced throughout 2020.
The gender approach has been a central focus for COCOMASUR in the framework of its REDD+ Chocó Darién Conservation Corridor project. For more than 15 years, the community has carried out training, empowerment and recognition of the role and knowledge of women. As a tangible result of this process, women have played prominent roles, leading 48% of the local boards and 57% of the Governing Board since 2020 in the current boards of directors.
Including women, children and youth in many cases is a constant work in progress. This has been a process in which sequential progress is being made with agreements on planning, management, joint environmental vision and access to the benefits and resources that remain in the territories.
What is the situation like today according to the women leaders?
After many years of experience, according to the women leaders, there is already an installed capacity for the communities themselves to develop the projects. Additionally, alliances with the government could be achieved, information from institutions such as IDEAM could be shared and collaborative work between entities and communities could be carried out to exercise another form of governance.
“Governance is also how I can bring others closer to a common purpose,” said Everildys.
The knowledge of these women and the communities to which they belong is overwhelming, and today, they want their experience to help regulate and inform various actors involved in the chain of REDD+ VCM projects.
The two leaders have made important contributions as part of the working groups of the 'Group of REDD+ Community Experts' in the development of the documents:
Each of these publications/products were made within the framework of the Fair and Equitable REDD+ Agreements project carried out by WWF Colombia and CCAP, which is supported by WWF UK, the British Embassy in Colombia and UK Pact (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions). © WWF Colombia
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