Community is key to REDD success

As workers with indigenous communities in the Solomon Islands, we believe a fundamental issue must be addressed if REDD (the United Nations' Collaborative Programme on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) is to respect the rights of indigenous peoples meaningfully (Nature 472, 390; 2011). Indigenous landowners have set up the Tetepare Descendants' Association (TDA) to protect the large, uninhabited island of Tetepare, an important carbon sink. The association has successfully countered threats posed by timber companies contracting with individuals across the Solomons for timber rights that belong to clans or tribes. Such community organization is essential for engagement with REDD. But, ironically, it has become harder for the TDA to certify its carbon under the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), a carbon-credit verification programme. This is partly because the TDA's short-term success has made it more complicated to prove that a VCS project would result in additional carbon sequestration. The existence of a community-based organization such as the TDA should not hinder participation in REDD. Community commitment to preventing deforestation is essential if UN programmes are to succeed. Unless REDD provides the incentive for legitimate community-governance structures, indigenous rights will not be respected.