From promises to practice: Persistent challenges in safeguarding local rights in forest carbon market initiatives

In recent years, a strong push has been underway to expand the scope and number of forest carbon market initiatives (FCMIs) to meet climate change mitigation goals set by the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Cancun Safeguards of 2010 established an international policy commitment to assure that FCMIs would align with social safeguards (among other goals) to protect the rights and well-being of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IP&LCs). Despite the rapid growth of FCMIs in recent years, several studies have raised concerns about their implementation and the rights and well-being of local communities. In response to anecdotal reports of rights violations, we conducted a literature review, drawing on 94 sources, to understand the reality on the ground. An eight-principle framework was proposed for evaluating FCMIs’ impacts on the rights and well-being of IP&LCs, providing a structured approach to assess equity and effectiveness. There are two main findings. First, there have been significant violations of the rights of IP&LCs in recent years. Second, there is a widespread lack of empirical evidence on the implementation of safeguards to protect local rights. Measures are necessary to strengthen protections and transparent monitoring, reporting, and verification of the implementation of safeguarding the rights of IP&LCs. This review contributes actionable insights and a framework to inform the design and implementation of more effective and equitable FCMIs.