REDD comes into fashion in Madagascar

As the Copenhagen negotiations on the form of post Kyoto mechanisms to tackle climate change approach, firmly on the agenda are proposals to include Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). REDD could potentially generate tens of millions of dollars annually for Madagascar, bringing a huge potential to deliver forest conservation and improved livelihoods for the rural Malagasy. Efforts are underway in Madagascar to access REDD finance through a national working group and implementation of five REDD pilot projects. Many areas where the lowering of rates of deforestation is hoped to take place are part of the new generation of protected areas following the 2003 Durban Declaration. These new protected areas are frequently based on federations or grouping of community managed forests, which the literature and experience has shown to be highly problematic and which are rarely fully operational. If REDD is to prove to be an effective conservation tool, as well as an equitable mechanism to promote rural development several issues need to be addressed: More resources allocated to provide direct incentives to communities and to build local management capacity within their forest management associations. More serious efforts are needed to increase forest plantations and to improve management of existing plantations and natural forests, so as to meet the forest product needs of the whole Malagasy population. Basic human rights to have secure tenure of ancestral forest lands, and to derive a decent living from these needs to be recognised and empowered. The risk of ‘elite capture’ of the revenues generated by REDD should be avoided by the establishment of a transparent and independent scrutiny facility. Finally, it is proposed that improved dialogue between the social critics of conservation in Madagascar and the conservation movement itself should be encouraged.