As countries increasingly qualify for payments under the REDD+ process and schemes in return for reducing their emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and UN-REDD highlights the need for legal clarity on who owns emission reductions and who is entitled to benefit from those payments.   

The publication, entitled Comparative study of carbon rights in the context of jurisdictional REDD+: Case studies from Africa, Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean explains that since the Warsaw framework for REDD+ was established in 2013, verified emission reductions derived from forests have effectively become an intangible asset that may be traded internationally to allow third parties, including governments, to achieve mitigation targets and be compensated for their emission reduction results, in line with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

However, with no common definition aiming to clarify the legal nature of emission reductions, the report highlights the need for better understanding of diverse approaches to defining carbon rights and different legal conceptualizations depending on national contexts.

“There is an urgent need for legislation to ensure that all those who work to reduce a country’s emissions from deforestation and forest degradation reap the rewards, including Indigenous Peoples and rural communities who care for forests,” said Tiina Vähänen, Deputy Director of FAO’s Forestry Division.

Legal solutions

The report sums up the challenges of defining who holds the rights to the carbon in forests and the reductions in forest emissions achieved.

In some cases, forests and lands are owned by the state, while in others, they are managed by private landowners or communities. Parties entitled to hold rights to emission reductions could include the government, forest landowners, private actors or non-state actors who work to reduce emissions, according to the report.

It explains that few countries have passed laws explicitly on this issue and that most countries are working with existing legislation to develop solutions.

The report sets out the progress made and legal solutions found by more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, as well as mechanisms for distributing results-based payments fairly.

The report calls for countries to update their legislation or agree upon how rights associated with emission reductions will be established on a contractual basis with landowners and resource rights holders in compliance with the law.

Directing benefits to local communities, smallholders, and Indigenous Peoples is key to building trust among the parties in this area, according to the publication.

Related links

• Comparative study of carbon rights in the context of jurisdictional REDD+: Case studies from Africa, Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean
• Carbon rights in the context of jurisdictional REDD+: Tenure links and country-based legal solutions 
• Webinar - The right to carbon: From global perspectives to local impact
• REDD+ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
• UN-REDD Programme 

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