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As countries ramp up efforts to tackle climate change through nature-based solutions, a new report emphasises the need to recognise and protect the carbon rights of Indigenous and local communities.
The report titled The Carbon Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and Local Communities in Tropical and Subtropical Lands and Forests was published by Rights and Resources Initiative. It presents the most comprehensive legal analysis to date on how carbon rights are recognised and protected across 33 countries.
Carbon rights are legal claims that determine who can access and benefit from the carbon stored in forests and other ecosystems. These rights are especially important for indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC) who have managed and protected forests traditionally, yet often lack formal recognition of their land and resources.
While the report does not explicitly frame IPLCs as guardians of biodiversity, it underlines significant risks to both people and nature where carbon rights are unclear or unprotected.
Forests and biodiverse ecosystems as wetlands act as natural carbon sinks. Richer the biodiversty, more resilient the ecosystem. Biodiverse ecosystems recover from stress more easily and continue to store carbon over time.
Diverse plant species also improve efficiency of carbon capture compared to monoculture plantations. Safeguarding biodiversity offers advantages beyond climate mitigation, such as cleaner air and water, creating healthy habitats for wildlife, and supporting forest-dependent communities.
Yet, many nature-based climate solutions being promoted today risk sidelining the very communities that have maintained these ecosystems. The RRI report provides a systematic legal review of carbon rights in 33 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America, regions that together hold around 67 per cent of tropical and subtropical forests. These countries are home to 1.54 billion rural people, accounting for more than 44 per cent of the global rural population.
Researchers examined 35 legal indicators to show how well national laws and policies protect the rights of IPLCs in relation to land tenure, carbon trading and participation in climate strategies like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. These indicators also included gender-specific protections and existence of grievances and benefit-sharing mechanisms. Some of the common themes that emerged were:
Weak legal frameworks: Most countries have not adopted the necessary laws to fully acknowledge or protect the carbon rights of IPLCs. This undermines their ability to participate fairly in carbon trading schemes.
Lack of benefit-sharing mechanism: Nearly 54 per cent of the countries assessed do not have a clear mechanism for sharing the benefits generated by carbon projects with local communities. Only three out of the 33 countries have established operational benefit-sharing policies that include minimum allocations for affected communities.
Inadequate safeguards: Only 26 out of 33 countries have fully operational safeguards information systems that comply with international standards for REDD+ activities. This raises concerns about whether local communities can access vital information regarding how their lands are being used.
Consent issues: The report emphasises the need for countries to ensure that projects obtain the free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous communities before moving forward. This right is critical to protect communities from the harmful impacts linked to carbon trading initiatives.
Gender inequality: Only two of the 35 indicators analysed specifically referred to the rights of women within IPLCs, suggesting a gap in addressing gender issues in carbon rights and conservation efforts.
The report stressed that to effectively address climate change and protect biodiversity, countries must strengthen their laws to support the rights of IPLCs. It called for better legal recognition of land rights, equitable benefit-sharing from carbon projects and robust safeguard mechanisms.