Source :Mongabay – February 02, 2012
The International Institute for Environment and Development has published a new report on benefit distribution under Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programs. The report includes a top ten list of recommendations to ensure REDD+ works for poor communities that live in and around forests.
The list, as laid out in a blog post on IIED’s web site:
1. Communities should be consulted on whether they prefer to have benefits transferred to the entire community or directly to households.
2. Consider economic feasibility, local institutional capacity and governance structures before deciding whether to transfer benefits to communities as a whole or directly to households.
3. Three factors need to be considered to make REDD+ benefit the poor: proportionality, equality and need.
4. In such unequal societies equitable benefit distribution could be achieved by systematically favoring the poor, such as landless and small landholders.
5. Projects should be designed to use the primary asset of the poor – their labour.
6. Whether to transfer cash or in-kind benefits should be based on a careful assessment of community preferences and the logistical and social consequences of each payment type.
7. An analysis of the availability and access to local markets should decide whether to provide cash or in-kind payments.
8. Consider whether the type of payment will have a negative impact on the local economy.
9. Where cash payments are made, some measures need to be taken to overcome inflationary pressures.
10. Project design needs to be flexible and include the periodic assessment by participants of their payment preferences.