A post-Copenhagen comment

Pedro Walpole

Asia comes from a continuing history of deforestation that impacts in particular on the life of indigenous peoples, their cultural continuity, and more broadly the poor. A simply scientific, technical and economic response to climate change is inadequate. Therefore, we need to understand and respond with justice as part of our collective human effort in recognizing the inseparability of poverty alleviation from strategies of mitigation and adaptation. 

Deforestation or the conversion of forest to non-forest areas is still increasing in many countries, as well as forest degradation or change in canopy or structure. Declining cultural diversity is driven by limited, or absence of, land rights. Poor conditions for human well-being in cultural communities are common throughout Asia and most evident in Papua which has over 500 linguistic groups. This direct conversion of natural forests to large-scale agriculture such as oil palm plantations account for nearly a third of all forest changes in Southeast Asia. Communities traditionally living on this land experience with greater severity the socio-environmental injustices. Palm oil may be viewed as a good eco product in the North but oil palm broadly is a destructive crop in the South.

Drivers influencing these changes are national economic interests overshadowing local sustainable development and exacerbated by incoherent policies as well as challenges of conservation and governance.

Effects of globalization worsen inequality as basic needs are not met and access to traditional resources and livelihood are overridden, radically affecting the productivity and sustainability of local communities. Poorer soil and water regimes lead to further community vulnerability. The collective negative effects result in a fragile ecosystem service vulnerable to climate change. This is accompanied by social conflicts due to reduced resources and access, skewed benefit sharing, and local elite capture.

Extreme climate events last year are bringing awareness of climate change to heightened levels, yet the social and economic impact of extended rainfall periods and extended dry seasons still bring to focus the limited capacity to prepare and respond adequately.

For the many who are poor, they bear the most severe burden, as they comprise many of the lives and livelihoods lost. Upland and coastal communities are further marginalized as damaged bridges and roads cut them off from the nearest centers of social and economic services. Food and water security in times of drought further extends the hungry season.

REDD fears

Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) is an option surrounded by fears from three general perspectives: (1) human rights-based, (2) conservation-focused, and (3) market-focused. These perspectives mainly correspond to the triple objectives of equity, effectiveness and efficiency. The human rights perspective fears that REDD will not deliver on equity objectives. Conservation-focused organizations fear that the mechanism will not be effective in reducing carbon emissions. Market-focused groups fear that REDD will not be efficient in helping the market to achieve optimum carbon pricing.

Putting justice at the core of the Global Deal

In formulating global responses to the impact of climate change, a justice perspective is called for and must be able to address:

• basic needs
• equal opportunity
• procedural justice of full participation
• recognition of ecosystem service limits
• cultural identity and spiritual practice and
• generational justice.

Justice issues include the unmet preconditions of land rights and basic needs in many climate change agenda to reduce carbon emissions to protect forests. For an effective, efficient and equitable climate deal, the equity must not be the last area for discussion and greatest compromise.

Overall, the responses must reduce marginality and the large-scale overtaking of small-scale local sufficiency. The provision of basic services, building community resilience through agroforestry and local energy sources, micro-insurance solutions, disaster risk management are major areas for direct government support. Mitigation options are already emerging through indigenous community conserved areas, community mitigation, new social alliances, payment for environmental services (watershed, biodiversity, carbon capture, landscape aesthetics), certification, governance and forest law enforcement.

Challenged by this situation at the global level, marginal communities face immediate hardships and injustices while seeking choices of adaptation. While the prerequisites remain of rights to cultural integrity, human security, self-governance, negotiations and seeking of redress, sustainable and equitable development, adaptation must also be supported.

Because adaptation is crucial to the poor anywhere in the world, and poorly funded in other environmental economic responses since Rio, the efforts for poverty reduction and carbon mitigation need all the more to be bound together. The carbon market has to be incorporated in the total problem of climate change, the terms of which have to be highly social and not purely physical and financial. The provisioning services of ecosystems are the most in need of adaptation funding because this is people's greatest need. Adaptation and the need for funds are also tied to environmental management because this is where communities need to be supported in re-engineering a more sustainable relationship.

As the poor suffer the most from disasters, the Global Deal needs to prioritize adaptation. Adaptation is needed both in terms of the poverty in poorer nations and the lifestyle changes where energy per capita is highest. The Deal is not simply establishing a carbon market for raising money to save the world. The Deal needs five pillars: adaptation, human based development, avoiding deforestation, carbon market, and research and development cooperation. The Deal must address the integral social conflicts in the global society and not simply the atmospheric fears.