South-South REDD: A Brazil-Mozambique Initiative, is a model national REDD strategy with “pan-African relevance”1 implemented in Mozambique based on the Brazilian Amazon Fund, the Bolsa Floresta program and the Juma pilot REDD project. It seems to be the prototype for the South-South: Brazil-Africa Initiative for promoting REDD with fifteen African countries (probably including, in addition to Mozambique, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar and the Republic of Congo2 among others).
The Amazon Fund for promoting REDD in the Brazilian Amazon was created with a billion dollar donation from Norway and is managed by the Brazilian National Bank (BNDES). Critics of the Amazon Fund are quick to point out that the BNDES funds megaprojects and agrofuels in the Amazon which are major drivers of deforestation. Norway’s funding has also been denounced as greenwash for the major contract between the Norwegian state oil company, Statoil, and Petrobras to drill for oil offshore which could have a devastating impact on the environment and livelihoods of communities of Brazil’s stunning coast.3 In view of this flimsy front for destructive extractive industries and a bank that funds deforestation, the Amazon Fund is not a particularly encouraging REDD model for Africa.
The Bolsa Floresta program has a number of different payment components. (See below.) It seems sort of like a REDD form of welfare which could create dependency and dollarize indigenous and local cultures. One of the biggest concerns about Bolsa Floresta Familiar, which pays families USD$25 a month with an ATM debit card in exchange for not deforesting nor practicing traditional agriculture, is that the money from Bolsa Floresta may be less than the value of subsistence and caloric intake derived from free access to the forest. If this is the case, REDD could be already causing malnutrition and even hunger.
There is a brief interview with an indigenous woman in Mark Shapiro’ PBS video4 about the Juma Project and the Bolsa Floresta payments. In it, the woman explains that half of the money is used for gasoline to travel down river each month to go to the ATM machine. Her husband hangs out in the background and has been prohibited from doing agriculture. When asked if the Bolsa Floresta payments are sufficient, the woman says “No.” However, there are conflicting reports about whether other community members are pleased with the program or not. A complete, independent evaluation of the the Juma Project and Bolsa Floresta would be extremely useful for Mozambican civil society to strategize on their response to South-South REDD Initiative and would probably eventually be useful for other countries in Africa in the South- South: Brazil-Africa Initiative, too.
Here is the description in Portuguese of South-South REDD: A Brazil- Mozambique Initiative:
COOPERAO SU -SU SOBRE REDD UMA INICIATIVA MOZAMBIQUE-BRASIL ARA O DESMATAMENTO ERO COM RE EV NCIA AN-AFRICANA p. http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/G0260 .pdf No Brasil, a Funda o Amazonas Sustent vel (FAS) possui experi ncia no planeamento eimplementação de mecanismos de pagamentos por serviços ambientais, at- rav s do rograma
Bolsa Floresta ( BF). O BF visa bene ciar nanceiramente as fam lias e comunidades residentes nas Unidades de Conservação do Estado do Amazonas que se comprometem a realizar acções para reduzir a zero o desmatamento. O BF começou como um programa estatal do Governo do Amazonas e agora é administrado pela FAS. Actualmente, os pagamentos bene ciam mais de 6.000 fam lias em 1 Unidades de Conservação, cobrindo mais de 10 milhões de hectares. O BF possui uma série de caracter sticas exclusivas, as quais garantem a sua abordagem rigorosa na busca do desmatamento zero’. A estrutura do programa est dividida em quatro componentes, criando um equil brio nos incentivos que fazem que a busca pelo desmatamento zero’ se a atractiva economicamente para as fam lias e comunidades. As componentes estão descritas a seguir: (i) Bolsa Floresta Familiar: pagamento directo através de uma recompensa mensal às fam lias participantes (US 2 ,00 por m s) na qual a distribuição do dinheiro é realizada através da utilização de um cartão de débito para saque, num sistema administrado por um banco popular do Brasil (Bradesco). ara receber o benef cio, as fam lias assinam um acordo com o Governo do Estado comprometendo-se a não desmatar orestas prim rias nas reservas em que moram. A FAS e o Governo são os respons veis pelo monitoramento do desmatamento dentro das reservas; (ii) Bolsa Floresta Associação – pagamento directo às associações das comunidades visando fortalecer a governação local e a participação de interessados (equivalente a 10% da soma do montante destinado às fam lias – aproximadamente US 00,00 por m s); (iii) Bolsa Floresta Renda – investimento na produção sustent vel das comunidades, sem queimadas, baseada no maneio de recursos naturais (US 17 ,00 por ano, multiplicado pelo n mero de fam lias. Em média, US 70.000 por área protegida por ano); (iv) Bolsa Floresta Social – destinado às comunidades para investimento na melhoria da sa de, educação, comunicação e transporte (US 17 ,00 por ano multiplicado pelo n mero de fam lias. Em média, US 70.000 por área protegida por ano). A FAS é também respons vel pela coordenação e implementação do ro ecto de REDD da RDS do Juma, o primeiro pro ecto de REDD do Brasil, certi cado de acordo com os critérios do CCBA (Climate, Community and Biodiverstiy) pela TUV- SUD e também o primeiro do mundo a obter o n vel ouro de qualidade.
A provisional list of participants of South-South: A Brazil-Mozambique Initiative includes major national and international players like several ministries of the Government of Mozambique, IUCN, the World Bank, Norway, Indufor, a plantation company, and WWF.
At the Copenhagen climate summit, Indufor prepared a side event at which members of the Mozambican delegation together with FAS would present the South-South REDD initiative and the roadmap towards a national action plan for REDD+.
As for the pilot projects that South-South is working on, they include “plantation establishment,” which has been an extremely contentious and even conflictive issue in Mozambique in recent years and intimately linked to large-scale land grabs. Pilot areas in order of priority include in “Chicualalacua- Mabalane-Guija in Gaza; buffer Zone of the Gorongoza National Park in Sofala; Mecuburi District in Nampula and Chipanje Chetu in Niassa.” There is also interest in “what might be eligible for REDD+ funding in each of the main sectors: Environment, Agriculture, Forestry, Energy, Mining [?!] and Infrastructure development,” “a tax channelled toward forest and agroforestry establishment” and something called the ‘one leader one forest’ initiative.
South-South includes efforts to overhaul the legal framework of Mozambique to make it easier to implement REDD and implicitly to grab land. “The chapter also describes how current legislation paves the way for REDD+, notably through the Land Law (1997), the Environmental Law (1997) the Forest and Wildlife Law (1999) and subsequent regulation (2002).” There is also enthusiasm to “develop carbon rights legislation” and “promote community tenure and use rights – including over carbon.” It is very important not to be fooled by the REDD discourse of promoting land rights for communities. The only reason that community land rights are being given attention is to be able to get the rights to the carbon and the land for REDD implementation. The report on the Financial Costs of REDD prepared by IUCN and funded by the infamous mining company Rio Tinto (which is also active in Mozambique) seems to suggest that it is much cheaper to do REDD by providing communities and indigenous peoples their land rights on the condition that they do REDD, than paying soy plantation barons or loggers not to deforest. It is beyond ironic that if a community “gets” its land rights through REDD, the REDD project itself will probably prohibit the exercise of those rights (i.e. by outlawing traditional agriculture or restricting access to the land itself.) Achieving community land rights through REDD is a highly deceptive myth and needs to be debunked especially since so many indigenous peoples’ organizations and even national movements are being tricked in this regard.
For the peasants of Mozambique, it is relevant that South-South plans to increase “agricultural productivity including both ‘green revolution’ and ‘conservation agriculture’ approaches” as part of its REDD work. This smacks of agro-business for REDD credits and requires further monitoring and research.
Paradoxically, South-South tips its hat to the REDD safeguards that do not save. “This issue also brings the importance of safeguards, ensuring that REDD+ and indeed CDM projects such as those involved in large scale plantations seeking access to carbon credits do not result in more harm (to the people, State and resources) than good.” Given what we know about plantations’ social and environmental impacts, these sound like empty aspirations indeed.
1 Cooperação Sul-Sul Sobre Redd Uma Iniciativa Moçambique – Brasil Para O Desmatamento Zero Com Relevância Pan-Africana http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/G02605.pdf
2 FCPF, GEF Organize Brazil-Africa Event on REDD+ and Community Forestry http climate-l.iisd.org news fcpf-gef-organi e-bra il-africa-event-on-redd-and- community-forestry
3 See Extractive Industries and REDD in the No REDD! Reader http://www.noredd. makenoise.org/
4 PBS/Frontline World, Carbon Watch, Centre for Investigative Journalism http://www.pbs. org/frontlineworld/stories/carbonwatch/moneytree/
5 Financial Costs of REDD: Evidence from Brazil and Indonesia http://cmsdata.iucn.org/ downloads/costs_of_redd_summary_brouchure.pdf
