“The aim of reducing the emissions from forest destruction and degradation caused by industrial agriculture, logging, mining for fossil resources, etc. is today decisive to the survival of humankind and our planet. However, when the tool to achieve this aim is the trading of emission credits (offsets), we arrive at the wrong solutions.”
Category: Colombia
How free trade agreements threaten to undermine conservation in Colombia
“What we need is a new model of development for countries with tropical forests,” says Maria Claudia García, National Director of Forestry, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development in Colombia. According to Garcia, REDD is a “new vision”.
The Misak Indigenous People, Colombia: “We don’t want a development plan. What we want is a Life Plan.”
The Misak are an indigenous people whose territory is in Cauca, high in the Andes mountains in Colombia. During Spanish colonial rule, they lost large parts of their territory, but in he 1980s they started a process of reclaiming their land. Eventually they gained formally recognised land rights.

I’m a GNU. How do you do? A REDD animal appears in Paris with a promise of US$5 billion
On the first day of the UN climate negotiations in Paris, the governments of Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom pledged US$5 billion for REDD, between 2015 and 2020. The GNU countries say they “have signaled they will increasingly target results-based finance for countries who deliver verified REDD+ emission reductions”.
Benefits of Territory: “If we have territory, we have control over our futures”
This new video by LifeMosaic features communities explaining why their territory is important to them and why secure tenure and land rights are crucial. It’s another video in the series “Territories of Life“.