Ending Colonialism Means Ending REDD+

The accounting procedures used by the programmes grouped under the heading "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus" (REDD+) are colonialist even when they are used by people with brown skins. And the more correctly these accounting procedures are carried out, the more colonialist REDD+ becomes.

Under REDD+, forest peoples’ beneficial practices can only be recognized and “activated” when they are chronicled, measured, reconceptualized, reorganized, certified and paid for by what are typically Northern-dominated institutions. These institutions are contractually obligated to defend the continued extraction of oil, coal and gas that is a danger to so many other forest peoples worldwide.

This short article for the World Rainforest Movement Bulletin will shortly appear in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. See also this recent interview on a related theme: http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/resource/carbon-markets-do-not-need-be-....