Legal Frameworks for REDD - Participation, Balancing of Rights and Interests, and Prior Informed Consent

As most REDD activities are likely to take place in three tropical regions of the planet – the AmazonBasin and Mesoamerica, the Congo Basin in central Africa, and South East Asia – millions of forestdependentindigenous and local communities (or “communities”) that inhabit large portions of tropicalforests may be concerned with REDD. Awareness that REDD and communities are inevitably linkedhas been growing,1 as has the understanding that this relation should be appropriately addressed inthe legal architecture for REDD.Besides communities, other key actors have rights and interests that should be taken into accountin the regulation of REDD at the national level; first of all, landowners and outside (possibly foreign)investors. Many other actors may of course be involved to a lesser extent, such as farmers, cattleranchers, miners, carbon brokers, environmental NGOs and universities. Overall, the larger thegeographic area of a given REDD activity, the higher the number and diversity of stakeholders withwhich national, regional and local authorities will have to interact. A sound legal basis for participationin the regulation and development of REDD initiatives at the national level will be an essentialprecondition for a fair and effective balancing of different rights and interests.This chapter will start by highlighting the importance of, and experience already accrued in, developingnational legal provisions on public participation related to REDD. It will then identify the main legalissues related to three key groups of actors, namely: outside (and foreign) investors, landowners andcommunities. It will then concentrate on policy recommendations and legal options at two levels ofparticipation: public participation in REDD decision making (including at the policy and law-makingstage, as well as at the project design and implementation stages); and participatory approaches tothe undertaking of REDD activities.