COP18 (29/11/12) – Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Executive Director of Tebtebba and a Philippine negotiator, explains that this COP must agree how REDD+ is financed and how best it is implemented.

Tauli-Corpuz explains that she is co-chairing a working group under SBSTA on how to create national forest monitoring systems, track the emission reductions that forests are responsible for and how to implement the REDD+ safeguards agreed in Cancun.

Tauli-Corpuz explains there is a division between governments only willing to pay for carbon emission reductions and developing countries that are keen for biodiversity and poverty reduction to be included in the aims of REDD+ programmes.

Tauli-Corpuz emphasises that REDD+ must safeguard the rights and cultural history of indigenous peoples. She explains that indigenous peoples are concerned that the view of forests as little more than ‘carbon sinks’ could lead to the displacement of and the undermining of the livelihoods of indigenous peoples.