While delegates from more than 190 countries were negotiating how to tackle climate change in the Mexican city of Cancun, local indigenous people were also hard at work on how to solve the problem.
Elias Be Cituk, 56, is chief of a Mayan community five hours’ drive south of Cancun. Speaking in the early stages of the 2010 UN climate conference, he had high hopes of an agreement at the negotiations on REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation).
An international scheme which seeks to attribute financial value to the carbon stored in forests, REDD+ aims to offer incentives to developing countries to reduce carbon emissions from forested lands and to invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development.
The “+” signifies that the scheme reaches beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
Elias is the president of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, an “ejido” or village in the centre of the state of Quintana Roo where people share ownership of the community’s land. The ejido’s forest is shared by its 251 Mayan residents, some of whom say they have known great disappointment in working to care for their trees.
A 72-year-old forester, Dionisio Yam Moo, said some “big companies” had approached the ejido in 1998 and persuaded the villagers to cut down the forest, with a promise that they would plant fruit trees where the forest had once stood. Hectares of trees were felled, but the companies broke their word and no fruit trees ever came.
Fortunately, Felipe Carrillo Puerto started a trial of a REDD+ project in 2006. It attracted support from organisations such as USAID, WWF, the UN Development Programme and Mexican sponsors. Elias says how satisfied he is with the project because “it changed the situation for the better”.
The community has already planted 60 hectares of trees, says Sebastian Proust, a Frenchman who works on the programme and lives locally. The concept is that as the trees store carbon dioxide while they are growing, that will give the villagers credits to sell on the international carbon market.
“When the scheme achieves certification the community wants to plant 50 hectares a year for ten years”, Sebastian says. “One tree can offset an average of 1.6 tonnes of CO2, which can be sold for US $12. That means one hectare could capture 196 tonnes of CO2 in 25 years, and the community’s revenue would greatly increase”.
“And don’t forget,” he adds, “the community has a holistic view of this work. They are working with carbon credits, but they also sell wood, palm, ecotourism and other forest products. Carbon offsets are just one activity.”
In fact the villagers have gained something already. To develop the project the community received an average of $40,000 a year from funders and used the money for training, research, communication, sampling and some pilot reforestation.
But the project does have its doubters. “Mexico is a big country and such a project can make little difference, given the worsening environment of the country,” said Chan Chong, a Chinese environmental activist who attended the Cancun conference. “And how to use the money effectively is very important.”
It is a pilot project and so it does make mistakes, says Sebastian. “For instance, at the beginning of the project, people planted some species like mahogany that can grow in shade. It was an error, and it has been corrected. It’s a process of learning from success and failure.”
He thinks the project is meaningful. “In terms of knowledge, it is really useful. This year, we are expanding, thanks to what Felipe Carrillo Puerto has taught us,” he says.
Be Cituk also thinks the project has been a success because it helps not only the well-being of the community, but also the preservation of the forest. That in turn helps the Mayan people keep their traditional lifestyle and values intact.
But he has his worries. A Mayan prophecy says the world will end on 23 December next year. Be Cituk says: “I don’t worry about the prophecy of the end of time in 2012. My worry is that if the international community cannot develop a system to help us save our trees, the forest and our lifestyle will be under severe threat.”
“We are hoping that Cancun can come up with a plan to save the forests and help us to preserve them. We are willing to help, but it’s hard to do it by ourselves.”
His hopes were realised – up to a point. The conference did agree to boost action to curb emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries with technological and financial support. Now for the action itself.
