Is REDD really without Indigenous rights?

The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues should have been at the
conference facilitating indigenous participation, but it was not.
Suprisingly only a single former member of the Permanent Forum was
present. More than 5000 delegates from non-governmental organizations
(corporations, advocacy organizations, civil society organizations,
labor organizations, etc). States’ government delegations representing
about 192 states sent nearly 4000 delegates and multi-lateral
organizations (UN, ILO, OAS, etc) sent the remainder of what would be
about 10,000 participants listed in the roster. The frustration among
indigenous delegates was palpable with not having the UN Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognized by the UN conference as
a legitimate and relevant instrument of state agreement. This
frustration followed the realization that the Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD)
initiative fails to recognize the territorial rights of indigenous
peoples. REDD focuses on: 1) the causes of deforestation, 2) policy
tools for REDD, including bilateral and multilateral cooperation, 3)
ways to provide incentives for REDD, including financial mechanisms,
and 4) technical issues associated with measuring REDD and
implementing policies for REDD –

One of the risks of the REDD
initiative is that states’ governments often claim ownership of
forests and tend to ignore indigenous peoples and their original use
and occupation of the forests. It is on this issue that delegates
participating in the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate
Change sessions expressed their outrage and opposition. Indigenous
delegates also agreed that the Conference must formally acknowledge
the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and its
relevance to the overarching debate about climate change and remedies
for climate change. The delegates noted that the states’ governments
and NGOs present ignored this recently adopted UN policy. Indigenous
delegates also advocated the establishment of an Expert Group of
Indigenous on Climate Change as a formal body of the Conference of
Parties to advise on policies deemed important to the climate change
dialog by indigenous peoples.
http://fwe.cwis.org/2008/12/18/poznan-arrested-decision-on-to-copenhagen/

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