How Strengthening Community Forest Rights Mitigates Climate Change

World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Resources and Rights Initiative (RRI) unveil the report Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change: How Strengthening Community Forest Rights Mitigates Climate Change.

This eye opening analysis will offer the most comprehensive review to date linking legal recognition and government protection of community forest rights with healthier forests and reduced carbon pollution from deforestation. More than 11 percent of global emissions are due to deforestation and other land use, and this new analysis offers an exciting and largely untapped tool to help reduce global emissions.

As we head toward the next round of international climate negotiations in Lima, Peru and Paris in 2015, this report and discussion will offer a fresh perspective for how strengthening rights of local and indigenous communities can be an exceptionally powerful tool for climate action and forest protection. Armed with the report’s results, practitioners and policy makers should be convinced that safeguarding forest rights is as crucial of a climate solution as others like REDD+, renewable energy and low-carbon urban design.

Video recording of event

 

Agenda:

8:30 a.m. Networking Breakfast

9:30 a.m. Featured Speakers

  • Andy White, Coordinator, Rights and Resources Initiative
  • Andrew Steer, President and CEO, World Resources Institute

 

10:00 a.m. Expert Reflections

  • Dan Reifsnyder, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, US Department of State
  • Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
  • Caleb Stevens, Property Rights Specialist, World Resources Institute

10:15 a.m. Q&A with Media

10:30 a.m. Discussion with Global Experts

  • Andrew Steer, President and CEO, World Resources Institute (Moderator)
  • Luiz Carlos Joels, Former Director, Brazilian Forest Service
  • Juan Chang, Climate Change Senior Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank
  • Jenny Springer, Director of Global Programs, Rights and Resources Initiative
Live Blog Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change