Seeing REDD : Communities, Forests and Carbon Trading in Nigeria

The new report released today by Alone, highlights how forest dependent communities in Cross River State, SouthEast Nigeria, are losing rights and livelihoods, as their forests are being locked down by the government, which seeks cash through a United Nations-backed ‘carbon trading’ scheme, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+).The report shows how the implementation of the REDD+ mechanism is having a devastating effect on the economies of affected communities around the Cross River forests. With neither adequate consultation nor alternative livelihood options, community members, who have depended on the forests for generations, are now being victimised by government agents following a ban imposed on economic and cultural activities in the delineated forests.

The report shows how communities are grappling with being implicated in the false solutions to the problem of climate change. While community members suffer the negative effects of climate change which they did not create, they are, through schemes like REDD, liable to being criminalised in the process of enforcing carbon market policies