Safeguards at a glance: Supporting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in REDD+ and other forest-based initiatives

Key messages

  • Pledges for new investment in tropical forests may support sustainable development objectives, but also pose risks to forest-dependent communities.
  • This flyer summarises voluntary safeguard standards relevant to REDD+, as well as the guidelines of regional and international multilateral funding institutions.
  • We compared nine criteria to understand differences across standards and guidelines, focusing on their engagement with the rights of the IPLCs that steward the forests where REDD+ is implemented.
  • There is considerable variation in how safeguard standards and guidelines engage with the rights of IPLCs.
  • Voluntary standards can support a transition from ‘doing no harm’ to ‘doing better’ by catalysing a rights-based transformation to re-engage with the women and men of IPLCs as rights-holders and partners rather than beneficiaries.
Authors

Sarmiento Barletti, J.P.,Larson, A.M.,Lofts, K.,Frechette, A.

Publication year

2021

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