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9 CCLR 156 (2015)
Operationalizing Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for REDD+: Insights from the National FPIC Guidelines of Cameroon

handle is hein.journals/cclr2015 and id is 171 raw text is: 156 1 Operationalizing Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for REDD+ Operationalizing Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for REDD+: Insights from the National FPIC Guidelines of Cameroon Sophia Carodenuto and Kalame Fobissie* The international legal framework for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries, plus the role of Conservation, Sustainable Forest Man- agement, and Forest Carbon Stock Enhancement (REDD+) provides a regime for advancing forest conservation while also respecting human rights, through a mechanism referred to as the safeguards Under the international framework, REDD+ countries are granted the flex- ibility to further interpret and enforce these safeguards within their national territories. Cameroon's national government called for the development of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) guidelines as part of its safeguarding efforts to ensure REDD+ activities not only avoid undue harm to localforest communities, but promote respect for the human rights of indigenous peoples and improve forest governance related to stakeholder participation. Although the validation of these guidelines marks the success of civil society coalitions ad- vocating for social safeguards at the national level, achieving progress on FPIC is hampered by a number of legal and institutional barriers, including the non-binding nature of the FPIC guidelines and the challenges facing the Ministry of Environment in enforcing compliance. Nonetheless, the validation of these FPIC guidelines represents a step forward in advancing human rights and environmental justice in a country where the participation and represen- tation of forest communities and indigenous been largely absent. I. Introduction Global discussions on Reducing Emissions from De forestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries, plus the role of Conservation, Sustainable Forest Management, and Forest Carbon Stock En hancement (REDD+), have sought to establish a state driven mechanism to achieve greater forest conser vation, while at the same time, ensure that local com- munities who rely upon such forests are not adverse ly affected. Central to this objective, and reflected un der the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties' (COP) decisions on REDD+, is the notion that REDD+ activities will be subject to a number of safeguards. The COP decisions on REDD+ allow parties flexibil ityto develop national interpretations of REDD+ safe guards and design national level systems and mech anisms for their enforcement and reporting.1 How ever, a key issue, which states have considered in the peoples in natural resource governance has context of implementing REDD+ is how to ensure that local communities provide Free, Prior and In formed Consent (FPIC) to the establishment of REDD+ activities. In this regard, the COP decisions on REDD+ tie to the United Nations Declaration on Sophia Carodenuto is a consultant at UNIQUE forestry and land use, Climate Division, and a Ph.D. candidate within the Chair of Environmental Governance, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, Albert-Ludwigs-Universit~t Freiburg; Kalame Fobissie is the Coordinator of the Climate Change Programme at Viikki Tropical Resources Institute (VITRI), Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. Both authors follow the UN climate negotiations closely and participated directly in Cameroon's FPIC guideline development process. This paper benefits from feedback received during a presentation held at the 3 d Yale/U NITAR Conference on Environmental Governance and Democracy, Human Rights, Environmental Sustainability, Post-2015 Development, and the Future Climate Regime, New Haven, Conn., 5-7 September 2014. 1 As long as these are in compliance with the high level stipula- tions under the COP decision on REDD+, Florence Daviet et al., Safeguards for REDD+ from a Donor Perspective (Amsterdam: Climate Focus, 2013), at 5. CCLR 212015

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