Die finanzielle Inwertsetzung des Waldes als CO2- Senke: Nutzungsrechte und Nutzungskonflikte im Rahmen der nationalen Entwicklungsstrategie in Ecuador

Abstract

The Commodification of the Forest as a CO2-sink: Land Use Rights and Conflicts in the Context of Ecuador’s National Development Plan.

Abstract

The REDD-mechanism (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries) is being discussed as a major issue for a post-2012 climate change agreement. Led by Rafael Correa, the Ecuadorian government intends to join this mechanism through its Socio Bosque program, which seeks to protect four million hectares of primary forest mainly situated within indigenous territories. However, the indigenous peoples’ organizations of Ecuador have serious doubts about this new policy and have organized cautious resistance to it. This article argues that REDD and national complementary programs, such as Socio Bosque, constitute a specific form of commodification – the forest as a CO2-sink. Based on the enforcement of property rights, rent income is extracted, with a majority of the conservation payments being centralized in the government. Thus, the forest’s capacity for CO2 absorption is commodified and sold on the international market like any other natural resource and the government, not the indigenous peoples, will be the primary benefactor. This model of earning revenue matches the currently predominant paradigms of „Neodesarrollismo“ or „Neoextractivismo“, leading not only to new confl icts between indigenous peoples and the government but also to conflicts within indigenous organizations.