Tuvalu block proposal to protect rights of tribals

Tuvalu, a small island nation in Pacific, has blocked the proposal supported by India to protect rights of indigenous people living in forests around the world. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Dec 8, 2011, 19:47:14 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Durban

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Tuvalu, a small island nation in Pacific, has blocked the proposal supported by India to protect rights of indigenous people living in forests around the world.

The protection through a global protocol under the mechanism called Reduced Deforestation and Degradation of Forests (REED) plus aims to protect tribal communities depend on forest produce from proposed market interventions.

Forests can capture carbon from air and act as carbon sinks, thus resulting in lesser release of global warming causing gas into the atmosphere. Countries in the Cancun Agreement have agreed for a mechanism where polluting organisations in rich nations can offset their emissions by providing money to protect forests.

Bolivia had expressed concern that such interventions can result in restriction of rights of people. To allay such fears, negotiators at the porty city of Durban had agreed to include protection of indigenous people either through national provision or through international instrument.

But, Tuvalu, a country of 10,000 people with less than a percent forest cover, at the last moment sought inclusion of action against human rights violations in the proposal.

"It is just a last minute bid to block a decision," said a senior climate negotiator. "Every country has a laws against human right violations...Having such a provision under REDD will not make any difference."

Because of Tuvalu's proposal, the talks on market intervention has not moved. Greenpeace on Thursday accused the negotiators of failing the expectations at Durban.

Green Climate Fund: A empty shell
The Green Climate Fund to be delivered at Durban would be an empty shell. None of the rich nations, who have committed to provide US $ 100 bn for the fund by 2020, have not been able to pledge any money so far.

The rich nations want the Durban conference to announce a board having equal representation from the developing and the developed world, to run the green fund.

The lurking financial crises in the Euro Zone has forced the European Union to abandon its plan to provide a start-up fund.

India wants the board to be accountable to the United Nations (UN) conference of parties whereas the United States (US) wants it to be an independent body. The decision on this is expected soon.

Tech mechanism to be operational
The Technology Mechanism, expected to set up technology development centres in developing countries such as India, is likely to be made operational in Durban. Its framework was decided in the Cancun climate conference in 2010.

The Technology Mechanism includes two bodies: the Technology Executive Committee-a group of tech-savvy experts charged with strategic planning and the Climate Technology Centre-charged with implementing technology on the ground. The roles of the two bodies had remained undefined in Cancun.

"Most of the work is done. We expect an outcome here," said an Indian government official, who participated in the deliberatons on the technology mechanism.

The technology development centers will help public and private sector collaboration for research on cleaner technologies. "Only if cleaner technologies are available easily, the countries can shift towards low carbon economy," said Kirit Parikh, who heads India's expert group on low carbon growth model.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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