Rainforests are powerful carbon sinks and crucial to climate stability. A pioneering effort to protect them involves providing cash to forest communities so they don’t need to accept offers from loggers
The first time the loggers came to Saipa’s rainforest village was in the 1990s. Located in Milne Bay province, Papua New Guinea, the territory is home to around 280 people but spans an area around twice the size of central London, with more than 15m trees. Papua New Guinea is a biodiversity hotspot, a place where harpy eagles cruise for tree kangaroos and possums, and vulturine ‘Dracula’ parrots gorge on figs high in the forest canopy.
Several families agreed to sell logging rights to their land back then but were paid paltry sums – only 50 kina (£9) each, far less than was originally agreed. The community said: ‘Never again’, but knew that they remained vulnerable.
“We feel proud of our relationship with the forest, but the life we live in the village is very difficult,” says Saipa. He and his wife and four children cultivate or forage much of what they need for daily life – abundant fruits and vegetables, a plant called sago that’s used as a roofing material, medicinal herbs for minor illnesses – but many necessities are out of reach. The only way to earn money for basic provisions such as rice, cooking oil or soap, is to travel six hours to the nearest town with peanuts or leafy greens to sell. Any other produce is too heavy to sustain the three-hour hike through the bush to reach the bus stop.
So when the loggers returned to Saipa’s village last December, offering much-needed cash for more of the community’s trees, it was a tempting proposition. Or it would have been, had the villagers not already partnered with Cool Earth, an NGO that gives Indigenous rainforest communities no-strings-attached cash so they can afford to refuse such offers.
“We didn’t want the loggers to take our rainforest,” says Saipa. “We want to protect it.”
That’s Cool Earth’s mission too, one grounded in the understanding that preventing the deforestation of tropical rainforests is the only way to safeguard these vital carbon sinks. If we’re to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis, thriving rainforests will be key.
‘If Indigenous peoples can be provided an alternative income that doesn’t rely on resource exploitation, then this will potentially empower them,’ says Robert Fletcher, an environmental anthropologist
It was in 2008 that Cool Earth first hit upon the model that it has since rolled out to protect 2.1m acres of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon, the Congo Basin and Papua New Guinea – a model that has prevented 500m tonnes of carbon from entering the atmosphere. Back then, loggers had approached the village of Cutivireni in the Peruvian Amazon. In desperate need of cash, but fearful of the consequences of selling their only resource, the Indigenous Asháninka community turned to a trusted friend, the late, highly regarded British anthropologist Dilwyn Jenkins. Jenkins recommended they get in touch with Cool Earth, which decided to give the cash to the community itself to keep its rainforest intact.
Nearly two decades later, the threat of deforestation remains acute, despite a landmark international agreement signed at the Cop26 climate conference in 2021 to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. Deforestation is slowing globally but the level of forest loss is still staggering: 157m hectares (388 acres) – around the size of western Europe – of tropical forests were lost between 2000 and 2018, according to the United Nations. Cropland expansion, livestock grazing, logging and mining are the key drivers, with permitted and illegal activity both forming part of the challenge.
When Cool Earth meets the communities’ needs, then we become allies in forest conservation
Deforestation is a complex challenge that requires interventions across areas including global trade, agriculture and law enforcement. But Indigenous communities are an important piece of the puzzle, says Robert Fletcher, an environmental anthropologist based at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
“They are in de facto control of large areas,” he explains. “And many groups have a very strong track record of preserving biodiversity.” It therefore makes sense to support Indigenous groups in environmental stewardship of their own territory.
But the way conservation groups have traditionally tried to do that, using approaches tied to global markets, such as carbon offsetting, is simply not working. “One of the big difficulties has been developing that sustainable funding stream and getting it into the hands of local people,” Fletcher continues. “Rather than tying the payments to demonstrated offsets [for instance], focus on what people need in order to sustain themselves, and develop funding that focuses on that.
“If Indigenous peoples can be provided an alternative income that doesn’t rely on resource exploitation, then this will potentially empower them to be able to make decisions for themselves about how they want to use the resources around them.”
Regina Kewa, Cool Earth’s country manager for Papua New Guinea, has seen this for herself in the five communities the charity currently partners with: “People need basic things. When they don’t have those, someone can go in with a little money and manipulate them. These communities know the threats of logging, of palm oil.
“When Cool Earth meets the communities’ needs, then we become allies in forest conservation, which addresses the bigger picture of the climate crisis.”
Images: Cool Earth
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