A case study of implementing REDD+ safeguards in Uttarakhand, India: moving towards protecting the rights of people in the Hilly area

Under the United Nations climate change regime, REDD+ constitutes one of the important climate change mitigation strategies to reduce deforestation and promote the conservation and sustainable management of forests. REDD+ serves two broad objectives: the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (carbon benefits) and providing socio-economic incentives (non-carbon benefits) to the indigenous people and local/tribal communities. To ensure non-carbon benefits, REDD+ states must adhere to REDD+ social safeguards, including respect for the tenure and participatory rights of indigenous peoples and local/tribal communities. Further, the REDD+ needs to be implemented in the context of sustainable development, efforts to eradicate poverty and the pursuit of climate justice whilst reflecting equity. Since India is in the process of implementing a few REDD+ projects, this article studies the proposed Uttarakhand REDD+ project and examines whether the Indian and Uttarakhand legal systems are adequate to address all REDD+ social safeguards. It is found that the institution of Van Panchayat (village forest) in Uttarakhand, which falls under the Indian Forest Act of 1927, is inadequate to address REDD+ social safeguards since it is not gender responsive and dominated by government officials rather than tribal communities. The article argues that the REDD+ social safeguards in the proposed ­Uttarakhand REDD+ project could be addressed transparently if these safeguards are considered part of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) and the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA). Therefore, the FRA and the PESA need to be amended to the extent that they contextualise REDD+ and provide explicit mention of REDD+ social safeguards in light of historical injustices experienced by the tribal communities.