FCMC participates in 14th RRI Dialogue - "Extractive Industries, Communities, and Territorial Rights: Implications for poverty reduction and climate change"

FCMC participates in 14th RRI Dialogue - "Extractive Industries, Communities, and Territorial Rights: Implications for poverty reduction and climate change"
SES Deputy Task Lead Dr. Janis Alcorn represented FCMC at the 14th Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change, held in Bogota, Colombia, March 21 - 22, 2013. The aim of the RRI Dialogue Series is to identify innovative ways for civil society, community organizations, private business, NGOs and governments to confront risks and opportunities for the well-being and sustainability of forests and forest-dwellers.

The series is known for its ability to foster frank and cutting-edge debates among the principal thinkers and actors. For more information regarding the series, click here.

The 14th Dialogue offered a space for constructive engagement on the investment of extractive industries as a path for economic growth and development in the region. The Dialogue was co-hosted by RRI and the RRI Partner Organization in Colombia – Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad (AAS). The event consisted of five panels, the first of which identified trends and projections of the extractive industry sector in Latin America. The second panel focused on the social and environmental responsibilities of the mining sector and ways to develop better practices that respect the human and territorial rights of local populations, applicable national and international laws. The third panel, in which FCMC participated, focused on the challenges of managing extractive industry to support the national strategies for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+), mitigation of impacts; and extractive industry's contribution to the reduction of poverty. The fourth panel highlighted Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), as applied by the extractive sector. The final panel focused on approaches to protect collective rights over forests, mitigation of climate change, and reduction of poverty in the context of the extractive industry boom. A final session reviewed the points of the Dialogue and the recommendations that emerged. Over 100 participants, including indigenous leaders, government officials, industry representatives, and others from 13 Latin American countries, participated in open discussion after each of the panels.

REDD+ was raised and debated by participants throughout the Dialogue. In his closing comments, economist Hugo Cabieses, Peru's ex-Vice Minister of Strategic Development in the Ministry of Environment (MINAM) and currently with the Peruvian Center for Research on Drugs and Human Rights (CIDDH), suggested that RRI's next dialogue should focus on post-extractivism and interculturality to learn from the AfroDescendents and Indigenous Peoples. He also suggested learning from the "Indigenous REDD+" proposal put forth by the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvina Amazon (AIDESEP) and the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA).

The event launched the new RRI publication, Impact of the Extractive Industry on the Collective Land and Forest Rights of People and Communities, which reveals Latin American governments’ engagement in the new extractive industry boom, while paying limited attention to the impacts on the environment and people. The report covers both domestic and international investments. For more information about this 14th RRI Dialogue including videos from the event, click here. A Spanish version of the site is also available here.

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