FERN’s aim is for an EU commitment to halting forest loss in a way that ensures forest peoples’ rights and is not based on carbon offsets.

FERN’s analysis: Initiatives which focus on reducing deforestation are rightly deemed as urgent, but there is a real danger that the focus on carbon will distract from dealing with the real drivers of deforestation. This is particularly true for initiatives aimed at reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). They could easily end up delaying the necessary transition to low carbon economies if they allow industrialised countries to ‘offset’ their fossil fuel emissions. This is because at best, offsetting moves emissions around, it is not designed to actually reduce emissions. See FERN’s carbon trading campaign for analysis of the flaws in offsetting.  FERN also shares the concern that as forests gain in monetary value as a result of the international REDD debates, forest peoples' rights are increasingly violated. Already incidents abound where private investors buy up forested land and national governments assert their perceived rights over forest lands to the detriment of local communities, in order to benefit from forest carbon financing.