REDD+ Inspiring Practice: A Bottom-Up Approach to Building REDD+ Safeguards with the Afro-Colombian Community in Colombia’s Pacific Region

Summary

This REDD+ Inspiring Practice highlights the participatory development of social and environmental safeguards for REDD+ by Afro-Colombian communities in Colombia’s Pacific region. These historically marginalized communities face significant threats to their rights and traditional ways of life from deforestation and forest degradation and from a proliferation of poorly implemented REDD+ initiatives in the region. This work sought to create an inclusive, participatory process through which Afro-Colombian communities can define their own safeguards to address the risks posed by REDD+, working from the bottom up (that is, from the local community level with the goal of influencing national and international REDD+ strategies). The result is a set of safeguards that incorporate Afro-Colombian worldviews and perspectives, and protect the rights of the Afro-Colombian people.