Agency in international climate negotiations: the case of indigenous peoples and avoided deforestation

摘要

This article examines the agency of indigenous peoples in designing a mechanismfor reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) under theemerging post-2012 agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on ClimateChange. It investigates whether indigenous peoples have agency in international negotiationsand specifically the REDD design process and if so, how they have obtained it.Agency refers to the ability of actors to prescribe behaviour and to substantively participatein and/or set their own rules related to the interactions between humans and their naturalenvironment. The aim of this study is to gain understanding of what role non-nation stateactors, particularly indigenous peoples, play in shaping the REDD design process under theclimate convention and what is shaping their agency. A special emphasis is placed onindigenous peoples as they may be highly vulnerable to the impacts from both climatechange and certain policy responses. The article finds that, through REDD, indigenouspeoples and forest community alliances are emerging in the climate regime but theiragency in designing a mechanism on forest protection in a post-2012 climate regimeremains indirect and weak. They are being consulted and invited to provide input, but theyare not able to directly participate and ensure that their views and concerns are reflected inthe outcome on REDD.