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One of the crucial questions which emerges in the context of REDD+ is how the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities will be protected. These rights include the rights of sharing in the financial benefits of REDD+, the rights to participate in decision-making around REDD+ schemes, and the rights to have their knowledge about forestry resources respected. Each of these issues depends on the extent to which they have some sort of claim to, or tenure over, tropical rainforests. While the REDD+ Advance Negotiating Text is ‘groundbreaking’ for including references to the rights of indigenous peoples, and local communities, the implementation of these rights requires clarity with respect to the type of tenure which grants property rights in forest carbon. In addition, the rights cannot be simply asserted without undertaking a detailed legal analysis of transparency norms, legal standing and transparent access to decision-making in each tropical rainforest country.
