The Impact of Climate Change Mitigation on Indigenous and Forest Communities International, National and Local Law Perspectives on REDD+

The international legal framework for valuing the carbon stored in forests, known as 'Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation' (REDD+), will have a major impact on indigenous peoples and forest communities. The REDD+ regime contains many assumptions about the identity, tenure and rights of indigenous and local communities who inhabit, use or claim rights to forested lands. The authors bring together expert analysis of public international law, climate change treaties, property law, human rights and indigenous customary land tenure to provide a systemic account of the laws governing forest carbon sequestration and their interaction. Their work covers recent developments in climate change law, including the Agreement from the Conference of the Parties in Paris that came into force in 2016. The Impact of Climate Change Mitigation on Indigenous and Forest Communities is a rich and much-needed contribution to contemporary understanding of this topic.

1. Introduction; 2. REDD+ as international legal regime; 3. REDD+'s broader international legal context; 4. REDD+, identity law and 'free, prior and informed consent'; 5. REDD+, tenure and indigenous property claims; 6. Benefit-sharing in the REDD+ regime: linking rights and equitable outcomes; 7. Malaysia and the UN-REDD programme-exploring possibilities for tenure pluralism in forest governance; 8. REDD+ in Melanesia: Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu; 9. Indigenous land tenures and carbon mitigation schemes: lessons from Northern Australia; 10. Interacting regimes and experimentalism; 11. Conclusion.

Maureen F. Tehan is a Principal Fellow at Melbourne Law School. Her scholarship has centred on indigenous land rights, property and land and resource management.
Lee C. Godden is a Professor at Melbourne Law School and Director of the Centre for Resources, Energy and Environmental Law. She recently served as commissioner for the Australian Law Reform Commission's inquiry into the Australian Native Title Act.
Margaret A. Young is Associate Professor at Melbourne Law School and was Director of Studies at the Hague Academy of International Law in 2016. Her research interests are public international law, international trade law, climate change law and the law of the sea.
Kirsty A. Gover is Associate Professor at Melbourne Law School. She writes on the law, policy and political theory of indigenous rights in settler states and in international law.