Press release:
ART TREES carbon market standard for jurisdictional REDD+ must be strengthened to better protect Indigenous Peoples.
Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities call for more transparency, inclusivity, and accountability in jurisdictional programs of the voluntary carbon market.
CARBON: Arial photo of rainforest in Papua New Guinea. The world's rainforests store at least 1,000 billion tons of CO2. Photo: Rainforest Foundation Norway
Oslo, 13 February, 2025
A coalition of 14 organizations representing Indigenous Peoples as well as Local Communities from Central and South America, together with allied organizations Rainforest Foundation Norway and Rainforest Foundation US, have submitted a comprehensive set of recommendations to the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) Secretariat and Board as part of the review of the TREES 2.0 jurisdictional REDD+ carbon market standard.
The ART TREES standard is a leading standard in jurisdictional approaches and a promising funding mechanism to reward rainforest protection at scale. The letter submitted calls for stronger measures and indicators to uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities during the certification processes of ART TREES jurisdictional REDD+ programs, emphasizing the need for more transparency, inclusivity, and accountability.
"The full participation of Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples is key in the carbon markets since it is the local communities and Indigenous Peoples who for hundreds of years have cared for, protected and safeguarded their territories in which the still existing and most important forests in the world are located."
Marco Chavez Coyoy, Utz Che’ (Guatemala)
Rapid expansion carries risks
The letter highlights the rapid expansion of the voluntary carbon market, which has introduced financial opportunities but also risks to the rights of communities.
Risks include inadequate consultation processes, unclear benefit-sharing arrangements, and weak safeguards for land tenure and self-determination.
These challenges have been evidenced in the implementation of the TREES standard, for example in the initial issuance of credits in Guyana or in the verification process in Costa Rica. Greater inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in jurisdictional REDD+ programs is possible, as Peru's Indigenous J-REDD+ Program, recently submitted to ART, demonstrates.
"Jurisdictional programs like ART must recognize the significant risks their systems pose to Indigenous Peoples' rights as we are systematically excluded from decisions affecting us. That's what happened to us in Ecuador in 2023 when the government adopted new standards to regulate the voluntary carbon credit market without meaningful consultation with Indigenous Peoples. To guarantee our rights and build trust, our perspectives must be central to the design of any climate change mitigation program or standard, such as ART TREES. The standards and safeguards must ensure Indigenous Peoples' full and effective participation in decision-making, respecting our right to free, prior and informed consent".
Majo Andrade Cerda, COFENIAE (Ecuador).
INDIGENOUS: Two members of the Indigenous Asháninka people in the Peruvian rainforest. Indigenous Peoples call for more transparency, inclusivity and accountability in the voluntary carbon market. Photo: Rainforest Foundation Norway.
Stronger safeguards needed
Stronger safeguards requirements must be introduced to ensure fair and equitable program implementation. To address these issues and ensure best practices in the implementation of jurisdictional programs, the three key recommendations from the signatories to the TREES standard are:
1. Ensure early and inclusive consultation processes
The coalition urges ART to ensure early, informed and meaningful consultations with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities during program design. They recommend developing clear protocols and stakeholder consultation plans to guarantee Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and ensure resources for communities to participate effectively.
2. Introduce equitable decision-making and benefit sharing arrangements.
They call for the establishment of multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms that ensure sufficient decision-making power from Indigenous and Local Community representatives on all aspects of program design and implementation, which will facilitate transparent and inclusive benefit-sharing plans and Safeguards Information Systems that respect community rights and priorities.
3. Strengthened monitoring and quality controls
ART is encouraged to improve quality controls to align national laws and regulations with international human rights standards. This includes introducing independent assessments of rights protections, new requirements for validation and verification bodies (VVBs) to effectively assess safeguard conformance and robust and independent grievance mechanisms.
"It is of fundamental importance if we want to have sustainability in the carbon market that the voice of Indigenous Peoples is heard within this debate. ART needs to look at these recommendations that have the sensitivity to include both the legal frameworks that concern Indigenous Peoples, as well as the experiences of Indigenous Peoples, and realize that it was made from a whole process of collective consultation and experiences of the Indigenous Peoples. These recommendations were made so that the carbon market does not become a violator of rights but fulfils its mission to bring environmental services."
Mauricio Terena, APIB (Brazil)
A Call to Action to increase credibility and social integrity
The signatories warn that without these improvements, the credibility
of ART programs—and the voluntary carbon market at large—could be
undermined, diminishing trust and social integrity. They stress the
importance of addressing these issues to ensure ART becomes a model for
equitable and effective carbon market practices.
"In the absence of stronger national legislation and regulation in many countries, the standards in the voluntary carbon market need to be strong, verifiable, and robust to adequately respect and fulfil rights protected in international laws and norms. With adequate safeguards, TREES jurisdictional standard has the potential to be a driver of positive change."
Toerris Jaeger, Executive Director at Rainforest Foundation Norway
This letter was submitted in December, in the early stages of the TREES review process, to serve as input for revising the TREES 2.0 standard. All signatories are anticipating the publication of the revised version of TREES later this year to see how the ART Board considered their recommendations.
Once published, the draft of the new TREES 3.0 will be open for public comments for a 60-day window.
For more information, contact:
Kristin Rødland Buick
Senior Adviser, International Communications
+(47) 456 56 277
kristin@rainforest.no