An absence of government legal and policy reforms is impacting the rights of Indigenous, Afro-descendant peoples and local communities associated with carbon programs in 33 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, according to a recent report. The report, published by advocacy group Rights and Resources International (RRI), outlines the NGO’s findings on community rights to forest territories, land and resources in carbon trading regulations. This includes the associated benefit sharing, compensation and safeguards mechanisms of carbon market projects. More than half of the reviewed countries don’t have carbon trading regulations, the report found, while nearly half have no legal provision to recognize the right to free, prior and informed consent of communities. “For Indigenous peoples, the lack of legislation at the national level that fails to guarantee their carbon rights is a major threat which leads to further violation of territorial rights, land dispossession, and loss of food sovereignty,” says Onel Masardule, executive director of the Foundation for the Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge (FPCI), who wasn’t involved in developing the report. The report defines carbon rights as communities’ legal rights and entitlements to the benefits generated by carbon sequestration activities (like payment for conserving forests from deforestation) and capability to consent to initiatives for nature-based solutions. Despite more than a decade of funding and investments in programs like REDD+ (a framework to monetize and protect forests), progress toward an equitable and meaningful recognition of community rights remains slow, says Alain Frechette, author of the report and director of rights,…This article was originally published on Mongabay