OPEN LETTER

FROM THE SALVADORAN ROUND-TABLE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

TO THE FOREST CARBON PARTNERSHIP FACILITY (FCPF)
ON REDD-PLUS IMPLEMENTATION IN EL SALVADOR

Agentes de Cambio
The Salvadoran Roundtable on Climate Change (MCC-SLV) takes note from the letter sent by the coordinator of
Alianza de the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and the Carbon Fund (Climate Change, Forest and Landscapes
Ulas, Lencas y Group) of the World Bank on November 9, 2016, by which she acknowledges receipt of the Statement of the
Nonualcos Salvadoran Round-table on Climate Change on REDD-plus implementation in El Salvador, through which we
Asociacin Bilogas
call the Salvadoran Government to abandon the implementation of REDD-plus initiatives in El Salvador and its
variants, and the approaches, policies and programs that support it.
Asociacin GAIA
El Salvador Since its establishment in 2013, the MCC-SLV does monitoring, watch, critical assessment, technical-political
proposal and advocacy about response measures that are planned and implemented by public and private
Asociacin Nueva Vida management on climate change causes, manifestations and impacts; and it is aimed to contribute to the
Pro-Niez y Juventud effectiveness and suitability of climate action.
ASACMA In this action guideline, the issue of the pertinence about REDD-plus adoption and implementation in El
ASER Salvador has been addressed, because since the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) at
the end of 2009- made official the management of resources from the FCPF to develop the National REDD-plus
CBC Strategy, the countrys policy and environmental management have been oriented, focused and put to the
CEICOM service of the REDD-plus mechanism, without considering the objections and alternative policy options that
have been proposed by experts and social organizations at several times, including the MCC-SLV, in order for
CEPRODE an effective approach and treatment of climate change in the country and in the world.
CESTA The ministerial decision that officially involved the country with the FCPF initiative is related to the almost
CC-SICA Captulo immediate response that developing countries were giving successively to the overwhelming resource offers,
Nacional de El Salvador conducted by many governmental, multilateral and private actors through the REDD-plus mechanism. In such a
way that the previous national processes aimed to plan and implement environment and climate change policy
Fundacin Critas frameworks, were truncated and denaturalized, subordinating the mitigation and adaptation action to the
El Salvador
objectives of a fossil fuels emissions tradeoff mechanism, which has been systematically disputed since it is a
FESPAD false mechanism masked as solution to climate change mitigation, which has to be real, additional,
measurable, verifiable and without linkages.
FUNDE
As required by FCPF approval standards, the Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP) presented by the MARN in
FUNDARRECIFE
behalf of the country to the FCPF describes the scheme and road-map to design and implement institutional,
ISD legal, technical, economic and governance arrangements that were necessary in order to adjust such
standards, including those related to sections 1b (information sharing and early dialogue with key stakeholder
Los Pasos del Jaguar
groups) and 1c (consultation and participation process).
Mesa Nacional de
However, the dialogue, information sharing, consultation and participation process described by the RPP, has
Turismo Rural
Comunitario
not been inclusive, nor substantial, nor transparent, and it has not been based on the Free, Previous Prior and
Informed Consent Principle, deducting its social legitimacy and viability. Such is the case of relevant national
Movimiento stakeholders whose proposals were recorded on the FCPF website at that time-, included the MCC-SLV and
Ciudadana Activa some of its members, whose statements regarding REDD-plus have been published at national and
OIPAN international level.

Siglo XXIII The information sharing and early dialogue with key stakeholder groups (Section 1b) and the consultation and
participation processes (Section 1c) required for the R-PP, were envisaged and approached by the MARN
UCA through a didactic, methodological and logistic package that made invisible the information related to the
UFG
dysfunctions, risks, failures, threats and negative impacts associated to REDD-plus, which have been widely
studied and documented at national and global level. The methodological treatment of dialogue, information
ULS sharing and consultation has been lacking of transparency, inductive and utilitarian, in order to achieve non-
objection, consent and approval from the participants, in favor of REDD-plus; concealing the reject from many
indigenous peoples, stakeholders and sectors who were involved with ignorance and few transparency on the
Con el apoyo de processes related to sections 1b and 1c of the R-PP, including some MCC-SLV members.
Similarly, the R-PP states the REDD-plus National Strategy of El Salvador to be implemented through the
Program for Ecosystems and Landscapes Restoration (PREP) and, its updated version of 2016, the Plan for
Ecosystems and Landscapes Restoration and Reforestation 2016-2017 (PRREP). It has to be noted that when
 the PREP was launched in May, 2012, presented in the R-PP and approved by the FCPF, the PREP lacked design
and technical-political bases.
The PRREP-PREP is implemented and promoted as if it were an instrument aimed to reverse environmental
degradation and to reduce vulnerability to climate change, under an approach referred as adaptation-based
mitigation (MbA). This one has not been conceptualized nor sustained, much less critically validated in the
framework of work of indigenous peoples, sectors and governmental and non-governmental stakeholders in
the country, including the MCC-SLV members, neither into the international scientific community.
Agentes de Cambio
Paradoxically, after several years that the MbA has been raised in the R-PP, the country still lacks approaches,
Alianza de strategies, policies, plans, programs and measures in the field of adaptation; which must rule the climate
Ulas, Lencas y action policy of the country. The way of addressing the REDD-plus mechanism under the MbA approach in the
Nonualcos PREP-PRREP framework, does not base nor ensure that climate change adaptation actions are suitable,
Asociacin Bilogas
efficient and timely following an adaptation perspective; since there not exist the adaptation policy framework
in the country, including the Adaptation National Plan (mentioned in several sections of the R-PP). Such
Asociacin GAIA approach is not based neither on the policy guidelines and technical-scientific principles for ecological
El Salvador restoration of ecosystems and landscapes.
Asociacin Nueva Vida Public management of PREP-PRREP and REDD-plus, as well as the Bonn Challenge, has been determined by a
Pro-Niez y Juventud lack of transparency, since while assumptions of socio-environmental and economic benefits are offered from
ASACMA the implementation of initiatives on restoration, reforestation, sustainable agriculture, governance, natural
protected areas, conservation areas, Biosphere reserves and wetlands management, or adaptation through
ASER the PRREP-PREP; the real focus would be set on activities with higher potential as biogenic carbon sinks or
CBC reservoirs to tradeoff fossil carbon; which is the reason to be and leitmotiv of REDD-plus, constituting the main
incongruity and Inconsistency of the MbA approach as it has been stated in the R-PP.
CEICOM
Likewise, we reiterate our disapproval to the inclusion of REDD-plus activities in the Intended Nationally
CEPRODE Determined Contribution (INDC) and eventually in the First Nationally Determined contribution (NDC) of the
CESTA Salvadoran State; which have been posed for the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) and
Agriculture sectors by the PRREP-PREP. Such activities do not contribute to real and effective climate change
CC-SICA Captulo mitigation, bear high risks, produce negative impacts for adaptation, and the supposedly generated mitigation
Nacional de El Salvador outcomes cannot be subject to double counting in the context of the Paris Agreement implementation. In the
Fundacin Critas case that REDD-plus were eligible under the mechanism to contribute to the mitigation of greenhouse gas
El Salvador emissions and support sustainable development (Art. 6 of the Paris Agreement), the carbon credits produced
via REDD-plus would be recorded and accounted in the NDC of the buyer parties, included those that would be
FESPAD negotiated under the Emission Reductions Payment Agreement (ERPA) through the FCPF trust.
FUNDE
The MCC-SLV has reasserted publicly its commitment to continue contributing in a propositional manner to the
FUNDARRECIFE Salvadoran State, in order to strengthen the climate change policy framework, and we highlight the invitations
we have made to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources for four times during 2016, in order for
ISD her to inform and interchange approaches with the MCC-SLV members on the advance related to the
Los Pasos del Jaguar preparation of the First NDC of the Salvadoran State, including the actions in the issues of LULUCF, biodiversity
and agriculture. We emphasize the lack of will, interest and response in attending our invitations.
Mesa Nacional de
Turismo Rural Finally, and in order to strengthen transparency, accountability and substantive participation:
Comunitario
We require the FCPF to review and verify the process of consultation and transparency, impartially and
Movimiento objectively.
Ciudadana Activa
We request to place in the country profile of the FCPF website our statements and the correspondence
OIPAN exchanged with the MCC-SLV regarding the REDD-plus implementation process in El Salvador.
Siglo XXIII We invite you to an exchange day with the MCC-SLV members, so that the FCPF knows in depth our
UCA reservations and position of rejection regarding this issue; especially the Statement of the Salvadoran Round-
table on Climate Change on REDD-plus implementation in El Salvador.
UFG
https://es.scribd.com/document/326397538/Statement-of-the-MCC-SLV-on-REDD-plus-Implementation-in-ES-
ULS 9Sep2016

Con el apoyo de

Adoptada en San Salvador, el 16 de diciembre de 2016