In this piece, Nobel Prize winner, Green Belt Movement leader and feminist Wangari Maathai discusses the tendency of the REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) initiative to promote the planting of exotic trees at the expense of indigenous varieties. Maathai argues that as indigenous forests regulate climate and rainfall patterns, and as the destruction of the world’s indigenous forests is responsible for emitting about 17% of climate-warming carbon dioxide, governments should take more care to promote the conservation of indigenous forests to properly respond to climate change. This action is crucial not just maintaining indigenous forests, but also to preserving the livelihoods of rural and forest-dependent people around the world. Photo credit: Ken Oloo/Red Cross and Red Crescent/HO/EPA
