Paper short abstract:

I will analyse REDD+ in Colombia, as a mechanism of Forest Governance, from the critical approach to sustainable development presented by authors such as Jason Hickel, Arturo Escobar and John Robinson.

Paper long abstract:

My central argument is how developed countries use REDD+ projects and the carbon market to 'buy' quotas of GHG emissions to keep their consumption levels and sustain economic growth at the expenses of the third world. To explain this argument, I will analyse from the critical approach of international development theory three issues in the Colombian context that depict the reality hidden behind REDD+ and the concept of sustainable development. First, how the mechanisms to set up the carbon stock' price is defined by developed countries and international institutions and how the low price of carbon stock in the market is affecting the development of REDD+ initiatives in Colombia. Second, I will evaluate the limitations of the result-based payment system and its negatives implications. Third, I will study the impact of REDD+ projects over local communities and Colombian Indigenous Rights. This proposal will also present the limitations and adverse effects of REDD+ as a new developmental orthodoxy identifying how the concept of sustainability and climate change can be misused by developed countries to maintain the capitalist economic model based on mass consumption.