Bringing Stakeholder Values into Climate Risk Management Programs: Decision Aiding for REDD in Vietnam

Abstract

The United Nations (UN) Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program offers incentives for developing countries to reduce CO2 emissions and to invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. In designing and deploying REDD programs, the UN is asking that participating nations go beyond focusing just on technical issues associated with carbon management and also include a range of social considerations; for example, program managers are being asked to undertake stakeholder-based processes aimed at incorporating community concerns in program design, implementation, and management. The research reported here discussed the application of structured decision making to the design of REDD programs in Vietnam. The goal of structured decision making is to place the values, objectives, and concerns of stakeholders squarely in front of managers so that they may lend maximum insight to decisions that require trade-offs across environmental management options.