Abstract
REDD+ (Reducing Emissions, Deforestation and forest Degradation+) is a United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) process through which governments reduce the impacts of climate change through forest conservation in a results-based payments scheme. Distinct from international negotiations about the REDD+ framework under the UNFCCC, there are also REDD+ projects that help governments to set up the institutional architecture, plans and strategies to implement REDD+. These capacity-building projects, in the first phase of 'REDD+ readiness', involve negotiations among national and international actors in which recognition and authority claims are used by participants to influence project-level negotiations. This study analyses the project development negotiations in a World Bank-led REDD+ capacity building regional project, involving six Central African countries between 2008 and 2011. It explores how the project created a 'negotiation table' constituted of national and regional institutions recognised by the donors and governments, and how this political space, influenced by global, regional and national political agendas led to 'instances' of recognition and misrecognition – in which some negotiating parties' claims of representation were acknowledge and affirmed, while others' claims were not. Focusing on Cameroon and Gabon, this article analyses how negotiations shaped full participation by Cameroon and only partial engagement by Gabon.
Highlights
Central African governments claim to have a common vision for forest-related sustainable development
It is likely that the Project dynamics we describe here are typical of similar regional projects involving highlevel national representatives and large donors
During this time, when the individual countries’ Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP) development was ongoing, an 18-month REDD+ Project consultation process was initiated. These consultations opened a space for debate and expression of differences of opinions regarding the mandate of COMIFAC and the climate change focal points. We argue that these differences showed how the ‘negotiation’ table was shaped by the institutional choices of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Project execution agency4, the World Bank, and how different recognition claims were put forth by those recognised as being part of this political space
Summary
Central African governments claim to have a common vision for forest-related sustainable development. The REDD+ framework adopted by the UNFCCC requires each country to fulfil specific steps to be eligible for “result-based” funds/payments, and has a phased approach: readiness (including capacity building and stakeholder consultation), implementation of demonstration projects, and results-based payments. This process, which takes place at the national scale, is funded and supported by different organizations, the most important of which are the UN-REDD Programme and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) hosted by the World Bank (WB) and steered by an independent Committee of Participants (that share responsibility between donors and beneficiary countries)
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