Abstract
Policies and projects aimed at Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and the sustainable management of forests and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+), have been regarded as an opportunity to improve forest governance while supporting rural livelihoods. However, now that REDD+ policies are being increasingly implemented, a number of justice-related challenges have emerged, including how social heterogeneity should be approached to avoid deepening the unequal access to land, resources and livelihood opportunities or even violating human rights in rural contexts. Applying an environmental justice lens, this article analyses the experience of three local communities in Nepal participating in REDD+ pilot projects, focusing on how indigenous peoples, women and Dalits have participated in and been affected by such initiatives. Our research shows that the studied REDD+ pilot activities in Nepal have been, to some extent, able to recognise, empower and benefit certain social groups, indigenous women in particular, whilst Dalits (particularly Dalit women) had a different experience. REDD+ projects have had limited impact in addressing more entrenched processes of political discrimination, male dominance in decision-making, and uneven participation driven by spatial considerations or specific social targeting approaches. While the projects examined here have been partially just, and rather sensitive to existing patterns of social differentiation, the complexity of social differentiation still makes it difficult to operationalise environmental justice in REDD+ implementation. Hence, we conclude that deficits in distributive, recognition and procedural justice cannot be resolved without first addressing wider issues of social injustices throughout Nepal, historically inherited along the dimensions of class, caste, ethnicity, gender, and spatiality.
Highlights
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks, the so-called REDD+ initiative under the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has been implemented at national, sub-national and community levels through national strategies and pilot projects in numerous developing countries (Corbera and Schroeder, 2011; Brenton, 2013; Park et al, 2013; Dunlop and Corbera, 2016; Lund et al, 2017)
Past research on REDD+ has taken benefit distribution and opportunity costs at the core of analysis, while issues of socio-cultural contexts, including the relationship of social differentiation and gender have been less explored (Mbatu, 2016; Blom et al, 2010). Recognising this gap in research, this paper focuses on the dynamics of social differentiation and impacts of REDD+ projects in Nepal, their implications for distribution, recognition and procedural justice in a context of socially-differentiated access to REDD+ activities and forest resources based on income, gender, caste and ethnicity (Saito-Jensen et al, 2014; Lund et al, 2014; Poudel et al, 2015)
We have shown that the studied REDD+ pilot activities in Nepal have been, to some extent, able to recognise, empower and benefit certain social groups, indigenous women in particular, 2 Just to provide a simple day-to-day example: for a Dalit woman living in village periphery, even fetching village services such as drinking water can be very burdensome
Summary
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks, the so-called REDD+ initiative under the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has been implemented at national, sub-national and community levels through national strategies and pilot projects in numerous developing countries (Corbera and Schroeder, 2011; Brenton, 2013; Park et al, 2013; Dunlop and Corbera, 2016; Lund et al, 2017). Past research on REDD+ has taken benefit distribution and opportunity costs at the core of analysis, while issues of socio-cultural contexts, including the relationship of social differentiation and gender have been less explored (Mbatu, 2016; Blom et al, 2010) Recognising this gap in research, this paper focuses on the dynamics of social differentiation and impacts of REDD+ projects in Nepal, their implications for distribution, recognition and procedural justice in a context of socially-differentiated access to REDD+ activities and forest resources based on income, gender, caste and ethnicity (Saito-Jensen et al, 2014; Lund et al, 2014; Poudel et al, 2015). Besides the distributional aspects of REDD+ impacts, we investigate who is recognised as a legitimate actor and critically analyse whether and how they get to participate, ranging from informing to more active empowerment (Satyal et al, 2019; cf. Arnstein, 1969)
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