REDD+ Across Transboundary Landscapes: A Look into the Opportunities and Challenges of Participatory Forest Management Systems in Receiving Results Based Payments in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region

Abstract

The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) covers the mountain ranges from Afghanistan in the West to Myanmar in the East, including regions of Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and China. The HKH is one of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the world, with a large proportion of the population dependent on natural resources for basic sustenance. As a result of climate change, the HKH has been facing irregularities in climate and the ecology, which has adversely impacted the economic wellbeing of the population. Policy makers, to relieve the pressure from the natural resources as well as addressing the needs of the population that are heavily dependent on those resources, are developing appropriate measures at local, national and regional levels. REDD+ as a concept for payment for emission reductions has come a long way since its inception in 2007. The pace of REDD+ has been slow in the HKH, where a holistic approach towards financing emission reductions is lacking. A major development in the HKH has been the increase of community forest user groups in improving forest conditions. Coalescing the benefit sharing mechanisms of community forest management with REDD+ financing would help countries in HKH achieve various environmental and non-environmental benefits. Given the transboundary nature of the HKH, disparate policies among countries and lack of awareness about ongoing activities has created a gap in achieving regional cooperation and knowledge sharing. South-south learning and building effective policies that encourage coordination among countries would help to bridge the gap in the HKH.