Degradation Plus Research Articles

Forest Rights: The Hard Currency of REDD+

AbstractOne of the proposed strategies for implementation of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation plus (REDD+) is to incentivize conservation of forests managed by communities under decentralized forest management. Yet, we argue that this is a challenging road to REDD+ because of three general characteristics of forests under existing decentralized management regimes. First, these forests already accumulate biomass and, in some cases, generate leakage, which threatens to undercut REDD+ additionality. Second, these forests are many and small, which will drive up REDD+ transactions costs. Third, beyond the “conservation islands” represented by forests under decentralized management, processes of deforestation and forest degradation continue. Given these challenges, we argue that REDD+ efforts through decentralized forestry should be redirected from incentivizing further conservation of forests under existing decentralized management arrangements toward a push for extending the coverage of forests under decentralized management, making forest rights the hard currency of REDD+.

Assessing sustainable forest management under REDD +: A community-based labour perspective

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation plus (REDD+) encourages economic support for reducing deforestation and conserving or increasing existing forest carbon stocks. The way in which incentives are structured affects trade-offs between local livelihoods, carbon emission reduction, and the cost-effectiveness of a REDD+programme. Looking at first-hand empirical data from 208 farming households in the Bolivian Amazon from a household economy perspective, our study explores two policy options: 1) compensated reduction of emissions from old-growth forest clearing for agriculture, and 2) direct payments for labour input into sustainable forest management combined with a commitment not to clear old-growth forest. Our results indicate that direct payments for sustainable forest management – an approach that focuses on valuing farmers' labour input – can be more cost-effective than compensated reduction and in some cases is the most appropriate choice for achieving improved household incomes, permanence of changes, avoidance of leakages, and community-based institutional enforcement for sustainable forest management.

Emerging forest regimes and livelihoods in the Tano Offin Forest Reserve, Ghana: Implications for social safeguards

Greater attention for law enforcement resulting from new forest governance initiatives may make livelihoods of people living in or near protected areas in the tropics more vulnerable due to restricted access and competing claims. This paper aims to provide a deeper insight into the livelihoods of inhabitants of the Tano Offin Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA) in Ghana's high forest zone and how these are becoming under greater pressure. It assesses the governance implications of the implementation of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) under the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan of the European Union and projects within the framework of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation plus (REDD+), with a focus on the need for social safeguards. The study shows that the inhabitants of admitted villages in GSBAs already have few legal livelihood options due to restricted access to the forest, which results in competing claims among resource users and with forest managers. Stronger law enforcement resulting from the FLEGT/VPA to combat illegal logging and the Ghana Forestry Commission's consideration to include GSBAs in its REDD+programme is likely to further restrict inhabitants' access to forest resources, with the result being increasing competition for scarce resources. Social safeguards therefore need serious consideration when implementing new forest governance regimes. The authors argue that the politics of protected areas need to reconsider the position of the inhabitants by creating space to build a livelihood, paying them for taking care of nature or relocating them beyond the protected area. This might involve hard choices. What eventually is needed is a change towards interactive governance and adaptive co-management.

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation plus (REDD+) in the Philippines: will it make a difference in financing forest development?

There is a high level of interest in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation plus (REDD+) carbon (C) financing as a way to accelerate forest conservation and development. However, there is very limited information on the potential costs and benefits of REDD+ in developing countries like the Philippines. In this paper, we estimated the range of likely financial benefits of REDD+ implementation in the country under various forest degradation and mitigation scenarios. Our findings show that reducing the rate of forest degradation by a modest 5 to 15 % annually while increasing the doubling the rate of reforestation to 1.5 % annually could reduce C emissions by up to about 60 million t C by 2030. These are equivalent to US$ 97 to 417 million of mean C credits annually at US$ 5 per ton C. These figures are much higher than the total budget of the government and official development assistance for forestry activities in the country which amounted to US$ 46 million in 2005 and US$ 12 million in 2006, respectively. We conclude that REDD+ C credits could be a significant source of financing for forestry projects in developing countries like the Philippines.

REDD+ actor analysis and political mapping: an Indonesian case study

SUMMARY Forests are not empty. There are various rights and interest in forests as well as the people who live in and around forests. If the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation plus (REDD+) mechanism is to work unilaterally by state and overlook the role of various actors, then it is likely that REDD+ will fail. From our stakeholder analysis and political mapping in Jambi, a priority province for REDD+ implementation in Indonesia, we show that REDD+ actors with knowledge, power and leadership, can support or reject REDD+. Specifically, we discuss the implementation capacity and new directions in policy. The analysis also provides indications as to the readiness of Jambi to implement REDD+, who wins and loses in adopting REDD+ and intervention scenarios to make REDD+ work. The methods used in this study are general and could be implemented elsewhere in Indonesia or abroad.

Evaluating the impacts of REDD+ at subnational scales: are our frameworks and models good enough?

Globally, deforestation and forest and peatland degradation account for approximately 15% of total anthropogenic GHG emissions. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation Plus (REDD+) has been proposed as a cost-effective way of reducing this figure. However, while there has been much discussion on global institutional architectures required to channel international finance streams to individual countries, what has been largely missing from the debate so far has been how these benefits reaching the national level will be used to encourage change in behaviors at the local level. To devise appropriate policies to achieve this, it is necessary to understand the many factors that influence land use decisions, and also how they interact with each other and other sectors of the economy. In this paper, we discuss some of the frameworks and modeling approaches potentially suitable for analyzing the impacts of REDD+ benefits on reducing GHG emissions at subnational scales.