REDD+ Governance

NEW YORK (24 January 2010)—A new study issued today by some of the world's top experts on forest governance finds fault with a spate of international accords, and helps explain their failure to stop rampant destruction of the world's most vulnerable forests. The report suggests that global efforts have too often ignored local needs, while failing to address the most fundamental challenge to global forest management—that deforestation usually is caused by economic pressures imposed from outside the forests.

REDD has the potential for creating serious inter-community conflicts that could ignite explosive violence among tribes that have historically been antagonistic. Many tribal communities in heavily populated tropical countries have disputes with neighboring communities over control over forests that have remained largely un-demarcated. Fights over these ‘disputed’ lands have been contained because of low economic value of these forest lands. This is now set to change because the compensation under REDD Plus is expected to be large.  Once intercommunity disputes among tribes begin it is very difficult to stop them. The most efficient, and just, way of preventing such conflicts is to ensure that the approach to REDD Plus becomes activity oriented rather than compensation oriented with the largest share of REDD funds reaching as wages for the tasks carried out to those members of the neighbouring communities who actively work to meet the REDD objectives. The REDD funds must be utilized in carrying out REDD activities, not disbursed among claimants.

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Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD): A Guide for Landowners and Forest Communities in the Pacific

Daniel Slunge, Policy Analyst at the Environmental Economics Unit, University of Gothenburg, was invited speaker at the second Conference on Environmental Governance and Democracy: Strengthening Institutions to Address Climate Change and Advance a Green Economy, organized by the United Nation