REDD+ crossroads post Paris: Politics, lessons and interplays

Esteve Corbera, Heike Schroeder

Research output: Contribution to journalEditorialpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)
13 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article introduces the special issue “REDD+ crossroads post Paris: politics, lessons and interplays”. The contributions to the special issue demonstrate, first, that REDD+ design in the studied countries has generally lacked social legitimacy and sidelined key actors that have an important role in shaping land-use sector dynamics. Second, they show that REDD+ early actions have tended to oversimplify local realities and have been misaligned with other policy goals and local needs. Third, REDD+ efforts have remained constrained to the forestry or climate mitigation policy sectors and have thus suffered from a lack of harmonization across local, national and international concerns, specifically of contradictory policy. As REDD+ moves from its preparedness to its implementation phase, more research efforts should be aimed at analysing the power relations that underpin and determine the design and implementation of REDD+ policies and actions, the potential for and limits to the vertical and horizontal harmonization of land-use policies and management, and the processes of resistance to or accommodation of REDD+ practices on the ground. In doing so, we advocate for multi-and transdisciplinary research that does not take for granted the benefits of REDD+ and which critically scrutinizes the multiple goals of this ambitious international policy framework, and where it sits within the broader Paris Agreement implementation agenda.

Original languageEnglish
Article number508
JournalForests
Volume8
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Dec 2017

Keywords

  • Climate change
  • Conflict
  • Environmental governance
  • Politics
  • REDD+

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