Multilevel governance challenges in transitioning towards a national approach for REDD+:Evidence from 23 subnational REDD+ initiatives

Although REDD+ was conceived as a national approach to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, many of the early advances have been at the subnational level. It is critical to link these subnational efforts to emerging national REDD+ frameworks, including with respect to finance and benefit distribution, setting reference levels, measurement, reporting and verification (MRV), land policy and safeguards. We use evidence from interviews with proponents from 23 subnational REDD+ initiatives in six countries to characterize the multilevel governance challenges for REDD+. We analyse the differences in perceived challenges between subnational jurisdictional programs and project-based initiatives, and then analyse proponents’ perceptions of the relationship between government policies at multiple levels and these REDD+ initiatives. We find important multilevel governance challenges related to vertical coordination and information sharing and horizontal and inter-sectoral tensions, as well as concerns over accountability, equity and justice. Though the shift to a nested, jurisdictional or national REDD+ is sometimes approached as a technical design issue, this must be accompanied by an understanding of the interests and power relations among actors at different levels. We outline challenges and suggest priority areas for future research and policy, as countries move towards a national REDD+ system

The great mimicker “Burkholderia cepacia”: A case of intra-abdominal abscesses

Burkholderia cepacia infections are underreported and often seen in immunocompromised or cystic fibrosis patients. We describe a case of intra-abdominal abscesses and bacteraemia due to Burkholderia cepacia in a non-cystic fibrosis patient. A middle aged farmer with uncontrolled diabetes presented with 1 month of fever, abdominal pain, anorexia and weight loss. Examination revealed hepatosplenomegaly. Imaging showed multiple abscesses in liver and spleen. Burkholderia cepacia grew in the blood cultures. Patient showed clinical and radiological resolution post treatment with meropenem and subsequently co-trimoxazole. Clinicians' awareness, targeted investigations and early therapeutic intervention are essential for diagnosis and management of Burkholderia cepacia infections

Drivers of adaptation: Responses to weather- and climate-related hazards in 60 local governments in the Intermountain Western U.S.

Cities are key sites of action for adaptation to climate change. However, there are a wide variety of responses to hazards at the municipal level. Why do communities take adaptive action in the face of weather- and climate-related risk? We studied what cities are doing in response to existing natural hazards, such as floods, droughts, and blizzards as an analog for understanding the drivers of adaptive behavior toward climate change risks. We conducted a survey of 60 U.S. municipalities followed by six in-depth case studies in the intermountain west states of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah that regularly experience weather and climate extreme events. Our analysis shows that perception of risk and external factors such as planning requirements and availability of funding stand out as important drivers. Nevertheless, political action is rarely driven by a single factor or event. Overall, our results suggest that multiple factors interact or act in combination to produce an enabling environment for action in the face of weather- and climate-related risk

Messiness of forest governance:How technical approaches suppress politics in REDD+ and conservation projects

Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) was originally conceived to address the global problem of climate change by reducing deforestation and forest degradation at national and subnational levels in developing countries. Since its inception, REDD+ proponents have increasingly had to adapt global ideas to local demands, as the rollout process was met with on-the-ground realities, including suspicion and protest. As is typical in aid or ‘development’ projects conceived in the global North, most of the solutions advanced to improve REDD+ tend to focus on addressing issues of justice (or ‘fairness’) in distributive terms, rather than addressing more inherently political objections to REDD+ such as those based on rights or social justice. Using data collected from over 700 interviews in five countries with both REDD+ and non-REDD+ cases, we argue that the failure to incorporate political notions of justice into conservation projects such as REDD+ results in ‘messiness’ within governance systems, which is a symptom of injustice and illegitimacy. We find that, first, conservation, payment for ecosystem services, and REDD+ project proponents viewed problems through a technical rather than political lens, leading to solutions that focused on procedures, such as ‘benefit distribution.’ Second, focusing on the technical aspects of interventions came at the expense of political solutions such as the representation of local people's concerns and recognition of their rights. Third, the lack of attention to representation and recognition justices resulted in illegitimacy. This led to messiness in the governance systems, which was often addressed in technical terms, thereby perpetuating the problem. If messiness is not appreciated and addressed from appropriate notions of justice, projects such as REDD+ are destined to fail

Inequality and Institutions as Joint Drivers of Forest Governance Outcomes: Evidence from the Bolivian Lowlands

This dissertation investigates how (a) economic, land-based, and sociocultural heterogeneities among those who depend on the forest for their livelihoods, and (b) the institutions that govern how forest resources are managed, jointly shape forest governance outcomes. The first chapter introduces the overall argument of the dissertation, and outlines its structure. The second chapter presents a systematic review of relevant literature. The third chapter presents an analysis of county level data to test multiple hypotheses about the roles of income and land-based inequality in driving forest outcomes. I find that economic inequality and land inequality tend to adversely affect forest governance outcomes, as has been found in the literature. However, the Bolivian data also reveals a novel finding: titling appears to moderate the adverse effect of economic inequality on forest condition change. The fourth chapter assesses the different flavors of inequality and heterogeneity at the community level, through a comparative case study of two Bolivian lowlands communities. I make the case that while titling and economic inequality may have a mutually moderated effect, as found in the second chapter, the situation is actually more complex; titling is not a panacea for good forest governance. In particular, I argue that network-based inequality, wherein actors without strong connections to powerful actors receive fewer benefits and have much less decision-making authority than others, is a proximate driver of forest governance outcomes. In the fifth chapter, institutional design is assessed as a driver of forest governance outcomes, and moreover as a likely mitigating factor for network-based inequality. Several specific hypotheses are posited from this analysis. The hypotheses generated from the comparative institutional analysis of the two Bolivian communities are then tested using municipal data from Bolivia. I find that institutional redundancy and multiple loci of governance in forests are associated with better forest outcomes. However, I fail to find support for the hypothesis that institutional redundancy and polycentric governance bolster the de facto enforcement of de jure property rights; further directions for study are therefore suggested

Can conservation funding be left to carbon finance? : Evidence from participatory future land use scenarios in Peru, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Mexico

Revenues derived from carbon have been seen as an important tool for supporting forest conservation over the past decade. At the same time, there is high uncertainty about how much revenue can reasonably be expected from land use emissions reductions initiatives. Despite this uncertainty, REDD+ projects and conservation initiatives that aim to take advantage of available or, more commonly, future funding from carbon markets have proliferated. This study used participatory multi-stakeholder workshops to develop divergent future scenarios of land use in eight landscapes in four countries around the world: Peru, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Mexico. The results of these future scenario building exercises were analyzed using a new tool, CarboScen, for calculating the landscape carbon storage implications of different future land use scenarios. The findings suggest that potential revenues from carbon storage or emissions reductions are significant in some landscapes (most notably the peat forests of Indonesia), and much less significant in others (such as the low-carbon forests of Zanzibar and the interior of Tanzania). The findings call into question the practicality of many conservation programs that hinge on expectations of future revenue from carbon finance. The future scenarios-based approach is useful to policy-makers and conservation program developers in distinguishing between landscapes where carbon finance can substantially support conservation, and landscapes where other strategies for conservation and land use should be prioritized.Peer reviewe

Benefit sharing in context: a comparative analysis of 10 land-use change case studies in Indonesia

Key points • In the absence of robust national or subnational policies for benefit sharing, land-use change initiatives in Indonesia have developed their own approaches to distributing benefits. At the local level, support and capacity building are needed to strengthen intermediary institutions in order to improve governance and increase legitimacy when deciding how to share benefits. • Nonmonetary benefits such as land tenure, capacity building, infrastructure and access to natural resources have been especially important. However, in some cases there are nonmonetary burdens associated with intended benefits. • The legitimacy of benefit-sharing arrangements is determined more by the actors involved than the type of land- use change associated with them. Conservation initiatives, REDD+ projects and oil palm initiatives all exhibited both high and low levels of legitimacy in their benefit-sharing arrangements. • The legitimacy of benefit-sharing arrangements can be compromised by the lack of broad consultation with local actors including customary authorities, lack of community control over access to land and limited livelihoods options for communities

A new approach to conservation: using community empowerment for sustainable well-being

The global environmental conservation community recognizes that the participation of local communities is essential for the success of conservation initiatives; however, much work remains to be done on how to integrate conservation and human well-being. We propose that an assets-based approach to environmental conservation and human well-being, which is grounded in a biocultural framework, can support sustainable and adaptive management of natural resources by communities in regions adjacent to protected areas. We present evidence from conservation and quality of life initiatives led by the Field Museum of Natural History over the past 17 years in the Peruvian Amazon. Data were derived from asset mapping in 37 communities where rapid inventories were conducted and from 38 communities that participated in longer term quality of life planning. Our main findings are that Amazonian communities have many characteristics, or assets, that recent scholarship has linked to environmental sustainability and good natural resource stewardship, and that quality of life plans that are based on these assets tend to produce priorities that are more consistent with environmental conservation. Importantly, we found that validating social and ecological assets through our approach can contribute to the creation of protected areas and to their long-term management. As strategies to engage local communities in conservation expand, research on how particular methodologies, such as an assets-based approach, is needed to determine how these initiatives can best empower local communities, how they can be improved, and how they can most effectively be linked to broader conservation and development processes

Taking Stock of Carbon Rights in REDD+ Candidate Countries: Concept Meets Reality

In the discourses on who should benefit from national REDD+ implementation, rights-based approaches are prominent across various countries. Options on how to create viable property rights arrangements are currently being debated by scholars, policy makers and practitioners alike. Many REDD+ advocates argue that assigning carbon rights represents a solution to insecure individual and community property rights. But carbon rights, i.e., the bundle of legal rights to carbon sequestered in biomass, present their own set of theoretical and practical challenges. We assess the status and approaches chosen in emerging carbon-rights legislations in five REDD+ countries based on a literature review and country expert knowledge: Peru, Brazil, Cameroon, Vietnam and Indonesia. We find that most countries assessed have not yet made final decisions as to the type of benefit sharing mechanisms they intend to implement and that there is a lack of clarity about who owns rights to carbon as a property and who is entitled to receive benefits. However, there is a trend of linking carbon rights to land rights. As such, the technical and also political challenges that land tenure clarification has faced over the past decades will still need to be addressed in the context of carbon rights