Implementing REDD+ at the local level: Assessing the key enablers for credible mitigation and sustainable livelihood outcomes

Achieving cost-effective mitigation and sustainable livelihoods through reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) depends heavily on the local context within which REDD+projects are implemented. Studies have focused on how REDD+can benefit or harm local people, with little attention paid to how people, their assets and institutions can promote or impede REDD+. This paper examines the key local assets necessary for REDD+to protect forests and support local livelihoods based on evidence from a globally-linked REDD+project in Kenya. Household interviews (n=100), focus group discussions (n=6) and in-depth interviews with government (n=8) and project stakeholders (n=14) were undertaken to rank and explain how local assets interact with the project's efforts to protect forests, and the role of State institutions in shaping project-asset interactions. Locally, pro-poor assets such as land tenure and water access had most influence on the project's ability to protect forests. Inclusion of communal forests as part of the REDD+project entitled local poor peasant farmers to participate in and benefit from the project and so dissuaded them from using protected forests for charcoal production. Water access determined agricultural productivity and intensity of forest use for livelihoods and coping. Even though carbon revenues were distributed equally between social groups and support directed to pro-poor livelihood initiatives, efforts were impeded by State decisions on land that interfered with communal approaches to forest conservation, by strict carbon standards that limited trade-offs between livelihoods and forest protection and by fluctuating carbon prices and buyers that limited funds needed for project operations and local livelihoods. Equitable and pro-poor benefit sharing are necessary but not sufficient for effective REDD+implementation unless national institutions are reformed and global carbon pricing harmonized with local livelihood needs

Implementing REDD+ in the context of integrated conservation and development projects: leveraging empirical lessons

There are diverse lessons that subnational projects designed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) should learn from integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) working in developing country settings. This paper develops and applies a lesson learning framework to identify and analyse lessons that the Kasigau REDD+ project learns from a governmental ICDP (national park) and a nongovernmental ICDP (World Vision) that have been implemented in Taita-Taveta county, Kenya. Fieldwork and document reviews revealed 24 lessons drawn from both positive and negative ICDP experiences. At the design level, the REDD+ project maintained the commonly critiqued top-down intervening approach as used by the ICDPs, by excluding community input into its globally-linked design. At the implementation level, the REDD+ project promoted better community representation in project decisions and benefit sharing when compared to the ICDPs. A landscape approach, democratic institutional choices and pro-poor benefit sharing were the key interventions that enabled the REDD+ project to improve on the ICDP experiences. The usefulness of the ICDP experiences was however weakened by a lack of lesson sharing between projects. The REDD+ project relied mainly on the local community to communicate their ICDP experiences, but this led to partial implementation deficits because it promoted local participation interests over global mitigation goals. Further, community-driven lesson learning appeared to disconnect the project from State institutions. The community had negative perceptions of State involvement but at the same time the State is the legal custodian of most assets (such as land) required for REDD+ implementation. ICDP lessons are therefore necessary for effective REDD+ implementation but can only be useful if the process of adopting lessons is cognisant of relevant stakeholders such as the State

Implementing REDD+ : learning from forest conservation policy and social safeguards frameworks in Cameroon

In the past a wide spectrum of conservation strategies has been used to manage forests and recently a country-driven policy instrument known as REDD+ has been proposed as a new tool for forest protection. This paper reviews a set of Cameroon policy instruments alongside 86 relevant publications in the conservation area to feed the existing REDD+ debate. Two specific shortcomings are identified: (1) incoherence between existing forestry policy instruments with regard to community forest concept and REDD+ rules and (2) locally over-constraining approaches used in forest management which would provide guidelines and caution about the REDD+ implementation. These shortcomings, if not considered, may lead to ineffectiveness of emission reduction programs as well as to social disconnection at the local level. This means that effective implementation of REDD+ will require further policy actions mainly dealing with actors' consents within developed equitable instruments while setting up efficient conflict management systems