Grassroots capacity building for REDD+: lessons from Nepal

Meaningful engagement and effective participation of grassroots stakeholders and forest managing communities in national policy formulation and local institutional processes for forest management have implications for the future global climate regime and poverty reduction among forestdependent poor. In this context, the institutional and technical capacity of grassroots stakeholders is critical in ensuring effective and successful implementation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, including Conservation and Sustainable Management of Forests and Enhancement of Forest Carbon Stocks (REDD+). Capacity building for grassroots stakeholders is particularly crucial as REDD+ has to be implemented in a complex local environment shaped by multiple land use systems, sharply divided politics, conflicting policies, different levels of forest dependencies, complex social relations, unclear governance and tenure structures and differential climate impacts. It has been learned from the grassroots capacity building programme that there is a need of partnership and collaboration between grassroots stakeholders to build capacity for fighting against climate change at local level. However, there is no ‘one size fits all’ formula for capacity building, partnership and collaboration. Multi-pronged and multi-scale capacity strengthening strategies that draw on the strengths of various learning methods and address the unique needs of targeted stakeholders would be effective. These would/should always be target-driven, addressing the specific needs and conditions of stakeholders, and reflecting their sustainable development strategies, priorities and initiatives. There is still a need to re-orient and strengthen the capacity of the key stakeholders of REDD+ in Nepal so that they can better analyse and understand their own carbon forestry conditions and develop strategies to get more benefits from the REDD+ scheme

Grassroots capacity development for REDD+: approaches and key lessons from Nepal [Policy brief]

Key Messages: • Using the cascade approach for capacity development on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has been proved to be a successful way to reach out to a large number of grassroots stakeholders in a cost effective manner. • Establishing collaborative arrangements with local partner organizations, including government agencies can mobilize grassroots and relevant stakeholders in understanding and planning for effective climate change mitigation strategies. • Integrating of local and indigenous wisdom with scientific knowledge helps to internalize and collectively respond to the challenges of climate change. • Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are multiple and go beyond subsistence use of forest resources, and therefore REDD+ capacity development efforts should also go much beyond forestry sector stakeholders

Governance for REDD+, forest management and biodiversity: existing approaches and future options

This chapter examines the evolution of REDD+ governance and identifies policy options to increase synergies among REDD+, the sustainable management of forests and biodiversity conservation. REDD+ emerged at the international level as a point of convergemnce acorss the 'institutional complexes' of forests, climate and biodiversity. This convergence attracted the engagement of a wide range of institutions in REDD+ activities, which together have drawn on three primary sources of authority to influence REDD+ rule-making: government sovereignty, contingent finance and voluntary carbon markets. Intergovernmental processes, which represent the primary articulation of governmental authority at the global level, have generated few binding commitments to the sustainable management of forests or biodiversity due to conflicting country interests. These efforts instead have favoured normative guidance, monitoring and reporting, and legality verification initiatives that reinforce sovereign authority. Bilateral and multi-lateral finance initiatives have exerted ‘fund-based’ authority through the application of operational safeguards protecting indigenous and local communities and biodiversity, but limited funding and low capacity of REDD+ countries to absorb those funds have constrained their influence. Finally, non-state actors have developed voluntary certification schemes for forest and carbon as a ’fast track’ approach to elaborating more substantive international standards for environmentally- and socially-responsible forest practices. While the small size and voluntary nature of markets for forest carbon have greatly constrained the impact of these approaches, this could change if a significant regulatory market for REDD+ develops. Furthermore, the governance of REDD+, forest management and biodiversity is pluralistic, involving multiple institutions and actors. Efforts to promote REDD+ safeguarding at the international level exist in tension with national sovereignty and local autonomy. This complexity is taken into consideration in the suite of policy options provided in this chapter, which suggest the need to draw on a range of institutions and approaches and to consider how together they influence the balance of power and incentives across actors and scales