Abstract:The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program, or REDD+, has been the international community's first real attempt to create a global forest governance system which would impact countries on national, regional and even local scales. This paper provides an in-depth analysis on the impact of REDD+ on forest-dependent communities. The dimensions which are included in this review are institutions and governance, livelihoods, socio-cultural aspects, and the environment. Many studies confirm that forest-dependent communities are not sufficiently involved in current REDD+ projects. Furthermore, current and potential impacts of REDD+ on communities often disrupt local peoples' livelihoods and strategies, institutions and socio-cultural systems in various ways, such as unequal benefit sharing, food insecurity, introduction of new powerful stakeholders, illegal land acquisition, unfair free prior and informed consent, and the introduction of monoculture plantations. REDD+ is also perceived as a neoliberal mechanism which renegotiates peoples' relationship with the natural environment by monetizing nature. The paper concludes with a framework which addresses the potential drivers and threats of REDD+ concerning forest-dependent communities based on the literature review. This framework suggests a holistic approach to REDD+ implementation, which incorporates forest-dependent communities' often complex relationship with the natural environment, such as incorporation of traditional forest management systems and provision of viable alternatives to loss of agricultural land.

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The Forest Land Allocation (FLA) program was introduced by the Vietnamese government in 1991 and it allowed communities, household groups and households to receive forest land for long term use (50 years). The main assumption of this program was that with ownership, households would have greater incentives to preserve forests. But the State, through its formal agencies, still decides how the forests will be used and managed. There have been unintended socio-cultural consequences of this program affecting Vietnam's forest-dependent indigenous communities. The study focused on two Co Tu villages in Central Vietnam. Their livelihoods and their culture, institutions, social life, customs, and religious beliefs are linked to surrounding forests. The FLA program has altered the traditional forest management practices and systems of the Co Tu people, as well as their traditional institutions, particularly the role of the village patriarch, and to a lesser extent their perceptions of 'nature'. The FLA program has consolidated the power of formal institutions in both villages.Keywords: Forest Land Allocation program, Indigenous forest management systems, Co Tu people of Central Vietnam, socio-cultural impact of development interventions, nature conservation, paradigms of nature.

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Mitigating climate change requires collective action of various sectors and on multiple scales, including individual behavioural changes among citizens. Although numerous studies have examined factors that influence individuals' mitigation behaviours, much less attention has been given to interpersonal influence. Children have been suggested to influence parents' climate change concerns; however, how the interactions between couples-typically the primary decision-makers in marriedcouple households-influence each other's climate change concerns has seldom been discussed. In this study, we surveyed married heterosexual couples to investigate the interdependency of husbands' and wives' motivations for behavioural change to mitigate climate change. We found that wives' psychological constructs, including climate change risk perception, self-efficacy, and gender role attitudes, demonstrated stronger effects on their husbands' motivation than did husbands' own constructs on their own motivation, whereas husbands' psychological constructs did not influence their wives' motivation. Our results suggest the importance of wives' role in motivating household climate change mitigation behaviours.

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Currently, many studies on benefit sharing mechanisms (BSM) and the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation programme (REDD+) focus on poverty alleviation and livelihood development. However, relatively few studies incorporate an integrated livelihood framework. This study employs the sustainable livelihoods framework to assess the impact of BSM in Vietnam. The lessons learned could be used in creating social safeguards for REDD+. The communities in Central Vietnam involved in BSM were impacted by the programme on various dimensions. These dimensions, expressed in different types of capital, are interconnected and contribute to a person's well-being. While the communities have restricted access to their natural forests, they benefited in terms of income diversification, knowledge improvement and network expansion. On the other hand, they faced food insecurity, they were more vulnerable to natural hazards, and their human, social and cultural capital faced risk of deterioration.

Scientists and the media are increasingly using the terms ‘climate emergency’ or ‘climate crisis’ to urge timely responses from the public and private sectors to combat the irreversible consequences of climate change. However, whether the latest trend in climate change labelling can result in stronger climate change risk perceptions in the public is unclear. Here we used survey data collected from 1,892 individuals across Taiwan in 2019 to compare the public’s reaction to a series of questions regarding climate change beliefs, communication, and behavioural intentions under two labels: ‘climate change’ and ‘climate crisis.’ The respondents had very similar responses to the questions using the two labels. However, we observed labelling effects for specific subgroups, with some questions using the climate crisis label actually leading to backlash effects compared with the response when using the climate change label. Our results suggest that even though the two labels provoke similar reactions from the general public, on a subgroup level, some backlash effects may become apparent. For this reason, the label ‘climate crisis’ should be strategically chosen.