Can “fragile states” decide to reduce their deforestation? The inappropriate use of the theory of incentives with respect to the REDD mechanism

Karsenty, Alain; Ongolo, Symphorien

doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2011.05.006

Cited by 183 publications

(160 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…We compare Cameroon's 1994 forestry law reform and the current national REDD+ policy process in light of these preconditions, and adopt the same definition of transformational change as Di and Brockhaus and Angelsen (2012:16-17): "a shift in discourse, attitudes, power relations, and deliberate policy and protest action that leads policy formulation and implementation away from business as usual policy approaches that directly or indirectly support deforestation and forest degradation." http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol19/iss3/art30/ Autonomy, ownership, and inclusiveness Autonomy can be described as the ability of state actors to make decisions with a degree of independence from the sectors driving deforestation and forest degradation, and to withstand lobbying pressure, instead working for the interests of society as a whole (Di Gregorio et al 2012, Karsenty andOngolo 2012). We use the presence of collusion and corruption as negative indicators of autonomy, because these have been identified as major obstacles when developing and implementing REDD+ policies (Kanninen et al 2007).…”

Section: Theory and Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons for REDD+ from Cameroon's past forestry law reform: a political economy analysis

Dkamela¹,

Brockhaus²,

Djiegni³

et al. 2014

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks (REDD+) is gaining traction in Cameroon. However, given the deep-rooted trans-sectoral drivers of forest loss, enforcing REDD+ policies will require major policy change and reform both within and beyond the forestry sector. In this paper, we view the REDD+ policy arena in Cameroon within a political economy framework and conduct policy network analysis to explore the factors that will enable or hinder efforts to implement the broad policy change required to realize REDD+. As the REDD+ context is shaped by the history of Cameroon's forestry sector, we draw lessons for REDD+ from the forestry law reform undertaken in 1994. We focus our analysis on three factors considered necessary for REDD+ success: (i) autonomy of the nation state from interests behind deforestation and forest degradation, (ii) national ownership over reform processes, and (iii) inclusiveness of policy processes. We find that the REDD+ policy process in Cameroon is repeating the weaknesses of the earlier forestry law reform, as seen in the minimal ownership of REDD+ by national actor groups and low inclusiveness among domestic actors at both national and local levels, as well as the absence of a national coalition for REDD+. Furthermore, politics and private agendas are compromising state agencies' autonomy in making decisions about forest resources. Our findings suggest that responses to these weaknesses, as well as to inconsistencies between sectoral policies and to competition over forest resources, will determine whether REDD+ can induce change within and beyond Cameroon's forestry sector.

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Section: Theory and Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons for REDD+ from Cameroon's past forestry law reform: a political economy analysis

Dkamela¹,

Brockhaus²,

Djiegni³

et al. 2014

E&S

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“…Meanwhile, through the moratorium in the Cross River, REDD+ is reinforcing existing land and forest rights regimes that privilege state control [100,110,111]. Tenure complexities and lack of political will to implement significant tenure reforms has been one of the most widely reported challenge to REDD+ in Africa [86,[100][101][102] and elsewhere [88]. In the light of the political cost of tenure reform and the failure of REDD+ to incentivise real reform, there is a growing, if problematic, accommodation of intensified law enforcement, moratorium, and forest militarisation as "alternative policy options" for pursuing REDD+ [104].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As data from the Global Forest Watch show in Nigeria, deforestation had increased steadily since 2012, reaching a 14-year peak in 2014 --a period when the Anti-deforestation Task Force was most active [84]. Therefore, exclusionary policies (like the moratorium) which undermine local property rights also tend to exacerbate deforestation and degradation [85,86]. While some studies [87] claim that devolution of forest control may not necessarily lead to improved local and regional forest conditions, we argue that devolution also requires that we reframe such questions as: what constitutes forest improvement and who gets to define it?…”

Section: Defining Property Rightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

REDD+ in West Africa: Politics of Design and Implementation in Ghana and Nigeria

Asiyanbi¹,

Arhin²,

Isyaku³

2016

Preprint

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This paper analyses the design and implementation of REDD+ in the West African region, an important global biodiversity area. Drawing on in-depth interviews, analysis of policy documents and observation of everyday activities, we sought to understand how REDD+ has been designed and implemented in Nigeria and Ghana. We draw on tools from political ecology to examine how, and why REDD+ takes the form it does in these countries. We focus on three key dimensions that emerged as strong areas of common emphasis in our case studies --capacity building, carbon visibility, and property rights. First, we show that, while REDD+ design generally foregrounds an ostensible inclusionary politics, its implementation is driven through various forms of exclusion. This contradictory inclusion-exclusion politics, which is partly emblematic of the neoliberal provenance of the REDD+ policy, is also a contingent reality and a strategy for navigating complexities and pursuing certain interests. Second, we show that though the emergent foci of REDD+ implementation in our case studies align with global REDD+ expectations, they yet manifest as historically and geographically contingent processes that reflect negotiated and contested relations among actors that constitute the specific national circumstance of each country. We conclude by reflecting on the wider implications of these findings for understanding REDD+ implementation more broadly.

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“…Second, the provision of financial incentives not only to governments but also to other actors, avoids the national sovereignty concerns of past forest conservation initiatives that were criticised for imposing policy conditions on forested countries (Humphreys, 2006;Karsenty and Ongolo, 2012). In fact, since its first proposal in 2005, REDD+ has increasingly been seen as one of the components for a comprehensive global agreement on addressing climate change.…”

Section: What Are the Defining Features Of Contemporary Internationalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and deforestation: The evolution of an intersecting policy domain

Buizer

Humphreys

Jong

2014

Environmental Science & Policy

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Forests and climate change are increasingly dealt with as interconnected policy issues. Both the potential synergies and policy conflicts between forest conservation and restoration and climate change mitigation now receive sustained and high level attention from academic, policy analysis and practitioner communities across the globe. Arguably the most pronounced contemporary policy manifestation of this is the debate on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (or REDD+) by which governments and private investors from developed countries may compensate actors in tropical forest countries for reducing forest loss beneath an agreed baseline. Problems of climate-forest policies implementation and governance, however, can also be found in countries such as Canada, the USA, the UK and Australia. The future of instruments like REDD+ is uncertain with growing critiques on payment and performance-based mechanisms and unresolved issues of governance, government and accountability. This paper, and the special issue it introduces, illustrates that in the REDD+ debate many contentious issues have resurfaced from past debates. These issues include the participation and rights of local communities in forest policy and management; the relationship between internationally agreed payment and performance-based programmes and formal democratic decision-making processes and structures; the complexities of rights to carbon versus tenure rights; and the ways in which -in spite of the high expectations of both developing and developed countries to combat carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation through the REDD+ mechanism -effective climate-focused forestry policies are seldom found in most tropical forest-rich countries. REDD+ is now very much the dominant discourse at the forest-climate interface, and one with a primary focus on measurability to communicate carbon mitigation results across various levels. However, this serves to disperse and displace, rather than resolve, policy-making on non-carbon values.

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Can “fragile states” decide to reduce their deforestation? The inappropriate use of the theory of incentives with respect to the REDD mechanism

Cited by 183 publications

References 15 publications

Lessons for REDD+ from Cameroon's past forestry law reform: a political economy analysis

Lessons for REDD+ from Cameroon's past forestry law reform: a political economy analysis

REDD+ in West Africa: Politics of Design and Implementation in Ghana and Nigeria

Climate change and deforestation: The evolution of an intersecting policy domain

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