The Pluriversality of Efforts to Reduce Deforestation in Brazil over the Past Decade: An Analysis of Policy Actors’ Perceptions

Abstract

Brazil offers a complex and unique example of tropical landscapes. The country has considerably decreased deforestation since 2004, but Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is arguably under question, both as a concept and as a tool to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as deforestation levels have increased over the last five years. This article investigates how different policy actors have perceived REDD+ over time, how they have engaged in REDD+ efforts over the past decade, and how REDD+ implementation in Brazil should move forward accordingly. We analyzed qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and actors’ “stances”, i.e., their positions—with regards to key issues connected to REDD+ governance and its challenges—over three different time periods (Phase 1: 2010–2011, Phase 2: 2015–2016, and Phase 3: 2019), so as to identify the practical implications of these diverse interpretations. We argue that the way actors perceive REDD+ is intimately related to the way they interpret and assign meanings towards it and, in consequence, the way they coordinate REDD+-related practices and efforts. We focus on the link between perceptions and efforts so as to comprehend the relevance that different interpretations have to both the concept and implementation of REDD+ in Brazil. Our analysis concentrates on the potential to improve the coordination and integration of REDD+ implementation and diverse actors’ efforts with regards to REDD+ activities. Results suggest that actors’ perceptions of REDD+ generated a plurality of meanings, highlighting a range of dialectical and ontological interactions that have, in turn, resulted in multiple REDD+ interpretations. Findings highlight that different actors have the same interests when it comes to their organizational efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, suggesting that there is room for a better coordination of efforts towards this end, as well as increased collaboration.

The forest frontier in the Global South: Climate change policies and the promise of development and equity

“…Such powerful actors and alliances dominate the frontier dynamics, undermine local agency, and depoliticise forests by rendering the problem of deforestation a technical one (Li 2007 ; Peluso and Vandergeest 2020 ). Case 1 in particular highlights these processes, with analysis from Indonesia showing how forest-based mitigation was initially linked to large political change but is now reduced to a technical project (Moeliono et al 2020 ), or in Brazil, where interests in keeping forest standing has been shifted over time towards restoration interests linked to intensified biomass production (Gebara et al 2020 ). Simultaneously to these power relations of domination and oppression, visible in all cases presented in this paper, power struggles take place within localities, among farmers and herders struggling over access to resources and between state and citizens with diverse and conflicting visions of future development (cases 2 and 3).…”

Multivocal Critical Qualitative Inquiry as an Avenue for Public Policy

“…Reflecting on defining MCQI as a “making-with” form of political research is an indispensable methodology for creating collective imagination and organizational structures to work toward public policies that integrate sympoiesis and multiversality as basic. Gebara et al (2020), for instance, conducted a qualitative analysis of data produced over a decade around different meanings, that is, MCQI as to how political actors (government, private sector, influential politicians, national and international NGOs, research institutions, foreign government agencies and hybrid/multi-stakeholder groups) perceived the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) plan employed in Brazil. Examples like this one show how an MCQI is complex, multi-layered and entangled political intervention.…”

Private sector perception of reducing deforestation in brazil: analysis of challenges from 2010 to 2019

“…This is because the selection of an intervention is a highly complex, contingent, and sometimes self-dynamic political process, and decision-makers are faced with a choice of measures (Böcher & Toller 2003). Perceptions therefore contribute to ongoing discussions about the nature of political attitudes towards REDD+, which is particularly relevant when dealing with a multi-faceted policy intervention such as REDD+ , Gebara et al 2020. Fujisaki et al (2016) also suggest that those affected by REDD+ should have their voices heard in decision-making processes.…”

“…Thus, the Brazilian government made three government plans as the centerpiece for the implementation of REDD+ nationwide: i) the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm), ii) the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation and Fires in the Brazilian Cerrado (PPCerrado), and iii) the Plan for Low Carbon Agriculture (ABC). In addition, the National Policy for Climate Change (NPCC) and the 2012 Forest Code are the two guiding umbrella frameworks for REDD+ implementation in the country (Gebara et al 2020). The ENREDD+ is being developed based on three pillars: (i) coordination of public policies on climate change, biodiversity and forests, including safeguards; (ii) monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of results; and (iii) collection and distribution of payments for REDD+ results.…”