REDD+ in Theory and Practice: How Lessons From Local Projects Can Inform Jurisdictional Approaches
Local projects for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) were frequently designed as pilot actions to inform future upscaled initiatives. Drawing lessons from these project experiences may thus help improve the design of jurisdictional programs, which is the focus of R...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | Inglés |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media
2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/112495 |
| _version_ | 1855543121818943488 |
|---|---|
| author | Wunder, Sven Duchelle, Amy E. Sassi, Claudio de Sills, E.O. Simonet, G. Sunderlin, W.D. |
| author_browse | Duchelle, Amy E. Sassi, Claudio de Sills, E.O. Simonet, G. Sunderlin, W.D. Wunder, Sven |
| author_facet | Wunder, Sven Duchelle, Amy E. Sassi, Claudio de Sills, E.O. Simonet, G. Sunderlin, W.D. |
| author_sort | Wunder, Sven |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Local projects for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) were frequently designed as pilot actions to inform future upscaled initiatives. Drawing lessons from these project experiences may thus help improve the design of jurisdictional programs, which is the focus of REDD+ implementation in the Paris Agreement. Here we first scrutinize how REDD+ was historically conceptualized, the most prominent model being that of a multitier payments for environmental services (PES) scheme of “passing on” carbon mitigation responsibilities and credits across scales, from international buyers to forestland owners. Then we analyze two REDD+ project databases, ID-RECCO and GCS-REDD, using principal component and regression analysis. Among 226 conservation-oriented REDD+ projects, only 88 had planned conditional incentives to landowners—the key feature of PES. Intentions to apply PES rose after 2007, and correlate strongly with efforts to seek certification, including as a benefit-sharing strategy, and with carbon sales. Zooming closer into a portfolio of 23 local REDD+ projects that were actually implemented on the ground, we found project implementers reported conditional incentives as potentially being both the most promising and effective intervention. Likewise, treated households identified conditional incentives as comparatively effective in changing their land-use plans, while also providing above-average welfare returns. Still, these conditional incentives remained underutilized in implementation, with only one-third of the treatment intensity compared to non-conditional incentives. Project implementers cited insecure land tenure and uncertain REDD+ financial flows as key impediments to using conditional incentives. The original vision of a multitier PES model for REDD+ thus ran into both supply and demand side problems, jointly explaining the discrepancy between REDD+ theory and practice. Since jurisdictional approaches to REDD+ so far also receive only hesitant and slow climate financing flows, coming mostly in non-conditional form, and operate under forest-frontier governance with similar tenure restrictions, jurisdictions would seem well-advised to plan for conditional landowner incentives only in scenarios where the preconditions for PES are met. Implementers of jurisidictional approaches may also want to avoid conceptualizing their new model too narrowly and prescriptively, as was arguably the case with the conceptualization of REDD+ as a multitier PES scheme. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace112495 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media |
| publisherStr | Frontiers Media |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1124952025-12-08T10:29:22Z REDD+ in Theory and Practice: How Lessons From Local Projects Can Inform Jurisdictional Approaches Wunder, Sven Duchelle, Amy E. Sassi, Claudio de Sills, E.O. Simonet, G. Sunderlin, W.D. deforestation degradation climate change Local projects for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) were frequently designed as pilot actions to inform future upscaled initiatives. Drawing lessons from these project experiences may thus help improve the design of jurisdictional programs, which is the focus of REDD+ implementation in the Paris Agreement. Here we first scrutinize how REDD+ was historically conceptualized, the most prominent model being that of a multitier payments for environmental services (PES) scheme of “passing on” carbon mitigation responsibilities and credits across scales, from international buyers to forestland owners. Then we analyze two REDD+ project databases, ID-RECCO and GCS-REDD, using principal component and regression analysis. Among 226 conservation-oriented REDD+ projects, only 88 had planned conditional incentives to landowners—the key feature of PES. Intentions to apply PES rose after 2007, and correlate strongly with efforts to seek certification, including as a benefit-sharing strategy, and with carbon sales. Zooming closer into a portfolio of 23 local REDD+ projects that were actually implemented on the ground, we found project implementers reported conditional incentives as potentially being both the most promising and effective intervention. Likewise, treated households identified conditional incentives as comparatively effective in changing their land-use plans, while also providing above-average welfare returns. Still, these conditional incentives remained underutilized in implementation, with only one-third of the treatment intensity compared to non-conditional incentives. Project implementers cited insecure land tenure and uncertain REDD+ financial flows as key impediments to using conditional incentives. The original vision of a multitier PES model for REDD+ thus ran into both supply and demand side problems, jointly explaining the discrepancy between REDD+ theory and practice. Since jurisdictional approaches to REDD+ so far also receive only hesitant and slow climate financing flows, coming mostly in non-conditional form, and operate under forest-frontier governance with similar tenure restrictions, jurisdictions would seem well-advised to plan for conditional landowner incentives only in scenarios where the preconditions for PES are met. Implementers of jurisidictional approaches may also want to avoid conceptualizing their new model too narrowly and prescriptively, as was arguably the case with the conceptualization of REDD+ as a multitier PES scheme. 2020-02-21 2021-03-08T08:34:47Z 2021-03-08T08:34:47Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/112495 en Open Access Frontiers Media Wunder, S. Duchelle, A.E. de Sassi, C. Sills, E.O. Simonet, G. Sunderlin, W.D. 2020. REDD+ in Theory and Practice: How Lessons From Local Projects Can Inform Jurisdictional Approaches. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 3 : 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2020.00011 |
| spellingShingle | deforestation degradation climate change Wunder, Sven Duchelle, Amy E. Sassi, Claudio de Sills, E.O. Simonet, G. Sunderlin, W.D. REDD+ in Theory and Practice: How Lessons From Local Projects Can Inform Jurisdictional Approaches |
| title | REDD+ in Theory and Practice: How Lessons From Local Projects Can Inform Jurisdictional Approaches |
| title_full | REDD+ in Theory and Practice: How Lessons From Local Projects Can Inform Jurisdictional Approaches |
| title_fullStr | REDD+ in Theory and Practice: How Lessons From Local Projects Can Inform Jurisdictional Approaches |
| title_full_unstemmed | REDD+ in Theory and Practice: How Lessons From Local Projects Can Inform Jurisdictional Approaches |
| title_short | REDD+ in Theory and Practice: How Lessons From Local Projects Can Inform Jurisdictional Approaches |
| title_sort | redd in theory and practice how lessons from local projects can inform jurisdictional approaches |
| topic | deforestation degradation climate change |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/112495 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wundersven reddintheoryandpracticehowlessonsfromlocalprojectscaninformjurisdictionalapproaches AT duchelleamye reddintheoryandpracticehowlessonsfromlocalprojectscaninformjurisdictionalapproaches AT sassiclaudiode reddintheoryandpracticehowlessonsfromlocalprojectscaninformjurisdictionalapproaches AT sillseo reddintheoryandpracticehowlessonsfromlocalprojectscaninformjurisdictionalapproaches AT simonetg reddintheoryandpracticehowlessonsfromlocalprojectscaninformjurisdictionalapproaches AT sunderlinwd reddintheoryandpracticehowlessonsfromlocalprojectscaninformjurisdictionalapproaches |