Policy relevance Policy makers, researchers and analysts helping to plan and implement REDD+, environmental services and climate change would find this paper potentially helpful. The paper explores progress on REDD+ Readiness across four countries (Cameroon, Indonesia, Peru and Vietnam) and provides broad lessons, recommendations and examples across these countries for further improving REDD+. The paper also suggests an innovative, credible and universally applicable set of criteria and indicators derived through a systematic review that could serve further global comparative analysis of readiness for REDD+ and relevant national environmental services delivery systems, including climate change mitigation.

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Policies designed to reduce land-based carbon emissions require a good understanding of the complex connections between state-sanctioned concessions, forest conversion, informal land markets and migrants. Our case study in the peat forests of the Tanjung Jabung Barat (TanJaBar) regency of Jambi, Indonesia aimed to explore relations between four key stakeholder groups: the state, local communities, migrants, and state-sanctioned concessions. We hypothesized that current land use patterns are shaped by insecurity in formal forest tenure alongside informal land tenure arrangements with migrants. In analyzing the six two-way relationships between the four stakeholder groups, we found that interactions between the stakeholders have changed local norms and practice, causing land conflicts and contested claims that need to be explicitly addressed in efforts to reduce carbon emissions in TanJaBar. Relational concepts of land rights between migrants and local community leaders are informed by social identity, expectations of investment opportunities, insecure customary forest tenure and competing land use policies. Migrants act as intermediaries in shaping the land tenure system and shift the balance of power between local communities, the state, and business concessions. We conclude that effective and equitable implementation of national Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation+ (REDD+) programs will need to recognize underlying land ownership dynamics, power struggles and strategic positioning among stakeholders across scales. Obtaining free and prior informed consent (FPIC) from all relevant stakeholders is a major challenge given this complexity. Low emission development strategies will require recognition of a reality beyond large-scale concessions and traditional local communities.

Indonesia has turned its alleged role as global leader of land-based carbon emissions into a role as a global trailblazer exploring modalities for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+ ). REDD+ readiness is largely about improving forest governance, but this itself is a multilayered concept. This article analyses how the processes and practices of REDD+ readiness are leading to various forest governance reforms in Indonesia. We analysed six dimensions of REDD+ readiness progress over the past six years and the way these interact with land tenure reform and land-use planning. We found evidence that (1) tenure issues are taken more seriously, as evidenced by the development of social safeguard mechanisms and efforts to accelerate the gazettement of forest boundaries, although a constitutional court recognition in 2013 for customary forest management is, however, yet to be operationalized; (2) spatial planning relates forests more clearly to other parts of the landscape in terms of compliance with Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) commitments; and (3) the forest and peatland conversion moratorium initiative led to a revamping of forest management. Despite progress, there are still major obstacles to full REDD+ implementation in Indonesia. The discussion focuses on the weaker part of readiness and possible ways forward. Policy relevanceReducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus (REDD+) was introduced at the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP 13) 2007 in Bali designed to support the efforts of the parties to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhance the forest carbon stock, by means of forest conservation and the sustainable management of forests. This article aims to examine the impact of REDD+ readiness process in Indonesia on transforming existing forest governance. This paper focus the analysis on the two most contentious forest governance issues in Indonesia: land tenure and land-use planning. Such analysis and lessons are relevant for policy-makers in Indonesia in an effort to have a forest governance reform and also the future challenges of forest governance in national and sub-national level in the world of sustainable forest management as well as REDD+ implementation.

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