REDD+ and forest tenure security: concerns in Nepal’s community forestry

Bastakoti, Rishi R.; Davidsen, Conny

doi:10.1080/13504509.2013.879542

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The governance reform storyline recognizes REDD+ as a new layer in the existing forest management system and urges governance reform to redefine the role, responsibilities, and rights of stakeholders at multi-layers in the changing context [59]. This storyline recognizes both the opportunities and challenges with REDD+.…”

Section: Governance Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framing REDD+ at National Level: Actors and Discourse around Nepal’s Policy Debate

Bastakoti

Davidsen

2017

Forests

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Forests and carbon sequestration have become fundamental themes in climate change mitigation. The idea of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has generated significant interest in forest governance from United Nations (UN) climate strategies over the past decade. REDD+ was initially hailed as a smart and cost-effective way to mitigate climate change. As it is rolling out, ambiguities and controversies are increasingly surfacing to the stakeholders at different levels. Examining the forest governance of Nepal in detail, this research examines how relationships between national and local forest actors have changed, and how REDD+ discourses have evolved among them at the interface between global interests in carbon commodification on one hand, and local realities of community forestry on the other hand. To better understand these competing positions, the study uses a post-structural political ecology perspective with elements of discourse analysis. Using data from interviews with policy actors and members of three local community forest user groups, focus group discussions, policy event observations, and document reviews, this paper highlights how global forest carbon commodification has been affecting community forestry governance. It also illustrates different storylines that actors employ to influence policy discourse and REDD+ debates, indicating a considerable range of problem definitions and policy solutions of climate change among the actors. The analysis highlights the connection between power relationships and the evolution of discourses surrounding REDD+, and how an external discourse can reinforce or challenge local governance and the centralization of forest authority. As such, the research also offers a new application of discursive storylines to climate change discourse analysis across national and local scales. The findings emphasize the importance of a more open and transparent dialogue across Nepal's forest governance and management levels to ensure actual benefits for healthy forests, strong communities, and effective climate change mitigation. Nepal's findings also suggest highly relevant lessons to other developing countries with significant community forest governance, and a strong planned focus on REDD+.

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Section: Governance Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framing REDD+ at National Level: Actors and Discourse around Nepal’s Policy Debate

Bastakoti

Davidsen

2017

Forests

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“…timber building material, fuel-wood as household energy, and fodder and litter for maintaining livestock which forms an integral part of subsistence farming system in Dolakha and Chitwan (Marquardt et al 2016). In this backdrop, concerns have been raised on whether REDD+ implementation can cast some negative consequences on local rights (Bushley and Khatri 2011;Bastakoti and Davidsen 2014;Paudel et al 2015;Khatri et al 2018).…”

Section: Consequences Of the Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The proponents of REDD+ in Nepal such as the World Bank considered involvement of CSOs in the national policy process as an achievement in terms of inclusive and participatory policy process. The participation of CSO representing indigenous peoples and local communities in the national REDD+ policy processes is considered to be critical in the design and implementation of REDD+ policies and projects (Brockhaus et al 2014;Pham et al 2014;Bastakoti and Davidsen 2014). Yet, studies indicate the risk of participatory exclusion and technocratic dominance in the policy process (Agarwal 2001;Ojha et al 2013).…”

Section: What Does Redd+ Implementation Mean For Cf Governance?mentioning

confidence: 99%

REDD+ and Community Forestry in Nepal: Strengthening or Paralysing Decentralised Governance?

Khatri

Maskey

Adhikari

2018

J. Forest & Livelihood

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At a time when community forestry has become a prominent mode of forest governance in many developing countries, REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest degradation) has emerged as a new conservation policy to contribute to climate change mitigation by incentivising such countries to conserve forest. While the proponents of REDD+ claim that it can help to strengthen decentralised forest governance through an increased flow of resources of fund and knowledge, the critics evince that there are negative consequences of REDD+ implementation to the decentralisation process, local control, and access to forests. Drawing on the ongoing engagement of the authors in the national REDD+ policy process and an ethnographic study of the REDD+ initiatives in Nepal, this paper demonstrates that REDD+ might paralyze Nepal’s long-standing community forestry policy rather than strengthening it. Findings show the instrumental use of participation in REDD+ policy development and limited representation of local voices in the policy processes. The piloting project implemented on community forestry suggest that REDD+, if implemented at full scale, can put new demand(s) to the long-standing community forestry policy and practices resulting in threatening of local uses of forests by smallholders. The implementation of REDD+ is likely to reshape community forest management practices driven from the priority of generating revenue which in turn undermines the need to manage forests to meet diverse needs of the smallholders. This analysis indicates the need for paying greater attention to represent local voices in developing national policies and programs, and align REDD+ objectives to the core principles of community forest management, local access, and control of forests.

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“…Third, there is debate over criteria for distributing REDD+ payments (DANAR-Nepal 2012). There are also uncertainties about the types of forests and management regimes that may be amenable to carbon sequestration (Dhital 2009, Bastakoti andDavidsen 2014). These concerns have begun to heighten social and political tensions, making it essential to follow an incremental learning-by-doing approach.…”

Section: Redd+ Readiness In Nepalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Costs, cobenefits, and community responses to REDD+: a case study from Nepal

Sharma¹,

Shyamsundar²,

Nepal³

et al. 2017

E&S

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ABSTRACT. We examine the role of subnational institutions in carbon sequestration and assess whether community forest user groups can meet both existing forest needs and international carbon demand. By conducting a qualitative evaluation of a pilot program in Nepal that made carbon payments to forest user groups, we examine if community forestry institutions can be effective, efficient, and equitable in implementing Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)+. Our evaluation relies on focus group discussions, meetings, and community and program documents of forestry user groups that participated in the REDD+ pilot and matched groups that did not. Compared to control groups, REDD+ user groups appear to be more effective in carbon sequestration, perhaps because of increased prevention of forest fires and grazing, nursery establishment, and other forest management. REDD+ user groups report a larger number of forest conservation, forest utilization, and community development activities relative to control groups. Participating communities bear transaction costs of US$4.5/hectare and implementation costs of US$2.5/hectare on average (or NPR 50,000 (US$600) per year). The mean REDD+ rent per ton of additional carbon sequestered was US$1.3. Targeting of benefits improves partly because some marginalized groups, particularly women, participate more in the planning and management. In terms of equity, microcredit and capacity development activities were skewed to the poorest households, whereas alternate fuel and carbon monitoring were more advantageous to middle or high income households. Overall, our analyses suggest that REDD+ activities can be successfully executed, if communities receive technical and capacity building support for institutional strengthening, in addition to carbon payments.

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REDD+ and forest tenure security: concerns in Nepal’s community forestry

Cited by 13 publications

References 37 publications

Framing REDD+ at National Level: Actors and Discourse around Nepal’s Policy Debate

Framing REDD+ at National Level: Actors and Discourse around Nepal’s Policy Debate

REDD+ and Community Forestry in Nepal: Strengthening or Paralysing Decentralised Governance?

Costs, cobenefits, and community responses to REDD+: a case study from Nepal

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