Rights to carbon and payments for services rendered under REDD+: Options for the case of Mexico

Skutsch, Margaret; Simón, Cecilia De; Fernández, José Carlos

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.02.015

Cited by 29 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…On the other hand, the Assembly system provides no guarantees of participation for the local community members who are not ejidatarios, and therefore cannot vote in the Assembly (Skutsch et al 2013). Nonejido members include vulnerable groups such as women, younger generations who may or may not inherent ejidal rights, and migrants.…”

Section: Defining Redd+ Safeguardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Safeguarding what and for whom? The role of institutional fit in shaping REDD+ in Mexico

McDermott¹,

Ituarte-Lima²

2016

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change mechanism Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+), and its associated multitude of global to local safeguards, as they apply to a single ejido on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. It draws on written sources and interviews to analyze the ways in which broad international norms articulated through the REDD+ safeguards, including support for human rights and sustainable livelihoods for local communities, are translated at national, regional, and local levels. Our findings indicate a wide range of perspectives on what constitutes sustainability, from strict conservation to more forest use-oriented strategies, such as community forestry and traditional Mayan shifting cultivation. These visions, in turn, shape what types of REDD+ interventions are considered a good "environmental fit," i.e., that fit the environmental problems they aim to address. Fits and misfits also occur between institutions, and play a core role in determining whose visions of sustainability prevail. We found a good fit in the case study ejido between REDD+ and the Payment for Ecosystem service (PES) scheme, which sets the parameters for what counts as "sustainable livelihoods" within a strict conservation paradigm. We likewise found a good fit between REDD+ safeguards and institutions supporting local community rights to reject REDD+ projects. However, despite the strength of procedural safeguards, the parameters of the PES scheme constrained the choice of REDD+ activities available, including the possibilities of local people to work on the farm and in the forest, and hence the scope of its distributive benefits. This highlights the important, but also problematic, roles of institutional and environmental "fit" in determining whose rights are safeguarded and what is recognized as a sustainable livelihood strategy. It also calls for more proactive efforts to expand the range of REDD+ activities in ways that safeguard livelihood diversity.

show abstract

Section: Defining Redd+ Safeguardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Safeguarding what and for whom? The role of institutional fit in shaping REDD+ in Mexico

McDermott¹,

Ituarte-Lima²

2016

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…From the early 20th century, large areas of forest were assigned to local communities under different levels of control (Bray and Merino 2004). Although a precise percentage is still unknown, 60% of the country's forested area is the lowest figure recognized of lands belonging to indigenous or ejido communities (Skutsch et al 2013(Skutsch et al , 2015. These both types of agrarian organizations emerged from the Mexican Revolution (1910)(1911)(1912)(1913)(1914)(1915)(1916)(1917) and they perform a key role in the condition of Mexican forest ecosystems.…”

Section: The Mexican Ejido As a Social-ecological Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological variability and rule-making processes for forest management institutions: a social-ecological case study in the Jalisco coast, Mexico

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Analysis of social-ecological systems is becoming increasingly used since the framework provides a valuable set of variables for understanding relationships between people and ecosystems. This interaction focuses on the use and management of natural resources that, in many cases, are common-pool resources. In Mexico, common-pool resources have long been explored since at least 60% of the forested lands in the country are held under the legal figure of 'ejidos' and indigenous communities, which aimed at driving the collective use of lands and resources. However, few studies incorporate ecological processes for an integrated understanding of social-ecological systems. In this study, we seek to understand how ecological variability influences the creation and functioning of Ecological variability and rule-making processes for forest management 1145 different rules and, consequently, institutions for forests management. Our case study was conducted in an ejido with high ecological variability located in Jalisco on the Pacific coast of Mexico. The research approach was interdisciplinary and combined qualitative and quantitative methods. We conducted participant observation and 23 semi-structured interviews; botanical collections were also carried out. We found that there is strong influence between ecological variables and the emergence of rules and collective action. The most important variables influencing these processes were the economic value of resource units, ecosystem services perceived by local people and location and size of the resource system (including area and number of species). Historical processes also play a part that generates knowledge of resource systems and the current social, economic and political settings at a larger scale. The establishment of relationships with variables that produce certain outcomes for the framework of the social-ecological system is an important challenge to be met in order to move forward in both theory and practice.

show abstract

“…In Mexico, around 59% of all forest is owned by ejidos (communal agrarian settlements) or communities [73], and is (at least in principle) managed communally; most of the remainder is in the hands of small property owners. It is hoped that the management practices they would need to follow under REDD+ would first reduce rates of degradation and then reverse them as forest enhancement takes place.…”

Section: Use Of Local Forest Inventoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Operationalizing the Definition of Forest Degradation for REDD+, with Application to Mexico

Morales-Barquero

Skutsch

Jardel-Peláez

et al. 2014

Forests

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The difficulty of defining and quantifying forest degradation is a major constraint in the implementation of the international mitigation mechanism Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Our aim is to develop an operational framework for defining and quantifying forest degradation at a local level for early REDD+ projects and for national REDD+ programmes, through a ground level approach. We critically review and discuss national and international definitions of forest and of forest degradation, and then analyze the main difficulties in making these operational, evaluating the key elements and threshold values that are used, and contextualizing them using Mexico as a case study. We conclude that, given the lack of historical biomass data and the limited capability for monitoring degradation using remote sensing, forest degradation is best measured against a local benchmark that represents areas of low or no degradation that have comparable biophysical characteristics. Use of benchmarks of this type could offer a quick-start option for local assessment and OPEN ACCESSForests 2014, 5 1654 construction of reference levels for forest degradation. These could be refined as more data become available and could eventually be integrated into national monitoring systems.

show abstract

Rights to carbon and payments for services rendered under REDD+: Options for the case of Mexico

Cited by 29 publications

References 19 publications

Safeguarding what and for whom? The role of institutional fit in shaping REDD+ in Mexico

Safeguarding what and for whom? The role of institutional fit in shaping REDD+ in Mexico

Ecological variability and rule-making processes for forest management institutions: a social-ecological case study in the Jalisco coast, Mexico

Operationalizing the Definition of Forest Degradation for REDD+, with Application to Mexico

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About