The Impact of REDD on forest governance

Improving forest governance, and recognizing who owns the forests, are preconditions for the success of any initiative to reduce forest loss, including REDD. a close look at national REDD plans, however, indicates that they are unlikely to lead to better governance or strengthening community tenure rights. This is because their focus is on monitoring, reporting and verifying carbon emissions, rather than on monitoring, reporting and verifying governance.REDD’s carbon focus stems from the idea that creating a forest carbon market is needed to deliver the billions of dollars required for REDD to work. Forest carbon therefore needs to be monitored and accounted for. But even if such a market were to materialize, which is highly unlikely, it would not benefit forests or communities. it is therefore time for REDD to focus on forest governance. such a shift would also strengthen the existing EuFlEGT programme (see article 3.1).