Climate Change, Forests and REDD: Lessons for Institutional Design (Routledge Research in International Environmental Law)

A search for new methods for dealing with climate change led to the identification of forest maintenance as a potential policy option that could cost-effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the development of measures for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). This book explores how an analysis of past forest governance patterns from the global through to the local level, can help us to build institutions which more effectively deal with forests within the climate change regime. The book assesses the options for reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries under the international climate regime, as well as the incentives flowing from them at the national and sub national level and examines how these policy levers change human behaviour and interface with the drivers and pressures of land use change in tropical forests. The book considers the trade-offs between certain forestry related policies within the current climate regime and the larger goal of sustainable forestry. Based on an assessment of existing multi-level institutional forestry arrangements, the book questions how policy frameworks can be better designed in order to effectively and equitably govern the challenges of deforestation and land degradation under the global climate change regime. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Law and Environmental Studies. Cover 1 Climate Change, Forests and REDD: Lessons for Institutional Design 4 Contents 6 Tables 11 Figures 11 Boxes 13 Contributors 14 Acknowledgements 19 Abbreviations 22 1 Climate change and forests: From the Noordwijk Declaration to REDD 24 1.1 Introduction 24 1.2 Climate change 26 1.2.1 The physical problem 26 1.2.2 The governance process 26 1.2.3 The key political challenges 27 1.3 Forests 30 1.3.1 Current status 30 1.3.2 Deforestation and degradation 32 1.3.3 The governance process 32 1.3.4 The key political challenges 35 1.4 Climate change and forests 36 1.5 The research questions and the analytical framework 39 1.6 Inferences 43 2 The forest transition, the drivers of deforestation and governance approaches 48 2.1 Introduction 48 2.2 The forest transition 48 2.3 The drivers of deforestation 52 2.3.1 Generic drivers and forest transitions 52 2.3.2 Drivers of deforestation in different regions 53 2.4 Instruments of forest governance 56 2.4.1 Introduction 56 2.4.2 Forest transitions, drivers and forest policy 56 2.4.3 Classifying governance instruments 57 2.4.4 Regulatory instruments 57 2.4.5 Economic and market instruments 61 2.4.6 Suasive, information and research instruments 63 2.4.7 Management measures 63 2.4.8 Forest instruments and drivers 64 2.5 Inferences 67 3 Global forest governance 75 3.1 Introduction 75 3.2 Institutions 75 3.2.1 A brief history 75 3.2.2 Global institutions with a forest-focused mandate 77 3.2.3 Global institutions with a forest-related mandate and/or an indirect impact on forest services 80 3.2.4 Global governance institutions and ecosystem services 83 3.2.5 Regional institutions with a forest-focused mandate 84 3.2.6 Regional institutions with a forest-related mandate and/or an indirect impact on forest services 85 3.2.7 Extra-territorial impacts of national governance 86 3.3 Key principles and concepts in international forest governance 86 3.3.1 Key principles 87 3.3.2 Key concepts 88 3.4 Instruments of international forest governance 88 3.4.1 Regulatory instruments 89 3.4.2 Economic instruments 89 3.4.3 Suasive instruments 91 3.5 Inferences 93 4 The emergence of REDD on the global policy agenda 100 4.1 Introduction 100 4.2 Forests under the UN Climate Convention and the Kyoto Protocol 100 4.2.1 Early days: the forest-climate pre-Kyoto debate 100 4.2.2 Forests in the Kyoto Protocol – ‘integrating forest commitments into the climate regime’ 101 4.3 The emergence of REDD 103 4.3.1 REDD in the UNFCCC negotiations 103 4.3.2 REDD developments outside the UNFCCC 104 4.4 Key challenges for REDD at the international level: designing an effective, robust mechanism 107 4.4.1 The right scale for REDD 107 4.4.2 Reference levels 107 4.4.3 Financing REDD 108 4.4.4 Monitoring, reporting and verification 109 4.4.5 Permanence, additionality and leakage 109 4.4.6 Safeguards 110 4.5 Key challenges for REDD at the domestic level: implementation and benefit-sharing 111 4.5.1 The impact of REDD to date 111 4.5.2 Challenges of good governance, tenure and internal benefit-sharing 112 4.5.3 Risks and implications of commodifying forest carbon 114 4.6 Inferences 115 5 Case study: Vietnam 122 5.1 Introduction 122 5.2 Driving forces of deforestation and forest degradation 123 5.3 The forest policy context 124 5.3.1 The organizational framework 124 5.3.2 The evolution of forest policy 126 5.3.3 The influence of international treaties and bodies 128 5.4 Key forest policy instruments and their analysis 128 5.5 Implications for REDD 132 5.6 Inferences 135 6 Case study: Indonesia 144 6.1 Introduction 144 6.2 Driving forces of deforestation and forest degradation 145 6.3 The forest policy context 147 6.3.1 The organizational framework 147 6.3.2 The evolution of forest policy 148 6.3.3 The influence of international treaties and bodies 148 6.4 Key forest policy instruments and their analysis 149 6.5 Implications for REDD 156 6.6 Inferences 158 7 Case study: Cameroon 166 7.1 Introduction 166 7.2 Driving forces of deforestation and forest degradation 167 7.3 Key policies and instruments 169 7.3.1 The organizational framework 169 7.3.2 The evolution of forest policy 170 7.3.3 The influence of international treaties and bodies 170 7.4 Key forest policy instruments and their analysis 171 7.5 Implications for REDD 177 7.6 Inferences 180 8 Case study: Peru 186 8.1 Introduction 186 8.2 Driving forces of deforestation and forest degradation 187 8.3 The forest policy context 190 8.3.1 The organizational framework 190 8.3.2 The evolution of forest policy 191 8.3.3 The influence of international treaties and bodies 192 8.4 Key forest policy instruments and their analysis 192 8.5 Implications for REDD 199 8.6 Inferences 202 9 Comparative analysis of Vietnam, Indonesia, Cameroon and Peru 208 9.1 Introduction 208 9.2 Driving forces of deforestation and forest degradation 208 9.2.1 Direct drivers of deforestation and forest degradation 208 9.2.2 Underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation 210 9.3 Forest policy instruments assessed 210 9.4 Equity issues: impact on access and allocation 217 9.5 Implications for REDD 221 9.6 Conclusion 224 10 REDD policies, global food, fibre and timber markets, and ‘leakage’ 230 10.1 Introduction 230 10.2 Methods and data 232 10.3 A scenario of future deforestation 233 10.3.1 Introduction 233 10.3.2 Growth of population and income 234 10.3.3 Demand for food and timber 234 10.3.4 Demand for biofuels 234 10.3.5 Future demand and supply of land 235 10.3.6 Baseline scenario of land-use change and deforestation 236 10.4 Economic effects of REDD-induced forest conservation 237 10.4.1 Introduction 237 10.4.2 A forest conservation policy scenario 238 10.4.3 Global food and timber markets 238 10.4.4 Economy-wide effects and environmental benefits 239 10.4.5 Inferences 242 10.5 Leakage 242 10.5.1 Introduction 242 10.5.2 Leakage simulations 244 10.5.3 Inferences 247 10.6 Inferences 247 11 The future of forests 252 11.1 Global forest governance: a twenty-first-century myth of Sisyphus? 252 11.2 ‘Glocal’ forest governance 253 11.2.1 Evolutionary phases in forest governance 253 11.2.2 The politics of scale: Should there be ‘glocal’ forest governance? 254 11.2.3 Current global forest governance 261 11.3 National forest governance 264 11.3.1 The forest transition 264 11.3.2 Forest transitions, drivers and policies 266 11.3.3 National forest policies 267 11.4 REDD revisited 268 11.4.1 Practical options for implementing REDD in countries 268 11.4.2 Buying time or a REDD herring 270 11.4.3 A North–South analysis 273 11.4.4 Going beyond REDD: the challenge of mainstreaming forests 275 11.5 Conclusions 276 INDEX 282

A search for new methods for dealing with climate change led to the identification of forest maintenance as a potential policy option that could cost-effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the development of measures for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). This book explores how an analysis of past forest governance patterns from the global through to the local level, can help us to build institutions which more effectively deal with forests within the climate change regime. The book assesses the options for reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries under the international climate regime, as well as the incentives flowing from them at the national and sub national level and examines how these policy levers change human behaviour and interface with the drivers and pressures of land use change in tropical forests. The book considers the trade-offs between certain forestry related policies within the current climate regime and the larger goal of sustainable forestry.

Based on an assessment of existing multi-level institutional forestry arrangements, the book questions how policy frameworks can be better designed in order to effectively and equitably govern the challenges of deforestation and land degradation under the global climate change regime. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Law and Environmental Studies.