CIFOR’S REDD+ Research
Louis Verchot

A NATURAL EVOLUTON FOR REDD+
The Gartner hype cycle: How do technology firms look at these things?
Early
inception
Quick,
cheap, and
easy
COP21
decisions?
Finance
fails to
materialize
No new
projects
2015-2020
experiences?
Post-2020

Seeing REDD+ through the lens of 4 I’s
Political
Econom
y
lens

6 countries have comprehensive
policies targeting transformational
change for REDD+: Brazil, DRC,
Guyana, Indonesia, Tanzania and
Vietnam.
The critical issues that hinder
countries in achieving REDD+ are
related to policy implementation:
lack of grievance procedures and
lack of operationalized financial
systems.
Analysis Of 13 National REDD+ Programs

Of the six successful cases three
have access to performance-based
finance for REDD+.
Availability of performance based
funds has a positive impact when it
is combined with strong national
ownership of the REDD+ process.
Analysis Of 13 National REDD+ Programs

In cases where national ownership
is low, (donors or other external
agencies dominate the REDD+
policy processes) countries can
achieve the outcome without
performance-based funding.
Where REDD+ commitment is
externally driven, non-performance-
based funding has an effect equal to
that of performance-based funding.
Analysis Of 13 National REDD+ Programs

6 countries - 23 subnational REDD+ initiatives
190 villages – 4,500 households

Mix of forest interventions at sampled sites
Brazil
Peru
Cameroon
Tanzania
Indonesia
Vietnam
010203040506070
enabling conditions disincentives incentives
#interventions

Local participation in REDD+
Villages
Women'sgroups
Households
050100
Knowledge of REDD+ initiative
2010 2014
%respondents
Villages
Women'sgroups
Households
050100
Participation in REDD+ initiative

Multiple levels of governance
 REDD+ is now moving toward “nested, jurisdictional” and other “national”
approaches
 REDD+ requires coordination across levels: finance and benefit sharing,
carbon monitoring and verification systems, land tenure and titling policies,
safeguards, and so on.
 All of this requires integrating notions of power:
 Despite diverse legal and decentralization systems , powerful actors with a
stake in deforestation often figure out how to get their way –using or
circumventing the rules.
 Most (REDD+ and REDD-like) efforts are trying to change the behavior of
the weaker actors.
 Political will and coalitions for change are indispensable for advancing
REDD+ and low emissions development.

MRVcapacitychange
Erika Romijn,
Martin Herold

mapping deforestation drivers at sub-national scale
De Sy et al. 2015

2008
2012
2009
CIFOR’s edited volumes on
REDD 2015