REDD+: Global multilevel forest governance for building a climate resilient society

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is a recent global response to the challenges posed by emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Global interest in REDD+ is growing and warrants a comprehensive review of what REDD+ is, how it is implemented and what key issues need to be considered to steer REDD+ towards a climate resilient socio-ecological system. This chapter indicates that REDD+ can be understood as global multilevel forest governance that links different actors at different scales, from the local to the global (glocal). REDD+ has evolved from the narrowly scoped reducing emissions from deforestation (RED) to the current REDD+ that has considered not only deforestation but also forest degradation, sustainable forest management, and social and biodiversity safeguards through repeated engagement and negotiation among glocal actors since the 2005 Cancun IPCC meeting. Currently, a total of seven kinds of actor, ranging from multilateral financial institutions to national governments and indigenous people, are identified as playing an important role in the negotiation and/or design and/or implementation of REDD+. The authors identify five salient issues that need to be addressed to achieve a resilient socio-ecological system. These are: lack of a strong global institution; biodiversity concerns; lack of competitiveness; lack of tenure clarity; and prospects for distributive and procedural justice.