Can REDD+ achieve its goal? An examination of the effect of various combinations of interventions

Key messages

  • Many subnational REDD+ initiatives are continuations of, and elaborations upon, pre-existing Integrated Conservation and Development projects (ICDPs), which combine negative incentives (e.g. prohibition against forest conversion) and positive incentives (e.g. alternative livelihoods).
  • While in ICDPs livelihood benefits were not conditional, the key intended innovation in REDD+ was a conditional positive incentive (i.e., direct livelihood benefit) to participating households.
  • To date little is known about (a) the frequency and distributions of diverse kinds of interventions in subnational REDD+ initiatives (whether positive, negative or enabling), or about (b) whether these combinations of interventions have served the REDD+ climate change mitigation goal of reduced forest carbon emissions.
  • Field research conducted through 2,118 household interviews in 67 villages at 17 REDD+ sites during 2013–2014 helps fill these knowledge gaps.
  • The research method involved asking respondents about the effects of specific interventions on household land and forest management practices.
  • Among the findings are that fewer than a third of households had been offered conditional benefits, and that households were more likely to report land-use changes that result in reduced forest carbon emissions when they were exposed to both more interventions and at least one negative intervention.
Authors

Sunderlin, W.D.,Atmadja, S.,Chervier, C.,Komalasari, M.,Resosudarmo, I.A.P.,Sills, E.O.

Publication year

2024

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