Avoiding re-inventing the wheel in a people-centered approach to REDD+

Area of Science:

• Environmental science
• Community development
• Forestry

Background:

• Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) implementation impacts local and indigenous communities.
• Emerging approaches aim to implement REDD+ without harming community interests.

Purpose of the Study:

• Identify best practices (BPs) for people-centered conservation and rural development.
• Assess the adoption of these BPs in community-level REDD+ projects in Latin America.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative research synthesis to identify BPs.
• Development of BP indicators.
• Assessment by development practitioners and researchers.

Main Results:

• Key BPs include local participation, decentralized governance, aligned objectives, addressing community needs, stakeholder collaboration, adaptive management, and capacity building.
• Most BPs were present, but limitations existed in governance, objective alignment, and addressing community needs.
• Adaptive management and free, prior, and informed consent were largely overlooked.

Conclusions:

• Improve REDD+ by integrating conservation with livelihoods, testing nested governance, understanding community acceptance factors, and using adaptive management.
• A framework of BPs and indicators can enhance REDD+ project design, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Reconciling national and local interests in REDD+ is achievable through improved practices.