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A reality check on the landscape approach to REDD+: Lessons from Latin America

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  • Bastos Lima, Mairon G.
  • Visseren-Hamakers, Ingrid J.
  • Braña-Varela, Josefina
  • Gupta, Aarti

Abstract

Developing and institutionalizing cross-sectoral approaches to sustainable land use remains a crucial, yet politically contested, objective in global sustainability governance. There is a widely acknowledged need for more integrated approaches to sustainable land use that reconcile multiple landscape functions, sectors and stakeholders. However, this faces a number of challenges in practice, including the lack of policy coherence and institutional conflicts across agricultural and forest sectors. In this context, the global climate change mitigation mechanism of “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation” (REDD+) has been flagged as a unique opportunity to stimulate the development and institutionalization of more integrated, “landscape” approaches to sustainable land use. In this article, we provide a reality check for the prospects of REDD+ to deliver on this promise, through analyzing three pioneer cases of REDD+ development and implementation in Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico. We analyze how REDD+ has operated in each of these three contexts, based on field work, key-informant interviews, and analysis of primary and secondary documents. Our findings suggest that REDD+ has stimulated development of “niche” sustainable land-use investments in each case, which aim to integrate forest conservation and agricultural development goals, but has done so while competing with business-as-usual incentives. We conclude that national and international political commitment to more integrated and sustainable land-use approaches is a precondition for, rather than a result of, transformative REDD+ interventions.

Suggested Citation

  • Bastos Lima, Mairon G. & Visseren-Hamakers, Ingrid J. & Braña-Varela, Josefina & Gupta, Aarti, 2017. "A reality check on the landscape approach to REDD+: Lessons from Latin America," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 10-20.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:78:y:2017:i:c:p:10-20
    DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2016.12.013
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    1. Wurtzebach, Zachary & Casse, Thorkil & Meilby, Henrik & Nielsen, Martin R. & Milhøj, Anders, 2019. "REDD+ policy design and policy learning: The emergence of an integrated landscape approach in Vietnam," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 129-139.
    2. Weatherley-Singh, Janice & Gupta, Aarti, 2017. "An ecological landscape approach to REDD+ in Madagascar: Promise and limitations?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(P1), pages 1-9.
    3. Mairon G. Bastos Lima, 2021. "Corporate Power in the Bioeconomy Transition: The Policies and Politics of Conservative Ecological Modernization in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-20, June.
    4. Ashwin Ravikumar & Anne M Larson & Rodd Myers & Tim Trench, 2018. "Inter-sectoral and multilevel coordination alone do not reduce deforestation and advance environmental justice: Why bold contestation works when collaboration fails," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(8), pages 1437-1457, December.
    5. Mancheva, Irina, 2018. "Which factors spur forest owners' collaboration over forest waters?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 54-63.
    6. Anne‐Kathrin Weber, 2020. "Corporate Role Conceptions in Global Forest Governance," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 11(5), pages 611-627, November.
    7. Sarmiento Barletti, Juan Pablo & Larson, Anne M. & Hewlett, Christopher & Delgado, Deborah, 2020. "Designing for engagement: A Realist Synthesis Review of how context affects the outcomes of multi-stakeholder forums on land use and/or land-use change," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    8. Rubén Ferrer Velasco & Margret Köthke & Melvin Lippe & Sven Günter, 2020. "Scale and context dependency of deforestation drivers: Insights from spatial econometrics in the tropics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-32, January.
    9. Mairon G. Bastos Lima & Gabrielle Kissinger & Ingrid J. Visseren-Hamakers & Josefina Braña-Varela & Aarti Gupta, 2017. "The Sustainable Development Goals and REDD+: assessing institutional interactions and the pursuit of synergies," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 589-606, August.
    10. Morgan, Edward A. & Buckwell, Andrew & Guidi, Caterina & Garcia, Beatriz & Rimmer, Lawrence & Cadman, Tim & Mackey, Brendan, 2022. "Capturing multiple forest ecosystem services for just benefit sharing: The Basket of Benefits Approach," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    11. Pandit, Ram, 2018. "REDD+ adoption and factors affecting respondents' knowledge of REDD+ goal: Evidence from household survey of forest users from REDD+ piloting sites in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 107-115.
    12. van der Haar, S. & Gallagher, E.J. & Schoneveld, G.C. & Slingerland, M.A. & Leeuwis, C., 2023. "Climate-smart cocoa in forest landscapes: Lessons from institutional innovations in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    13. Larson, Anne M. & Sarmiento Barletti, Juan Pablo & Heise Vigil, Nicole, 2022. "A place at the table is not enough: Accountability for Indigenous Peoples and local communities in multi-stakeholder platforms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    14. Sarker, Pradip Kumar & Fischer, Richard & Tamayo, Fabian & Navarrete, Bolier Torres & Günter, Sven, 2022. "Analyzing forest policy mixes based on the coherence of policies and the consistency of legislative policy instruments: A case study from Ecuador," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    15. Soliev, Ilkhom & Theesfeld, Insa & Abert, Eileen & Schramm, Wiebke, 2021. "Benefit sharing and conflict transformation: Insights for and from REDD+ forest governance in sub-Saharan Africa," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).

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