REDD+ framework and forest sustainability in Pakistan versus other South Asian countries: a multi-criteria-based analysis

There are a tremendous need and increasing interests now in the design and development of integrated landscape approaches toward ‘reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).’ This is being more coherently addressed now under REDD+ framework by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), particularly focusing on sustainable forest management (SFM) and relevant intensification of carbon pools in developing countries. This study has distinctively assessed the relative effectiveness of implementation of REDD+ framework and forest sustainability in prominent South Asian (SA) countries (Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan). The multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model with three sustainability evaluation indicators, i.e., (i) socio-economic, (ii) policy and governance and (iii) environment, is used for the relative evaluation of prospects and barriers toward the adoption of SFM practices and application of REDD+ framework. In this regard an exclusive combination of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and additive weighted sum method are designed and deployed to calculate the weighting factors and assessment of relative importance and performance. The characteristic findings of study reflected that ‘socio-economic’ indicator has portrayed the highest importance among the indicators chosen, and Nepal has scored the highest comparative sustainability scores as 11.2%, 19.1% and 31.8%, respectively, for all three indicators, while Pakistan has depicted the lowest respective scores of 6.8%, 8.4% and 11.4%. This study will promote an insight for the development of policy-based indicators which can be futuristically aligned with targeted plans for SFM, enhancement of carbon stocks and subsequent reduction of carbon emissions in low–middle-income developing countries like Pakistan.