ABSTRACT
However, besides the technical challenges discussed in earlier chapters in this section, the challenges in implementing REDD+ stemming from weak governance and the potential social and environmental risks associated with large scale REDD+ schemes have lately received increased attention (Corbera and Schroeder, 2010; Kanowski et al., 2010; Brockhaus and Angelsen, 2012; Di Gregorio et al., 2012). Many low income tropical forest countries are characterized by weak institutions, unclear tenure and governance frameworks, which may limit the possibility for REDD+ to actually deliver the envisioned social and environmental benefits (Sunderlin and Atmadja, 2009; Lyster, 2010). Without clear tenure, there is a risk that less powerful stakeholders, such as forest dependent indigenous people, will be made worse off by large-scale investment in plantations in response to REDD+ incentives, or that a command-and-control, ‘fortress conservation’ approach for implementing REDD+ will bar forest-dependent communities from resources on which they depend. Further, most low and middle income tropical countries lack the capacity to enforce their legislative framework for environmental and natural resources management and so are likely to have difficulties managing potential negative effects from REDD+ related investments.
