ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the importance of forest resources to indigenous livelihoods against the background of global drivers for REDD, followed by a review of key debates on REDD and governance. The global deforestation rate is in the range of 13 million hectares per year, and is the source of an estimated 1725 per cent of anthropogenic carbon emissions. Forest resources are used in agriculture, and are a source of construction materials, fuel and food. Forests also perform a range of services such as soil conservation, flood amelioration, regulation of rainfall, agricultural pollination and the conservation of biological diversity. The propensity for R-PPs to neglect key governance issues has contributed to growing concerns that REDD mechanisms might reverse the trend of decentralizing forest governance. The challenge of addressing complex governance debates within REDD has already been noted in policy documents.
