Suchergebnisse

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) has emerged as a promising climate change mitigation mechanism in developing countries. This article examines the national political context in 13 REDD+ countries in order to identify the enabling conditions for achieving progress with the implementation of countries' REDD+ policies and measures. The analysis builds on a qualitative comparative analysis of various countries' progress with REDD+ conducted in 12 REDD+ countries in 2012, which highlighted the importance of factors such as already initiated policy change, and the presence of coalitions calling for broader policy change. A follow-up survey in 2014 was considered timely because the REDD+ policy arena, at the international and country levels, is highly dynamic and undergoes constant evolution, which affects progress with REDD+ policy-making and implementation. Furthermore, we will now examine whether the 'promise' of performance-based funds has played a role in enabling the establishment of REDD+. The results show a set of enabling conditions and characteristics of the policy process under which REDD+ policies can be established. The study finds that the existence of broader policy change, and availability of performance-based funding in combination with strong national ownership of the REDD+ policy process, may help guide other countries seeking to formulate REDD+ policies that are likely to deliver efficient, effective and equitable outcomes.Policy relevance Tropical forest countries struggle with the design and implementation of coherent policies and measures to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Evidence on which factors and configurations are crucial to make progress towards these challenging policy objectives will be helpful for decision makers and practitioners at all levels involved in REDD+. Key findings highlight the importance of already initiated policy change, and the availability of performance-based funding in combination with strong national ownership of the REDD+ process. These findings provide guidance to REDD+ countries as to which enabling conditions need to be strengthened to facilitate effective, efficient and equitable REDD+ policy formulation and implementation.

In most regions of West Africa, livelihoods depend on goods and services from savannah ecosystems, in interplay with agricultural and livestock production systems. Economic, ecological, social and political changes represent challenges for the governance of the commons. In the international development agendas, adaptive co-management appears as an emergent and promising strategy in complex and multi scale, overlapping, governance mechanisms among socio-ecological systems. In Burkina Faso, under state control, forest policies have been introduced since the 1980s' that give more rights to communities to access and collectively manage forest resources in bounded areas. In two villages involved in this devolution process, we conducted vulnerability assessment surveys and focus group discussions. We analyse how vulnerability and adaptive capacity of people, belonging to different social groups, using common resources, evolve under the implementation of this co management system promoted by the state on behalf of sustainable development. We also analyse how the management norms shape people's collective action and adaptive capacity and how they reflect their ordinary priorities. We discuss the pertinence of this resource management system to both incremental and transformational adaptation to climate change. Our results show that comanagement applied without reinforced rights and leadership of the most vulnerable, including a radical change in behavioural and institutional patterns, tends to maintain existing power relationships, renders powerless groups vulnerable and inhibits institutional adaptive transformation to climate change.

AbstractCollective action has been identified, by governments and nongovernmental organizations, as a mechanism to improve smallholder farmers' bargaining power and access to input and output markets. In many developing countries, supporting collective action has and continues to be an important policy instrument. However, in the collection and marketing of forest products, recognition of and support for producer organizations, is limited. Data, from focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and an analysis of formal producer organizations' functioning and organizational aspects, were used to examine the motives, benefits, challenges, and enabling conditions of collective action in promoting the sustainable production and marketing of shea, frankincense, and honey from dry forests in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and Zambia, respectively. Lessons and key recommendations, including those related to policy, are presented on how collective action through formal producer organizations could be assisted to promote responsible forest products collection and marketing practices that benefit small‐scale producers in Africa's dry forests.