Rewards for results? Climate change, deforestation and land use

Since the mid-2000s, a global effort has been made to tackle deforestation and forest degradation in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conserve biological diversity. On the basis of agreements within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, an international forest financing scheme called REDD+ has been set up, which aims to reward results in terms of reduced emissions. The outcomes of the scheme are explored in the survey, which includes evidence from Bolivia, Ghana and Indonesia, three tropical forest countries. Slow progress has been made, but deforestation continues as a result of land-use changes driven by crop cultivation and livestock rearing. A transformation of food systems with ‘deforestation free products’ is needed. In addition, the way forward requires the rights and responsibilities of stakeholders, including indigenous people and local communities, to be strengthened on the basis of the rule of law and ‘environmental integrity’ by using the transparent sharing of benefits to reward results.