Abstract

In this paper REDD+ is understood as a global forest governance arrangement in the making. Through the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (SKAD) the production of REDD+ discourse in four REDD+ programmes is explored by means of 14 documents. The programme texts are regarded as influential discursive practices performed by the programme hosts who draw on existing discourses and institutional-organisational infrastructures, while simultaneously producing subjects, objects and activities with different rights, responsibilities and values. The results demonstrate a process of discursive ordering of knowledge, forest use and forest dependence where the programme hosts form a common understanding of the interrelationships between climate mitigation, adaptation, poverty reduction, and tropical deforestation. As a consequence, the programmes bias action towards transformation of forest sectors as a step towards greening economies in tropical forested developing countries. The analysis demonstrates how the programme hosts produces a narrative where they themselves become key agents facilitating change, while forest dependent local communities are classified as subjects of necessary change. The focus on local dependent communities in effect obscures more distant causes that are not associated with local livelihoods. This narrative resembles the 1980s narrative on tropical deforestation, where farmers and slash and burn practices were considered the main cause of deforestation. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

REDD; Forest governance; Discourse; Power

Published in

Environmental Science and Policy
2013, Volume: 33, pages: 369-377
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Holmgren, Sara

  • Department of Forest Products, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss


UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2013.04.007

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/55140