Sammanfattning

This paper argues that the Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD +) initiatives in Nepal have not adequately understood and considered institutional and political issues around forest tenure and governance challenges. The paper is developed based on reviews of polices, assessments of project activities, interviews with key informants, and observation of ongoing REDD + related public discussions. We found that the REDD + initiatives so far appear to have prioritized technical issues such as carbon assessment, reference scenario, and measurement, reporting and verification of emissions. However, a major policy challenge in Nepal is the substantial deforestation and degradation going on, which leads to substantial challenges of leakage and threatens Nepal's National REDD + policy ambition. The key drivers of deforestation and degradation in Nepal are still poorly identified, analyzed and understood. Inadequate focus of Nepal's present REDD + readiness on the core issues of contested forest tenure and frail governance entails that an unrealistic policy and institutional measures would be developed in addressing these issues of deforestation and degradation. Consequently, it would seriously undermine the prospect of achieving emission reduction the very goal of REDD+. It is suggested that a robust analysis, collective understanding and broadly agreed policy measures for curbing deforestation must be at the core of REDD + readiness process. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nyckelord

Nepal; REDD; Tenure; Forest governance; Policy; Drivers of deforestation

Publicerad i

Forest Policy and Economics
2015, Volym: 52, sidor: 1-8
Utgivare: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Associerade SLU-program

Skog
Klimat


UKÄ forskningsämne

Tvärvetenskapliga studier


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2014.12.009

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/81129