The Redd Governance Landscape And The Challenge Of Coordination In Brazil

Key points Despite significant efforts towards the coordination of governance related to REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), it remains a major challenge in Brazil. This challenge is pervasive whether between government levels (as evidenced in the differences in REDD+ perspectives and interests between federal and state governments), civil society or between government and the private sector.Despite their clear mandate to do so, state actors exchange only limited information on REDD+ policy with non-state actors.Domestic NGOs play an important mediating role in the limited REDD+ coordination that does take place.Private-sector actors, one of the main forces driving deforestation and forest degradation, are largely absent from the REDD+ policy domain, and the few who do participate are relatively isolated from other REDD+ policy actors.

Key messages This Infobrief examines and discusses REDD+ achievements and challenges in Brazil for the period 2015–2019, reflecting the opinions of relevant actors within the REDD+ policy domain in the country. Over time, REDD+ initiatives have promoted changes in Brazilian political articulation, funding possibilities and mobilization of civil society, and brought more visibility to the importance of combating deforestation and forest degradation within the country. In terms of practical implementation, the national REDD+ framework is still quite limited. Further development of the national REDD+ strategy is a considerable challenge for Brazil, as it is becoming clearer that the current national political rhetoric does not consider fighting and controlling deforestation and climate change as government priorities. Several major challenges exist because weak forest resource governance, poor enforcement of the environmental legislation, social inequalities, land use conflicts, and lack of political commitment remain in the country’s profile. However, international pressure on Brazil to stop deforestation might provide an opportunity for those actors who until now had little presence in the REDD+ political arena.

Historically, the policy framework in Brazil has played a decisive role in shaping land use and changes in the rural landscape. Over the last three decades, the country has made impressive gains on socioeconomic, environmental and rural development policy fronts. Nonetheless, an overall analysis of Brazil’s policy framework pertaining to land use shows contradictions and constraints that need to be addressed in the long run. One such contradiction is given by disparities in rural credit and finance policies, with greater amounts favoring large-scale farming as opposed to family farming, despite the key role of smallholders in food production and job creation, and still low resources allocated to programs promoting low-carbon agricultural practices. Another contradiction is the dichotomy between climate change policies and mainstream agricultural and rural development policies. Brazil’s overriding challenge is harmonizing and effectively coordinating these different policy agendas at their various levels of implementation so as to effectively manage trade-offs. The question is what measures can be put in place to enable continued growth of agricultural production while also reducing its negative social and environmental costs? The answer lies partly in increasing support for implementing and up-scaling initiatives to promote low emissions agriculture and providing other economic incentives for adopting more sustainable use and conservation-oriented agricultural and land-use practices. Ultimately, reconciling agricultural production with conservation and rural livelihoods requires greater coordination and harmonization among sectoral policies at various levels of government. Achieving this goal requires the adoption of a combination of a value chain-based and territorial approach to land-use planning with more integrated farming systems in order to enable making improved decisions according to multiple trade-offs and impacts.

Experiences from incentive-based forest management are examined for their effects on the livelihoods of local communities. In the second section, country case studies provide a snapshot of REDD developments to date and identify design features for REDD that would support benefits for forest communities.

REDD+ is one of the leading near-term options for global climate change mitigation. More than 300 subnational REDD+ initiatives have been launched across the tropics, responding to both the call for demonstration activities in the Bali Action Plan and the market for voluntary carbon offset credits.

REDD+ must be transformational. REDD+ requires broad institutional and governance reforms, such as tenure, decentralisation, and corruption control. These reforms will enable departures from business as usual, and involve communities and forest users in making and implementing policies that a ect them. Policies must go beyond forestry. REDD+ strategies must include policies outside the forestry sector narrowly de ned, such as agriculture and energy, and better coordinate across sectors to deal with non-forest drivers of deforestation and degradation. Performance-based payments are key, yet limited. Payments based on performance directly incentivise and compensate forest owners and users. But schemes such as payments for environmental services (PES) depend on conditions, such as secure tenure, solid carbon data and transparent governance, that are often lacking and take time to change. This constraint reinforces the need for broad institutional and policy reforms. We must learn from the past. Many approaches to REDD+ now being considered are similar to previous e orts to conserve and better manage forests, often with limited success. Taking on board lessons learned from past experience will improve the prospects of REDD+ e ectiveness. National circumstances and uncertainty must be factored in. Di erent country contexts will create a variety of REDD+ models with di erent institutional and policy mixes. Uncertainties about the shape of the future global REDD+ system, national readiness and political consensus require  exibility and a phased approach to REDD+ implementation.

Constructive critique. This book provides a critical, evidence-based analysis of REDD+ implementation so far, without losing sight of the urgent need to reduce forest-based emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change. REDD+ as envisioned