Putting the pieces together for good governance of REDD+: an analysis of 32 REDD+ country readiness proposals

The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Readiness Fund and the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD) are supporting capacity building efforts in preparation from REDD+ implementation. This study reviews proposals submitted to these groups to date, totalling 32 countries from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The paper begins by highlighting the importance of good governance for REDD+ and outlining the methodology involved in the study. The authors identified eight core readiness needs prior to analysis: full stakeholder participation and consultation; clear tenure rights; equitable REDD+ benefit distribution and conflict resolution mechanisms; transparent systems for revenue management and non-carbon monitoring; and cross-sector and governmental institutional coordination.

Findings are broken-down according to the framework criteria, with percentage scores across all countries, providing a broad but empirical view of the proposals collective strengths and weaknesses, as well as evident trends. Key findings include the following.

• Stakeholder participation, non-carbon monitoring and cross-sectoral coordination appear strongest in terms of the number of proposals considering them as relevant to REDD+.
• Few countries consider specific design options or challenges related to REDD+ benefit sharing, revenue management or conflict resolution (though many indicate plans to address them in the future).
• Few proposals identify next-steps to address land tenure challenges or establish coordination mechanisms for local government and REDD+ planning.
• Cross-cutting issues, e.g. vertical coordination of REDD+ programmes, have not been explicitly considered by most proposals.

With the aim of helping countries make short-term progress on REDD+ objectives, the paper highlights the following three recommendations.

• This analysis should be used by all REDD+ stakeholders to consider gaps and ensure that readiness activities promote a comprehensive and integrated approach.
• REDD+ countries should further prioritise and sequence readiness activities to enhance transparency in the allocation of readiness finance.
• Transparent and accountable domestic systems for tracking readiness progress should be developed by REDD+ countries.