Water always Flows Downhill: A Case for Participatory Forest Management (PFM) and Decentralization of Forest Governance in REDD+ Implementation

Based on a review of the United Nations collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries (UN-REDD) policies and strategies, academic and “grey” literature and case studies of implementing REDD initiatives, as well as on observations and key informant interviews conducted in Dar es Salaam and in Kilosa District in February 2015, this paper confronts the issue of REDD+ policy coherence. It explores the way that REDD is implemented vis-à-vis the achievement of program objectives, as well as the prospect of engendering unintended and potentially maladaptive outcomes. The core argument presented below is that elements of REDD programming which create an impetus towards recentralization of forest governance are counterproductive to the ultimate aims of UN-REDD, and risk producing damaging and maladaptive effects. This article contributes to political debates on forest loss and the mounting consideration of forest degradation in recent decades not only as an environmental concern to the local communities who depend on natural resources, but also at the national level as a possible loss of future sustainable development potential and as a contributor to national greenhouse gas emissions. It adds a dimension to a number of critiques leveled against UN-REDD, ranging from the practical (such as the lack of adequate baseline data to calculate reference forest emissions, cf. Burgess et al., 2010) to the socio-cultural (for example, the program stimulates a process of redefinition of socio-natural landscapes and socio-natural relations, cf. Farris & Bassett, 2012). Available: http://books.openedition.org/cfee/449