Social safeguards and co-benefits in REDD+: a review of the adjacent possible

• Published in: Current opinion in environmental sustainability 2012-12, Vol.4 (6), p.654-660
• Main Authors: Chhatre, Ashwini, Lakhanpal, Shikha, Larson, Anne M, Nelson, Fred, Ojha, Hemant, Rao, Jagdeesh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1877-3435; 1877-3443
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2012.08.006

► Tenure insecurity and lack of effective participation prevent social co-benefits. ► REDD+ policies based on direct payment require tenure security to be effective. ► Participation of local communities will reduce costs of REDD+ implementation. ► Participation of civil society organizations at all scales will promote democracy. ► Tenure security and effective participation will improve local adaptive capacity. We provide a synthesis of recent scholarship on social safeguards and co-benefits in REDD+ with a focus on debates on: first, tenure security, and second, effective participation of local communities. Scholars have explored both proximate and long-term co-benefits of REDD+ interventions, with an emerging trend that links safeguards to improved social co-benefits. Proximate co-benefits include improved rural livelihoods and lower costs of implementation. Long-term co-benefits include greater adaptive capacity of local communities and increasing transparency and accountability in forest governance. Our review suggests that greater tenure security and effective participation of local communities in management will not only prevent adverse social outcomes, but will also enable better forest outcomes and improved capacity for forest governance.