The impacts of REDD+ on the social-ecological resilience of community forests

Abstract Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) has emerged as an important and cost-effective climate change mitigation strategy internationally. In many localities around the world, REDD+ and related interventions have been superimposed on, and overlap with, existing decentralized institutional arrangements such as community forests. These interventions often modify local institutions through new rules and practices that comply with mostly carbon-related objectives, prompting questions about the compatibility of a top-down mechanism such as REDD+ with the decentralized approaches of community forestry. Thus, we asked: are REDD+ interventions in community forests enhancing or detracting from communities’ abilities to practice adaptive management and governance—key desired components of local social-ecological resilience and the ability of communities to respond to disturbance and global change? We conducted a systematic review of studies examining REDD+ interventions in community forests. We extracted data on 59 case studies reported on in 43 articles, stemming from 14 countries, with two thirds of the cases located in two countries alone. Our meta-analysis found that REDD+ has had mixed impacts on communities’ social-ecological resilience. Increases in network ties, connectivity across scales, and increased participation in decision making are indicators of enhanced potential for local adaptability. However, we also see that, through restrictions on local forest practices, rigidity in rules, and communities’ natural capital being locked into carbon contracts, REDD+ has limited communities’ ability to manage for uncertainty. While not representative of all existing REDD+ projects, our results suggest important implications for REDD+ policymakers and forest-reliant communities engaging in REDD+. Reconciling REDD+ goals with the need for forest communities to retain adaptive capacity will be a challenge moving forward, particularly if REDD+ compromises the ability of forest-reliant communities to respond to unexpected shocks or their ability to adapt to changing environmental or economic conditions.