REDD+ and Forest Governance in Indonesia

• Author: Paul Jepson,Mari Mulyani
• Published date: 01 September 2013
• Date: 01 September 2013
• DOI: 10.1177/1070496513494203
• Subject Matter: Articles

Journal of Environment & Development

22(3) 261 –283

© The Author(s) 2013

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DOI: 10.1177/1070496513494203

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Article

REDD+ and Forest

Governance in Indonesia:

A Multistakeholder Study of

Perceived Challenges and

Opportunities

Mari Mulyani1 and Paul Jepson1

Abstract

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) represents

the strategic linkage between a climate change regime and international forest policy.

But the future success of REDD+ will depend, in part, on how policy makers perceive

the challenges and opportunities it offers stakeholders. This study investigated

perceptions toward REDD+ based on interviews with 60 Indonesia-based key-

informants influencing REDD+ policy. Interviewees cited “governance reform,”

“network building,” “conservation,” and “economic development” as opportunities.

The perceived challenges included “REDD+’s complexity,” “uncertainty of REDD+

decisions,” “REDD+ is a tool of developed countries,” and problems inherent within

existing forest governance related to coordination, lack of capacity, ambiguity of

legal system, and corruption. Adopting a clientelist perspective we draw attention

to the underlying causes of these problems and the implication for REDD+. Despite

highlighting significant challenges, most informants viewed the REDD+ mechanism as

a potentially useful instrument to improve forest governance. Based on our findings,

we suggest that identifying governance reforms that do not require major structural

changes in the bureaucratic system in the short-term hold the best chance of success

for capitalizing on the opportunities REDD+ may offer in the future.

Keywords

climate change, forest governance, Indonesia, institutions, Reducing Emissions from

Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), clientelism

1School of Geography & the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Corresponding Author:

Mari Mulyani, School of Geography & the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford

OX1 3QY, UK.

Email: mari.mulyani@ouce.ox.ac.uk

494203JED22310.1177/1070496513494203Journal of Environment & Development X(X)Mulyani and Jepson

research-article2013

262 Journal of Environment & Development 22(3)

Introduction

This article contributes to grounded understandings of how the perceptions of national

and subnational level policy stakeholders influence the adoption of international envi-

ronmental policy mechanisms. It takes its inspiration from Brown, Smit, Sonwa,

Somorin, and Nkem’s (2011) study of perceptions of opportunities and challenges in

implementing the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest

Degradation) mechanism in the Congo Basin of Africa. We add an Indonesian case

study and extend Brown et al. (2011)’s work by asking more specifically how forestry

institutions in Indonesia influence perceptions on the efficacy of REDD+ both as a

mechanism for forest and carbon governance, but also how this mechanism becomes

a lever for wider governance reform. A focus on perceptions recognizes that while

stakeholder perceptions may be based on incomplete or possibly misguided knowl-

edge they influence the formulation and enactment of policies. Moreover, because

perceptions “can be a reflection of differing types of knowledge, assumptions, and

value judgements, which are not independent of their discursive, institutional, and

political contexts” (Brown et al., 2011, p. 383) there is a need to understand how inter-

nationally formulated mechanisms are perceived at the national level (and lower) if the

efficient and effective enactment of international environmental policy is to be assured.

Furthermore, this study employs a “clientelist” perspective as a means to generate a

more holistic understanding of the set of challenges and opportunities in implementing

REDD+ in Indonesia.

The REDD+ mechanism is a component of the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): it is a response to evidence that tropical

forests account for over half of the carbon stored in terrestrial vegetation (Saatchi

et al., 2011) and that processes of deforestation and forest degradation account for

12% to 17% of total anthropogenic carbon emissions globally (Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2007; Van der Werf et al., 2009). The international

policy significance of REDD+ is underlined by the Cancun Agreement (United

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC], 2011) and donor

pledges amounting to nearly US$5 billion (up until 2012) to encourage early action on

REDD+ (“REDD readiness”) among developing country Parties (Kanninen,

Brockhaus, & Murdiyarso, 2010).

REDD+ comprises a broad set of initiatives aimed at conserving and enhancing

forest carbon stocks and the sustainable management of forests, while tackling rural

poverty and conserving biodiversity (UNFCCC, 2011). It is based on the logic that: (a)

quantification of forest carbon stocks enables a mechanism to pay for measurable

reductions in forest carbon emissions, (b) investors will pay for such reductions

because they will be cost-competitive compared to other forms of emission mitigation,

and (c) as a result developing countries will adopt REDD+ because it provides finan-

cial incentives for policies to maintain and sustainably manage forest resources more

efficiently (McDermott, Coad, Helfgott, & Schroeder, 2012; UNFCCC, 2011). Two

approaches for REDD+ implementation have been discussed within UNFCCC: (a) a

project/result-based payment mechanism (UNFCCC, 2011: Decision 1/CP.16-para