IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v11y2022i6p918-d839530.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparing Community Needs and REDD+ Activities for Capacity Building and Forest Protection in the Équateur Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Author

Listed:
  • Edward A. Morgan

    (Griffith Climate Change Response Program, Griffith University, Southport, QLD 4222, Australia
    Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD 4222, Australia)

  • Glenn Bush

    (Woodwell Climate Research Center, Woods Hole, Falmouth, MA 02540-1644, USA)

  • Joseph Zambo Mandea

    (Woodwell Climate Research Center, Mbandaka, Democratic Republic of the Congo)

  • Melaine Kermarc

    (Woodwell Climate Research Center, Woods Hole, Falmouth, MA 02540-1644, USA)

  • Brendan Mackey

    (Griffith Climate Change Response Program, Griffith University, Southport, QLD 4222, Australia
    Climate Action Beacon, Griffith University, Southport, QLD 4222, Australia)

Abstract

Primary forests are essential ecosystems that can play a key role in mitigating climate change. REDD+ is designed to help countries and communities secure benefits for avoiding deforestation but has faced significant implementation challenges. There are substantial potential benefits for REDD+ in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where shifting agriculture is the major cause of deforestation. However, implementation requires significant capacity building in a number of sectors and at a number of levels. This paper explores how well the capacity building activities within the DRC REDD+ strategy are aligned with the capacity needs identified by provincial government stakeholders and local communities in the Équateur province of the DRC, identified through workshops and surveys. The research suggests that while many technical capacity needs identified by stakeholders could be potentially addressed by the REDD+ strategy, there are number of systemic capacity needs that are unlikely to be addressed. Failure to address these needs risks undermining any implementation of REDD+. The results suggest that education and training in governance and management, as well as fundamental education in sustainability, are key capacity needs that REDD+ may need to incorporate. The results also provide further evidence that REDD+ projects need to be long-term and take into account the local context and needs in order to be effective.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward A. Morgan & Glenn Bush & Joseph Zambo Mandea & Melaine Kermarc & Brendan Mackey, 2022. "Comparing Community Needs and REDD+ Activities for Capacity Building and Forest Protection in the Équateur Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-21, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:6:p:918-:d:839530
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/6/918/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/6/918/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karsenty, Alain & Ongolo, Symphorien, 2012. "Can “fragile states” decide to reduce their deforestation? The inappropriate use of the theory of incentives with respect to the REDD mechanism," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 38-45.
    2. Brendan Mackey & Cyril F. Kormos & Heather Keith & William R. Moomaw & Richard A. Houghton & Russell A. Mittermeier & David Hole & Sonia Hugh, 2020. "Understanding the importance of primary tropical forest protection as a mitigation strategy," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 763-787, May.
    3. Samndong, Raymond Achu & Bush, Glenn & Vatn, Arild & Chapman, Melissa, 2018. "Institutional analysis of causes of deforestation in REDD+ pilot sites in the Equateur province: Implication for REDD+ in the Democratic Republic of Congo," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 664-674.
    4. Massarella, Kate & Sallu, Susannah M. & Ensor, Jonathan E. & Marchant, Rob, 2018. "REDD+, hype, hope and disappointment: The dynamics of expectations in conservation and development pilot projects," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 375-385.
    5. Taye, Fitalew Agimass & Folkersen, Maja Vinde & Fleming, Christopher M. & Buckwell, Andrew & Mackey, Brendan & Diwakar, K.C. & Le, Dung & Hasan, Syezlin & Ange, Chantal Saint, 2021. "The economic values of global forest ecosystem services: A meta-analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    6. Nielsen, Tobias Dan, 2016. "From REDD+ forests to green landscapes? Analyzing the emerging integrated landscape approach discourse in the UNFCCC," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 177-184.
    7. Morgan, Edward A. & Buckwell, Andrew & Guidi, Caterina & Garcia, Beatriz & Rimmer, Lawrence & Cadman, Tim & Mackey, Brendan, 2022. "Capturing multiple forest ecosystem services for just benefit sharing: The Basket of Benefits Approach," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    8. Cadman, Timothy & Maraseni, Tek & Ma, Hwan Ok & Lopez-Casero, Federico, 2017. "Five years of REDD+ governance: The use of market mechanisms as a response to anthropogenic climate change," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 8-16.
    9. Carole Megevand, 2013. "Deforestation Trends in the Congo Basin : Reconciling Economic Growth and Forest Protection [Dynamiques de déforestation dans le bassin du Congo : Réconcilier la croissance économique et la protect," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 12477.
    10. ., 2021. "Lessons learned from the implementation of ETS," Chapters, in: Carbon Markets Around the Globe, chapter 7, pages 120-138, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Aquino, André & Guay, Bruno, 2013. "Implementing REDD+ in the Democratic Republic of Congo: An analysis of the emerging national REDD+ governance structure," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 71-79.
    12. Esther Turnhout & Aarti Gupta & Janice Weatherley‐Singh & Marjanneke J. Vijge & Jessica de Koning & Ingrid J. Visseren‐Hamakers & Martin Herold & Markus Lederer, 2017. "Envisioning REDD+ in a post‐Paris era: between evolving expectations and current practice," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(1), January.
    13. Kaisa, Korhonen-Kurki & Maria, Brockhaus & Efrian, Muharrom & Sirkku, Juhola & Moira, Moeliono & Cynthia, Maharani & Bimo, Dwisatrio, 2017. "Analyzing REDD+ as an experiment of transformative climate governance: Insights from Indonesia," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 61-70.
    14. Tim Cadman & Tek Maraseni, 2012. "The governance of REDD+: an institutional analysis in the Asia Pacific region and beyond," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(5), pages 617-635, August.
    15. Camille Reyniers, 2021. "Reducing deforestation and forest degradation in Democratic Republic of Congo: market-based conservation in a context of limited statehood," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(170), pages 509-528, October.
    16. Leblois, Antoine & Damette, Olivier & Wolfersberger, Julien, 2017. "What has Driven Deforestation in Developing Countries Since the 2000s? Evidence from New Remote-Sensing Data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 82-102.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Polina Lemenkova & Olivier Debeir, 2022. "R Libraries for Remote Sensing Data Classification by k-means Clustering and NDVI Computation in Congo River Basin, DRC," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/352357, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Yanlong Guo & Xingmeng Ma & Yelin Zhu & Denghang Chen & Han Zhang, 2023. "Research on Driving Factors of Forest Ecological Security: Evidence from 12 Provincial Administrative Regions in Western China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-21, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Morgan, Edward A. & Buckwell, Andrew & Guidi, Caterina & Garcia, Beatriz & Rimmer, Lawrence & Cadman, Tim & Mackey, Brendan, 2022. "Capturing multiple forest ecosystem services for just benefit sharing: The Basket of Benefits Approach," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    2. Morgan, Edward A. & Osborne, Natalie & Mackey, Brendan, 2022. "Evaluating planning without plans: Principles, criteria and indicators for effective forest landscape approaches," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    3. Skutsch, Margaret & Turnhout, Esther, 2020. "REDD+: If communities are the solution, what is the problem?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    4. Wehkamp, Johanna & Aquino, André & Fuss, Sabine & Reed, Erik W., 2015. "Analyzing the perception of deforestation drivers by African policy makers in light of possible REDD+ policy responses," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 7-18.
    5. Wenseslao Plata-Rocha & Sergio Alberto Monjardin-Armenta & Carlos Eduardo Pacheco-Angulo & Jesus Gabriel Rangel-Peraza & Cuauhtemoc Franco-Ochoa & Zuriel Dathan Mora-Felix, 2021. "Proximate and Underlying Deforestation Causes in a Tropical Basin through Specialized Consultation and Spatial Logistic Regression Modeling," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18, February.
    6. Timothy Cadman & Tek Maraseni & Upama Ashish Koju & Anita Shrestha & Sikha Karki, 2023. "Forest Governance in Nepal concerning Sustainable Community Forest Management and Red Panda Conservation," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, February.
    7. Castro-Nunez, Augusto & Mertz, Ole & Quintero, Marcela, 2016. "Propensity of farmers to conserve forest within REDD+ projects in areas affected by armed-conflict," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 22-30.
    8. Markus Lederer & Chris Höhne, 2021. "Max Weber in the tropics: How global climate politics facilitates the bureaucratization of forestry in Indonesia," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(1), pages 133-151, January.
    9. Sheng, Jichuan & Tang, Weizong & Zhu, Bangzhu, 2019. "Incentivizing REDD+: The role of cost-sharing mechanisms in encouraging stakeholders to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    10. Isyaku, Usman, 2021. "What motivates communities to participate in forest conservation? A study of REDD+ pilot sites in Cross River, Nigeria," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    11. Wurtzebach, Zachary & Casse, Thorkil & Meilby, Henrik & Nielsen, Martin R. & Milhøj, Anders, 2019. "REDD+ policy design and policy learning: The emergence of an integrated landscape approach in Vietnam," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 129-139.
    12. Poudyal, Bishnu Hari & Maraseni, Tek & Cockfield, Geoff, 2020. "An assessment of the policies and practices of selective logging and timber utilisation: A case study from natural forests of Tarai Nepal and Queensland Australia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. Maraseni, Tek Narayan & Bhattarai, Nabin & Karky, Bhaskar Singh & Cadman, Timothy & Timalsina, Niroj & Bhandari, Trishna Singh & Apan, Armando & Ma, Hwan Ok & Rawat, R.S. & Verma, Nemit & San, Su Mon , 2019. "An assessment of governance quality for community-based forest management systems in Asia: Prioritisation of governance indicators at various scales," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 750-761.
    14. Pelletier, Johanne & Horning, Ned & Laporte, Nadine & Samndong, Raymond Achu & Goetz, Scott, 2018. "Anticipating social equity impacts in REDD+ policy design: An example from the Democratic Republic of Congo," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 102-115.
    15. Jack Baynes & Geoff P. Lovell & John Herbohn, 2021. "Psychological outcomes of REDD + projects: evidence from country case studies," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 1-27, April.
    16. Mbatu, Richard S, 2016. "REDD+ research: Reviewing the literature, limitations and ways forward," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 140-152.
    17. Sohag, Kazi & Gainetdinova, Anna & Mariev, Oleg, 2023. "Economic growth, institutional quality and deforestation: Evidence from Russia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    18. Kimambo, Niwaeli E. & L'Roe, Jessica & Naughton-Treves, Lisa & Radeloff, Volker C., 2020. "The role of smallholder woodlots in global restoration pledges – Lessons from Tanzania," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    19. Andersson, Krister P. & Smith, Steven M. & Alston, Lee J. & Duchelle, Amy E. & Mwangi, Esther & Larson, Anne M. & de Sassi, Claudio & Sills, Erin O. & Sunderlin, William D. & Wong, Grace Y., 2018. "Wealth and the distribution of benefits from tropical forests: Implications for REDD+," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 510-522.
    20. Frings, Oliver & Abildtrup, Jens & Montagné-Huck, Claire & Gorel, Salomé & Stenger, Anne, 2023. "Do individual PES buyers care about additionality and free-riding? A choice experiment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:6:p:918-:d:839530. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.