This session will focus on experiences that link land tenure and the procedural rights of stakeholders to participate in programs, the role of equity and rights considerations in the design of benefit distribution mechanisms, and low cost approaches to document resource rights in REDD+ implementation. It will explore why equity and resource tenure security are important for the effectiveness and sustainability of REDD+, as well as for increasing non-carbon benefits, and will address practical implementation and design measures.
The lessons from the discussions will be particularly relevant to government representatives and implementers of REDD+ projects and jurisdictional activities, as it will describe discrete pathways where policy issues on tenure and equity have been addressed, and how implementers have managed to fit within the policy pathways to secure resource rights and address equity concerns.
The session will be moderated by James Murombedzi, Senior Climate and Resource Governance Specialist at the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
Three presentations will start the session:
- The relationship between rights to forests and rights to participate in, and benefit from REDD+ (Andrea Quesada, IIED, IUCN and REDD+ SES)
- Clarifying and strengthening resource tenure in REDD+ policy and practice: USAID experience and tools (Matt Sommerville, Tetra Tech, USAID Tenure and Global Climate Change Program)
- Governance, rights and the role of politics in REDD+ equity discourses (Grace Wong, CIFOR)
The panel discussion will then invite three actors from a range of stakeholder groups to present perspectives and answer questions on how their institutions have integrated land rights clarifications and equity into REDD+ design and implementation.
- William Sunderlin, CIFOR, will speak to the outcomes and recommendation of the Global Comparative Study on REDD+ related to land, resource rights and equity.
- Phil Franks, REDD+ SES and IIED, will address how land and resource tenure rights have been considered in the application of REDD+ standards and safeguards.
Key questions addressed
- What actions have projects been able to take in the absence of national level progress on broader tenure security?
- How has REDD+ been able to encourage national governments to take action on tenure security, or where has REDD+ mobilized further interest in the existing issue of increasing tenure security?
- How have equitable procedures, finance and co-benefit distribution played out on the ground, and what role have land and resource rights played in targeting?
Background reading
- USAID background assessments and overview papers
- Land Tenure and REDD: The Good, Bad and the Ugly
- How are REDD+ proponents addressing tenure problems? Evidence from Brazil, Cameroon, Tanzania, Indonesia and Vietnam
- Identifying and Working with Beneficiaries when Rights are Unclear. Insights for REDD+ Initiatives
- The role of women in early REDD+ implementation: lessons for future engagement
- Who Should Benefit from REDD+? Rationales and Realities
- Social Equity Matters Payments for Ecosystem Services
- Equitable REDD+: exploring concepts and strategies. IIED Discussion Paper
