Benefit sharing in REDD+ : exploring the implications for poor and vulnerable people

Abstract

Reference emission level plus (REDD+) benefit sharing can take a wide variety of forms depending on the policies used to achieve REDD+ objectives. Some policies may more directly resemble cash transfer or payment for environmental service schemes which transfer revenues between different actors and at different scales. However, benefit sharing systems could be much more complex, especially for national REDD+ schemes in which relatively broad brush policy reforms may be implemented which change the economics of multiple sectors. This paper has focused more on the simpler cash transfer approaches. In order to understand the implications of benefit sharing systems in any approach, it is important to be very clear about the types of benefits that can accrue from REDD+, the actors that are both directly and indirectly involved in benefit sharing and particularly the rules that may affect benefit flows to these actors. There is still a tendency for debates about benefit sharing to stop at the level of communities. Whilst many of the general concerns about benefit sharing within communities are widely referenced (e.g., elite capture), relatively less is known about how benefits are actually shared within communities and the implications in terms of economic opportunities, empowerment and vulnerability. There is also surprisingly little empirical evidence on the implications of different benefit sharing approaches for the poor in the different examples reviewed; e.g., in terms of questions about whether benefits have actually compensated people adequately, helped lift people out of poverty or deal with temporary shocks. These issues need to be much better understood within emerging REDD+ projects and programs, if their objective is for REDD+ to benefit those affected.