From RED to REDD+: the evolution of a forest-based mitigation approach for developing countries

The REDDplus mechanism currently negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has developed rapidly but not as expected. Treating deforestation as a climate mitigation issue, the negotiations have raised high expectations and triggered remarkable developments in the global forest sector and activities on all policy levels, based on the wide consensus among private and public actors that deforestation and climate change constitute urgent environmental problems that must be addressed simultaneously. Despite the stalemate of the UNFCCC process, the implementation of readiness and pilot activities began, and with it, the notion of the REDDplus debate changed. Concerns arose regarding the effectiveness and the integrity of REDDplus, in particular owing to the absence of clear modalities and funding. Such developments and the erratic course of the negotiations have revealed the shortcomings of the presumably simple approach. As the debate matured it recently shifted its focus to the complex reality of forest governance in developing countries.