Risks and opportunities of REDD plus implementation for environmental integrity and socio-economic compatibility

REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the enhancement of carbon stocks) emerges as promising incentive mechanism for tropical forest protection. While REDD+ is expected to yield poverty reduction and biodiversity co-benefits, its mechanism design options pose several risks to socio-economic compatibility and environmental integrity. We conduct a REDD+ expert survey to rate the perceived importance and likelihood of these risks to national REDD+ implementation. The dependency of the risk perception on stakeholder characteristics is analyzed using seemingly unrelated regression analysis and ANOVA. Additionally, the survey investigates the perceived effectiveness of different policy options to minimize these risks. The majority of stakeholders viewed governance challenges as the largest risks to REDD+ implementation and preferred mandatory incentive and regulatory policy measures to mitigate them. Understanding these stakeholder perceptions will not only help improving national REDD+ implementation, but also provide insights for the international policy process. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.