Download CoCooR Project: International workshop on REDD+ conflict and

CoCooR Project: International workshop
on REDD+ conflict and cooperation
University of East Anglia
4 - 6 July 2017
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), and the enhancement and
sustainable use of forest carbon stocks, is an international policy framework promoted to align forest
governance in developing countries with climate change mitigation objectives and to contribute towards
poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation, through both national policies and concrete projects.
DEV’s CoCooR (Conflict and Cooperation over REDD+) project (2014-2018), funded by DFID and NWO
Netherlands, has analysed the extent to which REDD+ has resulted in increased conflict or cooperation in
Mexico, Nepal and Vietnam. The project is led by Dr Esteve Corbera and Dr Poshendra Satyal and consists
of these partners: Dr Hari Dhungana (Nepal), Dr Horacio Almanza (Mexico), Dr Cam Hoang (Vietnam), Dr
David Gritten (RECOFTC – The Centre for People and Forests) and Theresa Tepe (Winrock).
The project team have identified divergent claims about REDD+ across the three studied countries at both
policy and project levels, resulting in grievances around how much focus should the government put on
carbon accounting and monitoring as a means to generate economic incentives for participant
communities, and who should control such revenues. The team have also found that the necessary level of
participation and informed consent that is required for REDD+ to be legitimate has been uneven, with
more related conflict observed in Vietnam and less so in Mexico and Nepal. Overall, the project has
unearthed diverse instances of conflict related to either historical struggles over land and forest rights
(Vietnam) or unsettled debates about procedural fairness in forest and rural development policies that
REDD+ has not yet contributed to resolve.
In order to share the team’s findings, the CoCooR project is organizing a 3-day international workshop on
REDD+ conflict and cooperation: Understanding linkages and outcomes at UEA, 4-6 July 2017. This
workshop will bring together academic researchers, policy-makers and civil society practitioners to discuss
how REDD+ national strategies and (pilot) programmes and projects have brought about, resolved or
transformed conflict and cooperation in the management of landscapes and natural resources. The
workshop brings together new (i.e. not yet published) theoretical and empirical studies focusing on
conflict, conflict transformation or cooperation in the context of REDD+, including analytical approaches to
better understand such dynamics and identify the most relevant research questions and required data, as
well as detailed accounts from early implementers of how conflict or cooperation have been reinforced as
a result of REDD+ early implementation. The workshop also brings first-hand experience of policy-makers
and practitioners in the design and implementation of REDD+ strategies and projects, and their reflection.
For more information about the workshop and project, contact Poshendra Satyal: [email protected].