Challenges in Forest Carbon Governance: Insights From Southeast Asia

Meeting global climate change mitigation targets will require enhanced nature-based carbon sequestration, in which forest carbon schemes play a major role. This is despite criticisms of forest carbon schemes' efficacy, social impacts, and downgrading of other forest functions and services. Against this backdrop, we reviewed existing social science research on the governance of terrestrial forest carbon schemes in Southeast Asia, a forest-rich region with high deforestation rates that is in many respects representative of the wider tropics. Our narrative review focused on four themes: (i) finance and the political economy; (ii) knowledge; (iii) implementation; and (iv) inclusivity, equity, and justice for local communities. We found that forest carbon schemes have been unable to compete with large-scale drivers of deforestation, tend to privilege scientific and expert knowledge in relation to carbon accounting and geospatial analyses, are significantly limited by national and local governance issues, and have often not provided the intended benefits for local communities. The literature reviewed largely focuses on donor-supported and project-scale REDD+. However, forest carbon governance is rapidly changing. We thus make the case for a governance research agenda that focuses on jurisdictional approaches, increasing levels of private sector investment, the diversification of forest interventions, and efforts to restore the legitimacy of forest carbon credits. These directions for future research are essential for ensuring that forest carbon schemes contribute to effective climate change mitigation and the conservation of forest ecosystems in just and equitable ways that benefit local communities in Southeast Asia and tropical latitudes more widely. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance.