Challenges and opportunities of a landscape governance approach to the REDD plus programme: a conservation outlook

Implementing the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) programme has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gases whilst also helping to maintain biodiversity. However, a proposed landscape governance approach to the REDD+ programme, encompassing all land-use activities, could alter these desirable outcomes. Under the proposed approach, governments and private entities could encourage types of land use that have the potential to threaten biodiversity and disrupt ecosystems. Yet a landscape governance approach could also stimulate governments to develop land-use management policies to facilitate adaptation to climate change. I organized focus group discussions with members of conservation groups, REDD+ scholars, and members of the REDD+ agroforestry research community at the Association of American Geographers 2016 Annual Meeting, to identify potential conservation challenges and opportunities associated with carbon-farming in grasslands and plantations under the proposed landscape governance approach to REDD+. I evaluate and synthesize this information, making recommendations for strategies to maximize the conservation opportunities and minimize the challenges. Understanding the challenges and opportunities will enable policy makers and other stakeholders to improve the presentation of their arguments in their efforts to shape the course of the REDD+ programme in the post-Paris Agreement era.