COMMUNICATING REDD+ ISSUES AT LOCAL LEVEL: CREATING LATENT AND MANIFEST CONFLICT

Author

Lukas Rumboko Wibowo, Digby Race, Allan Curtis

Abstract

”Carbon offsetting”in forestry-related projects is widely regarded as the ideal solution to the three challenges of   the  21st Century:  climate change, biodiversity conservation  andsocio-economic development. At the same time, there is scepticism about the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and  Forest  Degradation (REDD)  proposal  particularly because of   the  weak  governance and institutional capacities in many developing countries, which could jeopardize the delivery of benefits at the local level. One major problem is that most people have little knowledge on the causes and consequences of the climate change. This is partly because the information  is largely scattered among scientific journals, and obscured by jargon and sophisticated  mathematical  models. Consequently, REDD+ is beyond thereach of  manyof the people affected by REDD+. This  paper examines the efforts and the capacity of  the local governments and other development  agents in explaining the REDD + issues and its impacts on the local people, especially customary communities. The research shows that lack of  policy communication and promotion, as well as consultations with the affected groups arethe main contributing factors to latent and manifest conflicts. In turn, this conflicth as proven that NGOs,  district governments and scientists have not been successful intermediaries. Thus, in the future policy communication on REDD+ should beaimed at improved network formation (i.e. between farmer groups with business partners and NGOs  and other related actors), learning, negotiation and relationship building (i.e. between members of farmer groups,  not only withtheir leaders within the farmer groups but also with governmental and business sectors). Policy communication should also create a  new  configuration of   support  and  services in  form  of   advocacy, empowerment and management skills and technical skills for conserving their natural resources, for adaptation to climate change and building more equitable governance and transparency at local level.

Keywords

Climate change; REDD+; communication; innovation; conflict

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20886/ijfr.2013.10.2.67-78

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