Nested Governance for Effective REDD : Institutional and Political Arguments

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and Forest Enhancement (REDD ) has become a central focus of global climate change mitigation efforts. Even though the international demand for forest-based carbon sequestration is the key driver of REDD , forest protection strategies must be implemented on the ground. This cross-scale nature of REDD explains why scholars and policy makers increasingly favor nested governance arrangements over either fully centralized or fully decentralized REDD governance. The focus of the literature on nested REDD governance has mostly been on monitoring, reporting, and verification of carbon emission reductions across sub-national, national, and international levels. We build on Ostrom's principle of ‘nested enterprises' to argue that REDD must be designed to systematically and formally link national policy reforms with the organization and execution of sub-national (regional and local) forest conservation efforts led by forest users. We also contribute new insights on the political dimensions of nestedness in REDD , with important roles for inter-community forestry associations and forest rights movements