Briefing Paper

Governing Southern Africa’s Forests: The Case of REDD+

“This case study provides a political-economy analysis of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional support programme for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). REDD+ is an innovative financing scheme focusing specifically on the carbon sequestration potential of forests – a global public good. REDD+ projects are usually implemented at the national and local levels. The SADC support programme therefore focuses on those aspects of REDD+ that are important at the regional level and can only – or best – be achieved by countries working together. To date this includes a project by SADC and Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on REDD+ measurement reporting and verification (MRV).”