Emmanuel Nuesiri

This chapter focuses on governance arrangements in the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, plus the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) initiative. The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD Programme) supports developing countries adopting REDD+, and commits to strengthen local democracy as a safeguard such that REDD+ benefits to local people are not captured by elites. The chapter questions whether the UN-REDD funded Nigeria-REDD program meets this safeguard requirement. Research methods included literature review, semi-structured interviews, focus group meetings and participant observation. The study finds that the design of Nigeria-REDD was not inclusive of democratically elected local government authority. The UN-REDD approved the Nigeria-REDD proposal, trusting that NGOs who were involved in designing Nigeria-REDD, will push for democratic governance. However, NGOs do not have a mandate to democratically respond to the needs of local people. The chapter recommends that UN-REDD should not only engage with NGOs, but also with elected local government authority, if it is to strengthen local democracy as a safeguard against elite capture of REDD+ benefits.

The book shows that Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is reconfiguring forest governance, including decentralized forestry arrangements, in ways that might deepen the subjection of local people to the interests of powerful actors (governments, business, and NGOs) in the forestry sector. However, local people and authorities are contesting their subjection under new governance arrangements due to adoption of REDD+. What this top-down reconfiguration of governance and bottom-up contestation will bring about is open to debate. This volume’s major contribution is to call on researchers, policymakers at global and national levels, and non-state actors with powerful influence on decision-making to choose inclusive and complementary representation of local communities in participatory processes associated with the adoption of REDD+.

Nuesiri assesses the UN-REDD (United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) commitment to strengthen local democracy as a safeguard protecting local interests in REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation with the added goals of Conserving and Enhancing Forest Carbon Stocks, and Sustainably Managing Forests). The chapter examines local representation during the consultative process associated with the Nigeria-REDD proposal. Local representation was through selected individuals (descriptive representatives), customary authority, and NGOs (symbolic representatives). Elected local government authorities (substantive representatives) were excluded from the consultative process. Exclusion of elected local governments is linked to godfather politics in Nigeria, which enables state governors to subordinate local government authority and constrain their responsiveness to local needs. I...

This edited collection assesses governance in forestry programmes and projects, including REDD+ governance. It examines political representation, participation and decentralisation in forest governance, providing insight as to how forest governance arrangements can be responsive to the socio-economic interests of local people and communities who live adjacent to and depend on forests. Global Forest Governance and Climate Change argues that inclusive complementary representation of local communities is required for strong participatory processes and democratic decentralisation of forest governance. Responsiveness to local people’s socio-economic interests in forestry initiatives require paying attention to not just the hosting of participatory meetings and activities, but also to the full cast of appointed, self-authorized, and elected representative agents that stand, speak, and act for local people.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus the sustainable management of forest and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+) is a global climate change mitigation initiative. The United Nations REDD Programme (UN-REDD) is training governments in developing countries, including Nigeria, to implement REDD+. To protect local people, UN-REDD has developed social safeguards including a commitment to strengthen local democracy to prevent an elite capture of REDD+ benefits. This study examines local participation and representation in the UN-REDD international policy board and in the national-level design process for the Nigeria-REDD proposal, to see if practices are congruent with the UN-REDD commitment to local democracy. It is based on research in Nigeria in 2012 and 2013, and finds that local representation in the UN-REDD policy board and in Nigeria-REDD is not substantive. Participation is merely symbolic. For example, elected local government authorities, who ostensibly represent rural people, are neither present in the UN-REDD board nor were they invited to the participatory forums that vetted the Nigeria-REDD. They were excluded because they were politically weak. However, UN-REDD approved the Nigeria-REDD proposal without a strategy to include or strengthen elected local governments. The study concludes with recommendations to help the UN-REDD strengthen elected local government authority in Nigeria in support of democratic local representation.

This paper explores the principle of accountability, particularly the accountability of powerful actors for the social and environmental outcomes of their decision making about natural resources. Powerful actors are institutions with decision making powers and influence over management of forests, fisheries, land, water, and extractive resources. While it focuses on government and the private sector, accountability is a principle common to all governance systems. Accountability is the requirement for powerful actors to accept responsibility and answer for their actions; it could be vertical and characterized by a hierarchical principal-agent relationship, horizontal where accountee is not hierarchically superior to the accountor, or diagonal and inclusive of citizen initiatives to hold powerful actors accountable. When vertical, horizontal and diagonal accountability practices are primarily civil society or citizen driven, they are referred to as social accountability initiatives (SAIs). There are five dimensions or aspects to accountability namely transparency, liability, controllability, responsibility, and responsiveness. The main questions being asked by the paper are: why is accountability an essential principle for natural resources governance; how has it been recognized internationally and by whom; and what are the key challenges and good practices related to holding powerful actors around the world to account? The paper finds that government has primary obligation for accountable management of natural resources on behalf of its citizens who are right holders over these resources. However, government is often reluctant to unreservedly hold powerful actors to account, especially business, preferring to allow business to opt for voluntary mechanisms of accountability or to self-regulate. This has given rise to citizen driven SAIs as external means of holding powerful actors to account, while contributing to strengthening formal internal accountability procedures. Thus supporting citizen driven accountability practices in vertical, horizontal and diagonal accountability systems, is a reliable way to ensure that powerful actors in natural resources management are held accountable for the social and environmental outcomes of their decision making and actions.

SUMMARY Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) is a global climate change mitigation initiative. The United Nations REDD Programme (UN-REDD) is building capacity in developing countries interested in REDD+ including Nigeria. REDD+ will reduce access to forests and compromise the livelihoods of local people. UN-REDD commits to strengthen local democracy as a safeguard to prevent elite capture of benefits from REDD+ for local people. This study examined whether local representation in the UN-REDD international policy board and during the consultative process accompanying adoption of REDD+ in Nigeria strengthened local democracy. The study is based on field research in Nigeria in 2012 and 2013. It found that local government authority, the substantive political representatives of local people were not in the UN-REDD policy board, and were absent from the consultative process that led to adoption of REDD+ in Nigeria. Autorité locale et representation a travers REDD+: Le Nigeria comme cas d'étude E.O. NUESIRI C'est un défi global que de réduire les émissions carbones. Il est relevé par REDD+ qui addresse la deforestation et la degradation des terres, a travers la conversation et la gestion durable du stock carbone des forêts dans les pays en développement. Le programme REDD des Nations Unies (UN-REDD) améliore les capacitiés des pays en développement intéressés de poursuivre le projet global REDD+, notemment le Nigéria. REDD+ réduira l'accés aux forêts et compromettra les modes de vie des populations locales. UN-REDD a pour engagement de renforcer la démocracie comme mesure préventive de l'accaparement, par les élites locales, des benefices envisagés pour les populations locales. Cette étude a examiné si oui ou non la démocracie locale est renforcé, à travers la façon dont le local est representé pendant les rencontres internationales de definition de politique UN-REDD, et pendant le processus consultatif d'accompagnement de l'adoption de REDD+ au Nigéria. L'étude se base sur un travail de terrain au Nigéria en 2012 et 2013. Il en résulte que les autorités de gouvernement local, les representants substantifs des populations locales, n'étaient pas repréntées dans les rencontres internationales, et étaient absentes pendant le processus consultatif qui a conduit a l'adoption de REDD+ au Nigéria. Autoridades gubernamentales locales y representación en REDD+: un studio de caso de Nigeria E.O. NUESIRI REDD+ (La reducción de emisiones relacionadas con la deforestación, la degradación forestal y el papel de la conservación en la gestión sostenible y la mejora de las reservas de carbón (REDD+) es una iniciativa global de mitigación del cambio climático. El programa de las Naciones Unidas de REDD (UN-REDD) está desarrollando las capacidades de los países en desarrollo interesados en REDD+, entre otros, Nigeria. REDD+ reducirá la capacidad de las comunidades locales de acceder a los recursos forestales, comprometiendo su fuente de abastec-imiento. UN-REDD se compromete a fortalecer la democracia como dispositivo de seguridad para impedir que las elites se apropien de los beneficios que REDD+ puede traer a las comunidades locales. Este artículo estudia si la democracia local se ha visto fortalecida en relación a la representación de las comunidades locales en el consejo asesor de REDD+ a nivel global y al proceso de consultación acompañando la adopción de REDD+ en Nigeria. Este estudio está basado en trabajo de campo en Nigeria en 2012 y 2013. Concluye que las autoridades gubernamentales a nivel local, aquellos representantes políticos capaces de representar de forma sustantiva a las comunidades no se encontraban en el consejo de asesoramiento y estuvieron ausentes en el proceso de consultación que llevó a la adopción de REDD+ en Nigeria.

The ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation with the added goals of Conserving and Enhancing Forest Carbon Stocks, and Sustainably Managing Forests’ (REDD+) is part of the mix of solutions to the global climate change crises. The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) is presently funding REDD+ readiness initiatives. Many analysts fear that REDD+ could lead to loss of livelihoods for forest dependent people. To prevent this, the UN-REDD has expressed its commitment to social protections; it specifically commits to strengthen local democratic processes in its funded programmes as a safeguard against elite capture of REDD+ benefits for local people. This paper assesses the UN-REDD commitment to strengthen local democratic processes. It presents the findings of research examining representation in both the UN-REDD policy board and the US$4 million UN-REDD funded Nigeria REDD+ programme. The Nigeria-REDD is implemented under the principal of securing the full prior and informed consent (FPIC) of affected local people.

This article assesses monetary and non-monetary benefits from the Bimbia-Bonadikombo community forest in the Mt. Cameroon region, South West Cameroon. The assessment is carried out through a financial audit of revenues and expenditures of the Bimbia-Bonadikombo Natural Resources Management Council which manages the community forest, and through semi-structured interviews of community forest users, waged employees, and local elites involved in managing the community forest. The article finds that monetary benefits from the community forest is meagre, but this has not discouraged a group of elites motivated by a desire for land control from taking an active interest in managing the community forest. This article contributes to an understanding of non-monetary incentives behind the establishment of community forests. The article uses its findings to draw the attention of advocates for the inclusion of community forestry in climate change mitigation programmes, to not only focus on the financial benefits of such programmes, but to also vigorously promote the non-monetary benefits of such programmes, especially the possible resolution of communal land tenure issues.

The utopian impulse is the human longing to build the best of all possible worlds imaginable through social theories, policy discourses, legal texts, and institutional structures. The utopian impulse is evident in the meta-narratives behind human institutions. In developing countries including Cameroon, the utopian impulse has influenced the transition from fortress conservation to contemporary decentralised forestry paradigm. Decentralised forestry not only wishes to save the forest but calls for an equitable and just forestry sector. Decentralised forestry at its core is a utopian vision for a best of all possible worlds imaginable for forest-dependent people. However, utopia inspires both loyalty and opposition; it enchants and threatens all at once. It is therefore not surprising that contemporary  decentralised forestry paradigm, with its lofty rhetoric of social justice as integral to saving the tropical forest, has faced opposition. This article argues that insights from utopian studies would help decentralised forestry advocates to be better prepared to respond to opposition they experience in their work.

KEY WORDS: decentralised forestry, utopia, Cameroon

Sensitivity to land tenure conflict and associated land tenure rights are essential for successful climate change adaptation initiatives. Climate change will have devastating effects on local livelihoods in East and Southern Africa. In response, governments in the region are developing land-use based adaptation initiatives; for these to work, governments must resolve land tenure rights issues at the local level.

The Anglophone regions in Cameroon are currently protesting against perceived marginalization policies and practices of the Francophone dominated Cameroon Government. Their grievances date back to the independence era of the 1960s when they were required by the United Nations to choose between joining Nigeria or French Cameroun as a condition for their independence. This presentation shows that the Anglophone problem in Cameroon has colonial, constitutional, cultural, and citizenship dimensions. It calls for international mediation and incentives to help Cameroon arrive at long-term equitable solutions to a colonially inherited and multi-dimensional dilemma.

There is much talk of 'Africa rising' linked with increasing prosperity on the continent, especially in countries like Angola, Nigeria and South Africa. This presentation argues that African countries have historically experienced boom and bust economic cycles, thus this recent boom will inevitably be followed by a bust. The real question then is how are African governments preparing for this rainy day or bust cycle?

Economic justice is central to the struggle for social justice across Africa. These four lectures were delivered in September 2015 at the CODESRIA and OSISA organized Economic Justice Institute in Durban, South Africa. The lectures are on development and sustainable development, managing revenue from natural resources in Africa, commodification and market expansion, and lastly, power-control and access.

The reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) can have other social and ecological benefits in addition to forest carbon sequestration. Non-carbon benefits (NCBs) are now part of global deliberations on how to effectively implement REDD+ with its inclusion in Article 5 of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. This discussion brief contributes to the pool of ideas on how to design a global NCB institutional structure, with appropriate incentives, that 'monitor to enhance' (MTE) the mainstreaming of NCB approaches in REDD+ programmes.