**1. Introduction**

26 Sustainable Forest Management – Case Studies

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Climate change is now an issue of concern at both national and international levels. In the past three decades efforts to address causes of climate change have focused mostly on mitigation measures of carbon emissions from conventional fossil fuels combustion – coal, oil, and natural gas. However, since 2000 after the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at The Hague, forests have gained increased recognition in their role in the fight against climate change. Forests are now almost at par with conventional fossil fuels at the top of the international climate change agenda.

With close to 60 gigatons of carbon (Gt C) exchanged between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere every year; with the world's tropical forests estimated to contain 428 Gt C in vegetation and soils; with the loss of tropical forests as the major driver of the CO2 flux caused by land-use changes during the past two decades (Lasco, 2010); with deforestation accounting for about 17 percent of all CO2 emissions (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2007); and with little results achieved so far on mitigation measures of carbon emissions from fossil fuels combustion, the 13th COP meeting in 2007 in Bali, Indonesia, adopted a more rigorous emissions reduction mechanism on 'avoided deforestation' scheme, codenamed REDD. REDD (or REDD+)1 is an acronym which stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. REDD provides a framework for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation through market instruments and financial incentives.

Given that the majority of the world's tropical forests are located in developing countries which are generally poor, "REDD presents a tremendous opportunity to jointly address climate change and rural poverty, while sustaining ecosystem services and conserving

<sup>1</sup> Since 2008 after COP-14 in Pozna, the symbol '+' has been added to the REDD acronym in some publications in recognition of the fact that "climate benefits can arise not only from avoiding negative changes (deforestation, degradation), but also from enhancing positive changes, in the form of forest conservation and restoration" (Angelsen & Wertz-Kanounnikoff, 2008, as cited in Wertz-Kanounnikoff & Kongphan-apirak, 2009).

Obstacles to a Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Forest

follows]" (Randolph & Masters, 2008):

carbon market.

that aim to reduce emissions to pre-1990 levels.

support efforts of developing countries.

toward meeting their required reduction targets.

meeting their respective reduction targets.

Management Under REDD in Central Africa: A Two-Country Analysis 29

etc. The Montreal Protocol is described by many as the most successful international environmental agreement this far. It is a fairly accurate description, especially when compared with the challenge of the global climate change problem in the wake of the failing Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol was crafted in Kyoto, Japan in December of 1997 by the international community under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in an effort to cut back on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, known to be the major cause of global warming and resulting climate change. The IPCC was formed by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 after the global community began noticing signs of climate change in the early 1980s. After its first and second conferences in the early 1990s, the IPCC presented a draft treaty during the second World Summit on the environment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC became a binding agreement three years later in 1995 after 128 nations ratified the agreement. Every year since its ratification in 1995 the UNFCCC holds a conference of Parties of the convention (COP). It was during the 3rd COP in 1997 that the Kyoto Protocol was reached. A crucial element of the UNFCCC under the Kyoto Protocol is the undertaking by some developed countries to reduce emission of six greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, sulfur hexafluoride, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorinated hydrocarbons) to at least 5% below 1990 levels, to be achieved by 2012. This was in recognition that the developed countries have a greater responsibility to emissions reductions than other Parties of the convention. Accordingly, all Parties of the convention are "classified [on the bases of] their levels of development and their commitments for GHG emission reduction and reporting [as

1. Annex I Parties: European Union (EU) member states plus other developed countries

2. Annex II Parties: The most developed countries in Annex I, which also commit to help

3. Countries with economies in transition (EIT): An Annex I subset mostly eastern and central Europe, and the former Soviet Union, which do not have Annex II obligations. 4. Non-Annex I Parties: All others, mostly developing countries, which have fewer

In efforts to facilitate emissions reduction COP at its 6th meeting at The Hague in 2000, developed three flexible mechanisms to give more options to Parties of the convention in meeting their required reduction targets. These include: (1) the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)2, (2) the Joint Implementation (JI)3, and (3) Emissions Trading (ET)4. However, in spite allowing greater flexibility in meeting emissions reduction targets, these three mechanisms considered forests only for their carbon sequestration function, leaving out their potential of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation. The question

2 The CDM mechanism allows industrialized countries to invest in clean energy projects in developing countries that are related to carbon emissions reduction and carbon sequestration in exchange for credit

3 The JI mechanism allows for collaborative efforts between two or more industrialized countries in

4 The ET mechanism establishes modalities for selling and buying emissions right. It regulates the

obligations and should rely on external support to manage emissions.

biodiversity" (Huberman, 2007). In this regard, sustainable forest management (SFM) in developing countries must be emphasized as an essential element for the attainment of the goals of REDD. Of the three major tropical forests regions in the world – Amazonia, Congo Basin and South-east Asia – the Congo Basin in Central Africa is the most impoverished. The implementation of REDD scheme in this region through SFM could create incentives for poverty alleviation while at the same time limiting deforestation and forest degradation thus making meaningful contribution to the fight against climate change. Although some countries in this region, since the conception of the scheme in 2007, have made significant progress in the preparedness process for a post-2012 REDD mechanism, it should be noted that mostly pilot projects have been carried out so far, with most of them marred by many difficult and controversial issues that need to be addressed before actual implementation can begin. Among the issues to be addressed are: 1) the problem of leakage. That is, the ability to control emissions beyond project and country boundaries, 2) the problem of determining the base-line. That is, how much deforestation has been avoided and how much deforestation is too much deforestation, 3) the problem of potential non-permanence. That is, how to deal with emissions resulting from natural and human causes at a later date, 4) the problem of price. That is, how the demand for carbon credits influences supply by REDD, and 5) the problem of tenure and usage rights (ownership of the land, and illegal logging control), weak economic, political and legal structures, and poor industrial practices in the forestry and agricultural sectors.

Efforts to address these problems have been largely focused on technical issues (problems 1- 4), while not much attention has been given to the socio-economic and development needs (problem 5) of forest-dependent communities. With millions of people in the Congo Basin depending on the forest for their livelihoods, the importance of fully integrating the socioeconomic and development needs of forest communities into REDD's agenda in this region cannot be undermined. As David Huberman of International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) observes "the success of REDD will ultimately depend on how well it contributes to the development needs of forest-dependent communities" (Huberman, 2007). In this regard, this chapter is aim at explaining the challenges of REDD beyond the technical problem area. It focuses on the socio-economic, political and legal challenges of implementing the REDD scheme in two countries in the Congo Basin in Central Africa – Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The chapter critically reviews different factors leading to deforestation in these countries and explore potential pathways towards SFM under REDD. We argue that an architecture based on socio-economic structure that is incentive driven (financial incentive), is more likely to achieve the goals of REDD in the Congo Basin than a technical-base architecture driven by market instruments.

The methodological approach to this chapter is narrative, descriptive, and analytic review of documents and empirical data from various sources inspired by debates and events related to REDD in the Congo Basin in general and in Cameroon and DRC in particular.
