Reconsidering REDD+
Authority, Power and Law in the Green Economy

REDD+ operates to reorganise social relations and to establish new forms of global authority over forests in the Global South.

Julia Dehm (Author)

9781108438346, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 July 2022

438 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.586 kg

'An original and thought-provoking critique of REDD+ that also sheds light on fundamental shortcomings of the climate change regime and of international environmental law and policy more generally. This is the very best kind of critical scholarship, that not only reveals the limitations of current frameworks but also inspires the reader to look past them to possible alternatives.' Karin Mickelson, University of British Columbia

In Reconsidering REDD+: Authority, Power and Law in the Green Economy, Julia Dehm provides a critical analysis of how the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) scheme operates to reorganise social relations and to establish new forms of global authority over forests in the Global South, in ways that benefit the interests of some actors while further marginalising others. In accessible prose that draws on interdisciplinary insights, Dehm demonstrates how, through the creation of new legal relations, including property rights and contractual obligations, new forms of transnational authority over forested areas in the Global South are being constituted. This important work should be read by anyone interested in a critical analysis of international climate law and policy that offers insights into questions of political economy, power, and unequal authority.

Introduction: Reconsidering REDD+
1. Background to REDD+
2. Asserting global authority over the carbon sequestration potential of forests
3. Actualising authority through public and private law: REDD+ through the lens of property and contract
4. Responsibility and capacity: recasting north-south difference
5. Scale, multilevel governance and the disaggregation of property rights in REDD+
6. REDD+ at the 'local' level: between rights and responsibilisation
7. Conclusion: Possibilities for climate justice and planetary co-habitation.

Subject Areas: Environment law [LNKJ], International organisations & institutions [LBBU], International environmental law [LBBP], Environmental economics [KCN], International relations [JPS]