This report provides an overview of Nepal’s initiatives on readiness for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+). It presents the status of forest cover change; identifies the drivers of deforestation, institutional and distributional factors in the country; analyses the political economy of land use change; revisits the REDD+ process; and assesses prospects for effective, efficient and equitable outcomes of the same. Nepal has a high rate of deforestation and forest degradation, though there exists no robust, comprehensive orupdated information to show the precise rate. Multiple drivers—such as high dependency on forests, over harvesting, weak governance, landlessness and high opportunity costs for agricultural expansion—contribute to deforestation. The government’s capacity to monitor and address these drivers and underlying causes appears inadequate. Forest officials, civil society organisations and donors exhibit strong enthusiasm for and active involvement in REDD+. Over half a dozen diverse REDD+ readiness initiatives are being implemented by the government and non-state actors. REDD+ implementation has adopted a participatory and multi-stakeholder process usually involving government agencies, civil society organisations and development partners. However, this process is largely detached from the complex dynamics of deforestation and appears to be limited to technical, administrative and peripheral issues. The core issues of forest tenure security and governance reform have not received adequate attention. A robust policy, legal and institutional foundation for community forestry and well-functioning community institutions provide a strong foundation for REDD implementation in Nepal. However, there are enormous challenges from the larger political and socio-economic context, the paucity and diversity of institutional arrangements and the unique nature and distribution of forest types.

REDD+ must be transformational. REDD+ requires broad institutional and governance reforms, such as tenure, decentralisation, and corruption control. These reforms will enable departures from business as usual, and involve communities and forest users in making and implementing policies that a ect them. Policies must go beyond forestry. REDD+ strategies must include policies outside the forestry sector narrowly de ned, such as agriculture and energy, and better coordinate across sectors to deal with non-forest drivers of deforestation and degradation. Performance-based payments are key, yet limited. Payments based on performance directly incentivise and compensate forest owners and users. But schemes such as payments for environmental services (PES) depend on conditions, such as secure tenure, solid carbon data and transparent governance, that are often lacking and take time to change. This constraint reinforces the need for broad institutional and policy reforms. We must learn from the past. Many approaches to REDD+ now being considered are similar to previous e orts to conserve and better manage forests, often with limited success. Taking on board lessons learned from past experience will improve the prospects of REDD+ e ectiveness. National circumstances and uncertainty must be factored in. Di erent country contexts will create a variety of REDD+ models with di erent institutional and policy mixes. Uncertainties about the shape of the future global REDD+ system, national readiness and political consensus require  exibility and a phased approach to REDD+ implementation.

REDD+ is one of the leading near-term options for global climate change mitigation. More than 300 subnational REDD+ initiatives have been launched across the tropics, responding to both the call for demonstration activities in the Bali Action Plan and the market for voluntary carbon offset credits.

Nepal is well known for its participatory forest management, especially community forestry, which has been reported to be successful not only in improving forest conditions over the past few decades but also in supporting the livelihoods of rural communities. Forestry sector stakeholders in Nepal have welcomed REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks in developing countries) with the hope that it will strengthen Nepal's decentralised forest governance system and support the livelihoods of the rural poor. In this context, it is imperative to understand how the REDD+ policy processes are moving and who is influencing the process. To achieve this, media content analysis, consultations with experts and journalists, and in-depth interviews with selected journalists were conducted to examine REDD+-related actions, actors and interests. We analysed how diverse actors & rsquo; understandings and actions are reflected in the Nepali media. In other words, this study focused on investigating how the Nepali media has framed the REDD+ issue, what key concerns are being raised, and how these discourses are used by the actors representing different interests in the REDD+ policy process in Nepal. Results show that, overall, REDD+ has received limited attention in the Nepali media. Within the overall climate change discourse in Nepal, the melting of the Himalayan ice-caps and glaciers has dominated all other discourses, including that on REDD+. Nepali journalists have found the science behind REDD+ to be very complex, making it difficult to understand and report. Moreover, technical topics such as REDD+ tend to attract less media attention than political issues ...

Constructive critique. This book provides a critical, evidence-based analysis of REDD+ implementation so far, without losing sight of the urgent need to reduce forest-based emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change. REDD+ as envisioned