This report describes an action-learning project led by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) that strengthened the capacity of national and regional institutions to assess the potential of economic instruments to improve the quality and delivery of watershed services in the Caribbean. It focuses on project sites and case studies in Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, while drawing on lessons of wider regional and international interest.

This resourceful book draws on several case studies to derive implications for the design of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) schemes that are very relevant to current climate change negotiations and the implementation of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) schemes at the national level. With its focus on livelihoods, the book also provides important lessons that are relevant to the design of PES schemes focusing on environmental services other than carbon conservation. Drawing practical lessons for the design of activities aimed at reducing deforestation and forest degradation while benefiting rural people, this book will appeal to academics, practitioners and students involved in the fields of environment and natural resource management, forestry and development studies. This insightful study is accessible also to non-experts in presenting the key issues faced in avoiding deforestation and benefiting livelihoods.

Emerging from the scientific parameters underpinning REDD+ (including the measurement of carbon stocks, reporting and verification), Law, Tropical Forests and Carbon considers the crucial challenges for global and national governance and the legal rights and interests of indigenous people and local communities, all of which have fundamental implications for development and poverty alleviation. With contributions from leading experts in the fields of law, governance, science, development studies and geography, it sheds light on the complexity of REDD+ and offers perspectives on the extent to which REDD+ agreements can be enforced under international law and in concert with new private and public domestic institutions.