the congo basin forests in a changing cl

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The Co ng oBasinforestsina chan gi ng climate:Policydiscoursesonadaptation andmitigation(REDD+) Oluf unso A. Somorin a,b, *,H. Carolyn Peach Brown c , Ingrid J. Vi sseren-Hamakers b , Denis J. Sonwa a , Bas Ar ts b , Johnson Nkem d a Center  for InternationalForestryResearch(CIFOR),Central AfricanRegionalOfce,P.O.Box 2008Messa,Yaounde ´ ,Cameroon b Forest andNatureConservationPolicyGroup,WageningenUniversityandResearchCentre(WUR), 6708PBWageningen, theNetherlands c Environmental Studies,Universityof PrinceEdwardIsland,Charlottetown, C1A4P3,PrinceEdward,Canada d ClimateChange AdaptationandDevelopment Programme, UnitedNationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP),P.O.Box 30552-00100, Nairobi,Kenya 1.Introduction Climatechangeiscurrentlyatthe forefront of debatesand discourses onglobal environmental change(Adgeretal.,2001). Theglobalnatureof thecausesandconsequences of climate changeimplytheneedforinternational collectiveaction foran efcient, effectiveandequitable policyresponse (Palmerand Engel, 2009).TheUnitedNationsFrameworkConventionon ClimateChange(UNFCCC) identies twopolicyresponses to address climatechange:mitigationof climatechangebyreducing greenhousegases(GHGs)intheatmosphereandenhancingcarbon sinks, andadaptationtotheimpactsof climatechange(Kleinetal., 2005).Mitigationisdenedasananthropogenic intervention to reducethesourcesorenhancethesinksof GHGssuchascarbon dioxide, methaneandnitrousoxide.ActionsthatreducenetGHGs reducetheprojectedmagnitude andrateof climatechange, hence, lessenthepressure of climatechangeonnatural andhuman systems. Therefore, mitigationactionsareexpectedtodelayand reducedamages causedbythechange, providing environmental andsocio-economic benets. Adaptationreferstoanyadjustment innatural orhumansystems inresponsetoactual orexpected climatechange, aimedatmoderatingharmorexploiting benecial opportunities (IPCC,2001;Ravindranath, 2007). Despitebothadaptationandmitigation(A/M)sharingthesame ultimate purposeof reducingtheundesirable impactsof climate change(Fussel andKlein, 2006; SwartandRaes, 2007;Ayersand Huq,2008),adaptationhasreceivedlesspolicyattentionatthe global levels(  Jonesetal.,2007).Thereareseveral explanations for this. First,ataboohasbeenplacedonadaptationbythose advocatingforemissions reductions (Pielkeetal.,2007).Another reasonisalimitedunderstanding of adaptationsinceitsscienceis initsinfancy(Kates, 1997;Kleinetal.,2005).Butthereisathird reasonworthmentioning, albeit, political innature. Thereisa GlobalEnvironmental Change22(2012)288–298 AR TICL EINFO  Article history: Received28December2010 Recei ved in revi sed form 27 July 2011 Accepted1August2011 Available online 26 Aug ust 201 1 Keywords: Forests Climatechange Discourseanalysis Adaptation REDD+ CongoBasin ABSTR ACT Thi s pap er dis cusses thediscou rseson climate change ada ptationand mit igat ionthat arecur rent ly at the forefr ont in the Congo Basin. Onmit iga tion, the for estshave enor mous opp ortunit ies to contribute to the reducin g emi ssio ns from def ores tati on and for est deg rada tion (REDD+ ) mec hani sm. But the for est its elf andits mult iple de pendent soc ieties and sectors nee d to adapt to potenti al climat e ri sks. Hen ce, actor s are de bati ng the de si gn of cl imat e change po li cy in the forest sect or . Th eoreti ca ll y, we co mbine the agency-f oc us of frame analys is and discourse theory to anal yze how diff erent agents hold frames on cli mate cha nge adap tati on and mit iga tion pol icies in the region.This paper draws upon inte rvi ews wit h 103 dif fere nt actors from gov ernment, inte rnational org aniz ations, non-governmental org aniz atio ns, researc h inst itut ions andprivat e sec tor in thr ee countri es:Cameroon,CentralAfric an Republ ic (CAR) and Democr atic Republ ic of Congo (DR C). Thr ee discourses were found on pol icy res ponse to climate cha nge in the forest sector: mi ti ga ti on po li cy only, sepa rated poli cy on adaptati on and mi ti ga ti on, and an inte grated pol icy on ada ptat ion and mit iga tion . Thevariousframesarticul atedaroundeach discourse by th e co al it io ns in cl ud e el emen ts of : co sts and be ne t s, sc al e of op er a ti on, ef fecti ve ne ss , nanci al reso urc es and imp lementation mec hanisms. Overal l, the mit igat iondiscourse,thr ough its mix of act ors, resources and interes ts seems to be stronger than the adapt ati on di sco urse. The pape r na lly outli nesa number of impl icati ons of the di sco urses for poli cy desi gn. 2011 El sev ier Ltd . All ri ghts reser ved . *Correspondingauthorat:CenterforInternationalForestryResearch(CIFOR), CentralAfricanRegionalOfce,P.O.Box2008Messa,Yaounde ´ ,Cameroon. Tel.:+23722227449;fax:+23722227450. E-mailaddresses:[email protected], [email protected] (O.A.Somorin). ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirect Gl obal Envi ronmental Change journa lhomepage:www.elsevier.com /locate / gloenvcha 0959-3780/$seefrontmatter2011ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.08.001

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8/17/2019 The Congo Basin Forests in a Changing Cl

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