Introduction: the role of agents and the establishment of the REDD+ regime

Abstract

Forests cover 3.99 billion hectares, or 30.6 percent of the earth’s total land area (FAO, 2015). Between 1990 and 2015, about 129 million hectares of forests were lost (FAO, 2015). Forests help in global biodiversity conservation; forest ecosystems represent 90 percent of terrestrial biodiversity (UNEP, 2002; World Bank, 2004). Forest loss leads to 100 species becoming extinct daily (Okereke and Dooley, 2010) and is a key global environmental problem. Forest ecosystems have intrinsic, aesthetic, cultural, social and environmental values. Forests provide economic goods and services for humans, including fuelwood, construction materials, food, medicines, and wood and non-wood products (de Groot et al., 2002). Forests support the livelihoods of about 1 billion people, including 350 million poor people of whom 60 million are Indigenous Peoples for whom forests are part of their biocultural heritage (WCFSD, 1999; Sobrevila, 2008; FAO, 2010). Forests store 289 gigatonnes of carbon, which is 86 percent of the earth’s above-ground carbon, and stabilize the climate (de Groot et al., 2002; FAO, 2010). They help regulate local and regional hydrological flows and rainfall patterns (IPCC, 2002). Deforestation and forest degradation contribute between 12 and 17 percent of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that cause climate change (Stern, 2006; Corbera et al., 2010; Siikamaki and Newbold, 2012; IPCC, 2014). In light of their importance, governments agreed at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) that forests