Are Countries Ready for REDD+ Payments? REDD+ Readiness in Bhutan, India, Myanmar, and Nepal

Nabin Bhattarai (), Bhaskar Singh Karky, Ram Avtar, Rajesh Bahadur Thapa and Teiji Watanabe
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Nabin Bhattarai: Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan
Bhaskar Singh Karky: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Lalitpur 44700, Nepal
Ram Avtar: Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan
Rajesh Bahadur Thapa: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Lalitpur 44700, Nepal
Teiji Watanabe: Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: The Paris Agreement recognized the significant role of forests in climate change mitigating and adapting. It also emphasized the importance of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism as a vital tool for achieving the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. This study aims to assess the REDD+ readiness of Bhutan, India, Myanmar, and Nepal in preparation for effectively implementing REDD+ at the national level. A total of 57 indicators across five categories were used to evaluate readiness: overall readiness, technical readiness, institutional readiness, financing readiness, and strategy and safeguard readiness. The indicator-based questionnaire was administered to government officials, NGOs, private sectors, and academics. The results showed that Nepal was slightly more advanced in overall readiness, owing in part to the longer readiness period of the World Bank-supported Terai Arc ER-P. India scored highly in technical readiness and has several sub-national programmes for REDD+ implementation. Bhutan had strong ratings for strategy and safeguard readiness but lower scores for institutional and financing readiness. Myanmar had consistent ratings across readiness areas, but a lower score for technical readiness. However, political and governance situations pose significant challenges to the effective implementation of REDD+ in Myanmar.

Keywords: REDD+; readiness; indicators; strategy; safeguards; finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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