Political Ecology of REDD+ in Indonesia
Agrarian Conflicts and Forest Carbon
Abstract
Indonesia’s commitment to reducing land-based greenhouse gas emissions
significantly includes the expansion of conservation areas, but these developments
are not free of conflicts. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of agrarian
conflicts in the context of the implementation of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and forest carbon offsetting in
Indonesia, a country where deforestation is a major issue.
The author analyzes new kinds of transnational agrarian conflicts which
have strong implications for global environmental justice in the REDD+ pilot
province of Jambi on the island of Sumatra. The chapters cover: the rescaling of
the governance of forests; privatization of conservation; and the transnational
dimensions of agrarian conflicts and peasants’ resistance in the context of
REDD+. The book builds on an innovative conceptual approach linking
political ecology, politics of scale and theories of power. It fills an important
knowledge and research gap by focusing on the socially differentiated impacts
of REDD+ and new forest carbon offsetting initiatives in Southeast Asia,
providing a multi-scalar perspective.
It is aimed at scholars in the areas of political ecology, human geography,
climate change mitigation, forest and natural resource management, as well as
environmental justice and agrarian studies.