Benefit Sharing and REDD+: Considerations and Options for Effective Design and Operation

The program offers analysis, evaluation, tools, and guidance for program design support, training materials, and meeting and workshop development and facilitation that support U.S. Government contributions to international REDD+ architecture. The FCMC Program aims to provide policy makers and stakeholders with benefit-sharing design considerations that focus specifically on outcome-driven incentives. The report draws from experiences with benefit sharing in natural resource management, mining, and forestry, and sets out issues and options for equitable and effective benefit-sharing arrangements for REDD+. Benefit sharing is generally understood as allocating, administering, and providing benefits to multiple actors for certain activities or results through some form of positive incentive, opportunity, payment, rent/profit, or other compensation – whether financial or non-monetary. The report offers policy makers and stakeholders benefit-sharing design considerations based on three different models: payments for services, managed funds, and collaborative resource management. The payments for services model typically involves private contracts between an investor or donor and a landowner or resource manager, where a contract offers a defined benefit (often cash) in exchange for an activity to be performed or refrained from. Conservation easements and payments for ecosystem services (PES) generally follow this model, where typically the national or provincial government compensates communities or households for their contributions to protecting natural habitats. The managed funds model is often used in forestry and mining, where benefits are structured through centrally managed funds. The collaborative resource management model involves collaborative decision-making and management of resources among multiple stakeholders. The report provides a series of steps to help structure benefit-sharing arrangements for effective incentives to improve REDD+ outcomes. A subnational initiative in Nicaragua, the Integrated Silvipastoral Ecosystem Management Project, offered household-level incentives to capture carbon, protect water supplies and biodiversity, and stem erosion. The project included 138 households selected based on location, small-/medium-size landholdings, secure tenure, income derived from grazing, acceptance of external monitoring, and accessibility to roads. Benefits were both cash and non-cash, including technical assistance to enhance soil productivity, higher land value, easier titling, land use mapping, and new partnerships. The report highlights the importance of understanding options for sharing both monetary and non-monetary benefits in REDD+ initiatives. It emphasizes the need for equitable and effective benefit-sharing arrangements that take into account the interests of multiple stakeholders, including local communities, governments, and investors. The report provides a framework for designing and managing benefit-sharing arrangements that can improve REDD+ outcomes and promote sustainable forest management.