Page 34 - Governing Congo Basin Forests in a Changing Climate • Olufunso Somorin

Chapter 1
of the priority for adaptation given the high poverty, low human capacity and low infrastructure development (energy, ICT, etc), and ultimately vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Using available natural resources, including the forests, in a sustainable manner to increase the adaptive capacities of the populations and ecosystems, in order to cope with or adapt to the uncertainties of climate change, becomes a priority. On the other hand, international discussions on forest-based mitigation in developing countries advocate that emission reductions from forest conservation should be financially compensated (Humphreys, 2008; Angelsen et al., 2009). This has led to the emergence of the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) mechanism (Agrawal et al., 2011; Corbera and Schroeder, 2011; Lederer, 2012; Visseren-Hamakers et al., 2012). In its ambitious plan, REDD+ is seen as a mechanism to simultaneously address issues of climate change, biodiversity loss and poverty reduction (Kanowski et al., 2011). As of today, many countries in the Basin have expressed their interests in REDD+, largely due to its ‘promise’ of offering a new opportunity for benefits for poverty reduction and economic development (Brown et al., 2011; Dkamela, 2011; Chia et al., 2013). Simply put, the Congo Basin forest is caught in the web of ‘playing’ in the global arena of climate mitigation and at the same time having to contend with local realities of climate risks through adaptation.
As simple as it sounds in theory, matching the opportunities of contributing to the global mitigation effort through the REDD+ mechanism with the priority of adapting to climate change, presents not just a policy dilemma for a region characterized by weak governance (Brown et al., 2011; Karsenty and Ongolo, 2012), it also presents similar challenges for the scientific community. Given that the science of both REDD+ and adaptation are still developing, and particularly with many official policies yet to be made, it is thus understandable that the relationship between the opportunities of REDD+ and priorities of adaptation has not been sufficiently studied in the scientific community. Nevertheless, questions still remain especially on: (i) how such a ‘matching’ exercise would translate in practice in the form of projects and programs; (ii) the institutional framework(s) required to manage mitigation opportunities and adaptation priorities across regional, national and local levels; (iii) the type of coordination mechanisms, knowledge systems and cooperative partnerships necessary for maximizing adaptation and mitigation outcomes; (iv) the form of monitoring
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