Scaling up zero-deforestation initiatives through public-private partnerships: A look inside post-conflict Colombia

• Published in: Global environmental change Vol. 62; pp. 102055 - 13
• Main Authors: Furumo, Paul R., Lambin, Eric F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2020; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Agenda setting; Case studies; Conflict; Cooperation; Deforestation; Emissions; Enforcement; Forest management; Forest protection; Forests; Global forest governance; Governance; Government; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; International cooperation; Land tenure; Low-emissions rural development; Partnerships; Peace; Policy analysis; Post-conflict; Priorities; Public policy; Public private partnerships; REDD; Rural development; Scaling up; Stakeholders; Supply; Supply chains; Sustainable supply chains; Tropical forests; Colombia; Low-emissions rural development; Agenda setting; Sustainable supply chains; REDD; Global forest governance; Post-conflict
• ISSN: 0959-3780; 1872-9495
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102055

•Multi-stakeholder, multi-level zero-deforestation policy ecosystem is emerging.•Ambitious pledges stimulate supporting public and private sector initiatives.•Governments play key role in orchestrating actors at national level.•Public-private partnerships a policy mechanism to scale up impacts.•Illegality, land tenure, and enforcement challenge hybrid governance. The rise of public and private zero-deforestation commitments is opening a new collaborative space in global forest governance. Governments seeking to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions by protecting and restoring forests are partnering with companies motivated to eliminate deforestation from supply chains. The proliferation of zero-deforestation initiatives is creating opportunities for policy synergies and scaling up impacts, but has led to a more complex regulatory landscape. Drawing on policy analysis and expert interviews, we explore public-private policy interactions in Colombia as a case study for tropical forested nations with interest in aligning climate, forest, and development goals. We consider how zero-deforestation priorities are set on the national agenda and scaled up through public-private partnerships. We identify zero-deforestation initiatives in three overlapping governance domains—domestic public policy, REDD+, sustainable supply chain initiatives—and highlight ten multi-stakeholder pledges that have catalyzed supporting initiatives at multiple scales. Emerging from decades of armed conflict, Colombia is pursuing a peace building model based on low-emissions rural development. The peace deal provided a focusing event for zero-deforestation that converged with political momentum and institutional capacity to open a policy window. A government pledge to eliminate deforestation in the Colombian Amazon by 2020 set the national agenda and stimulated international REDD+ cooperation. Lessons from Colombia show that governments provide important directionality among the proliferation of zero-deforestation initiatives. Public pledges and the orchestration of actors through public-private partnerships allow governments to scale up efforts by aligning transnational activities with national priorities. The case of Colombia serves as a potential zero-deforestation model for other nations, but challenges around equitable land tenure, illegality, and enforcement must be overcome for multi-stakeholder initiatives to produce long-term change.