TY  - JOUR
A1  - Nuesiri, Emmanuel O.
T1  - Feigning Democracy
BT  - Performing Representation in the UN-REDD Funded Nigeria-REDD Programme
JF  - Conservation & society
N2  - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus the sustainable management of forest and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+) is a global climate change mitigation initiative. The United Nations REDD Programme (UN-REDD) is training governments in developing countries, including Nigeria, to implement REDD+. To protect local people, UN-REDD has developed social safeguards including a commitment to strengthen local democracy to prevent an elite capture of REDD+ benefits. This study examines local participation and representation in the UN-REDD international policy board and in the national-level design process for the Nigeria-REDD proposal, to see if practices are congruent with the UN-REDD commitment to local democracy. It is based on research in Nigeria in 2012 and 2013, and finds that local representation in the UN-REDD policy board and in Nigeria-REDD is not substantive. Participation is merely symbolic. For example, elected local government authorities, who ostensibly represent rural people, are neither present in the UN-REDD board nor were they invited to the participatory forums that vetted the Nigeria-REDD. They were excluded because they were politically weak. However, UN-REDD approved the Nigeria-REDD proposal without a strategy to include or strengthen elected local governments. The study concludes with recommendations to help the UN-REDD strengthen elected local government authority in Nigeria in support of democratic local representation.
KW  - REDD
KW  - climate change mitigation
KW  - UN-REDD
KW  - democracy
KW  - Nigeria
KW  - symbolic representation
KW  - local government
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.4103/cs.cs_16_106
SN  - 0972-4923
SN  - 0975-3133
VL  - 15
IS  - 4
SP  - 384
EP  - 399
PB  - Medknow publications & media Pvt LTD
CY  - Mumbai
ER  -