van Asselt, Harro; McDermott, Constance L. --- "The institutional complex for REDD+: a ‘benevolent jigsaw’?" [2016] ELECD 612; in Voigt, Christina (ed), "Research Handbook on REDD-Plus and International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 63

Book Title: Research Handbook on REDD-Plus and International Law

Editor(s): Voigt, Christina

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783478309

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: The institutional complex for REDD+: a ‘benevolent jigsaw’?

Author(s): van Asselt, Harro; McDermott, Constance L.

Number of pages: 26

Abstract/Description:

Officially situated under the umbrella of the UNFCCC, REDD+ is of undeniable relevance to a host of other international legal regimes, including those for human rights, biological diversity and trade. All of these regimes, like REDD+, interact with the diverse drivers and impacts of deforestation. The emergence of REDD+ further needs to be viewed in the context of several decades of developments in international forest law and governance. And while public international law continues to develop as a mosaic of overlapping legal instruments, a range of new transnational public, private and public–private governance arrangements have started to fill gaps by setting standards, financing and helping to put REDD+ in practice. These various international legal instruments and transnational governance arrangements both influence, and are impacted by, rule development on REDD+ under the UNFCCC, giving rise to two overarching questions. The first question is whether the outcomes of such interactions can be viewed as synergetic, with the resulting legal system forming a ‘benevolent jigsaw’, or whether they lead to a situation of ‘conflictive fragmentation’. Second, to the extent that the implications of institutional complexity can be seen as negative, the question arises to what extent states and non-state actors can do something about it.