Re-territorializing Climate Governance: The REDD+ Initiatives in the DR Congo
Marine Gauthier, MS
Volume 24, Number 2 (2025) 24 (2): 91-109
Keywords REDD+ initiative, Congo Basin, Indigenous peoples, forest conservation, climate change, carbon trading, Batwa, Bambuti, Baaka groups, deterritorialized approach, political ethnography, Mai-Ndombe, community forestry, participatory mapping, Indigenous decision-making
Abstract
The Congo has long been a site of contestation for global environmental governance strategies, with Indigenous Batwa, Bambuti, and Baaka groups at the center of transnational climate discourse. One such strategy, the REDD+ initiative (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), has come to the fore as a carbon-trading-based solution to the environmental challenges facing the Congo Basin. This article critiques the REDD+ initiative’s deterritorialized approach, which favors the voices of international stakeholders over forest-dependent peoples Indigenous to the region. Taking a political ethnographical approach to the area of Mai-Ndombe, this research is based on formal and informal interactions with international actors, local communities, and Indigenous peoples. The strengths and weaknesses of mitigation methods like community forestry, institutionalized participation, and participatory mapping are explored. Ultimately, it is asserted that Indigenous decision-making, rather than institutionally imposed hegemony, must be integrated into the REDD+ initiative.
Marine Gauthier, MS
Published August 18, 2025
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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