Carbon Trapping or Carbon Trapped? REDD+ and Fixing the Forest in Vanuatu

Keywords: Vanuatu, Nature-Based Solutions, Neoliberalism, Pacific Islands, Climate Change
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 66

Abstract

Carbon offsetting, particularly forest-based carbon sequestration, continues to be the darling of global climate action with over $5.2 billion expended on the flagship UN REDD+ program since 2008. Yet, for a decade scholars have articulated the failures of REDD+ to meet sustainable development and carbon removal goals. In spite of this widespread criticism, forest-based carbon offset funding continues to grow and remains central to climate financing in the Global North and climate mitigation in the Global Majority. However, the failures of carbon offsetting are not only in outcome but also in distribution--Vanuatu struggles to access funding despite being the most at-risk nation in the world according to the UN WorldRiskIndex. At the same time, the Vanuatu Government views carbon offsetting as a key strategy for climate adaptation and mitigation. With carbon offsetting becoming increasingly entrenched in global climate action as well as climate policy in Vanuatu, and increasingly controversial, I question: to what extent does carbon offsetting deliver social and ecological benefits in Vanuatu? I explore the politics of assembling carbon offsets through a patchwork, multi-sited ethnography in Vanuatu. In this paper I embed REDD+ in a broader history of land management in Vanuatu and articulate the ways in which communities and the Government of Vanuatu reshape neoliberal climate mechanisms to affirm customary land tenure and local values contributing to conversations around climate justice in Oceania and the socio-ecological impacts of nature-based solutions more broadly.