Data and information in a political forest: The case of REDD+

A newly published paper by Brockhaus et al. (with Arild Angelsen, Steering Committee member of the Tropical Forest Arena as co-author) sheds light on the role of data and information in policy processes, examining politics of deforestation in the case of REDD+.

Data and information take a central role in framing policy problems as well as the design, implementation, and evaluation of policies. While data and information may appear objective and apolitical, the collection, selection, representation, framing and application of data are dependent on the interests represented in the policy processes they aim to inform.

The authors take the case of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) as a complex multi-level policy arena. Data and information play a pivotal role in shaping the understanding of drivers of deforestation, choice of measures to reduce deforestation and overall determining “who gets paid how much for what activity” (Brockhaus et al. (2024)).

The authors emphasise that deciding what is counted and what is not, how and by whom is fundamentally political. When looking at the politics of deforestation, technological advances in monitoring are necessary, even though these alone do not suffice for changing the politics of deforestation. Especially, in uncovering systematic silences in data and information, the authors see potential for enabling policy alternatives towards a more equitable future.

Particularly, when it comes to moving away from established pathways, there is an institutional stickiness, e.g. of certain narratives, supporting business-as-usual, rather than policy change in favour of retention of primary forest and support of local people and livelihoods.

In the shade of this seemingly neutral and technical process, lie questions about global justice, who benefits and who is left out and who bears the burden of associated costs. Bringing forward the political dimensions of information (the politics of numbers) “can help to address effectiveness, efficiency, and - in particular - equity (the 3Es), when decisions are made on whom to target with policies and measures, what to change, where to implement and what activities to track when tackling deforestation and its drivers and agents” (Brockhaus et al. 2024).

Read the full article here: Brockhaus, M., De Sy, V., Di Gregorio, M., Herold, M., Wong, G. Y., Ochieng, R., & Angelsen, A. (2024). Data and information in a political forest: The case of REDD. Forest Policy and Economics, 165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.103251 Data and information in a political forest: The case of REDD+ - ScienceDirect