When it comes to climate change, REDD is the couleur du jour. “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries” holds out the enticing prospect of mitigating climate change, conserving threatened biodiversity, and bringing much-needed development finance to poor Indigenous Peoples and local forest-dwelling communities – at the same time as offering significant profits to investors. All this immediately begs the question: is REDD too good to be true?

The case studies in this report clearly show there is a major REDD race already underway. They also show that REDD projects vary significantly, depending on the country of implementation and the objectives of the project sponsors. Although some projects are more thoughtfully designed, others are clearly focused on maximising returns.

The report is also available in Portuguese.