The Power to Move Away from Business As Usual of Deforestation: Analysing REDD+ Policy Networks Over Time

Climate Change Policy Networks Policy processes are inherently linked to power struggles, where political disputes and interest competition drives and sometimes hampers policy making. Efforts to tackle the problem of deforestation and carbon emissions from tropical forest rich countries (REDD+) are no exception. The REDD+ policy arena is characterized by complex, multi-actor, multi-sector and multi-level interactions. Multi-actor policy networks integrate societal actors beyond the state, each aiming at influencing ongoing REDD+ policy processes and outcomes, including interests that are supporting deforestation and business as usual. Whose interests will be dominant and reflected in the outcomes will depend largely on actor’s power to influence the process. In policy networks, power – understood as the ability to influence policy outcomes - is exercised in parts through different forms of interactions (e.g. the exchange of information, financial resources, and the formation of coalitions). Challenging business as usual will require a shift in power relations, new discursive practices and new incentives. This paper compares policy network structures across countries to assess whether they are conducive to realise these desired changes. By employing a comparative design and analysing policy network data collected in country case studies in 2012 and 2015, we investigate the REDD+ policy arenas in Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam. The long-term analysis allows us to identify structural patterns within countries’ REDD+ policy networks and provides evidence of how power structures have enabled or hindered policy change.