Actors and Powers in National REDD+ Network Governance Structures in the DRC

Forests hold an important place in international efforts to mitigate climate change (IPCC, 2022). Reduced deforestation and forest degradation in tropical countries (REDD+), a program under the UNFCCC, features as an important part in climate change mitigation efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (Mpoyi et al. 2013). Since the country’s commitment in 2009, the REDD+ policy domain in the DRC has included local, national, and international governmental and nongovernmental actors interacting with each other in networks structures (Thuy et al. 2021). These actors are vested with different and sometimes overlapping resources, including competing and in some cases potentially conflicting ideas, interests and information and they use these resources to exert influence on policy decisions (Knoke and Kostiuchenko, 2016; Brockhaus and Di Gregorio, 2012). Investigating actors and their power in the national REDD+ structures can help us understand who and what facilitate or hampers progress in REDD+ policy processes. First, we investigate how actors’ policy networks are structured to identify key opportunities and constraints. Second, we analyse relational power to identify who the most influential policy actors are and how they affect policy decision. Third, we assess the implications of these power structure for policy outcomes, including for the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of policy design to halt deforestation in an African tropical country setting. This contribution is based on the network data collected in the DRC between February 2023 and January 2024. It includes a network survey and semi-structured interviews with 82 respondents representing 64 governmental and nongovernmental national and international organizations of the DRC REDD+ policy domain. Specifically, it relies on PNA and theories on power applied in the global South to inform current theories and evidence-based research.