How institutions and beliefs affect environmental discourse: Evidence from an eight-country survey on REDD+

This paper investigates the adoption of discourses on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD +) across different national contexts. It draws on institutional theories to develop and test a number of hypotheses on the role of shared beliefs and politico-economic institutions in determining the discursive choices of policy actors. The results show that win win ecological modernization discourse, embraced by powerful government agencies and international actors, dominates national REDD + policy arenas. This discourse is challenged primarily by a minority reformist civic environmentalist discourse put forward primarily by domestic NGOs. We find evidence that countries with a less democratic political system and large-scale primary sector investments facilitate the adoption of reconciliatory ecological modernization discourse, which may not directly challenge the drivers of deforestation. Policy actors who believe in and are engaged in market-based approaches to REDD + are much more likely to adopt ecological modernization discourses, compared to policy actors who work on community development and livelihoods issues.

Title	How institutions and beliefs affect environmental discourse: Evidence from an eight-country survey on REDD+
Creator	Brockhaus, M.
	Di Gregorio, M
	Muharrom, E.
	Gallemore, Caleb
	Fatorelli, L.
Publisher	Global Environmental Change
Academic Department	International Affairs
Division	Social Sciences
Organization	Lafayette College
Date Issued	July 2017
Date Available	2019-12-16
Type	Article
Language	English
Keyword	Policy beliefs
	Climate change discourse
	Environmental governance
	Mitigation
	Forest
	Institutions
Bibliographic Citation	Di Gregorio, M., et al. (2017 July) "How institutions and beliefs affect environmental discourse: Evidence from an eight-country survey on REDD+." Global Environmental Change 45: 133-150.
Standard Identifier	Handle 10385/t722h932h
Standard Identifier	DOI 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.05.006
Permalink	http://hdl.handle.net/10385/t722h932h
Rights Statement	Creative Commons - Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives
Rights Holders	Brockhaus, M.
	Di Gregorio, M
	Muharrom, E.
	Gallemore, Caleb
	Fatorelli, L.