Governance van klimaatmitigatie: op incentives gebaseerde bosprogramma's gericht op inheemse volkeren in het Peruaanse Amazonegebied

The world is facing interconnected crises concerning climate change, biodiversity loss and developmental challenges. This has a significant impact on tropical primary forests, including resource-rich areas like the Amazon, which is now approaching its ecological tipping points (IPCC 2022; Science Panel for the Amazon 2021). These intertwined crises create compounding challenges for forest-dependent communities, in particular Indigenous Peoples, who must adapt their nature-culture practices and institutions in response to them. Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes have been promoted as an innovative strategy for community development, forest conservation and climate mitigation. However, across regions, there exist questions and discontent about PES rationality and practice, particularly among Indigenous Peoples and critical scholars. At the same time, over the past two decades, Indigenous Peoples have emerged as increasingly important players in efforts to address deforestation and support biodiversity conservation. Yet, despite this acknowledgement, Indigenous voices and strategies are not properly reflected in the process of policy design and territorial implementation of international and national climate change mitigation strategies. This thesis examines climate mitigation efforts — in particular, the governance of PES schemes and the role of Indigenous Peoples in this process. The thesis addresses a central question: What are the main socio-political dynamics and multiscalar institutional relations driving forest PES governance within Indigenous territories in the Peruvian Amazon? And, what role do Indigenous Peoples play in steering PES towards more equitable and just processes and outcomes in Peru, particularly, in the San Martin and Loreto regions? To answer these questions, the second chapter of this thesis presents an analytical framework that combines three theories — critical institutionalism, cultural political economy and cultural political ecology — to unravel the multiple dimensions in the governance of PES, giving a central role to local agency, power relations and spatio-temporal dynamics. Methodologically, this research adopts a qualitative, multi-case study approach that makes use of qualitative research tools for data collection and analysis. Three case-studies have been chosen, each with a different scale of analysis, representing two types of state-led PES schemes for forest conservation: (i) the global REDD+ mechanism that emerged at the core of the United Nations and (ii) Peru's Programa Bosques, a state-led PES program that set up a conditional incentive-based scheme to enhance forest conservation in Indigenous Peoples territories.