Governing Private Sector Participation in REDD+: Corporate Perceptions of Constraints and Incentives in Forest Carbon Initiatives

Private sector participation is increasingly important to the governance of forest-based climate mitigation, yet corporate engagement in REDD+ remains limited and uneven. This study examines how South Korean corporate actors perceive the constraints and enabling conditions for participation in REDD+ initiatives. We employed a sequential exploratory design. First, focus group interviews with eight stakeholders (four project implementers and four investors) were used to identify major themes and construct a 54-statement Q-set. Second, 15 private-sector participants with REDD+, ESG, or climate-strategy relevance completed a Q-sort using a forced distribution from –4 to +4, and the responses were analyzed using Q-methodology with principal component extraction. Three factors explained 49.0% of the total variance and revealed distinct perception typologies: Social Responsibility-Oriented, Economic Burden-Conscious, and Efficiency and Fairness-Driven. Across types, participation was shaped by different combinations of economic risk, institutional clarity, technical capacity, benefit-sharing, and community legitimacy. The findings show that private sector engagement in REDD+ cannot be mobilized through uniform incentives alone. Rather, the typologies indicate that firms require different entry conditions and governance assurances depending on whether they primarily seek ESG and co-benefit credibility, financial de-risking and clearer return pathways, or transparent procedures and fair implementation. Accordingly, differentiated governance strategies are required, including risk-mitigating financial instruments, clearer legal and administrative pathways, stronger public–private coordination, and more credible benefit-sharing and community engagement mechanisms. By situating corporate perceptions within South Korea’s evolving forest carbon governance framework, this study contributes to research on natural resource management and offers practical implications for expanding private participation in REDD+.