Presentation short abstract

This article synthesizes findings from my Doctoral Dissertation with the same title, a case study of the implementation of the Kigoma REDD+ Test Pilot Project implemented from 2009-2012, from the perspective of Anthropology of Social Change. Plus additional material on National scale corruption.

Presentation long abstract

Implementation of this REDD+ pilot project ignored recommendations to clarify land tenure disputes, yet received little formal condemnation. Even experienced development practitioners have been uncritical.

This illustrates how actors forming networks engaging in questionable legal practices do not see their own actions as corrupt. Therefore, corruption appears very subtly and only becomes apparent in the cases by careful comparison to the moral condemnation from those subjected to the negative consequences of REDD+ implementation, or environmental degradation, after corrupt agro-pastoral land conversion, and triangulation with legal review and interviews with Human Rights lawyers. The case study addresses how the moral economy of corruption manifests through 1) conditional REDD+ payments shaping fragmented actor configurations, power dynamics of predatory authority and accountability relations 2) the justice implications of transnational REDD+ implementation in a post-colonial context and 3) the moral economy of leakage beyond the boundaries of the formally defined project area, incorporating agro-pastoralist conflicts as unanticipated consequences.

These findings have implications for the environmental effectiveness of the REDD+ pilot project, social equity and the livelihoods of those subjected to the project and lastly, efficiency of the REDD+ test payments and biodiversity conservation within the wider landscape. This study indicates severe challenges for the REDD+ mechanism and the technical conditions it requires, along all three axes of effectiveness, equity and efficiency. However, it does demonstrate scope for more carefully developing other kinds of programmes to address the drivers of forest degradation and deforestation observed in the wider study area.