The REDD+ Initiatives in the DR Congo

Presenting more highlights from our new Fourth World Journal, Winter 2025 Issue, we want to highlight Marine Gauthier’s article “Re-territorializing Climate Governance: The REDD+ Initiatives in the DR Congo” Gauthier’s work highlights the complexities of international conservation initiatives with lucidity, tackling environmental colonialism at its roots. This piece shines in its thoughtful critique of institutionalized participation and financially driven green initiatives. Gauthier’s notes on the gender disparities within climate governance show a nuanced understanding of how social, economic, and political power intersect in the fight for environmental justice. 

Formed through the United Nations, REDD+ refers to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation; the initiative aims to channel funds from Northern investors toward conservation efforts. As Gauthier demonstrates, the mechanism may do more harm than good to Indigenous communities, who are excluded from the process of climate governance. As Gauthier argues, the REDD+ initiative cannot truly be successful in the DR Congo without Indigenous participation—on their own community’s terms. 

Hear from Gauthier herself about her background, approaches, and the aims of the paper:

Re-territorializing Climate Governance: The REDD+ Initiatives in the DR Congo

Abstract:

The Congo has long been a site of contestation for global environmental governance strategies, with Indigenous Batwa, Bambuti, and Baaka groups at the center of transnational climate discourse. One such strategy, the REDD+ initiative (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), has come to the fore as a carbon-trading-based solution to the environmental challenges facing the Congo Basin. This article critiques the REDD+ initiative’s deterritorialized approach, which favors the voices of international stakeholders over forest-dependent peoples Indigenous to the region. Taking a political ethnographical approach to the area of Mai-Ndombe, this research is based on formal and informal interactions with international actors, local communities, and Indigenous peoples. The strengths and weaknesses of mitigation methods like community forestry, institutionalized participation, and participatory mapping are explored. Ultimately, it is asserted that Indigenous decision-making, rather than institutionally imposed hegemony, must be integrated into the REDD+ initiative. 

About the author:

Marine Gauthier is a PhD researcher at the Graduate Institute in Geneva with over a decade of experience at the intersection of environmental governance and human rights, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. With degrees in geopolitics from the École Normale Supérieure and in Conservation, Restoration, and Sustainable Use of Tropical Forest Landscapes from Yale University, Marine spent ten years working as a practitioner before returning to academia to pursue a PhD in International Relations at the Graduate Institute.

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