Climate Governance of Nature-Based Carbon Sinks: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Enhanced carbon sequestration in vegetation and organic-rich substrates and soils, or Nature-based Carbon Sinks (NCS), can play a key role in mitigating climate change. Globally, research on NCS has tended to concentrate on the science of carbon sequestration; processes through which NCS and how trade-offs with potentially competing demands on natural resources might be most effectively governed have received relatively little attention. This systematic review goes some way toward redressing this imbalance by examining published accounts of the governance of NCS. The review focuses on Southeast Asia, a highly dynamic part of the world with great potential for enhanced carbon sequestration in NCS. A total of 94 articles, 10% of those initially selected from relevant journal articles published between January 2015 and December 2020, focusing on the governance of NCS in Southeast Asia, were subjected to detailed content analysis. The period of interest commences with the release and signing of the 2015 Paris Agreement due to the surge in publications on NCS that followed. Results of the analysis reveal weaknesses in climate governance that, along with competing land uses and rising demands for natural resources, present significant risks to current and future carbon sequestration in NCS. Our systematic literature review, suited to assessing where knowledge gaps exist, thus provides the basis for a future research agenda aimed at supporting the development of holistic and adaptive forms of governance of NCS. Important gaps revealed by the review comprise an uneven geographic coverage that renders governance in several countries and types of NCS in Southeast Asia largely invisible, a focus on either the local or the national scale that leaves the supranational scale and linkages between different scales under-explored, and alternatives to established arrangements, notably REDD+ programmes.