Deliberative engagement and REDD+ in Indonesia

Processes of stakeholder engagement and free prior and informed consent (FPIC) are a key feature of the global climate program Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). In Indonesia, governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies and NGOs have applied engagement and FPIC in the development of REDD+ initiatives at national and sub-national scales. This article develops a theoretical framework by adapting governmentality to deliberative democracy and then analyses how participation and engagement are used as powerful tools to govern the introduction of REDD+. The framework is applied to two sub-national REDD+ initiatives, the Central Sulawesi Pilot Province and the Kalimantan Forest and Climate Partnership. The engagement and participatory forums employed in these cases operate to alter and discipline the activities of local agents who regulate, manage and use forestry resources. They provide a political space to introduce new knowledge and external narratives on appropriate and legitimate ways to govern land-use development. As a highly managed post-political domain they enable contested issues around forests to be debated and potentially resolved, but within a prescribed managerial framework focussed on carbon mitigation. Through engagement and discursive interaction the multiple landholders, communities, businesses and government agencies are activated as subjects and citizens of these new carbon based endeavours. Those applying engagement and FPIC need to recognise the unbalanced power relations inherent within these processes; and ensure they form an integral part of a much broader and longer term deliberative exchange, rather than required steps along the trajectory of project or program delivery.