Climate change adaptation in low-and middle-income countries has magnified the urgency of transforming forest governance. Despite the increased international pressure, progress is hampered by inefficiencies in forest-related state institutions that struggle with coordination, mediating political interests, and strategic policy formulation. Focusing on Indonesia's Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program, this article offers a novel perspective on the institutionalization of the climate agenda within the forestry sector and its implications for forest governance transformation. We posit that Indonesia's forest in-stitutions have internalized the climate agenda via layering, a process where climate objectives are embedded within existing structures. While this assimilation approach potentially restricts transformative capacity, we argue that it demonstrates greater resilience for long-term climate agenda, especially in non-climate consensus nations like Indonesia. Our study accentuates the necessity to incorporate domestic political contexts in exam-ining the institutionalization process of climate objectives. The dynamic relationship between politics and in-stitutions provides a crucial lens to understand limitations and pathways to transformative forest governance. This analysis hopes to shed light on more efficient and transformative climate governance in the forestry sector.
Hermawan, S; Karim, MF; Rethel, L
Institutional layering in climate policy: Insights from REDD plus governance in Indonesia
Forest Policy And Economics