With proper safeguards, FLEGT has the capacity to bring about real improvements in forest governance – but concerns have been raised that this could all be undermined by the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) schemes currently being developed by the UN and the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). This briefing looks at the case of Ghana and concludes that the Ghana experience should alert us to the dangers of rushing REDD processes.

This briefing note goes into detail about the experience of Ghana and shows that if their experience is replicated elsewhere, it is likely that REDD will both fail to achieve its own objectives and make the possible benefits of the FLEGT process unattainable.