Cambridge Journals Online - Fulltext - Reduced Expectations: the political and institutional challenges of REDD

Reduced Expectations: the political and institutional challenges of REDD: "Development and environmental policies in developing countries are often based on narratives that provide an argument for a particular action or intervention based on a simplification of the world’s complexity (Hirschman, 1968; Roe, 1991). Strong narratives can become convincing arguments for change, particularly when supported by powerful agencies such as national governments, donors and international organizations, and can lead to blueprints for action that may or may not be based on effective implementation elsewhere. However, history tells us that great ideas designed to improve human societies can sometimes fail with startling results (Scott, 1998). Great ideas are not necessarily doomed to failure but they should avoid unduly simplifying the social, economic, political and institutional complexity of the problem."