Modeling trade-offs across carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, and equity in the distribution of global REDD+ funds

Significance Deforestation is a key driver of climate change. The program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is one of the major attempts to tackle climate change mitigation in developing countries. The program intends to provide result-based incentives to countries that reduce deforestation. We model various future scenarios of the distribution of REDD+ funds and assess how each scenario would contribute to reducing carbon emissions and to conserving biodiversity under different distributional equity rules. Results help to understand how the inclusion of distributional equity affects biodiversity and climate objectives under REDD+, and they provide insights about potential synergies and trade-offs between environmental and equity targets in broader policy arenas such as those related to the Sustainable Development Goals.