Beyond Islands of Sustainability? Opportunities and Challenges of Jurisdictional Approaches in Tropical Forest Governance

To address the global deforestation crisis, the past decade has seen a major push to leverage the power of global supply chain actors. However, instead of large-scale transformation, these private governance instruments have created “islands of sustainability” on the ground. Going beyond a narrow focus on deforestation-free supply chains, a new generation of place-based multistakeholder initiatives promises to scale sustainability in tropical forest countries. This chapter explores the conceptual origins, features, and diffusion of these jurisdictional approaches. Against the background of recent debates about the need for a stronger role of the state, enhanced public-private complementarities, and a prioritization of marginalized actors in sustainability governance, it reflects on the opportunities and challenges of jurisdictional approaches advancing sustainable development objectives in a time of global turbulence.