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Global demand for agricultural commodities, including beef, soy, and palm oil, has driven tropical deforestation throughout the 21st century, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services while contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation in the tropics is a wicked problem because there is no consensus on its solution, conflicting moral and political considerations among stakeholders, and uncertainty about the potential effects of intended solutions. Faced with such complex policy challenges, jurisdictional approaches (JAs) are being increasingly embraced as potential means of increasing policy capacity to tackle deforestation and support the Sustainable Development Goals. JAs integrate tools such as public and private regulations, collaborative planning processes, and payments for ecosystem services to respond to the complexity that characterizes deforestation. In this chapter, we study PROAmazonia, an anti-deforestation JA implemented in Ecuador’s Amazon region since 2017.

Our study shows that enhancing policy capacities to manage wicked problems associated with deforestation requires confronting the inherent complexity of these problems and the wider socio-environmental system in which they emerge. However, this requires integrated policy strategies that exceed the scope of JAs, also demanding support from wider governance structures.