Policy learning in REDD+ Donor Countries:Norway, Germany and the UK

•Norway, Germany and the UK have increased their spending, institutionalization and coordination efforts on REDD+.•Their approaches vary in crucial ways and have generated different kinds of lessons.•Funding objectives and approaches have shifted to land-use, co-benefits and global efforts of transformation.•Norway’s strongest contribution is financial and political at political/social and institutional/structural levels.•Germany’s strongest contribution is systematic and technical at cognitive/technical and social/political levels.•The UK’s strongest contribution is pragmatic and analytical at cognitive/technical and social/political levels.•Merely adjusting the system in incremental ways will likely not solve the problems at hand.•Instead, novel modes of learning to facilitate such a transition are needed.