REDD+ is a proposed mechanism to make forests more valuable living and healthy than dead or damaged. Its advocates believe it could help fix a lot of persistent problems in forest management. Its opponents fear it will make these things worse. It's too early to tell, but this brief covers some important lessons learned after decades of successes and failures in forest management, and it asks how REDD+ could benefit, or burden, Asia-Pacific's forests and the people who need them.