The core idea of the United Nations' Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) initiative consists in the remittance of payments to developing countries and landholders for their successful maintenance of forest cover. While REDD activities may support livelihoods and contribute to sustainable development, the program also risks neglecting the rights and interests of forest dwellers, as well as diverting potential benefits away from these stakeholders. Any future REDD regime thus needs to feature social safeguards. This article outlines possible policy options for rendering such safeguards operational. They essentially consist of a variety of control mechanisms to ensure that governments, in meeting their eventual international REDD commitments, also comply with accepted principles and criteria protecting the rights and interests of indigenous peoples and local communities. In demonstrating the different operational models, the article distinguishes between reporting and compliance procedures, the creation and expansion of new institutions, the establishment of complaint and redress mechanisms, certification schemes, and the incorporation of performance criteria in financing arrangements. It illustrates and reviews their operation in practice via short cases studies, then offers some conclusions on their potential capacity to shape effective procedural social safeguards in REDD. While an accumulation of elements of different approaches is more likely to result in a robust mechanism, on the ground, the participation of affected rights-holders at different stages remains crucial to develop locally and culturally adequate models.