Suchergebnisse

Reduced Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is a resource regime framework developed to enhance global carbon stocks from forests. It is based on the idea to pay national governments and rural communities of the Global South to protect and regenerate their forests for increased storage of carbon. REDD+ represents a global intervention applied as a means to mitigate climate change. In Tanzania, REDD+ has been piloted since 2010. The pilot projects across the country seek to generate experience regarding how to establish REDD+ and learn how to enhance carbon stocks as well as increase biodiversity and improve the livelihoods of forest adjacent communities. Setting up REDD+ at the local level has been a process involving many institutional changes. REDD+ demanded establishing new governance structures – actors and institutions – for managing forest resources and new alternative livelihoods for adapting to change. These changes are expected to benefit communities, protect the forests and climate. This thesis evaluates impacts from REDD+ on forest governance and livelihoods. I have conducted a case study in Kondoa district, central Tanzania, to document local experiences and assess impacts of REDD+ on people's income and the status of forests. The REDD+ project in Kondoa has been piloted from 2010 to 2014 by the African Wildlife Foundation, covering the area around the government Kolo Hills forest reserves as well as forests on village land. The Kolo Hills is a watershed area to the Tarangire National Park and has been under protection for many years. Some parts of forests are owned by the central government, some by the local government (district), while other parts are owned and managed by the communities. Hence, the project combines emphasis on both JFM and CBFM. The primary data were collected in November 2015 using key resource person interviews, household questionnaires and focus group discussions in villages surrounding the Kolo Hills. BACI (before-after-control-impact) format is applied to compare pre-project and post-project conditions, and evaluate results against the counterfactual - the control sites which are sites where REDD+ is not introduced. Data for 2010 - pre REDD+ observations - had been collected at the time, and made available for my analysis. Acknowledging potential errors associated with the method, the study therefore investigates if changes are due to REDD+ or other factors. I develop a conceptual framework for the analysis to explain how change in the governance structures influence environmental and livelihood outcomes. The results have shown that changes in the governance structures have introduced the new type of actors and formed new institutions for managing forest resources. It implied change in property rights, as well as in rules over forest resource use. Despite these changes, I find that REDD+ in Kondoa has had no significant effect on rural livelihoods nor on deforestation. Income goes down quite substantially from 2010 till 2015. This reduction seems, however, mainly explained by a severe drought in 2014. Under various pressures of population growth, land scarcity, droughts and soil erosion, informal institutions for farming and especially livestock grazing in the government Kolo Hills reserves dominate over the introduced institutional changes under REDD+. Communities are highly aware of importance to protect their forests, however, changes in the governance structures has not addressed the core problems communities face. REDD+ institutionally seem to be more prospective under CBFM than embedded with JFM. Nevertheless, what happens when REDD+ meets realities on the ground also depend on the core foundation of a good governance in the villages it is built on. ; M-IES

This paper looks at so-called corona parties in Serbia, which can be seen as a specific paradigm of exhibiting irresponsible health behavior during an epidemic. The term refers to illegal gatherings of a large number of people in circumstances when all gatherings are restricted under anti-epidemic measures. A phenomenon similar to corona parties and co-ocurring with them in the Serbian socio-cultural and pandemic temporal context, is the dancing of the traditional kolo dance in public spaces. Both phenomena represent a conscious disregard for one's own health and of regulations introduced by the authorities, and at the same time an emphatic public display of indifference towards the epidemiological situation in the country, and rejection of the consequent legal restrictions on public life. The paper aims to establish the cultural background of such behavior, i.e. to ascertain its socio-cultural meaning. The indirect or direct endangerment of one's own or other people's health, particularly in a pandemic, can be seen as a misanthropic act. The cultural notions on which such irrational behavior is based are a consequence of a postmodernist relativization of previously existing socio-cultural discourse on science, and are counterintuitive. Behavior based on these notions is an irrational response to changes in socio-cultural reality due to COVID-19. The response is not only irrational but also ineffective, as it cannot eliminate the undesired consequences of the given situation, neither in terms of the illness itself, nor in terms of how it will be managed by those who have been put in charge by the government. Due to this, such behavior can also be seen simply as a deliberate defiance of rules. The misanthropic quality of the behavior of those who ignore anti-epidemic measures by dancing kolo in the streets or attending corona parties is evident in the conscious rejection of the principle of not harming others. Ignoring the possible health risks to themselves, they ignore the possible health risks to others, and thus become social factors of biological contagion. It is in this way that such behavior becomes the cause of the extension of the very state of socio-cultural reality against which it is supposed to be directed.

This book examines the measurement and econometric effects of ethnic diversity. This issue is of great relevance to research and policy and is currently being discussed a great deal in the literature. In particular, a sizable literature has suggested that ethnic diversity constitutes a significant barrier to economic development. The precise measurement and interpretation of these results are a matter of substantial controversy. In this book, the dynamics of ethnic diversity are being empirically analyzed for the first time. Furthermore, it develops and applies a new measure of ethnic diversity which takes the distance between groups into account, thus focusing on diversity rather than mere fragmentation. This book convincingly confronts theoretical considerations with (new) data and thereby provides a good mix of theory and empirics, making significant contributions to the current debates.