Suchergebnisse

Two issues prompted this review: Global concerns to decentralize and democratize will require more effective involvement of now-marginalized people; and addressing global problems (climate change, poverty, forests, and biodiversity loss) will pragmatically require their involvement. This exploratory review examined how marginalized groups in tropical forests have perceived the legitimacy of their forest-related governance. These perceptions are examined within the contexts of gender, age, ethnicity, and occupation. Important mechanisms by which people dealt with their marginalization are also addressed. These issues take on special urgency within the context of the recent global, forest-related climate change discourse.

This short paper summarizes the conclusions of a 1999 investigation into the causes of fires in six communities in East Kalimantan. Drawing on the author's long term experience with the Kenyah (inhabitants of five of the communities), perceived causes of the fires in these six locations were documented. Ten propositions relating to fire causes are listed here, as a preliminary step in the development of a typology of causes of fire. The first three general propositions relate to environmental conditions like drought, to human conditions like the response time required to adapt to environmental change, and to political conditions like corrupt and uncoordinated governance. Five propositions revolve around the conditions that evolve when multiple actors with different values, patterns of behaviour, and access to resources are thrown together. The final two propositions relate to economic issues (potential for gain and need). The paper concludes with a simple scoring system that may contribute to identifying fire-prone communities in the future, and to developing appropriate solutions to the relevant fire causes.

This paper describes 1999 research intended to shed light on the causes and effects of the devastating 1997-98 forest fires in East Kalimantan. The author visited six communities and interviewed representatives of several other stakeholders (oil palm plantations, industrial timber plantations, timber companies, local government officials) about the causes and effects of the fires. She describes the traditional fire management techniques known by the Kenyah (a dayak group) in several locations. The fires varied considerably in intensity and damage done, among the communities. But some sustained very severe damage to their environment and suffered serious health consequences (both physical and psychological). The paper concludes by estimating the relevance of ten propositions relating to the likelihood of fire danger to each of the six villages visited.

Deforestation and forest degradation are proceeding rapidly in the lowland forests of Indonesian Borneo. Time series analysis of satellite imagery provides an ideal means of quantifying landscape change and identifying the pathways which lead to the changes. This study investigates the forest and land cover changes by classifying Landsat MSS (Multispectral Scanner), TM (Thematic Mapper) and ETM + (Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus) images over three time periods (1983–90, 1990–98, and 1998–2000), creating land cover maps for each year and change trajectories for each year-pair. The study area chosen covers an area of 2160 km 2 of undulating topography and alluvial plains in the East Kutai District of East Kalimantan Province, which in the 1980s was covered mostly with lowland dipterocarp forest; today the landscape is a patchwork dominated by oil palm and timber plantations and degraded forest. We relate land cover change data to land use allocation and to fire impacts based on fire hotspot distribution and fire damage information. The multidate land cover change trajectories provide an insight into the forest loss and degradation pathways over the 17-year period spanning the first entry of commercial logging concessionaires, followed by a governmentsponsored transmigration scheme, government-licensed timber and oil palm plantations and, finally, the devastating fires of 1998. The results show a mean deforestation rate of 42 km 2 or 6 per cent per year for 1983–2000, rising to 10 per cent per year for 1990–98; by 2000, 70 per cent of forest initially damaged by fire and drought during the 1982–83 El Niño event was classified as non-forest. Although our study area is perhaps a worst-case scenario in terms of land use planning outcomes, the lessons from this research are directly applicable to scenario prediction for informed forest and land use planning and monitoring.

Indonesia contains some of the world's most biodiverse and threatened forests. The challenges result from both long-term management problems and the political, social, and economic turmoil of the past few years. This book explores recent events in Indonesia, while focusing on what can be done differently to counter the destruction due to asset-stripping, corruption, and the absence of government authority. It consists of 16 chapters writen by authors from a wide range of disciplines. It begins with a series of chapters 1-6 that focuses on the links between the government's policies on forests and forest people. The next set of chapters 7-12 turns to in-depth, sector-level analyses of what happened in Indonesia immediately following the president Soeharto's fall. Chapter 13 and 14 focus on Indonesia's experience of the fires in 1997-98. The final chapters 15 and 16 update the reader, focusing on the two most important trends at work in the Outer Islands of Indonesia at this time: decentralization and illegal logging.

This study presents an approach to analyzing decentralized forestry and natural resource management and land property rights issues, and catalyzing collective action among villages and district governments. It focuses on understanding the current policies governing local people's access to property rights and decision making processes, and learning how collective action among community groups and interaction among stakeholders can enhance local people's rights over lands, resources, and policy processes for development. The authors applied participatory action research in two villages, one each in the Bungo and Tanjabbar districts of Jambi province (Sumatra), Indonesia, to facilitate identification of priorities through phases of planning, action, monitoring, and reflecting. This study finds that action research may be an effective strategy for fostering collective action and maintaining the learning process that leads groups to be more organized and cohesive, and district government officials to be more receptive to stakeholders. A higher level of collective action and support may be needed to avoid elite capture more effectively.

Decentralization in natural resource management (NRM) is increasingly promoted as it is believed to offer better management. This study explores the positive and negative aspects of the forestry conflict that sometimes increases with decentralization. Drawing upon the results of a case study from Sumatra, this study examines how forestry conflict under decentralization processes was viewed by stakeholders. The conflict involved a logging company and a local community, and centered on a disputed forest boundary. The community accused the company of logging within the boundaries of its communal forest. In contrast, the company argued that it was logging within a state forest and was legally protected because it held a legitimate permit issued by the government. It is obvious that the conflict revolved around property rights claims. While forestry conflict is often viewed as a purely negative phenomenon this study shows that forestry conflict has both negative and positive sides. Stakeholders had both negative and positive perceptions of the issue. Conflict was seen to accelerate deforestation, sour relationships and generate high social risk. On the other hand, stakeholders suggested that conflict also created opportunities to participate in forest management, allow negotiation and stimulate learning. To address conflict under decentralization, property rights claims (de facto vs. de jure) need to be addressed and reconciled through negotiation processes so that positive aspects of conflict can be fostered and negative ones can be avoided. Additionally, decentralization needs to be prepared and implemented with care. Strong legal frameworks, clear implementation guidelines and capacity building for stakeholders are important elements that can contribute to the effectiveness of decentralization

From a broad review of 670 publications on gender and forests, ~130 were found to address the world's dry forests. These were examined with the intent to extract gendered social, cultural, political and economic patterns of relevance in such forests. Seven interrelated themes recurred in this literature: 1) population pressure, 2) migration, 3) intra-familial and inter-group conflict, 4) hierarchy and significant power differences, 5) strict gender differentiation, 6) commercialization of crops and NTFPs, and 7) fuelwood collection. Based upon these themes, the uniqueness of each situation and the importance of finetuning any approach to local realities to generate outcomes that can benefit women, we propose four promising ways to enhance the prospects for gender equity in dry forest areas: 1) a strengthening of groups and collective action, 2) explicit challenges to traditional gender norms, 3) a focus on products and spaces that interest women, and 4) addressing migration and population issues. ; Peer Review

We address two aspects of forest lives—violence and care—that are central to forest outcomes but often invisible in mainstream discussions on forests. We argue that questions of violence and care work in forests open up debates about what forests are, who defines them, and how. We draw primarily on feminist work on forestry, violence, and care to examine the gendered nature of forest conflicts and the 'quiet politics' of resistance to violence grounded in the everyday work of care that are crucial to understanding forests and their governance. We show how varied practices of resistance to violence and injustice are grounded in cooperative action of care and are an intrinsic part of shaping and regenerating forests. We highlight the importance of close attention to seemingly mundane actions rooted in people's daily lives and experiences that shape forests.

In recent years governments in the South have transferred at least 200 million hectares of forests to communities living in and around them . This book assesses the experience of what appears to be a new international trend that has substantially increased the share of the world's forests under community administration. Based on research in over 30 communities in selected countries in Asia (India, Nepal, Philippines, Laos, Indonesia), Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana) and Latin America (Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua), it examines the process and outcomes of granting new rights, assessing a variety of governance issues in implementation, access to forest products and markets and outcomes for people and forests . Forest tenure reforms have been highly varied, ranging from the titling of indigenous territories to the granting of small land areas for forest regeneration or the right to a share in timber revenues. While in many cases these rights have been significant, new statutory rights do not automatically result in rights in practice, and a variety of institutional weaknesses and policy distortions have limited the impacts of change. Through the comparison of selected cases, the chapters explore the nature of forest reform, the extent and meaning of rights transferred or recognized, and the role of authority and citizens' networks in forest governance. They also assess opportunities and obstacles associated with government regulations and markets for forest products and the effects across the cases on livelihoods, forest condition and equity

Gorontalo's tropical forest is of global importance and is the last stronghold for conserving Sulawesi's unique biodiversity. However, implementation of biodiversity conservation at the local level has been fraught with very complex, rooted in increased pressures on natural resources and its ecological services to meet the socioeconomic development goals. One problem in implementing forest conservation lies in defining the benefits local people receive from it and who enjoys these benefits. This paper explores local perceptions of forest biodiversity conservation. Understanding local perceptions is necessary for successful implementation of conservation activities. Interviews and a ranking exercise were conducted in the Gorontalo Province, Sulawesi and Indonesia. Data were collected in 2005, involving 152 participants from 6 distinct stakeholder groups, from both government and non-government organisations. The results presented here is based on the analysis of findings from the ranking exercise. Local stakeholders valued the natural forest most highly for its ecological services.

This chapter provides a brief history of the social component of Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)'s project, 'Assessing sustainable forest management: testing criteria and indicators', with special reference to the issue of security of inter-generational access to resources (SIAR). It first presents an overview of the literature on assessing SIAR; then the social criteria and indicators (C&I) "Best Bets" and some method for assessing them. It concludes with earliest tentative findings relating to the possible causal links between sustainable forest management on the one hand, and one element in SIAR (sharing of forest benefits), on the other. In this analysis, It used data from two forest-rich sites (Bulungan, East Kalimantan, Indonesia and the Dja Reserve, Cameroon) and two forest-poor sites (Long Segar, East Kalimantan and Mbalmayo, Cameroon). It was found that timber companies and the government were perceived to have dominant shares of cash and timber in all sites, though to varying degrees; and that local communities were seen to have dominant shares of other forest products. Differences based on forest quality were not striking. It concludes by discussing on plans and recommendations for future research.

The most prominent international responses to climate change focus on mitigation (reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases) rather than adaptation (reducing the vulnerability of society and ecosystems). However, with climate change now inevitable, adaptation is gaining importance in the policy arena, and is an integral part of ongoing negotiations towards an international framework. This report presents the case for adaptation for tropical forests (reducing the impacts of climate change on forests and their ecosystem services) and tropical forests for adaptation (using forests to help local people and society in general to adapt to inevitable changes). Policies in the forest, climate change and other sectors need to address these issues and be integrated with each other—such a cross-sectoral approach is essential if the benefits derived in one area are not to be lost or counteracted in another. Moreover, the institutions involved in policy development and implementation need themselves to be flexible and able to learn in the context of dynamic human and environmental systems. And all this needs to be done at all levels from the local community to the national government and international institutions. The report includes an appendix covering climate scenarios, concepts, and international policies and funds.

The most prominent international responses to climate change focus on mitigation (reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gases) rather than adaptation (reducing the vulnerability of society and ecosystems). However, with climate change now inevitable, adaptation is gaining importance in the policy arena, and is an integral part of ongoing negotiations towards an international framework. This report presents the case for adaptation for tropical forests (reducing the impacts of climate change on forests and their ecosystem services) and tropical forests for adaptation (using forests to help local people and society in general to adapt to inevitable changes). Policies in the forest, climate change and other sectors need to address these issues and be integrated with each other—such a cross-sectoral approach is essential if the benefits derived in one area are not to be lost or counteracted in another. Moreover, the institutions involved in policy development and implementation need themselves to be flexible and able to learn in the context of dynamic human and environmental systems. And all this needs to be done at all levels from the local community to the national government and international institutions. The report includes an appendix covering climate scenarios, concepts, and international policies and funds.

This paper briefly reviews CIFOR's experience using participatory action research working with communities, user groups within communities, and with governments at various levels, in Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Ghana, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Malawi, Nepal, Philippines, and Zimbabwe. The most dramatic changes that took place early on included increases in knowledge about social and ecological systems and improved skills in conflict management, negotiation, and facilitation. Longer term evaluation will be necessary to confirm actual ecological improvement, and the institutionalization of adaptive mechanisms (planning, implementing monitoring, revising plans). Emphasis is placed on the most recent findings, in second stage work, from CAPRi (Collective Action and Property Rights) research in Asia and Africa. This paper examines some of the successes and difficulties faced working with governmental stakeholders. Successes were most apparent in attitudinal changes, increased capacity for reflection and analysis, improvements in proposal writing and networking at larger scales. Difficulties included frequent personnel shifts, traditional bureaucratic concerns about 'turf', and budgetary inflexibilities. The paper concludes by proposing some important areas for future concentration of effort, including better attention to the various groups that exist within communities, more attention to the links between communities and other stakeholders, and training or awareness raising for government officials on methods for working more effectively and equitably with communities.