Suchergebnisse

The paper uses a policy integration (PI) approach to analyse forest sector reforms in tropical countries, using the case of reforms that affected the northern Bolivia forest economy. The paper provides a brief overview of PI and then analyses the various reforms that all contributed to reshaping Bolivia's forest sector. The major related reforms are not only forestland tenure reforms, a new forestry law, but also important public administrative and democratic reforms. The case of democratic reforms linked with land and forestry reforms in northern Bolivia makes it possible to discuss environmental PI in a tropical context, and thus to review some of the key postulates that have been formulated on the topic, but which are to date largely based on empirical experiences from the northern hemisphere.

With the Brazilian military governments of the 1960s, systematic economic development of the Amazon began. Social and environmental concerns have entered Amazonian discourses and policies only since the 1990s. Since then, reports of threats to forests and indigenous people have alternated with reports of socio-economic progress and environmental achievements. These contradictions often arise from limited thematic, sectoral, temporal, or spatial perspectives, and lead to misinterpretation. Our paper offers a comprehensive picture of discourses, policies, and socio-environmental dynamics for the entire region over the last five decades. We distinguish eight historical policy phases, each of which had little effect on near-linear dynamics of demographic growth and land-use expansion, although some policies showed the potential to change the course of development. To prevent local, national, and international actors from continuing to assert harmful interests in the region, a coherent long-term commitment and change in the collective mindset are needed.

Despite its argued theoretical benefits, forestry decentralization in practice can have detrimental effects on forest-dependent peoples, but little is understood about the specific paths by which decentralization affects livelihoods. This article, based on data from research in 2005 in Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, presents a working conceptual model for analyzing these interactions. The research found that vulnerability increased when decentralization was not combined with policies addressing structural inequities-that is, increased municipal government control over land and forests must be accompanied by policies increasing poor local people's access rights and security. At the same time, increased municipal government authority over forest management and monitoring can facilitate access to these and other assets needed for forest livelihoods, but this new responsibility must also be accompanied by improved controls over local authorities. The needed changes rarely come about without specific organized demands of local actors' associations and movements.

Recent decentralization and forestry laws in Bolivia give municipal governments a strong role in forest management. This article analyzes the impact of those laws on local government activities related to logging, protected areas, indigenous territories, and land-use planning. It concludes that the laws have created new opportunities for indigenous people, small farmers, and small-scale timber producers to gain access to forest resources and influence forest policy, although they are not always able to take advantage of those opportunities. The article identifies both positive and negative trends with regard to the laws' impact on resource management, although it is premature to draw firm conclusions.