Suchergebnisse

Tropical forests are subject to global conservation efforts, while at the same time they are of direct value for local livelihoods in the developing world. Failure to reconcile conflicting global and local interests has led to situations where the costs of both forest loss and conservation are borne most heavily by those least able to afford them. Subsequently, conservation approaches have evolved from fully exclusionary ones (i.e. protected areas) to approaches involving local participation in forest management and efforts to mitigate livelihood losses or create social benefits from conservation. This study contributes to understanding how positive and negative social impacts of different forest conservation policies are distributed within forest adjacent communities in Tanzania, and what kind of governance practices may be associated with the observed outcomes. Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative social research methods, Studies I and II assessed the impacts and processes of compensated displacement from a forest protected area, the Derema corridor. Studies III and IV compared the outcomes and practices of Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) to expectations of increased equity and effectiveness of forest management in the context of democratic decentralization in the same landscape. The results suggest that the negative impacts of displacement from the Derema corridor were most felt by women and the poorest segments of the affected communities, due to restricted access to production resources and a failure to access monetary compensation for the lost assets. A minority of better-off farmers emerged as relative winners by accessing considerable compensation and investing in improved livelihoods. The outcomes were conditioned by the procedures followed, marked by unpreparedness and disruptions in the presence of the implementing agencies, as well as the limited agency of local actors, especially women, in negotiations over the conditions of conservation and compensation. The limitations of monetary compensation for conservation-induced human displacement are discussed. As a result of CBFM, forest tenure security of local village communities has increased, but strict village forest rules preclude livelihood benefits, while some villagers have incurred costs from land appropriation for village forest reserves. The outcomes of forest rights devolution in the East Usambaras may be seen as path-dependent institutional reproduction that follows the previous exclusionary models of forest conservation. Enhanced deliberative processes, access to accountability measures, and increased awareness of procedural rights are central issues for improving CBFM equity and sustainability. ; Tropical forests are subject to global conservation efforts, while at the same time they are of direct value for local livelihoods in the developing world. Failure to reconcile conflicting global and local interests has led to situations where the costs of both forest loss and conservation are borne most heavily by those least able to afford them. Subsequently, conservation approaches have evolved from fully exclusionary ones (i.e. protected areas) to approaches involving local participation in forest management and efforts to mitigate livelihood losses or create social benefits from conservation. This study contributes to understanding how positive and negative social impacts of different forest conservation policies are distributed within forest adjacent communities in Tanzania, and what kind of governance practices may be associated with the observed outcomes. Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative social research methods, Studies I and II assessed the impacts and processes of compensated displacement from a forest protected area, the Derema corridor. Studies III and IV compared the outcomes and practices of Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) to expectations of increased equity and effectiveness of forest management in the context of democratic decentralization in the same landscape. The results suggest that the negative impacts of displacement from the Derema corridor were most felt by women and the poorest segments of the affected communities, due to restricted access to production resources and a failure to access monetary compensation for the lost assets. A minority of better-off farmers emerged as relative winners by accessing considerable compensation and investing in improved livelihoods. The outcomes were conditioned by the procedures followed, marked by unpreparedness and disruptions in the presence of the implementing agencies, as well as the limited agency of local actors, especially women, in negotiations over the conditions of conservation and compensation. The limitations of monetary compensation for conservation-induced human displacement are discussed. As a result of CBFM, forest tenure security of local village communities has increased, but strict village forest rules preclude livelihood benefits, while some villagers have incurred costs from land appropriation for village forest reserves. The outcomes of forest rights devolution in the East Usambaras may be seen as path-dependent institutional reproduction that follows the previous exclusionary models of forest conservation. Enhanced deliberative processes, access to accountability measures, and increased awareness of procedural rights are central issues for improving CBFM equity and sustainability.

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) involves global and national policy measures as well as effective action at the landscape scale across productive sectors. Multilevel governance (MLG) characterizes policy processes and regimes of cross-scale and cross-sector participation by multiple public and private actors for improved legitimacy and effectiveness of policy. We examine multilevel, multi-actor engagement in REDD+ planning in Quintana Roo, Mexico, to find out how local perspectives align with the national policy approach to REDD+ as an integrating element of holistic rural development at territorial scale, and how current practices support procedurally legitimate MLG required to implement it. We find that there is wide conceptual agreement on the proposed approach by a variety of involved actors, in rejection of the business-as-usual sectoral interventions. Its implementation, however, is challenged by gaps in horizontal and vertical integration due to strong sectoral identities and hierarchies, and de facto centralization of power at the federal level. Continued participation of multiple government and civil society actors to contribute to social learning for locally appropriate REDD+ actions is likely to require a more balanced distribution of resources and influence across levels. Meaningfully engaging and ensuring the representation of local community interests in the process remains a critical challenge. ; Forestry, Faculty of ; Non UBC ; Reviewed ; Faculty

Highlights • Different theoretical perspectives widen the understanding of agency. • Institutional, socio-psychological and relational approaches are considered. • Transition agency emerges from the linkages between niches, regimes and systems. • Everyday behaviour changes the contextual level of socio-technical systems. ; In order to maintain a habitable planet, relatively fast and large-scale transitions towards sustainable societies are needed especially regarding the production and consumption of energy. The transitions require people to change the ways they conduct their daily lives as well as agency (capacity to act) in bringing about the needed changes at different levels of society. However, inadequate attention to human behaviour and agency is a recurring critique of the sustainability transition literature. In this article, we bring together insights from institutional, socio-psychological, practice theoretical and relational perspectives to highlight the diversity of understanding agency in sustainability transitions. The different approaches provide a nuanced view on the roles of people and the conduct of everyday lives in sustainability transitions. Building on the multi-level perspective (MLP), we argue that in order to acquire a more holistic understanding on the role of agency in sustainability transitions, attention should be paid to the links and interactions between different socio-technical systems, such as energy, transportation, waste and food as well as their internal dynamics, blurring the boundaries of micro-, meso- and macro-levels. Improved understanding of agency will bring to the fore everyday behaviour as an enabler of sustainability transitions. Furthermore, it will allow a more nuanced perception of the transition dynamics, which can significantly improve the overall understanding of the situated sustainability transitions mechanisms.

Despite calls for evidence-based policies, the process of using evidence in forest conservation policy implementation has remained unclear. In this paper, we focus on voluntary conservation and investigate complex ways to use evidence in implementation of the Forest Biodiversity Programme METSO in Finland. Data were collected via nine focus group discussions involving a total of 59 forest conservation stakeholders. Through interpretative qualitative analysis, we found that forest owners' and forest advisers' awareness of the voluntary instrument and the smooth interplay of knowledge types are important factors in implementing voluntary conservation. Knowledge use should be locally bound for policy implementation to be effective. Social relationships enable integrating local knowledge. Forest owners, advisers, authorities and other actors interpret scientific and other knowledges (and simultaneously co-produce new knowledge) in practical action. We conclude that educating forest advisers, informing forest owners, and increasing collaboration can enhance evidence flows from research to practice. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ; Peer reviewed

We examine five forested landscapes in Africa (Cameroon, Madagascar, and Tanzania) and Asia (Indonesia and Laos) at different stages of landscape change. In all five areas, forest cover (outside of protected areas) continues to decrease despite local people's recognition of the importance of forest products and services. After forest conversion, agroforestry systems and fallows provide multiple functions and valued products, and retain significant biodiversity. But there are indications that such land use is transitory, with gradual simplification and loss of complex agroforests and fallows as land use becomes increasingly individualistic and profit driven. In Indonesia and Tanzania, farmers favor monocultures (rubber and oil palm, and sugarcane, respectively) for their high financial returns, with these systems replacing existing complex agroforests. In the study sites in Madagascar and Laos, investments in agroforests and new crops remain rare, despite government attempts to eradicate swidden systems and their multifunctional fallows. We discuss approaches to assessing local values related to landscape cover and associated goods and services. We highlight discrepancies between individual and collective responses in characterizing land use tendencies, and discuss the effects of accessibility on land management. We conclude that a combination of social, economic, and spatially explicit assessment methods is necessary to inform land use planning. Furthermore, any efforts to modify current trends will require clear incentives, such as through carbon finance. We speculate on the nature of such incentive schemes and the possibility of rewarding the provision of ecosystem services at a landscape scale and in a socially equitable manner.