Territorialising REDD+: Conflicts over market-based forest conservation in Lindi,Tanzania

In this paper we use the lens of political ecology to shed light on the causes and effects of pro-poor REDD+ induced land use conflicts. We build our study on recent theoretical work on territorialisation in nature conservation to analyse the conflicts and outcomes of the TFCG/Mjumita REDD+ project in Lindi, Tanzania. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in two case study villages we argue that conservation organisations increasingly make use of participatory tools, FPIC procedures and good governance principles to include local populations in the creation of what we call market-based conservation territories (MBCT). In contrast to project developer’s claims of win–win benefits, we highlight the mixed outcomes of MBCTs and argue that their performance-driven nature and reliance on formal governance arrangements lead to the enclosure of common forests. This inevitably causes conflicts between and within villages over the meaning, ownership and access to forest resources, especially given the importance of customary relations in tropical rural contexts. We argue that despite the extensive community engagement strategy and genuine pro-poor approach of the REDD+ project, project proponents were unable to prevent land use conflicts and risks of economic and physical displacement. The specific social, economic and political conditions shaped the implementation of the project which led to negative consequences to some stakeholders despite genuinely noble intentions. Therefore, we argue that in order to achieve more positive results when creating MBCT, project developers must better acknowledge the inherent trade-offs of markets in conservation and take the limitations and realities of local governance context better into account. We suggest a more explicit assessment of social and environmental justice in the project and more context-specific efforts to prevent social harm from conservation. Theoretically, our study contributes to a better understanding of territorialisation processes under the current trend of market-based conservation.     

基于演化博弈的土地利用冲突缓解机制研究 ——以沈抚新区为例

研究目的：构建多元利益主体参与的土地利用冲突缓解机制,对于缓解区域用地矛盾和实现区域空间协同治理具有重要意义。研究方法：三方演化博弈模型、Matlab数值仿真。研究结果：（1）地方政府在土地利用冲突中的策略选择对营利性组织与农民的策略选择起决定作用;（2）治污处罚、政策补贴、土地租金、污染赔偿、额外补助是影响研究区土地利用冲突的关键因素;（3）通过调整影响研究区土地利用冲突关键因素,从实现绿色经济和条块化管理策略上,构建社会经济型和生态治理型的土地利用冲突缓解机制。研究结论：构建地方政府、营利性组织和农民之间的三方演化博弈关系,可实现社会经济发展和生态环境治理目标下的三方利益主体利益均衡,促进地方政府主导转向多方利益主体合作,有利于缓解区域用地矛盾和冲突。     

Limits to Ecological Modernisation as a framework for sustainable fresh water governance

An important point of debate in contemporary environmental governance literature is the design of institutional arrangements for natural resource governance in Western democracies in the face of long-term ecological challenges. Informed by this debate, we ask in this paper to what extent does Ecological Modernisation precepts provide a governance framework for resolving freshwater management conflicts in the context of New Zealand's political economy? The paper draws on the region of Canterbury whose water resources have become the site of intense political conflict due to the rapid growth of dairy farming. We firstly argue how the precepts of Ecological Modernisation are promoted in natural resource governance through the discourses of a variety of stakeholders at both the national and regional level and secondly, demonstrate how the adoption of these precepts in institutional design reflect a broadly techno-corporatist interpretation of Ecological Modernisation theory which struggles to sustain ecological carrying capacity of freshwater resources.     

Sowing the seeds of sustainable rural livelihoods? An assessment of Participatory Forest Management through REDD+ in Tanzania

Participatory forest management (PFM) initiatives have emerged worldwide for a range of aims including to improve forest governance, enhance resource conservation and to increase rural people’s access to and benefits from forest resources. Some of these initiatives have also received climate finance support to enhance their impact on mitigation. However, their effects on forest governance and livelihoods are complex and remain poorly studied. In this article, we address this gap by analysing governance and livelihood changes in a PFM initiative in Tanzania that has received funding as a REDD+ pilot site. Based on qualitative governance analysis and quantitative livelihood panel data (2011–2014) that compares villages and households within and outside the project, we find that improvements to forest governance are substantial in project villages compared to control villages, while changes in income have been important but statistically insignificant, and driven by a regional sesame cash crop boom unrelated to enhanced forestry revenues. Focusing on whether PFM had enhanced other wealth indicators including household conditions and durable assets, our analysis shows again no significant differences between participant and control villages, although the participant villages do have, on average, a greater level of durable assets. Overall, our findings are positive regarding forest governance improvements but inconclusive regarding livelihood effects, which at least in the short term seem to benefit more from agricultural intensification than forestry activities, whose benefits might become more apparent over a longer time period. In conclusion we emphasize the need for moving towards longer term monitoring efforts, improving understandings of local dynamics of change, particularly at a regional rather than community level, and defining the most appropriate outcome variables and cost-effective systems of data collection or optimization of existing datasets if we are to better capture the complex impacts of PFM initiatives worldwide.     

基于SNA的特大型工程投资项目关键利益主体识别与博弈分析

特大型工程投资项目在建设过程中涉及众多利益主体,解决不同行为主体之间的利益冲突、关键利益主体的利益博弈问题对于项目的成功实施至关重要。首先构建特大型工程投资项目利益相关者矩阵,通过社会网络分析测算出项目的关键利益主体:施工方、项目法人、地方政府及移民;然后基于博弈理论,对关键利益主体利益冲突进行博弈分析,以找出影响博弈均衡的关键因素,并讨论复制动态演化点;提出了完善监督管理制度、加大投机行为处罚力度、建立合理的移民管理制度的对策。     

The introduction of catchment-wide co-operations: Scalar reconstructions and transformation in Austria in flood risk management

The management of flood risk in Europe is changing. In several European Member States there are significant ongoing processes to shift certain flood risk management duties and responsibilities from the national to the local level. Previously, national authorities dominated the discourse about national flood risk management policy, but increasingly, local and private stakeholders have become responsible for flood risk management. This has greatly influenced the governance structure and arrangements for flood risk management policy. As a result, the co-operation among various stakeholders has become increasingly important. The consequences of this shift toward local stakeholders can be understood in the context of rescaling. This paper analyses the rescaling processes through catchment-wide management plans in the Austrian flood risk management system. Therefore, we selected three different Austrian study sites (Aist in Upper Austria, Triesting-Tal in Lower Austria and Ill-Walgau in Vorarlberg). New management ideas required new dynamics within the current scales and allowed changes in the interaction of local, regional, and national stakeholders in terms of negotiation, funding, and strategy development. The new policy direction demonstrates not only the importance of network connections between stakeholders at the same scale, but also networks between stakeholders at different scales, especially between local and national levels. However, engagement at the local level strongly depends on social capacities, such as knowledge, motivation/self-interest, networks at various levels, and procedural capacity. The theoretical framework of politics of scale helps in understanding and analysing the impact of the new decentralisation policy and practice.     

Effects of local land-use planning on development and disturbance in riparian areas

Land-use change can significantly affect the provision of ecosystem services. On a local scale, zoning laws and other land-use regulations are commonly used to influence land-use change, but their effectiveness is often unclear. We evaluate the effectiveness of local land-use planning in concentrating development and minimizing impacts in riparian areas. We use spatially-explicit land cover data from the USGS Land Cover Trends project to measure development and disturbance rates before and after implementation of Oregon’s land-use planning system. We apply a difference-in-difference estimator to address the problem of non-random assignment of regulations on the landscape. We find that land-use laws in Oregon have concentrated development inside of UGBs and lowered development rates in riparian areas. However, disturbance in riparian areas has increased inside of UGBs. Overall, our findings suggest that local land-use planning can be an effective tool for promoting the provision of non-market ecosystem services.     

The politics of multi-scalar action in river basin management: Implementing the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD)

Scholars of environmental governance are increasingly intrigued by issues of scale. Efforts to institutionalise river basin management represent a pertinent exemplar, as they aspire to strengthen hydrological vis-à-vis political–administrative scales of governance. The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) is one of the most ambitious policy initiatives worldwide to reconfigure water management planning around the hydrological scale of river basins. Whilst it is widely assumed that the WFD is rescaling water governance in Europe, few empirical studies have been conducted to ascertain how far this is the case, what scalar strategies and practices are emerging and to what effect. The paper addresses these open issues with a study analysing the multi-scalar actions of water authorities, water management organisations, local authorities and interest groups involved in implementing the WFD. It investigates how stakeholders are acting scalar from the local to the European scale and back to further their interests in the course of WFD implementation, focussing on the Wupper sub-basin in Germany. Drawing for conceptual insight on the human geography debate on the politics of scale and processes of rescaling, we demonstrate how all relevant stakeholders are increasingly working across scales to advance their interests but in very different ways, with different degrees of deliberation and to different effect. A typology of multi-scalar action is developed to interpret this diversity. The paper draws conclusions on how multi-scalar action is altering not only power relations between the actors but also the scalar configurations themselves.     

Learning through practice? Learning from the REDD+ demonstration project,Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP) in Indonesia

Despite a growing recognition of the importance of social learning in governing and managing land use, the understanding and practice of learning has received limited attention from researchers. In global environmental programs and projects aimed at supporting sustainable land use in developing countries, learning is often promoted but without explicit learning goals. The focus may be on capacity building and community participation, and on testing policy tools, rather than on collaborative social learning. In this study, we looked behind the rhetoric of learning in the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP), a large demonstration project for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in Indonesia. The novelty of such mechanisms, linked to international forest carbon outcomes, means that learning lessons provides a rationale for REDD+ pilot activities. We used a qualitative approach to examine the nature and type of learning that occurred in the KFCP. While the stated project aims were to support policy experimentation and apply learning, the project design was highly technical, and project decision-making did not explicitly encourage joint problem solving. Despite the project’s shortcomings, we identified that learning did occur by the end of the project in ways that were different to the initial goals. Our findings suggest that flexibility and openness in project design and implementation can enable different local actors to define shared learning agendas in ways that are meaningful for them. Designing and implementing environmental projects, and learning goals within them, should attend to the needs and aspirations of those who will have to live with their long-term consequences. Learning should be integrated into international environmental programs and projects at all levels, including for policy and funding bodies, rather than focusing on local capacity building and similar project ‘benefits’. Interviewees’ eagerness to learn suggests that building approaches to social learning into program design has the potential to yield opportunities for learning beyond REDD+ to other forms of policy experimentation and governance innovations.     

Power relationships: Their effect on the governance of community forestry in the Philippines

This paper examines the impact of unequal power relationships on the governance of community forestry groups (CFGs) in the Philippines. Devolution of power has long been considered to be a ‘magic bullet’ in the governance of CFGs. However, poor governance which involves unequal power relationships between state agencies, forest user groups and rural people, produces unequal access in decision-making, sharing of authority and responsibility. This engenders local resistance from those who feel excluded and marginalised in the process. Drawing on Bourdieu’s notion of ‘symbolic violence’, we examine how unequal power relationships between State and local agencies have facilitated destruction of mature and newly planted timber plantations. Studies of a harvesting and a reforestation project found that the adverse effects of poor governance occurred at two tiers, first at an upper level between the government and CFGs, and second, at a lower level between CFG’s and local people. Poor governance at upper levels has triggered both symbolic and physical violence on and from people who remained marginal to the benefits of harvesting and reforestation. We conclude that a key requirement for sustainable community-managed forests is to expand benefit sharing to non-CFG local people. Our findings highlight the importance of lower-tier levels of governance within CFGs and between CFGs and local people.     

The importance of farmer education in South Australia

There is a significant challenge involved with balancing food security at local and global levels whilst mitigating the environmental and social consequences of the historically productivist agri-food system. This work will address the importance of education in the South Australian agricultural sector as a tool to maximise beneficial outcomes. The results of a blended method research project, which involved farmers and governance stakeholders in South Australia, are presented as empirical evidence highlighting the positive roles that formal education, in particular university education, have in regard to increasing sustainability. It was found that higher levels of formal education contributed to farmers being more likely to prioritise the socio-environmental outcomes of their agricultural land use. There was also a dramatic reduction in farmer concerns with government support mechanisms as education levels went from secondary or less, through to vocational qualifications, and finally university degrees. Interviews with agricultural governance stakeholders emphasised the role of education in building the adaptive capacity of farmers, and the subsequent positive outcomes for the future development of the South Australian agricultural industry. These results suggest that further education provides farmers with the capacity to compete effectively in a liberalised economy.     

Governance of ecosystem services trade-offs in peri-urban landscapes

Peri-urban landscapes (PULs) are specific transitional forms of urban landscapes undergoing dynamic land-use changes. PULs’ transformations are driven by close and significant influence of an urban core, cross-administrative boundary character, and diversity of governance actors. PULs have significant potential to provide ES and respond to the urban and peri-urban demand for ES, but they are also particular contexts where significant and different ES trade-offs can occur. Majority of existing forms of governance are not able to deal and address such trade-offs, which thus call for more innovative and effective governance approaches and mechanisms, aimed at achieving ES synergies and reducing ES conflicts.This paper discusses the characteristics of PULs in the context of governance questions related to the management of ES trade-offs in the urban peripheries. The drivers of ES trade-offs are presented and different trade-off relationships between and within the main ES types are analyzed. The paper drafts a way forward from the current state-of-the-art related to governance of peri-urban ES trade-offs by providing recommendations for more effective governance that would address these trade-offs. Due to the very dynamic character of PULs, it is difficult to manage land-use changes and ES trade-offs. Hence, the governance approaches need to be adaptive and integrative at multiple levels, while engaging diverse actors to balance ES trade-offs that have mixed urban and rural character.     

Governance assessment of the UAVs implementation in Rwanda under the fit-for-purpose land administration approach

Conventional land tenure recording approaches to create a sustainable land administration system (LAS) have been found to be of limited value in developing countries. To respond to this challenge, the ‘fit-for-purpose’ (FFP) approach was developed. This approach has gained relevance in the last years and promotes the use of new technologies like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to provide valuable base maps. Yet, contemporary failures demonstrate that technological innovations should consider the governance context when being implemented. Understanding the relevance of the FFP approach and acknowledging the importance of institutional factors in policy implementation, this research presents and applies the ‘Fit-for-purpose governance assessment framework’ (FGAF). The FGAF operationalises the seven elements of the FFP approach with five governance dimensions of the framework named Governance Assessment Tool (GAT). To apply FGAF, our selected case study is focused on the UAVs implementation in Rwanda. We conducted 37 semi-structured in-depth interviews, a pilot project with Rwandese stakeholders, and analysed several official documents and national reports. Additionally, UAV data collection was carried out to test the performance of the technology too. This research found that participation and flexibility are the governance qualities that present the main challenges, while inclusiveness, affordability, upgradability, attainability and reliability provide better opportunities to implement UAVs. Based on our case study, we conclude that the governance context favours a top-down approach for the implementation of the UAV technology in the LAS. For the sustainability of the LAS, the central government should incentivize participatory governance models for local and non-governmental actors. Also, strengthening the capacities of the field agencies at the district level through fiscal decentralisation can support the effective uptake of the UAV technologies in the LAS.     

Co-click’eau,a participatory method for land-use scenarios in water catchments

Agricultural use of pesticides and nitrogen has negatively impacted drinking water quality. In France, 1000 water catchments now face a legal obligation to develop and implement action plans to reduce such pollution. Unfortunately, the action plans suffer from delays, are developed mechanically to strictly comply with a preset list of measures resulting in minimal changes in practices. Their impact is generally insufficient to preserve or restore water quality. In this context, the Co-click’eau method was proposed to elicit the development of locally-relevant catchment action plans by drawing on stakeholder participation and modeling for the design and assessment of scenarios on land-use changes at the whole-catchment scale. The method was tested in 2011–2012 in three different catchments. Our results show that it has a significant role to play in facilitating the development of catchment-specific action plans for which local stakeholders can feel a sense of ownership and commitment. Co-click’eau is also valuable in enhancing collective action by eliciting a process where local stakeholders share their knowledge and explore possible futures. Participation of a wide diversity of local stakeholders, along with a flexible modeling approach makes it possible to take into account local constraints and helps to break down local lock-ins.     

Exclusive versus inclusive devolution in forest management: Insights from forest land allocation in Vietnam's Central Highlands

The devolution of forest management is high on the agenda in international forest policy. Devolution is generally conceived as a policy that aims to include a more diverse set of actors in forest management. One of the most problematic outcomes of devolution policies, therefore, is their tendency to exclude the claims of some local actors. This paper examines the exclusionary effects of devolutions in settings characterized by overlapping state and customary regulations and links these effects to exclusive notions of property and governance contained in particular devolution policies. The paper draws on insights gained in a pilot initiative of forest devolution in Vietnam's Central Highlands. Forest land allocation, as the initiative is called in Vietnam, took an exclusive approach to devolution by assigning ownership-type rights on forest to local actors, obliging those to protect the forest against encroachment by other actors, and centering governance in the state. In this particular case, exclusive devolution failed to diminish the gap between state and customary regulations, created conflicts among local actors, and contributed to forest loss. The unintended outcomes of exclusive devolution suggest the need for an inclusive approach to devolution that accommodates diverse kinds of overlapping claims made by multiple actors. The key elements of inclusive devolution are proprietary but not ownership rights granted to individual users and nested governance relations involving state and customary actors.     

Growing struggle over rising demand: How land use change and complex farmer-grazier conflicts impact grazing management in the Western Highlands of Cameroon

Continuous population growth and rapid urbanization rates in West and Central Africa are associated with rising demand for fresh vegetables and animal-based products, providing market opportunities for local producers from the surrounding areas. However, in regions such as northwestern Cameroon where pastoral cattle breeding remains an important part of the local livestock sector, competition over dwindling resources with local crop farmers are increasing due to progressive land-use change from natural and traditional grazing areas into agricultural land.In order to determine the main areas of conflict and their interdependencies, we used a multi-temporal land-use classification and a multi-dimensional participatory approach of collecting spatial data from six representative Mbororo cattle herds, equipped with GPS collars. We combined this with 162 map-based interviews with randomly sampled pastoralists on seasonal grazing areas, grazing management, land ownership, and major constraints to herding. This data set was complemented by the perspectives of 40 randomly sampled crop farmers from four major transhumance zones.Both parties identified farmer-grazier conflicts as a serious constraint for their activities in the rainy season (graziers: 23.9 %; farmers: 22.5 %) and particularly in the dry season (36.3 %; 47.2 %). Land tenure issues will be of critical importance in the future as only very few respondents held an official land title, and pastoralists appeared less prepared for land disputes than crop farmers, who more often claimed land ownership through fencing. Therefore, there is an urgent need for developing and implementing alliance farming strategies that are based on dialogue between both interest groups to avoid further escalation within a region already in a conflict-ridden political environment.     

自然保护区相关利益者分析及其冲突管理 --以天目山自然保护区为例

通过对天目山自然保护区管理局、西天目乡政府、周边社区不同类型村民代表等主要相关利益者的12个小组访谈,及104个农户和59个社会公众的问卷调查,分析了天目山自然保护建设中,自然保护区管理者、当地政府、以农林收入为主的社区农民和以非农林收入为主的社区农民等主要相关利益者的需求取向;指出自然保护区与周边社区居民之间主要冲突是:⑴野生竹笋抚育经营受限,社区居民经济收入减少;⑵补偿措施不到位,社区居民预期收益未能兑现;⑶保护区总体规划滞后,当地项目投资开发受限。最后,提出了自然保护区与周边社区冲突管理的基本框架和重点内容。     

Localizing Land Governance,Strengthening the State: Decentralization and Land Tenure Security in Uganda

Decentralization of land governance is expected to significantly improve land tenure security of small‐scale farmers in Africa, through ensuring better protection of their assets and reducing land‐related conflicts. This paper, however, cautions not to have too high expectations of transferring responsibilities for land administration and dispute resolution to local government bodies. Field research in Mbarara District in south‐western Uganda brings out how decentralization has limited impacts in terms of localizing land services provision. Nonetheless, local land governance has transformed in important ways, as decentralization adds to institutional multiplicity, and fuels competition among state and non‐state authorities, and about the rules they apply. Rather than strengthening local mechanisms for securing tenure, the reforms introduce new forms of tenure insecurity, fail to transform local conventions of dealing with land disputes and delegitimize local mechanisms for securing tenure. In practice, decentralization has had limited effects in securing tenure for the rural poor, yet reinforces the presence of the state at the local level in diverse ways.     

Integrating preferences and social values for ecosystem services in local ecological management: A framework applied in Xiaojiang Basin Yunnan province,China

Previous works have made great progress in mapping and assessing ecosystem services (ES) that are directed toward exploring various aspects of ecological changes and economic values. These preferences, however, may neglect the important role of people who are the direct beneficiaries in this ecosystem. Therefore, including these stakeholders in ES assessment identifies their relations and perceptions between ecosystem services and society. In order to quantify and map these relations and perceptions, we designed and implemented an analytical framework based on the Public Participatory Geographic Information System (PPGIS) method to explore local stakeholders’ (Farmers, Government managers/Experts, and Company employees) similarities and differences in recognition of preferences and social values for ecosystem services in a typical Karst basin. Our results showed that remarkable differences appeared in preferences for ES across three groups. Farmers gave more preferences to provisioning services, Government managers/Experts to regulating and cultural services, and Company employees’ preferences were individualized. The spatial distributions and relations of social values for ES also showed great differentials. Provisioning services were always related to specific natural conditions, regulating services to forests, and cultural services to specific locations around tourism localities, forest, and wetland parks. The three stakeholder groups perceived more synergies than tradeoffs between the different ecosystem services. Landscape beauty was the most influential service in Farmers’ and Company employees’ perceptions, while Local climate change regulation was the most influential service in those of Government managers/Experts. The local stakeholders’ surveys can improve the enthusiasm of the local people to participate in environmental management and provide more socio-ecological information to help the managers alleviate the conflicts among different stakeholders.     

The social impact management plan as a tool for local planning: Case study: Mining in Northern Finland

The paper discusses social impact management plan (SIMP) as a planning tool for communities to continuously and adaptively manage and address the diverse social changes caused by mining developments. It introduces an empirical case study, where the SIMP is applied to deal with the possibilities and problems that the mining boom has created in a rural, sparsely populated municipality in Northern Europe. The making of the SIMP n the Sodankylä Municipality was the first community-led policy programme focused on mining in Finland. After collaborative planning with relevant stakeholders and political decision-making process, a SIMP laying out shared visions and mutually agreed actions was given the status of an official policy programme in 2018. However, there are several uncertainties related to the realization of the SIMP. From the viewpoint of governance dependencies, there are still differing opinions among the local stakeholders, including the mining companies, about what socially sustainable mining actually means and demands. Also, communities are often left with no other choice than to adapt to the interdependencies inherent in local governance, national legislation and politics. They also have to get used to international economic fluctuations and to the uncertainties intrinsic to the global production and consumption of metals. Nevertheless, the SIMP is a worthwhile effort to achieve the best local solutions related to mining in the northernmost parts of Europe.