1,720,974 research outputs found
Environmental and socio-economic impacts of community forestry and individual small-scale logging in Cameroon
Full text linkCommunity forests (CF) and individual small-scale logging (SML) have been promoted in the Cameroonian forest legal framework with several objectives: involving people in forest management, transferring some management rights, and improving local living conditions supported by natural resources. This chapter briefly presents the history of both CF and SML and their stated objectives. Through a brief assessment of the existing literature and available recent data, it compares the respective contribution of CF and SML to the principles of sustainable forest management. Findings indicate that both CF and SML have positive socio-economic impacts, though these are generally short-lived. Long-term impacts are mixed, with economic returns sustained by degradation of the resource base and largely captured downstream. From an environmental point of view, the complexity of the regulatory framework to establish CFs, their location in a ‘non-permanent forest domain’, and the lack of extension services supporting the local populations in implementation, in parallel with the rapidly increasing demand for wood on the domestic market, indicate that CFs also fail on many criteria of sustainable forest management
Rotational farming by the Karen People and its role in livelihood adaptive capacity and biocultural conservation : a case study of upland community forestry in Thailand
No full textThe community forest (CF) discourse in Thailand addresses areas such as forest conservation, agriculture production, and cultural identity. Rotational farming, sometimes called swidden farming, is a traditional form of agroforestry practised by upland Indigenous and Ethnic Minority communities like the Karen People and enhances the adaptive capacity of farming communities. However, it is not legally recognized as a form of CF management within protected areas. This case study on the Karen village of Ban Klang in the province of Lampang showcases how rotational farming may simultaneously account for the three sectors. This research was designed using elements of participatory research, participants were purposefully sampled and interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Data was also gathered from participant observation and document analysis. The first topic addresses how rotational farming contributes to the forest-dependent livelihood of Ban Klang and how the villagers have adapted to external and internal pressures for change to maintain this way of life instead of transforming to conventional and often intensive mono-crop farming. The data is presented using a hybrid model that has elements of both the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and the Social Ecological System model. The second topic addresses how rotational farming may be permitted within protected areas through the advocacy for a Special Cultural Zone (SCZ). The SCZ land designation has been proposed based on the goals of the August 10th 2010 Cabinet Resolution which calls for the revitalization of Karen customary way of life as it is widely recognized as a contributor for biocultural conservation. The SCZ concept addresses short historical socio-cultural and ecological issues for upland Karen farming communities, but does not have sufficient consideration for long-term factors such as climate change and inclusion of the various other Indigenous and Ethnic Minority communities in the country.Forestry, Faculty ofGraduat
Agricultural food sufficiency in Alberni-Clayoquot, Canada : an applied history approach
No full textThe question of whether a place is producing enough food to feed its population is called the question of food sufficiency. This dissertation looks at the history of agriculture and legislation around food sufficiency in British Columbia and the Alberni-Clayoquot region. The research method of applied history is adopted and contrasts other common approaches to food sufficiency that focus on calculating the difference between production and consumption.
To begin, the history of agricultural production within the Alberni Farmers’ Institute (from 1921 to 1984) is documented through a re-telling of events around potato growing, farmer field days, and fish-bearing streams on farms. It is argued that the region never achieved holistic food sufficiency, and that as the century wore on, visions of the food system became increasingly narrowed. Following this, the first five years of the British Columbia Agricultural Land Commission (1973 to 1978) are described. As an administrative tribunal, the Commission sought to increase provincial food sufficiency by means of farmland protection legislation. It is argued that the Commission first imagined soil, land and food to be in an inextricable knot and that its formative years contained a unique ethic related to land, collaboration and public service.
Moving onwards from the 1970s, a short history of provincial slaughter regulations is provided. It is argued that the Alberni Farmers’ Institutes’ work to help change these regulations in 2020 and 2021 demonstrates how unfunded volunteer-based organizations can successfully contest barriers to local food sufficiency. The category of on-farm slaughter is further described as unique meat culture in its own respect – with its own specific environmental, and socio-economic and metaphysical characteristics. To end, the last chapter offers a deeper look at how the contemporary food system is envisioned by some Alberni-Clayoquot residents. Through food mapping and photography, the many ways people value food is illustrated as well as the tie between food sufficiency and food sovereignty. The dissertation concludes by highlighting the importance of maintaining a balance between independence and dependence in farmer-government relations and the consequential effects of our underlying values on maintaining an adequate regional food supply.Forestry, Faculty ofGraduat
Rentier nation: Landlordism, patronage and power in Guyana’s gold mining sector
No full textAbstractThe consequences are examined of the revision of Guyana's Mining Act in 1989 that was intended to allow access to international mining companies while safeguarding national interests. One outcome was the acquisition of over 75% of small-scale and over 40% of medium-scale concessions by a small number of nationals. Landlordism expanded following the spike in the international gold price from 2006. The State’s failure to modify the poorly construed mining law, and to enforce the Regulations, enables the continued capture of the excess rent from gold sales by rentiers without commensurate responsibility for them to remedy the environmental degradation. Evidence of financial losses to the State from the renting of concessions and the smuggling of gold is presented. The legal protections of Indigenous Peoples are not enforced. The legal protections of mining workers are inadequate. We recommend: making the mining licence holder legally responsible for ensuring compliance with all Regulations on every concession; the implementation of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) to safeguard Indigenous rights in both titled and customary territories; the capture of excess rent from gold sales for a sovereign wealth fund; and full transparency so as to end insider trading in concessions
The political ecology of illegal logging in Thailand : forest exploitation, violence, and anti-politics
No full textPolicy definitions of illegal logging are anchored in national forest governance institutions. However, extensive scholarship finds that national forest governance institutions stemming from the colonial era undermine customary rights to forest landscapes, adversely impacting Indigenous Peoples. Through a post-structural examination of the state and sovereignty, this dissertation interrogates illegal logging as a discursive construction concerned with the appropriation and continual reproduction of boundaries and rules over land and resources. In doing so, this dissertation reveals that operations of sovereign power and state institutions perpetuate historical and current forest degradation, resource inequities, and violence within Thailand's State forests.
The dissertation's findings are drawn from historical analyses and ethnographic fieldwork undertaken during 2018-2019 in Thailand. First, I found that throughout the 20th century, legal and illegal logging were ordinary constitutive components of state-capital relations which served to enrich powerful actors in state bureaucracies and their private sector allies, further driving widescale forest exploitation. Second, I detail the localized subjugation of a Karen Pwo Indigenous community, located within a National Reserved Forest bordering Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand, who lack substantive legal land and resource rights. I found that state actors' continued governance and maintenance of State forests, justified through civilizing ideologies, facilitated the imposition of sovereign power over such tenure-insecure communities by state and state-supported actors. The enforcement of forestry laws resulted in constrained livelihoods and violent dispossession via illegal logging, associated with forced labour and drug addiction.
Third, I found that the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade, Voluntary Partnership Agreement negotiation process between Thailand and the European Union failed to address embedded inequalities in Thai forest governance structures that benefit elites at the expense of the rural poor. Through an examination of political logics, I showed how actors from the government and private sector succeeded in structuring the terrain of negotiations to minimize civil society demands for reforms to local people's land and timber rights. I conclude that the maintenance and (re)production of Thailand's State forests, advanced through national and international policy efforts, obscures and renders banal the resultant and continuing violent dispossession of Indigenous Peoples.Forestry, Faculty ofGraduat
Assessing how the beneficiaries perceive the constraints and benefits of FSC certification : a case study of Brazilian smallholders
No full textThis study analyzed the interaction between large companies and the smallholders in the development of local environmental stewardship, focused on the FSC certification of forest plantations in Brazil.
To conduct this analysis, four case study units in the Northeast and South of Brazil were selected through purposeful sampling. Each case study unit is comprised of one large company that support smallholders in achieving FSC certification.
Forty-five participants in the supply chain from smallholder to processing facility were interviewed. They included: certification body, company representative, sustainability manager, consultant firm, certification specialist, smallholder, and smallholder association. The sampling process for the selection of interviewees was a combination of snowballing and random sampling. The concept of inductive thematic saturation was used to determine if the sample size was enough to achieve saturation and therefore data collection completed.
My study concluded that market demand and financial incentives seem to be the main factors motivating the engagement and long-term commitment of the smallholders in the FSC certification scheme. Importantly, as long as the smallholders perceive that the economic benefits outweigh the costs, it is very likely they will continue to use the FSC certification scheme. It is not enough to just see the more intangible human, social, and environmental benefits of certification as the primary reason to continue with costs of certification.Forestry, Faculty ofGraduat
Forest management and conservation governance in relation to Indigenous food sovereignty with the Líl̓wat First Nation in British Columbia, Canada
No full textIndigenous Food Sovereignty (IFS) involves the sacred responsibilities and relationships of Indigenous Nations and communities, including urban communities, with their food systems. IFS relies on Indigenous Peoples’ ability to restore and maintain relationships with culturally desirable foods, ensuring the sustainability of their food systems. The ability of Indigenous Peoples to experience food sovereignty continues to be adversely impacted by statutory laws and policies in the nation states whose land grabs enclose customary and traditional territories. In this dissertation, I show how government regulations and forestry, protected areas, and ecosystem services programming in British Columbia (BC), Canada impact the Líl̓wat First Nation’s processes to recover food sovereignty. This dissertation draws on ethnographic fieldwork with the Líl̓wat First Nation between 2015-2020. Firstly, I summarize some of the food-based practices and experiences of Líl̓wat Nation that constitute the foundation of Líl̓wat food sovereignty. Secondly, I analyse the impacts of payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs on Indigenous Peoples and local communities as ecosystem services providers, finding that PES programs run the risk of reifying Indigenous knowledges to fit into ecosystem services approaches, legitimizing settler colonial jurisdiction over Indigenous peoples’ territories. Thirdly, I assess the BC Government’s changes to forest policy since 2003 that have created both new opportunities, as well as constraints, for Líl̓wat Nation. Fourthly, I present ethnographic evidence to show how recreational tourism creates challenges for Indigenous food sovereignty through impacting both food sources and food practices. I find that the continuing erasure of Líl̓wat ontologies by conservationist land managers constitutes ‘slow violence’. Indigenous peoples’ community spaces are critical fora for deliberating on and creating desired food futures that include Indigenous food sovereignty. This dissertation finds that settler government policies and inaction towards safeguarding food provisioning landscapes, including so-called ‘Crown forests’ and protected areas, impede the ability of Indigenous peoples to realize food sovereignty in these spaces, unhindered by settler colonial violence.Forestry, Faculty ofGraduat
A predictive modeling and ecocultural study of pine mushrooms (Tricholoma murrillianum) with the Líl̓wat Nation in British Columbia, Canada
No full textAlthough recognized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Indigenous rights to traditionally held and managed forestlands and forest resources are only beginning to gain visibility in forest research and management in Canada. This presents challenges to First Nations whose cultural and economic priorities for forest use conflict with those of private and public entities, particularly when evidence is required to support traditional use claims. Knowledge of traditional use is customarily maintained as oral history and is rarely available in formats recognized by Canadian legal and governance institutions. Such is the case with the Líl̓wat First Nation, in British Columbia, Canada, and Tricholoma murrillianum (pine mushroom), an elusive, ectomycorrhizal mushroom species whose value to Líl̓wat people is put at risk by competing timber interests. Rich Líl̓wat Indigenous knowledge (IK) of pine mushrooms signals their importance and is encoded in temporally long and detailed records of their presence on the landscape. I elicit Líl̓wat IK to generate a map of pine mushroom habitat in their traditional territory and demonstrate the multifaceted value of pine mushrooms to Líl̓wat people. I utilize the species distribution modeling (SDM) software Maxent to compare two methods for incorporating Líl̓wat IK to produce pine mushroom occurrence data, yielding two models of suitable habitat. I demonstrate that Líl̓wat IK generates species distribution models with high area under the curve values (0.920, 0.923) and low omission error rates (0.054, 0.062). This study also demonstrates the novel application of IK to fungi SDM. Drawing from semi-structured interviews, document analysis and discourse analysis, I show that harvesting pine mushrooms is an expression of Líl̓wat cultural revitalization and consequently, colonial resistance. Documented traditional Líl̓wat practices show that pine mushrooms have long been managed in relation to other species, such as deer, and as part of broader sociocultural systems founded in reciprocity. Where Western scientists are increasingly interested in working with Indigenous communities and IK, I highlight respectful and reciprocal ways in which ecological and ethnoecological research can be undertaken.Forestry, Faculty ofGraduat
Land. Its occupation, management, use and conceptualization: the case of the Akawaio and Arekuna of the Upper Mazaruni District, Guyana
Full text linkBook review of Land. Its occupation, management, use and conceptualization: the case of the Akawaio and Arekuna of the Upper Mazaruni District, Guyana. Audrey J. Butt Colson. Panborough, Near Wells, UK: Last Refuge Ltd, 2009. 408 pp., 8 figures, 8 maps, 42 plates, bibliography, index. £40 (hard cover). ISBN: 978-0-9544350-7-3 [www.lastrefuge.co.uk]
‘Original lords of the soil’? Amerindian rights and the expansion of State power in Guyana
No full textThe consequences of State claims to, and controls over, the forested homelands of Guyana’s Indigenous Peoples are traced through successive Dutch and British colonial to post-Independence governments in Guyana. From the mid-18th century, a numerically small sugar plantocracy wielded influence within colonial government and ensured that colonial policy served its interests which were located on the narrow coastal plain. Policies for the hinterland both extended the capitalist approach to natural resources governance and favoured the dominance of the small stratum of monied interests over the majority of Crown licences for forestry, mining and ranching. In contrast, the colonial government approach to Indigenous Peoples was protectionist, but their land rights were not settled in law. Authoritarian post-Independence governments have used the inherited legislative framework to expand the issuing of logging and mining concessions to crony capitalists, increasingly transnational Asian logging and Canadian mining companies. The State is aided by the lack of a reservation process for a permanent forest estate (PFE) and/or a settlement process to determine and settle pre-existing customary rights of Indigenous and Local Peoples, twin processes that were used in the majority of British colonies. Indigenous rights in State Forests have been steadily eroded and the lack of enabling support systems effectively consigns Indigenous Peoples to the status of client subjects of the State
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