Interpreting discourses among implementers of what is termed a "landscape approach" enables us to learn from their experience to improve conservation and development outcomes. We use Q-methodology to ...explore the perspectives of a group of experts in the landscape approach, both from academic and implementation fields, on what hinderances are in place to the realisation of achieving sustainable landscape management in Indonesia. The results show that, at a generic level, "corruption" and "lack of transparency and accountability" rank as the greatest constraints on landscape functionality. Biophysical factors, such as topography and climate change, rank as the least constraining factors. When participants considered a landscape with which they were most familiar, the results changed: the rapid change of regulations, limited local human capacity and inaccessible data on economic risks increased, while the inadequacy of democratic institutions, "overlapping laws" and "corruption" decreased. The difference indicates some fine-tuning of generic perceptions to the local context and may also reflect different views on what is achievable for landscape approach practitioners. Overall, approximately 55% of variance is accounted for by five discourse factors for each trial. Four overlapped and two discourses were discrete enough to merit different discourse labels. We labelled the discourses (1) social exclusionists, (2) state view, (3) community view, (4) integrationists, (5) democrats, and (6) neoliberals. Each discourse contains elements actionable at the landscape scale, as well as exogenous issues that originate at national and global scales. Actionable elements that could contribute to improving governance included trust building, clarified resource rights and responsibilities, and inclusive representation in management. The landscape sustainability discourses studied here suggests that landscape approach "learners" must focus on ways to remedy poor governance if they are to achieve sustainability and multi-functionality.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•We explore the relationship between land tenure, forest conflict, and livelihoods.•We review the effect of Indonesian land and forest law on livelihoods and conflict.•Understanding and resolving ...forest conflicts on-the-ground is not a simple process.•Rempek shows the need to understand local perceptions of law and land ownership.•We propose a landscape approach to resolve conflict and implement land reform.
Land tenure in Indonesia is regulated by a complex combination of traditional, formal and informal arrangements. Legal ambiguity over land and natural resources has resulted in tenure insecurity, impacting livelihoods and perpetuating conflict. We reviewed land and forest laws in Indonesia and their effect on livelihoods and conflict and studied the impact of land tenure uncertainty in Rempek village on the island of Lombok, Nusa Tenggara Barat. In Rempek, conflict over land tenure and forest boundaries has occurred since 1984. We built a timeline of events from discussions with various stakeholders and obtained legal documents to support our analysis. The major driver of conflict is the disagreement over the forest boundaries between the Ministry of Forestry and the National Land Agency. This disagreement has escalated and introduced uncertainty, which negatively affects livelihoods in the area. Conflict resolution in Rempek requires a multi-stakeholder approach and an agreement between the Ministry of Forestry and the National Land Agency over the forest boundary and an explicit classification of land status in the conflict area. Our case study is relevant to recurrent disputes over land tenure in contemporary Indonesia. Agrarian conflict and tenure insecurity have stimulated political and social justice movements throughout the country. Recent reforms of land and forest tenure in Indonesia are opening up new pathways for local forest tenure arrangements in situations such as Rempek. Integrated landscape approaches are emerging in Indonesia and have elements that may contribute to resolving land tenure uncertainty. As land tenure security underpins livelihoods for most Indonesians, land authorities must demonstrate stronger coordination and pay more attention to realities on the ground to achieve political and legal progress on land tenure arrangements.
In 2013, China launched its ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) as a major effort to enhance international trade and economic development. An important feature of the BRI is that it supports free trade ...regimes and a world economy based upon open regional cooperation. The concept of BRI involves establishing a transport route between China and participating countries to provide more profitable trade and investment corridors. There are few comprehensive studies examining the social and environmental impact on development in recipient countries. To address this gap, this study gathered empirical evidence on railroad projects in three key countries: Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The comparative analysis revealed that while political leaders signed agreements that welcomed China’s BRI in support of their national transport development plans, the implementation of these ambitious infrastructure projects faced significant management and operational challenges that had not been foreseen by the Chinese partners. More effective implementation of BRI infrastructure projects in the future will require better understandings of governance, specifically through harmonization with the cultural, institutional and political contexts in partner countries. Social and cultural characteristics of the countries where Chinese firms are working need to be well understood if sustainable and inclusive benefits from the BRI infrastructure projects are to be delivered. Further research on the benefits gained by local people living in the areas affected by the BRI investments is needed.
Forest restoration is increasingly becoming a priority at international and national levels. Identifying forest degradation, however, is challenging because its drivers are underlying and ...site-specific. Existing frameworks and principles for identifying forest degradation are useful at larger scales, however, a framework that includes iterative input from local knowledge-holders would be useful at smaller scales. Here, we present a new mechanism; a framework for developing criteria and indicators that enables an approach for the identification of forest degradation and opportunities for restoration in landscapes that is free from failures that are often inherent to project cycles. The Degradation and Restoration Assessment Mechanism (DReAM) uses an iterative process that is based on local expertise and established regional knowledge to inform what is forest degradation and how to monitor restoration. We tested the mechanism’s utility at several sites in the Lancang-Mekong Region (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam). The application of this mechanism rendered a suite of appropriate criteria and indicators for use in identifying degraded forests which can help inform detailed guidelines to develop rehabilitation approaches. The mechanism is designed to be utilized by any individual or group that is interested in degradation identification and/or rehabilitation assessment.
Efforts to sustain multi-scalar benefit flows from forests increasingly concentrate on interventions in landscapes. Integrated landscape approaches have emerged as the dominant paradigm among ...international agencies for reconciling competing land uses. Small and medium forest enterprises receive growing attention for their ability to meet local development aspirations while supporting healthy forest ecosystems. Despite their prevalence in forest sustainability initiatives, landscape approaches and small and medium enterprises have not yet been integrated into a holistic framework. Here, we conceptually integrate the two phenomena using place as a guiding concept. We examined peer-reviewed literature to understand cultural, socio-political, and biophysical attributes and processes that influence outcomes of small and medium forest enterprises. We then held a series of seminars to discuss empirical and theoretical advances in landscape approaches and the role of small and medium forest enterprises. From this, we identified areas of complementarity, where investments might lead to mutual gains for prosperous and sustainable forest landscapes. We propose four overarching synergies between integrated landscape approaches and small and medium forest enterprises: (I) collective organization, decision-making, and action, (II) empowerment, rights, and tenure security, (III) coherent policy and commitment across governance scales, and (IV) managing for multiple functions and values within planetary boundaries. To increase understanding of these synergies in local contexts, researchers and practitioners could share lessons from place-based sustainability science, contributing to learning systems for inclusive benefit flows in forest landscapes.
Deforestation and forest degradation are having profound negative impacts on social-ecological systems in the emerging economies across the tropics. Consequently, interest in restoring and ...rehabilitating degraded forests has been growing. This paper explores current issues related to addressing forest degradation in the Lancang-Mekong Region (LMR) of Southeast Asia through a review of the use of criteria and indicators for forest degradation and rehabilitation. Forest degradation must be understood in the context of its underlying drivers, which are numerous and complex. Understanding these underlying drivers of degradation requires diagnosing the entwined political, social, economic, and environmental systems that affect forests. Landscapes are the relevant scales to diagnose and intervene for improved forests. Interventions to restore or rehabilitate forests should be process-driven, focused on the underlying social, ecological and political processes that degrade landscapes. Interventions should also include negotiation among all actors influencing and competing for natural resource claims in forest landscapes. Criteria and indicators for forest landscape restoration should therefore help to improve the governance of forest landscapes. Criteria and indicators provide measures of the biophysical outcomes of degradation, in addition to processes, but these should be adapted to changing contexts and emerging challenges, and should rectify any pre-existing flawed change-logic. Restoration activities should synthesize, integrate, and build upon the rich history of pre-existing restoration guidelines, but should be adaptable in order to be applied effectively in the contexts of local landscapes. This project is facilitating a dialogue around the use of criteria and indicators to help solve the degradation challenge in the LMR. We will trial the use of the criteria and indicators generated through this research in the LMR to learn what works and what doesn’t. This will provide an opportunity to build consensus around the ways in which restoration investments made by governments, civil society, and the private sector can influence sustainability.
Landscapes are conceptually fuzzy and rich, and subject to plural framings. They are places of inquiry and intervention for scientists and practitioners, but also concepts bound to peoples’ dynamic ...identities, knowledge systems, inspiration, and well-being. These varying interpretations change the way landscapes function and evolve. Developed in the 1930s, Q-methodology is increasingly recognized for being useful in documenting and interrogating environmental discourses. Yet its application in the context of how integrated landscape approaches better navigate land-use dilemmas is still in its infancy. Based on our experience and emerging literature, such as the papers in this special collection, this article discusses the value of Q-methodology in addressing landscape sustainability issues. Q-methodology helps unravel and communicate common and contradicting landscape imaginaries and narratives in translational and boundary-spanning ways, thus bridging actors’ different understandings of problems and solutions and revealing common or differentiated entry points for negotiating trade-offs between competing land uses. The methodology can be empowering for marginalized people by uncovering their views and aspirational values to decision-makers and policymakers. We argue that this potential can be further strengthened by using Q to identify counter-hegemonic discourses and alliances that combat injustices regarding whose knowledge and visions count. In this way, applying Q-methodology in integrated landscape approaches can become a key tool for transitioning toward just, inclusive, and sustainable landscapes.
Forestry in British Columbia, Canada, is in transition. Social and environmental concerns, such as the conservation of old growth forests, reconciliation with indigenous peoples, increasing ...wildfires, climate change, and tree diseases are driving changes in forest management, production, stewardship, and tenure. Government, industry, and local communities are seeking ways to achieve a resilient, diverse, and innovative forest sector that reflects local and indigenous values. We explore the role of small-scale forestry in contributing to this objective. Drawing from an online survey of small-scale foresters, discussions, relevant literature, and policy documents, we examine the management priorities, definitions of success, opportunities, and challenges of small-scale forestry in British Columbia. We find a wide range of views among survey respondents, but some consensus on key policy and management issues. Small-scale foresters would like to see greater opportunities for diversification, increased revenues, opportunities for partnerships, and the removal of barriers that inhibit innovation and local decision-making. The diverse range of local perceptions demonstrates the richness of British Columbia’s forestry communities, and the problems of a one-size-fits-all forest policy. A long-term vision accommodating diverse preferences of small-scale forestry in British Columbia is missing from provincial forest policy. We summarize emerging opportunities for small-scale forestry and the ways in which governments, communities, industry, research institutions, and indigenous rights-holders can contribute towards resilient forest systems.
PDF
