In this paper we argue that historically emerging frontiers of conservation pave the way for cont... more In this paper we argue that historically emerging frontiers of conservation pave the way for continuous top–down territorialization. Drawing on a concrete case in the Selous–Niassa Corridor in Southern Tanzania, we show how a frontier emerged in the form of community-based conservation. Decades of consecutive and continuous territorialization projects, based on mapping and boundary making, have ensured that conservation is beyond questioning, despite failures in the processes of demarcating, controlling, and managing this large-scale socio-spatial intervention. Although these failures produce territorial conflicts and confusions on the ground, we argue that in the context of a conservation frontier the gap between the envisioned ideal and the messy reality is used to legitimize continuous conservation interventions that rely on technical expertise rather than political dialog. While such top–down territorialization by community-based conservation inevitably remains partial and contingent, this is nonetheless a powerful and resilient project that gradually transforms communal landscapes into conservation territories with little room for public debate.
— REDD+ is an ambition to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in th... more — REDD+ is an ambition to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in the Global South. This ambition has generated unprecedented commitment of political support and financial funds for the forest-development sector. Many academics and people-centered advocacy organizations have conceptualized REDD+ as an example of ''green grabbing " and have voiced fears of a potential global rush for land and trees. In this paper we argue that, in practice and up until now, REDD+ resembles longstanding dynamics of the development and conservation industry, where the promise of change becomes a discursive commodity that is constantly reproduced and used to generate value and appropriate financial resources. We thus argue for a re-conceptualization of REDD+ as a conservation fad within the broader political economy of development and conservation. We derive this argument from a study that compares the emergence of REDD+ in Tanzania with that of a previous forest-policy model called Participatory Forest Management. Our study describes how the advent of REDD+ implies change at the discursive level, but also continuity and repetitiveness in terms of the initial promises and expectations leading to substantial donor financing, pilot project activities, and policy development and implementation processes. In both epochs, these have achieved little in terms of changing actual forest management and use on the ground outside selected pilot project sites, but have sustained the livelihoods of actors within the development and conservation industry, including academics. Given that there are still many who look to REDD+ in the hope of addressing global climate change, despite less than hoped for financial support at the global level, our study provides an important starting point for questioning the uses of the finances for REDD+ that are actually amassed.
This article suggests that local elites play an instrumental role – either with positive or negat... more This article suggests that local elites play an instrumental role – either with positive or negative consequences – in shaping struggles for power over processes and outcomes of participatory forest management interventions, when implemented in communities characterized by social hierarchies. We show how the contrasting outcomes of joint forest management in two case study villages cannot be attributed to institutional reform, but appear to be caused largely by differences in the role assumed by local elites. The evidence indicates that institutional reform itself does not guarantee changes in the actual management of natural resources. Rather, vested interests at the local level and among State actors may continue to shape events while working within or beyond the new institutional landscape. On the basis of the results of our case studies, the article poses the hypothesis that a network theory of social capital could be a useful way of analyzing such diverse outcomes of similar in...
... In Tanzania, decentralized forest management took off in the early 1990s where elected ... fo... more ... In Tanzania, decentralized forest management took off in the early 1990s where elected ... forest resources on unreserved land through declaration of village land forest reserves ... From 2003 onwards, the implementation of decentralized forest management has progressed under a ...
ABSTRACT We explore the relationship between tenure and forest income in 271 villages throughout ... more ABSTRACT We explore the relationship between tenure and forest income in 271 villages throughout the tropics. We find that state-owned forests generate more forest income than private and community-owned forests both per household and per hectare. We explore whether forest income varies according to the extent of rule enforcement, and congruence (i.e., overlap of user rights between owners and users). We find negative associations between enforcement and smallholder forest income for state-owned and community forests, and positive associations for privately owned forests. Where user rights are limited to formal owners we find negative associations for state-owned forests. Overlapping user rights are positively associated with forest income for community forests. Our findings suggest that policy reforms emphasizing enforcement and reducing overlapping claims to forest resources should consider possible negative implications for smallholder forest income.
Abstract: This article is concerned with the hypothesis that devolution, understood as entrusting... more Abstract: This article is concerned with the hypothesis that devolution, understood as entrusting local government with significant domains of autonomous discretionary power, will lead to the equitable and efficient management of natural resources. The paper ...
ABSTRACT This study approaches the issue of limited certification uptake in the tropics by assess... more ABSTRACT This study approaches the issue of limited certification uptake in the tropics by assessing the factors affecting decisions on certification uptake among Ghanaian timber firms. Out of a total of 224 registered timber firms in Ghana, eight have initiated FSC certification. Customer demands, prospects of consolidating or increasing market shares, and a perceived need to invest in resource productivity are the main stated reasons for initiated certification uptake. Respondents from non-certified firms point out high compliance costs as a key reason not to certify. Owners and managers from these firms, however, hold little specific knowledge about certification requirements and costs. This calls for careful interpretation of statements on compliance costs as a factor discouraging certification uptake. Weak State-led governance, which creates an unpredictable business environment, constitutes another impeding factor for certification uptake in Ghana. This stresses the complimentary role of State-led governance in underpinning the functionality of certification. Norms such as resistance towards western imperialism, regulatory interference, and not regarding forest resource maintenance as the responsibility of the timber firms, are in the study found to constitute an additional and important factor affecting decisions not to engage in certification. The paper suggests that further attention be given to this aspect of certification uptake dynamics. Finally, the paper discusses the possibilities for synergies between FLEGT VPA legality verification and FSC certification.
In this paper we argue that historically emerging frontiers of conservation pave the way for cont... more In this paper we argue that historically emerging frontiers of conservation pave the way for continuous top–down territorialization. Drawing on a concrete case in the Selous–Niassa Corridor in Southern Tanzania, we show how a frontier emerged in the form of community-based conservation. Decades of consecutive and continuous territorialization projects, based on mapping and boundary making, have ensured that conservation is beyond questioning, despite failures in the processes of demarcating, controlling, and managing this large-scale socio-spatial intervention. Although these failures produce territorial conflicts and confusions on the ground, we argue that in the context of a conservation frontier the gap between the envisioned ideal and the messy reality is used to legitimize continuous conservation interventions that rely on technical expertise rather than political dialog. While such top–down territorialization by community-based conservation inevitably remains partial and contingent, this is nonetheless a powerful and resilient project that gradually transforms communal landscapes into conservation territories with little room for public debate.
— REDD+ is an ambition to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in th... more — REDD+ is an ambition to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in the Global South. This ambition has generated unprecedented commitment of political support and financial funds for the forest-development sector. Many academics and people-centered advocacy organizations have conceptualized REDD+ as an example of ''green grabbing " and have voiced fears of a potential global rush for land and trees. In this paper we argue that, in practice and up until now, REDD+ resembles longstanding dynamics of the development and conservation industry, where the promise of change becomes a discursive commodity that is constantly reproduced and used to generate value and appropriate financial resources. We thus argue for a re-conceptualization of REDD+ as a conservation fad within the broader political economy of development and conservation. We derive this argument from a study that compares the emergence of REDD+ in Tanzania with that of a previous forest-policy model called Participatory Forest Management. Our study describes how the advent of REDD+ implies change at the discursive level, but also continuity and repetitiveness in terms of the initial promises and expectations leading to substantial donor financing, pilot project activities, and policy development and implementation processes. In both epochs, these have achieved little in terms of changing actual forest management and use on the ground outside selected pilot project sites, but have sustained the livelihoods of actors within the development and conservation industry, including academics. Given that there are still many who look to REDD+ in the hope of addressing global climate change, despite less than hoped for financial support at the global level, our study provides an important starting point for questioning the uses of the finances for REDD+ that are actually amassed.
This article suggests that local elites play an instrumental role – either with positive or negat... more This article suggests that local elites play an instrumental role – either with positive or negative consequences – in shaping struggles for power over processes and outcomes of participatory forest management interventions, when implemented in communities characterized by social hierarchies. We show how the contrasting outcomes of joint forest management in two case study villages cannot be attributed to institutional reform, but appear to be caused largely by differences in the role assumed by local elites. The evidence indicates that institutional reform itself does not guarantee changes in the actual management of natural resources. Rather, vested interests at the local level and among State actors may continue to shape events while working within or beyond the new institutional landscape. On the basis of the results of our case studies, the article poses the hypothesis that a network theory of social capital could be a useful way of analyzing such diverse outcomes of similar in...
... In Tanzania, decentralized forest management took off in the early 1990s where elected ... fo... more ... In Tanzania, decentralized forest management took off in the early 1990s where elected ... forest resources on unreserved land through declaration of village land forest reserves ... From 2003 onwards, the implementation of decentralized forest management has progressed under a ...
ABSTRACT We explore the relationship between tenure and forest income in 271 villages throughout ... more ABSTRACT We explore the relationship between tenure and forest income in 271 villages throughout the tropics. We find that state-owned forests generate more forest income than private and community-owned forests both per household and per hectare. We explore whether forest income varies according to the extent of rule enforcement, and congruence (i.e., overlap of user rights between owners and users). We find negative associations between enforcement and smallholder forest income for state-owned and community forests, and positive associations for privately owned forests. Where user rights are limited to formal owners we find negative associations for state-owned forests. Overlapping user rights are positively associated with forest income for community forests. Our findings suggest that policy reforms emphasizing enforcement and reducing overlapping claims to forest resources should consider possible negative implications for smallholder forest income.
Abstract: This article is concerned with the hypothesis that devolution, understood as entrusting... more Abstract: This article is concerned with the hypothesis that devolution, understood as entrusting local government with significant domains of autonomous discretionary power, will lead to the equitable and efficient management of natural resources. The paper ...
ABSTRACT This study approaches the issue of limited certification uptake in the tropics by assess... more ABSTRACT This study approaches the issue of limited certification uptake in the tropics by assessing the factors affecting decisions on certification uptake among Ghanaian timber firms. Out of a total of 224 registered timber firms in Ghana, eight have initiated FSC certification. Customer demands, prospects of consolidating or increasing market shares, and a perceived need to invest in resource productivity are the main stated reasons for initiated certification uptake. Respondents from non-certified firms point out high compliance costs as a key reason not to certify. Owners and managers from these firms, however, hold little specific knowledge about certification requirements and costs. This calls for careful interpretation of statements on compliance costs as a factor discouraging certification uptake. Weak State-led governance, which creates an unpredictable business environment, constitutes another impeding factor for certification uptake in Ghana. This stresses the complimentary role of State-led governance in underpinning the functionality of certification. Norms such as resistance towards western imperialism, regulatory interference, and not regarding forest resource maintenance as the responsibility of the timber firms, are in the study found to constitute an additional and important factor affecting decisions not to engage in certification. The paper suggests that further attention be given to this aspect of certification uptake dynamics. Finally, the paper discusses the possibilities for synergies between FLEGT VPA legality verification and FSC certification.
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Papers by Jens Lund