38 research outputs found
The Effect of Caffeine on Relationship Memory
Recollections of participants’ last failed relationship (first meeting, first kiss, and breakup) were examined as a personal flashbulb memory (FBM). Although FBM is usually caused by arousal at encoding, the effects of arousal at retrieval was investigated by giving participants caffeine to determine its effect on elaboration at recall. 72 Butler students completed a protocol containing narrative and probe sections on each event of their last relationship. Results showed that caffeine enhanced memory of events at retrieval
Development of national FPIC guidelines for REDD+ : Experiences from Cameroon
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has received significant attention under the UNFCCC and many tropical forest countries are preparing national REDD+ strategies in the hope that REDD+ will form part of the future post-2015 climate regime. In the interim, bilateral and multilateral REDD+ finance has proliferated, with donor countries supporting the preparatory and investment phases of REDD+. At the same time, criticism of REDD+ is building as many caution that the lack of clearly defined benefit sharing mechanisms, carbon, land and forest tenure rights risks harming and marginalising forest communities. In this context, ensuring compliance with strict social safeguards and getting the consent of communities has become central to the development and implementation of REDD+ projects, programs and policy processes. This case study paper draws from Cameroon - a forest country where human rights and environmental justice on the effective participation of local communities in national policy-making remains challenging. The authors share insights from the one year multi-stakeholder process of developing national guidelines for Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for REDD+ with the goal of informing the future climate change regime under the UNFCCC. The paper provides a realistic picture of the challenges in institutionalizing FPIC as a rights-based approach to participatory natural resource management. Through this process however, REDD+ has acted as an impetus for developing national safeguard standards for decisions affecting land and natural resources and provides the opportunity for local communities to influence the design and implementation of national policy and sub-national initiatives on REDD+
Global governance approaches to addressing illegal logging: Uptake and lessons learned
One of the most challenging tasks facing development agencies, trade ministries, environmental groups, social activists and forest-focused business interests seeking to ameliorate illegal logging and related timber trade is to identify and nurture promising global governance interventions capable of helping improve compliance to governmental policies and laws at national, subnational and local levels. This question is especially acute for developing countries constrained by capacity challenges and “weak states” (Risse, 2011). This chapter seeks to shed light on this task by asking four related questions: How do we understand the emergence of illegal logging as a matter of global interest? What are the types of global interventions designed to improve domestic legal compliance? How have individual states responded to these global efforts? What are the prospects for future impacts and evolution?
We proceed in the following steps. Following this introduction, step two reviews how the problem of “illegal logging” emerged on the international agenda. Step three reviews leading policy interventions that resulted from this policy framing. Step four reviews developments in selected countries/regions around the world according to their place on the global forest products supply chain: consumers (United States, Europe and Australia); middle of supply chain manufacturers (China and South Korea) and producers (Russia; Indonesia; Brazil and Peru; Ghana, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo). We conclude by reflecting on key trends that emerge from this review relevant for understanding the conditions through which legality might make a difference in addressing critical challenges
Renting legality: How FLEGT is reinforcing power relations in Indonesian furniture production networks
Over the past few decades, transnational and supranational market-based forest governance systems have been developed to address the complex problems associated with deforestation, by improving the legality and sustainability of timber traded in global markets. This is catalysed by the increasing global production and consumption of timber products and increasing sensitivity of interest groups to how timber products are produced. A broad range of actors is involved in global production networks. This paper discusses how hierarchies and networks of power across the timber production network are encountered and negotiated. More specifically, it investigates the power constellations of wood furniture actors in Indonesia, nested within global production networks: who holds the power, how power is gained and maintained, and who wins and loses over time. Using the case of the timber legality assurance system in the context of the European Union Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative, we demonstrate that legality verification in Indonesia is both entrenching pre-existing inequitable power relations while producing new modes of elite capture. Legality verification requires new knowledge and additional costs that are sometimes beyond the capacity of certain (particularly smaller) furniture manufacturers operators. This has driven a new practice of renting out FLEGT licenses by larger producers/manufacturers to smaller ones in the country. Although the practice implies potential risks (e.g. fines), large companies in Indonesia manage risk by drawing from pre-existing patronage relations. They also appear to find the risk worthwhile, as it produces financial gain but moreover, a new form of control over the market. Meanwhile, small operators and artisanal producers that still aspire to global markets face disproportionate challenges to engage in legality and are becoming more vulnerable as a result of new legality measures
Renting legality: How FLEGT is reinforcing power relations in Indonesian furniture production networks
Over the past few decades, transnational and supranational market-based forest governance systems have been developed to address the complex problems associated with deforestation, by improving the legality and sustainability of timber traded in global markets. This is catalysed by the increasing global production and consumption of timber products and increasing sensitivity of interest groups to how timber products are produced. A broad range of actors is involved in global production networks. This paper discusses how hierarchies and networks of power across the timber production network are encountered and negotiated. More specifically, it investigates the power constellations of wood furniture actors in Indonesia, nested within global production networks: who holds the power, how power is gained and maintained, and who wins and loses over time. Using the case of the timber legality assurance system in the context of the European Union Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative, we demonstrate that legality verification in Indonesia is both entrenching pre-existing inequitable power relations while producing new modes of elite capture. Legality verification requires new knowledge and additional costs that are sometimes beyond the capacity of certain (particularly smaller) furniture manufacturers operators. This has driven a new practice of renting out FLEGT licenses by larger producers/manufacturers to smaller ones in the country. Although the practice implies potential risks (e.g. fines), large companies in Indonesia manage risk by drawing from pre-existing patronage relations. They also appear to find the risk worthwhile, as it produces financial gain but moreover, a new form of control over the market. Meanwhile, small operators and artisanal producers that still aspire to global markets face disproportionate challenges to engage in legality and are becoming more vulnerable as a result of new legality measures
Constructing a transnational timber legality assurance regime: Architecture, accomplishments, challenges
The emerging transnational timber legality assurance regime comprises a set of interrelated policy instruments, both public and private, aimed at controlling trade in illegally logged wood and wood products. The potentially productive interactions among these instruments in the emerging forestry regime create prospects for engendering learning, stimulating cross-fertilization, and enhancing accountability. In this article, we analyze the EU's Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative, interacting with public legal timber regulations and private certification schemes, as the core of an emerging transnational experimentalist regime. An experimentalist regime of this type may provide a promising approach to addressing contentious transnational environmental issues like forest governance where there is no global hegemon to impose a single set of rules. However, experience with FLEGT implementation suggests that there are also a number of outstanding challenges to constructing an effective timber legality assurance regime, which if unresolved could undermine its promise. The argument proceeds in three steps, based on an exhaustive analysis of recent developments. First, we outline the architecture and promise of the emerging timber legality assurance regime. Then, we review key accomplishments to date. Finally, we examine the ongoing challenges facing this innovative regime as it moves forward, and consider how they might be overcome through the adoption of a more consistent experimentalist approach
Access to information and local democracies: a case study of REDD+ and FLEGT/VPA in Cameroon
Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) in Cameroon: perceived private sector benefits from VPA implementation
Can Non-State Regulatory Authority Improve Domestic Forest Sustainability? Assessing Interactive Pathways of Influence in Cameroon
Transnational business governance can involve the use of non-state mechanisms to target the behavior of firms within domestic settings. Drawing on the implementation pillar of the TGBI framework, this chapter focuses attention on the interaction between state and non-state regulatory authority from two leading cases of TBG in tropical forest management: climate mitigation through avoided deforestation (REDD+) and timber legality verification through international trade agreements (FLEGT/VPA). A dominant justification among global elites for both interventions is that empowering marginalized domestic groups through technology transfer and capacity building will lead to more durable policy solutions on the ground. Drawing on empirical evidence in Cameroon, we argue that contrary to these justifications, REDD+ and FLEGT/VPA at best may not succeed in addressing the underlying power structures, and at worst have unintended and possibly adverse consequences on marginalized peoples. This is largely because the policy mechanisms were generally conceived prior to, and independent of, their application in particular domestic settings, often making them ill-suited to the unique circumstances of the forest sectors in which they operate. We conclude by providing insights as to how these policies may be designed to improve their durability.Non UBCUnreviewedFacult