International experience: Natural resource education overseas

What are the unique challenges and benefits of natural resource education overseas? This session addressed these questions in the context of short-term study programs in forestry and other natural resource fields. The panel included Tom Hammett, Virginia Tech, who leads summer programs in Australia; Geoff Habron, also of Michigan State University, who leads a summer program in the Brazilian Amazon; Bruce Bongarten of the University of Georgia, which offers several month-long courses in conservation issues, including one to South Africa; Kim Steiner of Pennsylvania State University, which has an exchange study program with Freiburg University in Germany; Gary Blank and Steve McKeand, NC State University, who coordinate an exchange study program with SLU in Sweden; and Ingrid Schmidt and Kristi Hubbard of the NC State Study Abroad Office. My experience with international natural resource education is designing and leading spring-break trips to Latin America. We also had input from many other faculty who have led-or are planning-study programs in natural resource issues around the world

MIGRANT FARM WORKERS ON VIRGINIA'S EASTERN SHORE: AN ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC IMPACTS

The economic impact of migrant farmworkers on an agriculture-dependent region is investigated. The direct effects of inflows of state and federal dollars for migrant services, and production of high-valued commodities are computed. Indirect and induced effects are modelled through the use of the IMPLAN input output model. Various alternatives to migrant labor are investigated, including production of less labor-intensive crops, acreage retirement, and contract H2A workers. Migrants are found to create substantial economic activity on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.Economic impact, Input-output, Migrant labor, Labor and Human Capital,

Energy, gender and development: what are the linkages ? where is the evidence ?

This report reviews the literature on the links between energy access, welfare, and gender in order to provide evidence on where gender considerations in the energy sector matter and how they might be addressed. Prepared as a background document for the 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development, and part of the Social Development Department's ongoing work on gender and infrastructure, the report describes and evaluates the evidence on the links between gender and energy focusing on: increased access to woodfuel through planting of trees and forest management; improved cooking technologies; and access to electricity and motive energy. The report's main finding is that energy interventions can have significant gender benefits, which can be realized via careful design and targeting of interventions based on a context-specific understanding of energy scarcity and household decision-making, in particular how women's preferences, opportunity cost of time, and welfare are reflected in household energy decisions. The report focuses on the academic peer-reviewed literature and, although it applies fairly inclusive screening criteria when selecting the evidence to consider, finds that the evidence on many of the energy-gender linkages is often limited. There is thus a clear need for studies to evaluate interventions and identify key design elements for gender-sensitive project design.

Overstated carbon emission reductions from voluntary REDD+ projects in the Brazilian Amazon

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has gained international attention over the past decade, as manifested in both United Nations policy discussions and hundreds of voluntary projects launched to earn carbon-offset credits. There are on-going discussions about whether and how projects should be integrated into national efforts under the Paris Agreement. One consideration is whether these projects have generated additional impacts over and above national policies and other conservation measures. To help inform these discussions, we compare the crediting baselines established ex-ante by voluntary REDD+ projects in the Brazilian Amazon to counterfactuals constructed ex-post based on the quasi-experimental synthetic control method. We find that the crediting baselines assume consistently higher deforestation than counterfactual forest loss in synthetic control sites. This gap is partially due to decreased deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon during the early implementation phase of the REDD+ projects considered here. This suggests that forest carbon finance must strike a balance between controlling conservation investment risk and ensuring the environmental integrity of carbon emission offsets. Relatedly, our results point to the need to better align project- and national-level carbon accounting.German Federal Ministry of Education and Researc

The regional market for non-timber forest products

The fate of tropical forests is shaped by their perceived value, which in turn depends on awareness of their benefits.  Regional markets for non-timber forest products (NTFPs) could both help rural people generate income from forests and raise urban awareness of forest benefits.  We assess the urban market for NTFPs in Belém do Pará, the largest metropolitan area in the Brazilian Amazon, through a survey of consumers in 2006 – 2009.  We segmented the urban consumer market in order to explore patterns in consumption and knowledge about NTFPs.  We find that the market segments that consume the greatest number of NTFPs were characterized by relatively higher income and education as well as more recent migration to Belém.  This suggests that demand for non-timber forest products does not fade with improved socioeconomic status.  However, environmental education is needed to convert this demand into recognition of the benefits provided by forests, as many consumers are not aware that the products they consume come from the forest.  In the two largest consumer segments, most consumers could not spontaneously list any forest product they consume, even though when a list of NTFPs was presented, many (>75%) indicated that they did consume the two most popular forest products: açaí palm fruit (Euterpe oleraceae) and Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa).  Consumers in these largest segments have lower incomes, are more likely to have been born in Belém and are less likely to have completed postsecondary education.  In addition to not recognizing that they consume forest products, many of these consumers had no direct experience of the forest: less than half of the survey respondents in these segments reported that they had ever visited the forest, despite living in a city located in the midst of the largest tropical forest in the world

Deconstructing the policyscape for reducing deforestation in the Eastern Amazon: practical insights for a landscape approach

In international debates on climate change mitigation and forests, there is increased recognition of the importance of a landscape approach to effectively address tropical deforestation. Such an approach, although increasingly promoted, remains only loosely defined and requires further development in order to effectively integrate different interventions at landscape level. In particular, it is important to understand the possible interactions between different landscape interventions at local level—where they are intended to have effect—and the challenges associated with them. Inspired by the complexity of policy mix analysis, this article seeks to shed light on these interactions by analysing how different policies and measures for reducing deforestation and degradation have played out in a jurisdiction with wide-ranging actors and interventions aimed at shaping their behaviour. Focusing on smallholders, we examine the Sustainable Landscapes Pilot Programme in São Félix do Xingu, looking at how different policies interact—categorising interactions as “complementary,” “mutually reinforcing” (synergistic), “in conflict,” “interdependent,” and/or “redundant”—and explain how proponents of this pilot programme seek to integrate them. Most analysis is based on primary data collected through quantitative (i.e., random stratified sampling and surveys) and qualitative (i.e., observation and focus groups) methods. The São Félix do Xingu case shows that understanding effects of different policies and measures on people's behaviour requires a deeper look at local perceptions and reactions to such policies and measures, something most studies on the topic have overlooked. Ultimately, the heterogeneity and complexity of social practices that permeate landscapes must be recognised in order to integrate diverse measures to reduce deforestation

Creating an appropriate tenure foundation for REDD+: The record to date and prospects for the future

Attention to tenure is a fundamental step in preparation for REDD+ implementation. Unclear and conflicting tenure has been the main challenge faced by the proponents of subnational REDD+ initiatives, and accordingly, they have expended much effort to remedy the problem. This article assesses how well REDD+ has performed in laying an appropriate tenure foundation. Field research was carried out in two phases (2010-2012 and 2013-2014) in five countries (Brazil, Peru, Cameroon, Tanzania, Indonesia) at 21 subnational initiatives, 141 villages (half targeted for REDD+ interventions), and 3,754 households. Three questions are posed: 1) What was the effect of REDD+ on perceived tenure insecurity of village residents?; 2) What are the main reasons for change in the level of tenure insecurity and security from Phase 1 to Phase 2 perceived by village residents in control and intervention villages?; and 3) How do intervention village residents evaluate the impact of tenure-related interventions on community well-being? Among the notable findings are that: 1) tenure insecurity decreases slightly across the whole sample of villages, but we only find that REDD+ significantly reduces tenure insecurity in Cameroon, while actually increasing insecurity of smallholder agricultural land tenure in Brazil at the household level; 2) among the main reported reasons for increasing tenure insecurity (where it occurs) are problems with outside companies, lack of title, and competition from neighboring villagers; and 3) views on the effect of REDD+ tenure-related interventions on community well-being lean towards the positive, including for interventions that restrain access to forest. Thus, while there is little evidence that REDD+ interventions have worsened smallholder tenure insecurity (as feared by critics), there is also little evidence that the proponents' efforts to address tenure insecurity have produced results. Work on tenure remains an urgent priority for safeguarding local livelihoods as well as for reducing deforestation. This will require increased attention to participatory engagement, improved reward systems, tenure policy reform, integration of national and local efforts, and "business-as-usual" interestsThis research is part of CIFOR’s Global Comparative Study on REDD+ (www.cifor.org/gcs). The funding partners that have supported this research include the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) [grant numbers QZA-10/0468, QZA-12/0882, QZA-16/0110], the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) [grant numbers 46167, 63560], the European Commission (EC) [grant number DCI-ENV/2011/269-520], the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) [grant number KI II 7 - 42206-6/75], the United Kingdom Department for International Development (UKAID) [grant number TF069018], and the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (CRP-FTA) [grant number TF No. 069018], with financial support from the donors contributing to the CGIAR Fund. David Solis provided a valuable service in reviewing our methods for taking into account attrition of households over time

Forest-Poverty Dynamics: Current State of Knowledge

This chapter reports on evidence about the role of forests and trees in alleviating poverty and supporting wider human well-being. It considers how, whether, where, when and for whom forests and trees are important in forest-poverty dynamics. We organise the evidence according to four possible relationships between forest products and ecosystem services and poverty: 1) helping households move out of poverty; 2) supporting well-being through subsistence, food security and cultural and spiritual values; 3) mitigating risks; and 4) decreasing well-being by generating negative externalities that could significantly contribute to trapping or moving households into poverty. The evidence shows that these relationships are strongly context-dependent, varying with geography and social, economic and political contexts. However, across contexts, we most commonly observe that forest and tree products and services help the poor to secure and stabilise their livelihoods, rather than either helping them exit poverty or driving them into poverty.Peer reviewe