Governing Forests in a Carbon Challenged World: Learning from REDD+ in Tanzania.

The last forty years has seen both unprecedented loss of natural tropical forests and innovation in forest governance, implying that more work is needed to refine the theory and practice of forest governance in a carbon challenged world. This dissertation used the Tanzanian case of the recently introduced international program to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) to empirically explore the design and performance of emerging forest governance arrangements. Drawing from extensive ethnographic field data (participant and non-participant observations, oral histories, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, documentary reviews and household surveys) conducted over five years (2009-2014), with actors in Kilwa and Lindi Districts in South-Eastern Tanzania, this dissertation makes several contributions organized into three substantive chapters. The first chapter, entitled “Negotiating forests under the REDD+ context in South-Eastern Tanzania” provides descriptions of how local forest residents creatively deploy the use of modern technologies of mobility (cellphones and motorcycles) and the discourses of decentralization, democracy and participation to continue performing otherwise banned cultural-ecological practices of shifting cultivation and wood extraction blamed for the reported forest disappearance. The second chapter, entitled “Deliberative democracy and the making and unmaking of illegitimate forest institutions” exposes and analyzes the paradoxical eruption of REDD+ resistance despite the adoption of participatory and democratic processes in making and implementing REDD+ interventions arguing that the adoption of deliberative democratic processes remain alien to local residents and has resulted in the production of legally legitimate but democratically illegitimate and often unfair forest institutions pushing local residents to opt for resistance as alternative mechanisms for contesting the introduced forest institutions. The third chapter, entitled “Mismatched: why do REDD+ payments fail to avoid deforestation in human dominated miombo ecosystems?” challenges and expands on the application of recently introduced carbon payment as an innovative financing scheme for encouraging adoption of sustainable forest management practices in the tropics. I argue that when those inadequate payments are aligned to seasonality of cultural-ecological practices causing forest change and if injected at the appropriate spatial scale (individual and/or community) where decisions affecting forests are made, they have a greater chance of achieving intended impacts.PHDNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133186/1/bimshale_1.pd

Anthropogenic drivers of forest change in Miombo ecosystems

As the basic purpose of REDD+ is to avoid deforestation and forest degradation, a good understanding of processes that cause deforestation is obviously of importance. However, many REDD+ programs and policies have rather limited focus on the underlying processes behind forest change. Much of the on-going work within the REDD+ framework focus on building institutional capacity (‘REDD readiness'), finding ways or measuring and monitoring carbon, developing institutional facilities, and on the international financing of REDD+. It appears that the discussion of what actually causes deforestation is seen as a more or less resolved and settled issue. This paper argues for a more contextualized understanding of the drivers of forest change in human-dominated Miombo ecosystems of southern Tanzania. This is achieved through addressing two basic empirical research questions: How is the forest changing; and what factors influence forest change? The study is based on quantitative and qualitative data covering both socio-economic and ecological aspects collected in 12 villages of Kilwa and Lindi districts in southern Tanzania. The study shows that there are considerable micro-level variations from village to village as regard both the extent and drivers of deforestation/forest degradation

What are the environmental impacts of property rights regimes in forests, fisheries and rangelands? a systematic review protocol

Abstract Background Property rights to natural resources comprise a major policy instrument for those seeking to advance sustainable resource use and conservation. Despite decades of policy experimentation and empirical research, however, systematic understanding of the influence of different property rights regimes on resource and environmental outcomes remains elusive. A large, diverse, and rapidly growing body of literature investigates the links between property regimes and environmental outcomes, but has not synthesized theoretical and policy insights within specific resource systems and especially across resource systems. Here we provide a protocol for conducting a systematic review that will gather empirical evidence over the past two decades on this topic. We will ask the following questions: a) What are the environmental impacts of different property regimes in forests, fisheries, and rangelands? b) Which property regimes are associated with positive, negative or neutral environmental outcomes? c) How do those environmental outcomes compare within and across resource systems and regions? Methods We will assess current knowledge of the environmental impacts of property rights regimes in three resource systems in developing countries: forests, fisheries and rangelands. These resource systems represent differing levels of resource mobility and variability and capture much of the range of ecosystem types found across the globe. The review will use a bundle of rights approach to assess the impacts of three main property regimes—state, private, and community—as well as mixed property regimes that involve some combination of these three. Assessment of the impacts of property rights regimes across a range of different resource systems and ecosystem types will enable exploration of commonalities and differences across these systems. Our analysis will emphasize major insights while highlighting important gaps in current research.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112065/1/13750_2014_Article_57.pd

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Additional file 9. Articles included for the narrative synthesis

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Additional file 7. Critical appraisal of studies

Proyecto para la reestructuración del transporte urbano de Alcorcón y creación de un intercambiador multimodal

El crecimiento elevado de la población de Alcorcón (Madrid), ha provocado que las infraestructuras y servicios de transporte de la ciudad no puedan satisfacer de manera óptima la demanda de la ciudadanía. En este marco se encuadra la construcción de una terminal de autobuses en la ubicación de la estación de Alcorcón Central para la creación de un nuevo Intercambiador Multimodal de transportes en la ciudad. El objeto del proyecto de construcción que se lleva a cabo, es definir los elementos de los que se compone el nuevo aparcamiento de disuasión del Intercambiador Multimodal de Alcorcón y el nuevo firme de la Avenida de Villaviciosa proyectados, de forma que se facilite la integración de los modos de transporte en la ubicación del proyecto, se fomente la accesibilidad a la zona de proyecto de estos modos y se afecte lo mínimo posible al entorno de su ejecución

Guide for co-elaboration of scenarios: Building shared understanding and joint action for reform and security of forest tenure

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) initiated the GCS-Tenure project in Indonesia, Uganda and Peru conducted the study to analyze the relationships between statutory and customary land tenure and how these relationships affect tenure security of forest dependent communities, including women and other marginalized groups. Using a global comparative approach and standardized methodologies, the study analyzes the differential success or failure of policy and institutional innovations to enhance secure tenure rights. It also examines how these innovations identify strategies likely to lead to desired outcomes. The Participatory Prospective Analysis (PPA) is used as a first step by engaging key stakeholders. Through participatory meetings, all expert stakeholders progressively identify and develop a range of tenure security scenarios. They then elaborate actions in response to the scenarios identified. With the application of PPA, the research team aims to answer the following questions: What are the key factors influencing forest tenure security? What possible actions can mitigate negative implications (or reduce barriers impeding implementation) and promote positive changes (e.g. equitable access for women and marginalized groups? Who should be responsible for those actions? PPA aims to help decision makers understand the key drivers, challenges and future consequences of policy options. (Résumé d'auteur