Access in a global rattan production network: a case study of rattan originating from Central Sulawesi, Indonesia and upgraded for sale in international markets

Forests and forest users are increasingly engaged in global scale markets that connect different stages of commodity production and retail. This thesis adopts a Global Production Network framing in order to investigate the case of rattan cane and furniture. I examine the ways in which actors benefit from rattan (a non-timber forest product) and elucidate power dynamics that explain how some actors are better positioned to benefit from rattan than others. My conceptual framework combines the literature on access with global production networks. I explore access starting in the forests of Sulawesi, Indonesia, moving to processing in larger centres in Sulawesi and Java, and ending in retail shops in the UK. This approach enables an analysis of rich mixed-method empirical data. My main findings centre around Indonesia’s rattan export ban, which benefited only elites and served to support the overall decline of global rattan furniture markets. Further, I elucidate the influence that access at one phase of production has on another and highlight understandings of access within the context of the greater production system. While most actors engage in activities and trading relations that serve access to markets, non-actors enable these actions, but for different benefits, such as strengthened authority. Lastly, I link aspects of materiality to access, demonstrating how the biogeophysical features of rattan shape actors’ ability to benefit from natural resource products and how markets shape material features of rattan. These findings are significant to the greater bodies of knowledge around the power dynamics of production networks and show the specific mechanisms by which elites capture benefits of rattan. They demonstrate the importance of appreciating the complexity of production networks, which in this case was ill-considered by policy makers and even industry elites themselves

Multilevel governance challenges in transitioning towards a national approach for REDD+:Evidence from 23 subnational REDD+ initiatives

Although REDD+ was conceived as a national approach to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, many of the early advances have been at the subnational level. It is critical to link these subnational efforts to emerging national REDD+ frameworks, including with respect to finance and benefit distribution, setting reference levels, measurement, reporting and verification (MRV), land policy and safeguards. We use evidence from interviews with proponents from 23 subnational REDD+ initiatives in six countries to characterize the multilevel governance challenges for REDD+. We analyse the differences in perceived challenges between subnational jurisdictional programs and project-based initiatives, and then analyse proponents’ perceptions of the relationship between government policies at multiple levels and these REDD+ initiatives. We find important multilevel governance challenges related to vertical coordination and information sharing and horizontal and inter-sectoral tensions, as well as concerns over accountability, equity and justice. Though the shift to a nested, jurisdictional or national REDD+ is sometimes approached as a technical design issue, this must be accompanied by an understanding of the interests and power relations among actors at different levels. We outline challenges and suggest priority areas for future research and policy, as countries move towards a national REDD+ system

The park is ruining our livelihoods. We support the park! Unravelling the paradox of attitudes to protected areas

Despite considerable field-based innovation and academic scrutiny, the nexus between conservation approaches, local support for parks and park effectiveness remains quite puzzling. Common approaches to understanding notions of environmental justice are to understand distributional and procedural issues, representation in decision making, and recognition of authorities and claims. We took a different approach and analysed environmental justice claims through institutional, ideational and psychological lenses. We sought to understand how the national park could have such broad support from local communities despite their acknowledgement that it severely curtailed their livelihoods. We conducted 100 household interviews in three villages that border Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area. Our study found that villagers 1) hold on to broken promises by the State for agricultural activities and alternative revenues without fully changing forest use behaviours; 2) were influenced heavily by the ‘educational’ programmes by the State; 3) accepted the authority of the State and lack of participation in decision-making based on historical experiences and values; 4) justified their burdens by over-emphasising the positive aspects of the park. Our findings present a complementary framework to explain environmental justice claims, allowing for a nuanced analysis of how people respond to justices and injustices, and specifically how injustices can be identified through proven social science concepts

Claiming the forest: Inclusions and exclusions under Indonesia's ‘new’ forest policies on customary forests

The hopes of customary communities in Indonesia have recently been bolstered by Constitutional Court assurances that they have the right to control customary forest. There are, however, several obstacles to making successful claims, and there are also many situations in which forest users and customary land claimants do not stand to benefit from the recent rulings. This policy review analyses the court decisions, politics around their implementation, and considerations of types of land claimants who are excluded from the current process. We highlight groups of forest and ex forestland users that are excluded from benefiting from the Constitutional Court decisions and are adversely affected by land use change and re-designation of land. These groups include those with claims over land in conservation areas, allocated to concessionaires for resource extraction, on land already issued to them through forest management rights, and those whose land has already been removed from the State forest land

Revisiting A Theory of Access: A review

A Theory of Access (Ribot and Peluso 2003) was published 15 years ago. With almost 1600 publications citing it, the paper is instrumental in expanding scholarly thinking beyond property by exploring notions of power. We reviewed all available literature that cited A Theory of Access to understand its influence on academic literature. We first analyse literature in relation to other frameworks with similar concerns: (1) entitlements framework, (2) sustainable livelihoods approach, (3) powers of exclusion; and subsequently move to a review of how it has been engaged in broader theoretical and conceptual debates in the social sciences: (4) gender, (5) materiality, (6) property and authority, and (7) power. The analysis shows most of the literature interacts with A Theory of Access superficially. Substantial attempts to address A Theory of Access were varied and often used it to develop other social theory rather than to modify A Theory of Access

Symbolic consultation and cultural simplification in the establishment of an Indonesian national park and its impacts on local livelihoods

This paper analyzes the processes by which the Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan (Indonesia) was established, along with the management activities implemented and the impacts of such activities on local communities. Employing an environmental justice lens, which revolved around procedural, recognition, and distribution issues, we found that local communities were not adequately consulted or involved in the establishment and management of the national park. Furthermore, approaches to mitigate the adverse impacts failed to fully consider the diverse cultures and customs with different livelihood strategies surrounding the park. The research also found that the options made available for local livelihoods were limited and did not meet specific needs and demands of certain ethnic groups. Overall, the transformation of the Sebangau production forest into a conservation area significantly disrupted local livelihoods and led to pronounced adverse economic, social, and cultural impacts. Thus, adequate attention to environmental justice must be made if park authorities are to improve the social acceptability of the national park. They should meaningfully engage the local communities in decision-making procedures related to park management, because they are directly impacted by the park. The authorities should also understand the different sociocultural aspects related to the local people surrounding the park and their different needs and livelihood strategies. Finally, the livelihood alternatives should be carefully assessed, and locals should be adequately consulted to ensure that these are socially and culturally accepted

Imposing legality : hegemony and resistance under the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) initiative

Timber legality trade restrictions and verification are a bundle of contemporary mechanisms triggered by global concerns about forest degradation and deforestation. The European Union Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade initiative is a significant effort to not only screen out illegal timber and wood products from the EU, but also support trading partner countries to improve their legality definitions and verification processes. But by using bilateral agreements (Voluntary Partnership Agreements) as a key mechanism, the EU legitimizes trade partner nation-states as the authority to decide what is legal. We engage in a theoretical debate about the complexities of the meaning of legality, and then analyze empirical data collected from interviews in Ghana, Indonesia, Vietnam and Europe with policy, civil society and industry actors to understand how different actors understand legality. We find hegemonic notions of Westphalian statehood at the core of 'global' notions of legality and often contrast with local understandings of legality. Non-state actors understand these hegemonic notions of legality as imposed upon them and part of a colonial legacy. Further, notions of legality that fail to conform with hegemonic understandings are readily framed by nation- states as immoral or criminal. We emphasize the importance of understanding these framings to elucidate the embedded assumptions about what comprises legality within assemblages of global actors.Peer reviewe

Climate change mitigation in forests: Conflict, peacebuilding, and lessons for climate security

Forests in low and middle-income countries are at the centre of climate change mitigation efforts. But these forests are also areas of high levels of insecurity and are found in fragile states with weak governance, especially over forestlands. Nations affected by conflict hold 40 per cent of the world’s tropical forests (Donovan et al. 2007). No fewer than 25 of 64 countries with REDD+ initiatives are experiencing or emerging from armed conflict (Castro-Nuñez et al. 2017; UN-REDD 2017). The debate about ‘climate security’ has focussed on the way climate change can exacerbate threats and dangers, but less attention has been placed on the security issues associated with the responses to climate change such as mitigation. Climate change mitigation initiatives can have a significant impact on peace, conflict and security by reinforcing existing inequalities or influencing new forms of forest governance and relations among forest actors. When CCMis contribute to peacebuilding through improved land tenure security for marginalized and Indigenous peoples, enhanced livelihoods opportunities, equitable benefit distribution, and fair processes for governance and conflict resolution, CCMIs can play a constructive force in stabilising security contexts. However, when these dynamics are lacking, they can destabilise forest areas and lead to escalated conflict and insecurity

Climate change mitigation in forests: Conflict, peacebuilding, and lessons for climate security - Position Paper

Climate change mitigation in forests: Conflict, peacebuilding, and lessons for climate security III There is growing awareness of the link between climate change and security. Most of the climate security debate has focused on the ways that climate change exacerbates geopolitical and state security matters through ‘threat multipliers’, especially in terms of intra-state, inter-group and sub-national conflicts. At the same time, 64 per cent of climate finance was allocated to mitigation and 25 per cent to adaptation between 2013 and 2019 (OECD 2020; OECD 2021). Despite this, the dynamics between climate change mitigation and security remains a less-explored topic. As climate security attracts increasing attention in research and policy, our entry point into reviewing the links between climate change mitigation and security is rooted in studies of conflict and peace in environmental governance. Because forests are a global focus of climate change mitigation, we focus our review on initiatives that directly affect, or are implemented in, forest areas in low- and middle-income countries. Forests have complex governance contexts and are prone to conflict due to histories of colonization and ongoing resource extraction that lead to disputes over who has authority to make decisions, how different actors are compensated, and whose priorities and claims dictate actions in forest areas. CCMIs related to forests are often inserted into these long-standing conflicts. Many of these tensions over rights and resources are located in fragile states and some in armed conflict and post-conflict contexts. Conflict and weak institutional governance are often associated with deforestation but have also been shown to protect forest resources when insurgent forces are compelled to do so