Becoming fundable? Converting climate justice claims into climate finance in Mesoamerica’s forests

For the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests, the idea of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has opened a window for advancing member groups’ claims to territory and community well-being, despite concerns that REDD+ could proceed as development-as-usual in practice. However, the claims underpinning the engagement of this Indigenous and forest peoples’ network in international climate finance processes reflect conceptualizations of climate justice that diverge from those that have dominated policy and popular discussions. This article assesses the multi-scalar efforts of the Mesoamerican Alliance to promote claims to climate finance around different concepts of justice. Using empirical justice analysis to assess the subjects, dimensions, and criteria explicit and implicit in Mesoamerican Indigenous and forest groups’ claims, and drawing on decolonial and Indigenous perspectives on environmental justice, the article presents evidence as to the possibilities and challenges of translating REDD+ into just outcomes in historically marginalized territories. Using participant observation, unstructured interviews, and document and social media review, it specifically assesses the Alliance-proposed Mesoamerican Territorial Fund, which aims to directly capture climate finance, bypassing problematic relations with national governments and traditional donors. The article finds that although Indigenous peoples and local communities have made significant advances in terms of representation, recognition, participation, and concrete funding, the constraints of “becoming fundable” may hinder more transformative and reparative pathways to just climate outcomes

Conflicts over extractivist policy and the forest frontier in Central America

Central America is characterized by an asymmetric forest transition in which net deforestation is a product of both forest loss and patches of forest resurgence. Forest loss is also associated with rights violations. We explore the extent to which extractive industry and infrastructure investments create pressure on forest resources, community rights and livelihoods. Drivers of this investment are identified, in particular: constitutional, legislative and regulatory reforms; energy policies; new financial flows; and ideas of development emphasizing the centrality of infrastructure in combining geographical integration and economic growth. We discuss forms of contentious action that have emerged in response to these pressures, asking how far and in what ways this contention has elicited changes in the policies that govern investment and extractive industry, and how far such changes might reduce pressure on Central America's remaining forest cover. The paper develops a conceptual framework for analyzing relationships among contention, policy change and the resilience of policy changes

Global forces of change : implications for forest-poverty dynamics

This article examines global trends likely to influence forests and tree-based systems and considers the poverty implications of these interactions. The trends, identified through a series of expert discussions and review of the literature, include: (i) climatic impacts mediated through changes in forests, (ii) growth in commodity markets, (iii) shifts in private and public forest sector financing, (iv) technological advances and rising interconnectivity, (v) global socio-political movements, and (vi) emerging infectious diseases. These trends bring opportunities and risks to the forest-reliant poor. A review of available evidence suggests that in a business-as-usual scenario, the cumulative risks posed by these global forces, in conjunction with limited rights, resources, and skills required to prosper from global changes, are likely to place poor and transient poor households under additional stress. The article concludes with an assessment of how interventions for enhancing forest management, combined with supportive policy and institutional conditions, can contribute to a different and more prosperous future for forests and people

Resource extraction and infrastructure threaten forest cover and community rights

Mineral and hydrocarbon extraction and infrastructure are increasingly significant drivers of forest loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and threats to the rights of forest communities in forested areas of Amazonia, Indonesia, and Mesoamerica. Projected investments in these sectors suggest that future threats to forests and rights are substantial, particularly because resource extraction and infrastructure reinforce each other and enable population movements and agricultural expansion further into the forest. In each region, governments have made framework policy commitments to national and cross-border infrastructure integration, increased energy production, and growth strategies based on further exploitation of natural resources. This reflects political settlements among national elites that endorse resource extraction as a pathway toward development. Regulations that protect forests, indigenous and rural peoples’ lands, and conservation areas are being rolled back or are under threat. Small-scale gold mining has intensified in specific locations and also has become a driver of deforestation and degradation. Forest dwellers’ perceptions of insecurity have increased, as have documented homicides of environmental activists. To explain the relationships among extraction, infrastructure, and forests, this paper combines a geospatial analysis of forest loss overlapped with areas of potential resource extraction, interviews with key informants, and feedback from stakeholder workshops. The increasing significance of resource extraction and associated infrastructure as drivers of forest loss and rights violations merits greater attention in the empirical analyses and conceptual frameworks of Sustainability Science

Redefining rights‐based conservation through philanthropy: the Ford Foundation in Mesoamerica

The role of the philanthropic sector in climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation is gaining renewed attention as new pledges to dramatically increase funding for nature-based climate solutions mount. Despite their significant role in the conservation space, philanthropies are relatively understudied as donors; in particular, the lack of accountability and transparency in philanthropy have made them a “black box”, including in conservation-related efforts. Based on extensive document and database review alongside interviews with philanthropic grant-makers and recipients, this article seeks to analyze the conservation-related efforts of the Ford Foundation—a long-standing philanthropic actor in international sustainable development. Specifically, we examine how Ford Foundation practices in Mexico and Central America have shifted since 2000 to center Indigenous Peoples and local communities, both in terms of thematic focus and strategic approach. In explaining how Ford Foundation grant-makers themselves understand the process of change, and their lessons from this process, this article highlights the ongoing challenges to and possible methods for centering inclusive, territorial approaches to produce more effective, lasting conservation outcomes

Indigenous and Customary Land Tenure Security: History, Trends, and Challenges in the Latin American Context

This chapter explores Indigenous and customary tenure regimes, considering the differing historical trends in the statutory recognition of customary tenure arrangements. Indigenous and customary land tenure regimes are dynamic, responding to changes in local-to-global socio-ecological conditions and political and market influences, as well as context-specific and based on historic socio-environmental relations. Despite trends toward legal recognition, a disconnect remains between titling or recognition and the security of these regimes. After defining Indigenous and customary land tenure regimes, we discuss their evolution from colonial encounters through the post-colonial era, on to trends in customary tenure recognition today. Finally, drawing primarily on evidence from Latin America, we explore how tenure insecurity of Indigenous and customary lands remains a significant challenge to realizing sustainable development across diverse landscapes

Data justice and biodiversity conservation

Increases in data availability coupled with enhanced computational capacities are revolutionising conservation. But in the excitement over the opportunities afforded by new data, fewer researchers have questioned the justice implications of data use in conservation: how people and environments are represented through data, and how this could alter the distribution of benefits and harm from conservation actions. We propose a framework for understanding the justice dimensions of conservation data, comprising the five elements of data composition, data control, data access, data processing/use, and data consequences. We illustrate the need for such a framework using recent debates over global conservation mapping. Finally, we outline strategies for reducing the risk of data injustices in conservation and argue for more research into the justice implications of practicing conservation in an increasingly datafied world

‘Tradescapes’ in the forest : framing infrastructure’s relation to territory, commodities, and flows

Pressure to facilitate the flow of commodities and capital across global and national markets has translated into narratives and programs prioritizing integration and development of forested regions. The 2009 World Bank Development Report argues that to reduce distance, infrastructure development is crucial. The infrastructure imperative, however, reworks a broader array of investment flows, property regimes, forest cover, and socio-political rights across scales as it drives increases in the speed of commodity extraction, production, mobility, and consumption. With illustrations from Amazonia and Selva Maya, the paper proposes ‘tradescapes’ as a useful framework to analyze infrastructure projects as part of multi-scalar mega-corridor networks and financial flows. Tradescapes transform relations between society, territory, and environment, with implications for infrastructure governance, resilience, and sustainability