The making of resource frontier spaces in the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia: A critical analysis of narratives, actors and drivers in the scientific literature

Forest frontiers are rapidly changing to sites of commodity agriculture throughout the tropics, with far-reaching transformations in landscapes and livelihoods. Many of the dynamics that drive frontier commodification are well-rehearsed since colonial times. Policies to deregulate markets, privatize or formalize land tenure and open borders to trade have stimulated resource exploitation. The accompanying territorial interventions such as new enclosures, reconfigured property regimes and claims are purposefully employed to create space and labor, and have radically reconfigured the relationships of millions of people to land and rule. Narratives of what is an opportunity for whom, who should benefit from these spaces, and what is a problem in need of a solution have shaped policies and development choices in frontiers over time. Science plays a critical role, by putting forward particular knowledge and understandings, contributing to problematisations and promoting or legitimating certain solutions. In this paper, we review how science has portrayed forest frontiers in the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. We analyse storylines put forward in the scientific literature and find three dominant narratives that intersect and reinforce each other to legitimate colonial exploitation of forest and land resources, and the enactment of colonial forest and land codes that have laid a deep-seated path in post-colonial policies. The narratives focus on imaginings of frontier regions as spaces that are “idle” or “empty”, and where possibilities for extraction, conservation and development appear unlimited; the problematization of smallholder and shifting cultivation farming as practices in need of change; and the legitimation of capitalist and market-based rationales as solutions. We find these narratives to be largely similar across both the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia and persistent in contemporary policies and global development strategies. This analysis allows for a deeper understanding of how commodification of frontiers came about, and what role science can play for a more just development.Peer reviewe

What is the ‘problem’ of gender inequality represented to be in the Swedish forest sector?

Funding Information: We would like to thank our informants for their time and insights, as well as the wider international SEQUAL project (Social-ecological relations and gender equality: Dynamics and processes for transformational change across scales) members. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers who provided valuable comments on this article. This research is funded by the Swedish Research Council (project number 2018-00988 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The AuthorsGender equality in natural resource management is a matter of sustainability and democracy for Sweden's government, however the country's forest remains a highly gender-segregated sector. We examine how gender inequality is problematized within Swedish forest and rural policy documents using the What's the problem represented to be? (WPR) approach. We build on previous efforts to investigate gender inequality in the forest sector by expanding the critical analysis to rural development policy. We conduct interviews with forest experts, owners, and practitioners to shed light on where there are gaps within the policy representations and uncover alternative policy options that are presented. Our findings corroborate that gender inequality is represented to be a technical problem, with policy measures aiming to increase the number of women within a forest sector that continues to maintain rigid conceptions about forestry production values. While there are claims of success in the increase of women within the sector in aggregate, there is little change in the numbers of women in decision-making positions. Forest policy relies upon women to bring growth and sustainability to the forest industry, while rural policy expects women to halt rural population decline. Our findings suggest that merely trying to fit more women into a mold that has been shaped for and by inflexible forestry and masculine values is an impediment not only to gender equality but also to the inclusion of other social groups and ideas in the changing rural landscapes of Sweden.Peer reviewe