Local institutions, social capital and their role in forest plantation governance: lessons from two case studies of smallholder plantations in Paraguay

Forestry activities are not implemented in a vacuum, but highly interlinked with other domains: social, cultural, institutional, economic, and political. Good governance that builds on effective local institutions and social capital enhancement becomes one of the key issues in studying and implementing forestry projects locally. The paper presents empirical evidence from a social forestry project implemented in the poorest departments of Eastern Paraguay. It provides a descriptive comparison of two neighbouring communities characterized by different institutions. There is a large difference in project performance in both areas in socio-economic terms. One community displayed high levels of social capital and was better prepared to take advantage of extension aid and \u201cstore\u201d the acquired know-how. The other community, with low levels of social capital, benefited from the project activities only temporarily. The role of local institutions as project channels and the development of social capital are indicated as key factors for plantation projects to work effectively

Paradigms in tropical forest plantations: a critical reflection on historical shifts in plantation approaches.

This paper traces macro-level trends and changing approaches to plantation forestry, with particular emphasis on tropical and subtropical regions. Introducing the theoretical concept of a paradigm and drawing on the notions of discourse and epistemic community, it analyses the development of knowledge structures present in the history of plantation forestry. The historical context with an economic and developmental focus is provided to better understand the political economy of forest plantations in the South. A typology of plantation paradigms according to the selected criteria is put forth to illustrate both the discursive and technical changes plantation projects underwent in time. The paper concludes with a critical discussion on the parallels between the historical developments, change in economic thought and development aid and their influence on tree-planting activities as well as the strengths, weaknesses and challenges for both the plantation and general forestry epistemic community in the years to come

Recognition Memory in Psychotic Patients

Preliminary data are reported from experiments in which Warrington's (1984) Recognition Memory Tests were given to patients with misidentification delusions including the Capgras type and to psychotic patients. The results showed a profound impairment on face recognition for most groups, especially those with the Capgras delusion. It was rare to find a patent whose score on the word test was anything but normal