Challenges to polycentric governance of an international development project tackling land degradation in Swaziland

To effectively address the drivers and impacts of land degradation requires polycentric governance systems that facilitate international development projects (IDPs). This paper analyses an IDP aiming to reduce land degradation in Swaziland. A longitudinal-style qualitative approach draws on repeat household surveys, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. We aim to identify the changes that have taken place since the departure of the IDP funders, and the subsequent dynamics between stakeholders. We: (1) chart the evolution of the institutional structures and processes of the IDP; and (2) assess community perceptions of IDP outcomes. Lack of meaningful participation at various stages of the PMC caused the project to lose momentum following the departure of the funders. We discuss these findings in relation to a polycentric approach, and identify how multi-stakeholder IDP can be facilitated as part of wider polycentric governance approaches to inform policies to combat land degradation within Swaziland and more widely

Learning from non-linear ecosystem dynamics is vital for achieving land degradation neutrality

Land Degradation Neutrality is one of the Sustainable Development Goal targets, requiring on-going degradation to be balanced by restoration and sustainable land management. However, restoration and efforts to prevent degradation have often failed to deliver expected benefits, despite enormous investments. Better acknowledging the close relationships between climate, land management and non-linear ecosystem dynamics can help restoration activities to meet their intended goals, while supporting climate change adaptation and mitigation. This paper is the first to link ecological theory of non-linear ecosystem dynamics to Land Degradation Neutrality offering essential insights into appropriate timings, climate-induced windows of opportunities and risks, and the financial viability of investments. These novel insights are pre-requisites for meaningful operationalisation and monitoring of progress towards Land Degradation Neutrality

An Empirically Derived Conceptual Framework to Assess Dis-Adoption of Conservation Agriculture: Multiple Drivers and Institutional Deficiencies

Efforts of national governments and international agencies aimed at alleviating hunger and poverty are often undermined by lack of long-term adoption of agricultural innovations. Studies commonly explain farmers’ adoption decisions using household general determinants, yet decision-making, particularly for under-resourced smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, is a complex process. Using the case of conservation agriculture [CA], this article analyses dis-adoption of agricultural technologies by examining multiple domains of Malawi’s CA innovation system and how these influence farmer decision-making. It analyses institutional arrangements of CA promoters, national policies and farmers’ experiences. From this, we empirically derive a multifaceted dis-adoption drivers’ framework to explain CA dis-adoption in smallholder farming systems. Our findings reveal that adverse features in national policies, institutional arrangements, technological attributes and social cultural dimensions all lead to unfavourable experiences of CA for smallholder farmers, which can culminate in dis-adoption. The CA dis-adoption drivers’ framework we develop in this study provides a useful troubleshooting tool. It can be used to guide improvements in the design and implementation of project-based interventions seeking long-term adoption of agricultural innovations across sub-Saharan Africa

Assessing coherence between sector policies and Climate Compatible Development: Opportunities for triple wins

Climate Compatible Development (CCD) aims to deliver adaptation and mitigation without compromising development progress. To date, adaptation, mitigation and development related to key climate-sensitive sectors have often been treated separately. This paper uses qualitative document analysis, content analysis, expert interviews and a multi-stakeholder workshop to: examine the extent to which policies in climate-sensitive sectors align in framing adaptation, mitigation and development action; and identify key areas of policy coherence in Ghana. The paper answers the following questions: (i) To what extent are Ghana's agriculture, energy, water, forest and wildlife sector policies aligned with climate adaptation, mitigation and development? (ii) What is the extent of policy coherence amongst climate-sensitive sector policies? (iii) Where are the key intervention points available to enhance CCD activities? Findings demonstr ate that Ghana's climate-sensitive sector policies in agriculture, water, energy, forest and wildlife arenas have elements that demonstrate good alignment with adaptation, mitigation, and development priorities. However, as yet, there is only "limited coherence" between climate-sensitive sector policies. The paper identifies the following intervention points: (i) the need to attach greater importance to the threat posed by climate change to agriculture; and (ii) the need to address the lack of inter-agency and inter-ministerial approaches for building partnerships with other stakeholders. Multi-stakeholder workshop discussions highlighted significant challenges relating to limited coordination amongst institutions and agencies, limited institutional capacity and a lack of resources in ensuring coherence. This requires strengthening of national institutions such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide appropriate mechanisms to ensure effective collaboration amongst climate-sensitive sectors to deliver "triple wins". The EPA could exert greater influence by nominating "climate champions" in sector ministries

Implementing Climate-Compatible Development in the Context of Power: Lessons for Encouraging Procedural Justice through Community-Based Projects

Climate-compatible development (CCD) is being operationalised across the developing world through projects that integrate development, adaptation and mitigation using community-based approaches—community-based CCD (CB-CCD). By incorporating and considering local people’s concerns, these projects are positioned as more effective, efficient and sustainable than ‘top-down’ climate and development solutions. However, the literature pays little attention to whether and how these projects achieve procedural justice by recognising local people’s identities, cultures and values; and providing local people with meaningful participatory opportunities. We address this gap through an analysis of two donor-funded CB-CCD projects in Malawi, drawing on household surveys, semi-structured interviews and documentary materials. Our findings show that the projects had only limited success in facilitating procedural justice for the target populations. Households’ meaningful engagement in project activities and decision-making was often curtailed because power asymmetries went unchallenged. While many households were well engaged in projects, the recognition and participation of others—including many of the most vulnerable households—was limited. Building on our findings, we present a six-step approach to help CB-CCD project staff understand, manage and challenge power asymmetries; and create widespread recognition of, and meaningful participatory opportunities for, local people

Fuelling friendships or driving divergence? Legitimacy, coherence, and negotiation in Brazilian perceptions of European and American biofuels governance

Traditional global powers like the European Union and the United States are seeing the rise of emerging powers like Brazil as prospective cooperation partners. Examining how traditional powers are perceived by their emerging counterparts offers critical insights into the prerequisites for effective and durable partnerships. While the literature on external perceptions has expanded considerably, a comparative perspective on how emerging powers perceive the policies of the two transatlantic powers in issue-specific areas is lacking. We present a framework of explanatory variables (legitimacy, coherence and negotiating style) and apply it to interview data and the literature to unravel Brazil's relations on biofuels with the EU and US, including through trilateral partnerships with third countries. Our data show that while Brazil's partnership with the US has progressed, the one with the EU has struggled to advance. Our paper seeks to explain these differences using our framework, advance understanding on the external perceptions of the international role and collaborative posture of the EU and US, and provide policy insights for the fruitful conduct of partnerships

Multi-scale assessment of social vulnerability to climate change: An empirical study in coastal Vietnam

Climate change poses significant threats to the livelihoods of people living in coastal areas, especially in the developing world. There is a critical need to assess vulnerability to inform both scientific debates and policy makers in facilitating adaptation and coping strategies at different scales. This study advances existing approaches to assessing vulnerability by focusing on both household and collective scales in a coastal district in Vietnam: Ngu Hanh Son district. A mixed-method approach was used including 100 household questionnaires, 12 key informant interviews and data from direct observations. At household scale, results indicate large variation in the degree of vulnerability to climate change among households in the same agro-climate zone. These differences are attributable to variations in socio-economic household characteristics and ability to access livelihood assets. Diversifying livelihoods and reducing poverty are important in contributing to the resilience of households. At a collective scale, qualitative data indicates a lack of multi-directional flows of information and highlights gaps in the current governance system. Findings suggest the need to bridge the governance gaps and establish an effective communication system to reduce collective vulnerability in the district. Findings also highlight the need to promote social equity, equality and democracy in formulating climate policies in an effort to reduce the overall vulnerability to climate change

Informing investments in land degradation neutrality efforts: A triage approach to decision making

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.3 commits countries to strive towards land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030. LDN requires reductions in land quality to be balanced by efforts to restore or rehabilitate degraded areas. However, decisions need to be made as to where to invest given limited budgets and the impossibility of targeting all degraded land. Any prioritisation process is likely to be controversial and needs to be underpinned by transparent, justifiable, repeatable decision processes. In this paper, we develop a triage approach for LDN, drawing on experiences from biodiversity conservation. In conservation, triage refers to prioritisation where for a given budget, threatened species, habitats or ecosystems receive management if they contribute more to the achievement of particular objectives (e.g. maintaining ecosystem function, ensuring the survival of a species) and the management actions are more likely to be successful. Conservation triage has proved both effective in allocating scarce resources, and controversial, as it requires acceptance that it is not possible to save everything. We present a decision framework 'the Decision Dahlia' that transposes triage principles to the LDN decision context, recognising that not all land can be improved. First, we consider countries’ reporting needs on SDG 15.3 and set out a decision process to support progress towards three biophysical global indicators agreed by the United Nations. Second, we take a more people-centred approach, recognising the imperative for social justice and good governance, matching LDN investment decisions more closely with societal needs in an integrated social-ecological systems approach. We then reflect on the remaining risks, such as the potential for vulnerable areas to miss out on investments due to the scale of decision making and challenges of leakage. While we acknowledge the controversial nature of the approach, we argue that a decision framework grounded in triage principles, offers a transparent, justifiable and repeatable process for deciding where to invest in efforts to achieve LDN. This can lower financial costs and help to reduce risks so that ‘striving towards LDN’ does not exacerbate existing drivers of land loss and worsen poverty

Links between climate change mitigation, adaptation and development in land policy and ecosystem restoration projects: lessons from South Africa

Links between climate change adaptation, mitigation and development co-benefits in land policy and ecosystem restoration projects are hampered by limited understanding of how multi-faceted policy, institutions and projects interact. This paper explores perceptions of co-benefits produced by two community-level projects that pursue ecosystem restoration in South Africa. It develops a new analytical framework to assess the enabling and constraining factors in delivering triple wins for adaptation, mitigation and development. The aim is to investigate the potential for integrating community perspectives into policy and project development and implementation. Data collected through mixed-methods (policy analysis, semi-structured interviews, participatory site visits and focus groups) are analysed using thematic analysis. We find that while the projects investigated have potential to deliver triple wins, siloed approaches presently hinder effective implementation. In particular, project focus on job creation hampers the achievement of longer-term mitigation and adaptation benefits. Operational flexibility, long-term goals, multi-sectoral cooperation and enabling frameworks are imperative to the achievement of triple wins. Findings provide valuable lessons that can be applied across sub-Saharan Africa towards achieving triple wins in climate and development policy and practice, especially those developed with job creation and ecological restoration aims

Delivering community benefits through REDD +: Lessons from Joint Forest Management in Zambia

In implementing reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), significant attention is being paid to ensuring that communities stand to benefit. Safeguards to protect local people's rights and interests have been formulated in response concerns over the potential negative impact on communities of forest preservation. To fulfil safeguards, many sub-Saharan African countries are looking to community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). Current critiques of CBNRM projects outline the importance of project design and policy context in shaping whether or not communities actually stand to benefit. This paper explores these aspects in a case study of Joint Forest Management (JFM) in Zambia, and examines the role of Zambia's REDD preparedness programme in shaping them. The case study was evaluated using stakeholder and policy document analyses, informed by interviews, and tied into the broader forest governance network. The findings highlight the way in which the politics and policies of forest governance in Zambia shape the on-the-ground JFM project and influence community benefits. In the case studied, even with careful local-level project design, JFM would be hindered in its delivery of REDD safeguards. Therefore, for REDD to deliver community safeguards, it must be considered as a broader process of political and governance change