Adaptation to Change and Re-designing of Governance Systems: Cases from Small-Scale Rural Forestry

Abstract

Changes in small-scale forest governance as a reaction to global changes are viewed from the system dynamics perspective, focused on two levels of dynamic systems: the policy system with sets of interactions at the national level and the management system at the local level. These interactions are considered through permanent adaptation and re-shaping of stakeholders' networks and positions provoking further changes in the systems. Empirical evidence has been obtained from two case studies related to small-scale rural forestry in distinct contexts-France (the Territorial Forestry Charters) and Kyrgyzstan (collaborative forest management and leasing of forest plots)-and viewed through a theoretical framework of socialpolitical systems dynamics. The changes caused by the systems' capacity for adaptability and resilience are expressed through a double spiral of decision-making, characterising the interactions between national policies and local management practices. The analysis leads to a conclusion that changes are basically determined by the formal and informal stakeholders' strategies developed in a specific context and their mutual adaptation aimed at system resilience.

Managing forests in a changing world: the need for a systemic approach. A review

“…More than a shift from normative procedures of government to flexible mechanisms of governance, institutional change in forest policy often leads to new modes of government (and not of governance) integrating in the same conventional framework for decision making some of the changes demanded that are translated or sometimes hidden by the strongest stakeholders' desire to retain their power, usually in favour of conventional policies and market mechanisms (Buttoud, 2011). New policies and modes of governance are brought in a comprehensive manner, through a process comprising inhibition and promotion, where learning is directly linked to power consolidation (Kouplevatskaya-Buttoud, 2009). Therefore, backstopping forest policy implementation is an exercise of permanent adjustment and adaptation.…”

Participatory Forest Management: The experience of foreign‐funded programmes in the Kyrgyz Republic

“…PFM programmes considered the state ‘as being not able to adapt to the new market relations’ and it ‘was given a secondary role in this process, through formal participation in working groups with no real engagement. The principal focus at the local level and disregard for the role of the state and the local context may be counted as one of the main obstacles for successful change in local forest management practices in Kyrgyzstan.’ (Kouplevatskaya‐Buttoud, : 244–245).…”

“…Similarly to the Kyrgyz national government, which has been ‘trying to decentralize [forest management], for almost exclusively financial reasons’ (Colfer, ), leskhozes perceive PFM as an instrument to use ‘free’ labour and fulfil their annual forest management work plan while reducing forest management costs (Fisher et al ., ; Kouplevatskaya‐Buttoud, : 242; Samyn, : 7–8). ‘This was obviously attractive from the point of view of leshoz maintenance, but provided little scope for making CFM an option for creating additional income for significant numbers of people’ (Samyn, : 8).…”

Barriers to institutional learning and innovations in the forest sector in Europe: Markets, policies and stakeholders

“…This mechanism, detailed by the theory of the double spiral in decision making (Kouplevatskaya, 2006). (Kouplevatskaya-Yunusova and Buttoud, 2006;Kouplevatskaya-Buttoud, 2009), finally explains why a process innovation, re-designed by an informal institution (here, a coalition between representatives of productive interests) as reaction to the perturbation from the formal institution, results in the fact that at the end there is no product innovation. This resilience of the stronger pro-productivist actors to change, is both an objective and an outcome of the social and political learning process taking place and enabling further adaptation and adaptability to external perturbations.…”