Missing the forest for the trees? Navigating the trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation under REDD

Ingalls, Micah; Dwyer, Michael B.

doi:10.1007/s10584-016-1612-6

Cited by 31 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…It is important at this historical juncture to make explicit political claims about the effects of pretending that preserving forest in one place can mitigate the large-scale emission of carbon in another place [24,37,79]. Climate change is a complex issue and each attempt to mitigate it through bureaucratic and/or market-based endeavors exposes a dangerous ambivalence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By focusing on the value of carbon and future funds from donor organizations or rich countries, the issue of deforestation and forest protection becomes "a mere footnote" [21]; diminishing the value of biodiversity [22], and the value of healthy human communities in forests [23]. Additionally, situating shifting cultivation or charcoal production as the main drivers of deforestation in REDD+ project areas, devalues the benefits of shifting cultivation, and leaves the industrial drivers of forest loss unmentioned, unquestioned, and unaffected by REDD+ [24].…”

Section: Forest-centered Ccm: Redd+ and Forest Plantationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forest Islands and Castaway Communities: REDD+ and Forest Restoration in Prey Lang Forest

Work

2017

Forests

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Climate Change policies are playing an ever-increasing role in global development strategies and their implementation gives rise to often-unforeseen social conflicts and environmental degradations. A landscape approach to analyzing forest-based Climate Change Mitigation policies (CCM) and land grabs in the Prey Lang Forest landscape, Cambodia revealed two Korea-Cambodia partnership projects designed to increase forest cover that are juxtaposed in this paper. Case study data revealed a REDD+ project with little negative impact or social conflict in the project area and an Afforestation/Reforestation (A/R) project that created both social and ecological conflicts. The study concludes that forest-based CCM policies can reduce conflict through efforts at minimal transformation of local livelihoods, maximal attention to the tenure rights, responsibilities, and authority of citizens, and by improving, not degrading, the project landscapes. The paper presents the circumstances under which these guidelines are sidestepped by the A/R project, and importantly reveals that dramatic forest and livelihood transformation had already affected the community and environment in the REDD+ project site. There are deep contradictions at the heart of climate change policies toward which attention must be given, lest we leave our future generations with nothing but forest islands and castaway communities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Forest-centered Ccm: Redd+ and Forest Plantationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Islands and Castaway Communities: REDD+ and Forest Restoration in Prey Lang Forest

Work

2017

Forests

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“…We may anticipate a little, however, noting there are reasons for concern. REDD+ articulates market-based solutions to issues of forest governance in ways that may reinforce, rather than challenge, the existing status quo (Okereke 2006, Ingalls andDwyer 2016). In the case of Xe Pian, this is manifest in the way that REDD+ assiduously avoided the thorny issues of plantation concessions and the problematic and legal-exceptional operations of the military by extracting these geographies from its project space, thus truncating the possibility of engaging with structural drivers of forest change in Xe Pian (see for a more detailed analysis).…”

Section: The Neoliberal Market and The Commodification Of Xe Pian Npamentioning

confidence: 99%

Not just another variable: untangling the spatialities of power in social–ecological systems

Ingalls¹

2017

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Increased attention has been paid to how the spatial dimensions of social-ecological systems are formative in shaping their ability to negotiate change and remain resilient. This paper moves this research further by exploring how diverse forms of power play a crucial role in shaping these spatial dimensions and the production of social-ecological outcomes. Grounding these explorations in a National Protected Area in Lao PDR, this paper explores how power relationships operate through the spatial and temporal domains of complex systems. Findings suggest (at least) four important insights: (1) the exercise of power materializes in policies and programs and becomes written onto the spaces of social-ecological systems through boundary creation, zonation, and other social processes that (re)define spatial meanings; these meanings vary by social actor; (2) policies and programs map out unevenly across space and time as they interact with antecedent social-ecological conditions in ways that preclude linear causal relationships between policy and outcomes; (3) although local in their expression, spatialized disputes in social-ecological systems draw on cross-scalar discourses and networks of power to bolster, undermine, and (de)legitimize competing environmental and social narratives; and (4) however powerful institutions and actor-networks may be, they are never fully hegemonic as they are attenuated by other discourses and operations of power, although these all play out across a highly uneven sociopolitical terrain. Paying greater attention to the spatial and temporal dynamics of power may be much more than a project of introducing yet another variable into the already complex admixture of analytic elements. Rather, by rendering these explicit as objects of analysis, common insights may change entirely or even be overturned.

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“…Forest policies to respond to climate change often involve either mitigation actions, such as biological carbon sequestration, to access and mobilize resources like land, trees, water, fish and other means of livelihood [29,30]. If access rights to forest change under REDD+ projects, this could render communities and households more vulnerable to the effects of climate change at local levels if traditional assets like forests that are used for adaptation responses (e.g., as a source of quick cash or as food) become inaccessible [25,31]. Alternatively, REDD+ could potentially strengthen local access rights to forests through increased financing to ensure their protection from outside deforestation pressures, thus possibly increasing communities' resilience to climate change [32,33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using REDD+ Policy to Facilitate Climate Adaptation at the Local Level: Synergies and Challenges in Vietnam

McElwee

Nguyen

et al. 2016

Forests

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Attention has recently been paid to how REDD+ mitigation policies are integrated into other sectoral policies, particularly those dealing with climate adaptation at the national level. But there is less understanding of how subnational policy and local projects are able to incorporate attention to adaptation; therefore, we use a case study in Vietnam to discuss how REDD+ projects and policies address both concerns of mitigation and adaptation together at subnational levels. Through stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and household surveys in three provinces of Vietnam with REDD+ activities, our research sought to understand if REDD+ policies and projects on the ground acknowledge that climate change is likely to impact forests and forest users; if this knowledge is built into REDD+ policy and activities; how households in forested areas subject to REDD+ policy are vulnerable to climate change; and how REDD+ activities can help or hinder needed adaptations. Our findings indicate that there continues to be a lack of coordination between mitigation and adaptation policies in Vietnam, particularly with regard to REDD+. Policies for forest-based climate mitigation at the national and subnational level, as well as site-based projects, have paid little attention to the adaptation needs of local communities, many of whom are already suffering from noticeable weather changes in their localities, and there is insufficient discussion of how REDD+ activities could facilitate increased resilience. While there were some implicit and coincidental adaptation benefits of some REDD+ activities, most studied projects and policies did not explicitly target their activities to focus on adaptation or resilience, and in at least one case, negative livelihood impacts that have increased household vulnerability to climate change were documented. Key barriers to integration were identified, such as sectoral specialization; a lack of attention in REDD+ projects to livelihoods; and inadequate support for ecosystem-based adaptation.

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Missing the forest for the trees? Navigating the trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation under REDD

Cited by 31 publications

References 52 publications

Forest Islands and Castaway Communities: REDD+ and Forest Restoration in Prey Lang Forest

Forest Islands and Castaway Communities: REDD+ and Forest Restoration in Prey Lang Forest

Not just another variable: untangling the spatialities of power in social–ecological systems

Using REDD+ Policy to Facilitate Climate Adaptation at the Local Level: Synergies and Challenges in Vietnam

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Missing the forest for the trees? Navigating the trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation under REDD

Cited by 31 publications

References 52 publications

Forest Islands and Castaway Communities: REDD+ and Forest Restoration in Prey Lang Forest

Forest Islands and Castaway Communities: REDD+ and Forest Restoration in Prey Lang Forest

Not just another variable: untangling the spatialities of power in social&#8211;ecological systems

Using REDD+ Policy to Facilitate Climate Adaptation at the Local Level: Synergies and Challenges in Vietnam

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About

Not just another variable: untangling the spatialities of power in social–ecological systems