On the banality of forest governance fragmentation: Exploring ‘‘gecko politics’’ as a bureaucratic behaviour in limited statehood

Ongolo, Symphorien

doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2015.01.005

Cited by 39 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…We also need to consider several forms of logic based on private interests and cunning governments [78] that contributed to the major delay in the adoption of legislation to ensure a certain balance between the exploitation and preservation of forestlands in tropical Africa. This line of logic, which is based on private interests and the manipulation of rules related to forestland use policies, in some situations could be equated to 'gecko politics' [79] intentionally supported by the state bureaucracies. The gecko politics, in such a context, refers to tactics based on cunning, taking advantage of the fragility of domestic institutions or adopting a 'laisser-faire' position that banks on erratic policy coordination.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Tragedy of Forestland Sustainability in Postcolonial Africa: Land Development, Cocoa, and Politics in Côte d’Ivoire

et al. 2018

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Tropical countries are often blamed for not managing their natural resources sustainably. But what if overexploitation is inherent in political structures and policies—rooted in foreign colonial order—and is consistently detrimental in the contemporary use of forestlands? This article argues that post-colonial land development policies and related political interests seriously impede the sustainability of forest ecosystems in Côte d’Ivoire. Methodologically, the study builds on a historic contextualisation of forestland use policies in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Côte d’Ivoire serving as a case study. The results indicate that the increasing development of so-called rent crops clearly follows the historical dynamics of ‘land grabbing’ and a post-colonial agrarian model. This situation benefits agribusiness entrepreneurs and, more recently, sustainability standards. The study discusses the findings based on recent literature and empirical evidence. In conclusion, the post-colonial heritage and the manipulation of the related patterns by elites and policy-makers largely explains the present-day unsustainable forestland conversions in Côte d’Ivoire.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Tragedy of Forestland Sustainability in Postcolonial Africa: Land Development, Cocoa, and Politics in Côte d’Ivoire

et al. 2018

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“…According to Bernstein and Cashore (2012) the REDD+ case may be considered one form of direct access to domestic policy making, whereas with the One Map Policy, this type of relation with international actors and institutions is less clear. Still, both cases suggest, to a reasonable extent, that in addition to the constant threats from domestic bureaucracies, it may be international influences, in particular, that challenge the established power sources of forest bureaucracies (Burns and Giessen, 2015;Ongolo, 2015;Mbatu, 2015;Ojha et al, 2009). This may be interpreted as a strategy that international actors use to circumvent an overly powerful and corrupt MoF, acting in coalition with its rival domestic bureaucracies but potentially incurring losses, e.g., critical information on forests.…”

Section: The Ministry Of Forestry Under Threat?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fundamentally, state agencies, as bureaucratic politics and related literature reveal (e.g., Krott, 2005;Olsen, 2006;Peters, 2001;Giessen et al, 2014;Buijs et al, 2014;Kumar and Kant, 2005;Bennett et al, 2012Bennett et al, , 2013, compete for power in the form of formal mandates to pursue policies in these emerging issue areas and to acquire staff and budgets. This competition for power has been identified as an important factor in land use and forest politics (Pedersen, 2010;Krott et al, 2014;Aurenhammer, 2011Aurenhammer, , 2012Ojha et al, 2014;Ongolo, 2015). In this competition, the agencies use both domestic and international http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.07.018 0264-8377/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Absolute and relative power gains among state agencies in forest-related land use politics: The Ministry of Forestry and its competitors in the REDD+ Programme and the One Map Policy in Indonesia

Wibowo

Gießen

2015

Land Use Policy

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“…Diverse actors that do not necessarily share the same ideas and interests regarding forestland policies intervene in the community forestry in Cameroon (Cuny 2011, Ongolo 2015, Djiegni et al 2016. Communities, public sector, private enterprises, and local, national, and international NGOs, among others compete for the various policies that are designed to satisfy their desires.…”

Section: Access To Information On Law and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing equity in community forestry: lessons from 20 years of implementation in Cameroon

Essougong¹,

Foundjem-Tita²,

Minang³

2019

E&S

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A community forestry approach was adopted by Cameroon as a strategy to promote the sustainable management of forests, participation by local communities in forest management, and poverty alleviation. However, results have been moderate and community forestry has largely failed in achieving its initial goals. Our work, based on existing literature, uses the three interrelated dimensions of equity: distributive, procedural, and contextual to highlight the main equity challenges encountered in implementing the community forestry approach over the past 20 years in Cameroon. The main constraints to distributive equity identified include: the absence of clear benefit-sharing mechanisms and rents capture by elites, insecure tenure, and limited use rights of forest resources. Regarding the procedural dimension, we observed an exclusion of vulnerable groups, especially women, and a lack of information flow and transparency in decision-making processes. Finally, for contextual equity, the main constraints are unfair laws and regulations that give more advantages to the state and logging companies than to the local population. Moreover, poor community capacities and high transaction costs in the process of obtaining and exploiting community forests are additional constraints to contextual equity. The authors recommend a few measures to improve community forestry contribution to socioeconomic development, equity in benefit sharing, and sustainable management of forest resources. These include the need: (1) to promote transparency in community forests management with fair and gender-based policies that consider socioeconomic differences existing within and between forest communities; (2) to strengthen local community members financial and technical capacities and increase their representation and participation in decision-making structures; and (3) to set up mechanisms that guarantee existing policies are fully implemented.

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On the banality of forest governance fragmentation: Exploring ‘‘gecko politics’’ as a bureaucratic behaviour in limited statehood

Cited by 39 publications

References 32 publications

The Tragedy of Forestland Sustainability in Postcolonial Africa: Land Development, Cocoa, and Politics in Côte d’Ivoire

The Tragedy of Forestland Sustainability in Postcolonial Africa: Land Development, Cocoa, and Politics in Côte d’Ivoire

Absolute and relative power gains among state agencies in forest-related land use politics: The Ministry of Forestry and its competitors in the REDD+ Programme and the One Map Policy in Indonesia

Addressing equity in community forestry: lessons from 20 years of implementation in Cameroon

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