Rethinking ‘Success’: The politics of payment for forest ecosystem services in Vietnam

To, Phuc Xuan; Dressler, Wolfram

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.11.010

Cited by 38 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Our research has contextual and historical limitations as a regional, Namibian study with a focus on CBNRM. Its wider applicability, however, lies in the importance of critically analyzing articulations of failure and success in other parts of the world, such as East Africa (Kimanthi and Hebinck 2018;Svarstad and Benjaminsen 2017), as well as beyond the African continent (Nandigama 2019;To and Dressler 2019) and in different disciplines. As mentioned in the introduction, disciplinary reflexive responses are part of disciplines such as geography (Sidaway 2000) and political ecology (Neimark et al 2019;Ramutsindela et al 2016), both highly relevant for conservation and development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The third author has carried out independent academic anthropology and ecology research in north-west Namibia since 1992, witnessing and researching key moments and tensions in the establishment of CBNRM in this context. Success, Failure and Namibian CBNRM Mosse (2004) shows that both success and failure can become policy-oriented framings that mask project effects "on the ground," and the structuring effects of "success" or "failure" have been observed in research on nature conservation (B€ uscher 2013;Catalano et al 2019;Sullivan 2002;To and Dressler 2019) and development (B€ uscher 2014;Clemens, Kenny, and Moss 2007;Kimanthi and Hebinck 2018;Nandigama 2019;Svarstad and Benjaminsen 2017). Blaikie (2006Blaikie ( , 1946, in his critical assessment of CBNRM, finds that "[t]here are success stories too, although they are stories told by the initiating agencies themselves" (see also B€ uscher 2013;Sullivan 2002).…”

Section: Social Constructivismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Catalano et al (2019) argue that observations of failure in conservation could be exploited more effectively by conservation professionals in terms of generating improvements in outcomes. At the same time, responses to such failures can themselves become a means of legitimizing and "selling" particular interventions (to communities, donors, consultants, states, and so on) in a competitive world (B€ uscher 2014;To and Dressler 2019) to favor technical, depoliticized, "objective solutions" (B€ uscher 2013) and thereby amplify particular forms of expertise and intervention based on numerical abstractions of socio-economic concerns.…”

Section: Social Constructivismmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Science for Success—A Conflict of Interest? Researcher Position and Reflexivity in Socio-Ecological Research for CBNRM in Namibia

Koot

Hebinck

Sullivan

2020

Society & Natural Resources

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper emphasizes the importance of researcher position and reflexivity for professionals in the ecological and development sciences. We draw on critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyze a selection of scientific papers written by Namibian Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) professionals and their relationships with public discourse regarding this conservation and development program. These papers mainly show "success" whilst disregarding "failure" of elements in the program that elsewhere are highly criticized (especially trophy hunting and ecotourism). In addition, they seem to disregard questions concerning researchers' conflicts of interest that bear on the papers' "objectivity." We argue that such positions beg more transparency and epistemological accountability. In particular, we propose greater disclosure and reflexivity regarding researcher positioning as an important methodological response for illuminating when and how researchers have an interest in specific outcomes of their research, so as to enhance interpretation of the knowledge produced by such research.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Social Constructivismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Social Constructivismmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Science for Success—A Conflict of Interest? Researcher Position and Reflexivity in Socio-Ecological Research for CBNRM in Namibia

Koot

Hebinck

Sullivan

2020

Society & Natural Resources

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Upland farmers clearing and burning of forests and fallows involves social, economic, physical and ecological dynamics that have been represented as distant, threatening, criminal and antithetical to the modern nation-state. Drawing on Stuart Hall's (1997) 'politics of representation', we describe how shared language, meanings, beliefs and actions toward something different reproduces and stabilises assumptions and dominant narratives (Hall 1985(Hall , 1997Leach and Mearns, 1996;Kull 2004;To and Dressler, 2019). Hall (1997) argues that the politics of representation that feed and harden narratives almost always emerge through the relational practice of making and 'marking of difference' of the Other--e.g., indigenous uplanders (265).…”

Section: Recalibrating the 'Burden Of Blame': Valuing Indigenous Cleamentioning

confidence: 99%

Recalibrating burdens of blame: Anti-swidden politics and green governance in the Philippine Uplands

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In Southeast Asia, the presence of cleared and burned forests has long evoked deep emotions, symbolism and representations that powerfully inform the governance of forests and upland peoples. In particular, the palpable visibility of shifting (swidden) agriculturalists 'slashing and burning' forests has fuelled centuries-old political agendas to criminalise swidden farmers for supposedly destroying swaths of forests valued for timber, biodiversity and now ecosystem services. Swidden farmers who regularly clear and burn forests, have endured a disproportionate burden of blame for investing in and maintaining an old livelihood practice into the 21 st Century. Drawing on Hall's politics of representation, we examine the contrasting political frames, management and practices of clearing and burning forests among upland farmers, state and non-state actors who govern forests on Palawan Island, the Philippines. We describe the social, economic, and biophysical character of swidden clearing and burning among the indigenous Tagbanua of central Palawan, whose livelihoods and landscapes are impacted by green governance and enclosures. Informed by several years of ethnographic fieldwork, we explore how and why Tagbanua farmers continue to clear and burn forest despite state and non-state actors criminalising these practices for decades. We argue that, despite sustained vilification and reduced fallows arising from governance policies and enclosures, Tagbanua farmers continue to clear and burn knowing well that, despite the practices being illegal, levels of tolerance and leniency toward swidden is the local norm, rather than exception-highlighting the importance of what we call 'atmospheres of consent'. Ethnoecological understandings of clearing and burning in the uplands, we argue, are crucial to recalibrating the burden of blame placed on poor farmers whose agriculture is deemed destructive by the region's burgeoning sustainability discourse.

show abstract

“…However, the U.S. accountability office noted that due to a lack of cross compliance requirements and monitoring, the actual compliance level by farmers had been less than hundred percent. PES programs in Vietnam have seen significant involvement by the state but there is also high level of corruption and poor management of forests (To & Dressler, 2019). Higher state involvement excludes deserving participants and reduces the effectiveness of such programs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can combining two environmental services under a single PES program result in better environmental outcomes and lower costs?

Ranjan

2021

Natural Resource Modeling

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper develops an integrated framework for modeling payment for ecosystem services (PES) mechanisms that deliver multiple environmental services. Specifically, under a community‐led PES, forest conservation is promoted to deliver carbon and stream water benefits. The upstream community is paid for avoided fuelwood harvesting through a United Nations programme on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) program, whereas additional income is generated from water sales to the downstream communities. A bio‐economic model derives optimal level of fuelwood harvesting, which in conjunction with the changing species composition of forests, streamflow hydrology and fire risks, impacts on the carbon and water generation potential of the PES project. Results indicate that forest conservation outcomes are better when water and carbon services are combined, however overall cost to the program is lower under a carbon‐based PES. Changing species composition of forests creates tradeoffs between water and carbon benefits. Forest fires further challenge the viability of PES schemes through reducing streamflow and carbon sequestration potential. Recommendations for Resource Managers Linking two or more environmental services under a single payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme could improve forest conservation through making it more attractive to the participating communities. PES programs that combine multiple environmental services become economically attractive to participating communities through increasing their incomes. For instance, water and carbon driven services complement each other due to the overlapping benefits from improving forest biomass. However, fire risks can lower the benefits from PES and dissuade community participation. Similarly, the ecological and hydrological dimensions of PES projects that offer carbon and water benefits need to be understood and incorporated within PES framework design to enhance their durability. Conservation of mixed forests is more responsive to water‐based PES payments, in comparison to monoculture oak forests, however, mixed forests are also more vulnerable to degradation in absence of cooking fuel subsidies.

show abstract

Rethinking ‘Success’: The politics of payment for forest ecosystem services in Vietnam

Cited by 38 publications

References 31 publications

Science for Success—A Conflict of Interest? Researcher Position and Reflexivity in Socio-Ecological Research for CBNRM in Namibia

Science for Success—A Conflict of Interest? Researcher Position and Reflexivity in Socio-Ecological Research for CBNRM in Namibia

Recalibrating burdens of blame: Anti-swidden politics and green governance in the Philippine Uplands

Can combining two environmental services under a single PES program result in better environmental outcomes and lower costs?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About