Ethnicity and the utilization of non-wood forest products: findings from three Philippine villages

A wide variety of fish and invertebrates are associated with marine jellyfishes, and their interactions are diverse. We preliminarily investigated symbionts on two species of rhizostome jellyfishes collected from Leyte and Palawan Islands, the Philippines, in August 2013. The collected jellyfishes were Lobonemoides robustus Stiasny on both islands and Acromitus maculosus Light on Palawan Island. Lobonemoides robustus is commercially harvested on both islands, and seems to have been previously misidentified as Lobonema smithi Mayer. The associated fish ju- veniles on these hosts were identified as Alepes djedaba (Forsskal) and Carangoides equula (Temminck & Schlegel). Alepes djedaba is closely associated with many species of scyphozoan jellyfish broadly in the southeastern Asian wa- ters. The associations of carangids with jellyfish are also reviewed.

Trade in wood and forest products spans the global supply chain. Illegal logging and associated trade in forest products present a persistent threat to vulnerable ecosystems and communities. Illegal timber trade has been linked to violations of tax and conservation laws, as well as broader transnational crimes. The United States is the largest importer globally of wood and forest products, such as pulp, paper, flooring, and furniture-importing $78 billion in 2021. Transaction-level data such as shipping container manifests and bills of lading provide a comprehensive data source that can be used to detect and disrupt trade that may be suspected of containing illegally harvested or traded forest products. Owing to the volume, velocity, and complexity of shipment data, an automated decision support system is required for the purposes of detecting suspicious forest product shipments. We present a proof of concept framework using machine learning and big data approaches-combining domain expertise with automation-to achieve this objective. We formulated the underlying machine learning problem as an anomaly detection problem and collected and collated forest sector-specific domain knowledge to filter and target shipments of interest. In this work, we provide the overview of our framework, with the details of domain knowledge extraction and machine learning models, and discuss initial results and analysis of flagged anomalous and potentially suspicious records to demonstrate the efficacy of this approach. The proof of concept work presented here provides the groundwork for an actionable and feasible approach to assisting enforcement agencies with the detection of suspicious shipments that may contain illegally harvested or traded wood.

The province of Palawan has been a major producer of almaciga (Agathis philippinensis, Warb.) resin in the Philippines, as reported in the Philippine Forestry Statistics from 1977 to the present. Several indigenous groups and migrants belonging to resin tappers’ associations have been dependent on the industry for a long time. However, these people remained poor despite the growing demand for and increasing price of almaciga resin in the local and international markets. This study aimed to assess the supply chain of almaciga resin from Tagabinet, Puerto Princesa City, and Caruray, San Vicente, in north Palawan, and Barangay Amas in Brooke’s Point, south Palawan, to determine areas of inefficiencies along the chain that cause inequitable distribution of benefits among its supply chain actors. Results showed long and complex supply chain structures for all sites, with 74.89% of the total gross margin going to the local assemblers. Key inefficiencies along the chain include market information asymmetry, unjust profit margin distribution due to long supply chains, and price disparities resulting from a lack of standardized sorting and grading. Proper valuation of raw materials, negotiation and transparency between buyers and suppliers, value-adding activities at the resin tapper’s level, adoption of appropriate tapping techniques, and updating of relevant government policies are recommended. The study's results may serve as input for policy decision-making on the utilization and trade of non-timber forest products in the Philippines.

Securitizing REDD+? Problematizing the emerging illegal timber trade and forest carbon interface in East Africa

This article identifies four models of park management that apply where indigenous people mix with migrant settlers in developing countries: (a) coercive conservation; (b) community-based conservation; (c) ancestral domain; and (d) European-style landscape park. Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park in Palawan Island, the Philippines, has evolved through all four types. While legal recognition of indigenous peoples' land rights has improved their relative position vis-à-vis their migrant neighbors, it has not equalized their lack of access to political and economic resources. This deficit prevents them from capturing full benefits from the forest, and consequently undermines their capacity and incentive to conserve forest resources. We argue that indigenous peoples' property rights and access to assets must be sufficiently secure for them to actively participate in park management and share in its benefits. This leads to the conclusion that the most effective and just form of park management is a blend of community-based conservation, ancestral domain, and landscape park.

In 2001 a new Land Law was adopted in Cambodia. It was significant because – for the first time – it recognised a new legal category of people, ‘Indigenous Peoples’ or chuncheat daoem pheak tech in Khmer, and it also introduced the legal concept of communal land rights to Cambodia. Indigenous Peoples are not mentioned in the 1993 constitution of Cambodia or any legislation pre‐dating the 2001 Land Law. However, Cambodia's 2002 Forestry Law also followed the trend by recognising ‘Indigenous Peoples’. These laws have been both symbolically and practically important, as they have provided government‐mandated legitimacy to Indigenous identities and associated land and forest rights, including communal land rights, and have been ontologically significant in dividing Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Peoples on legal grounds. Over a decade after the 2001 Land Law was promulgated, this article considers some aspects of its effects. In particular, when compared with the potential for developing communal land rights in Laos, one has to wonder how advantageous it is to adopt Indigenous identities and the types of communal land rights and community forestry rights presently possible in Cambodia.

This study aimed to understand whether, and to what extent, Kenyan legal provisions are sufficient to secure community land rights, particularly those of indigenous peoples and local communities. It assesses the adequacy of Kenya’s legal framework for protecting and promoting tenure rights of forest communities, including over protected areas. There is an enduring problem pertaining to historical land injustices, where certain indigenous peoples and local communities have sought formal recognition of their land rights over areas classified as public land, which are managed mainly as public forests or national wildlife reserves. The analysis uses three indicators to evaluate the levels of protection and securing of community land and forest tenure rights: the scope and security of tenure; the legal status and protection of indigenous peoples’ (forest peoples’) tenure rights; and community participation in management of public forests. It demonstrates that there are improvements in legal protection for indigenous communities. Nonetheless, a legal conundrum results from how Kenyan courts have interpreted the law concerning claims by certain indigenous communities over land falling under article 63(2)(d)(i) of the Constitution, mainly classified as public land or forests. For example, whereas the African court recognized the Ogiek rights over Mau Forest, the Kenyan courts have declined to do so. Also, despite its finding, the African Court did not prescribe how those land rights can be actualized; and the courts in Kenya have advised the communities to utilize the resolution of historical land injustices procedures prescribed in law. This Occasional Paper explores this case and others.

Corporate actors significantly impact indigenous peoples'' domestically and internationally recognized land rights. For half a century, the pursuit of oil by Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta has produced a cycle of violence with lasting effects on the Ogoni peoples'' occupancy, use, and control of their traditional lands and resources, and thereby, their way of life. In the United States, mining by Barrick Gold Corporation, a Canadian multinational corporate actor, has threatened the Western Shoshone peoples'' ability to continue the traditional use of their lands for cultural, religious, and food subsistence activities. In the Philippines, despite recent legislative enactments requiring the informed consent of indigenous peoples prior to the exploration and development of natural resources on their lands, indigenous resistance to extractive projects has been overridden by the mining interests of TVI Pacific, a Canadian company, and Crew Development Corporation, a Norwegian Canadian company. Similarly, despite constitutional guarantees regarding the protection of indigenous territories in Colombia, the U''wa peoples continue to experience threats to the preservation of their lands and resources by oil companies such as Occidental Petroleum of the United States. Ultimately, challenges to the observance of indigenous peoples'' land rights may persist where corporate actors are able to obviate any meaningful accountability to indigenous peoples. Indeed, a breadth of scholarly literature suggests that corporate actors often bypass any meaningful liability under both domestic and international legal accountability frameworks for activities that could constitute violations of indigenous peoples'' land rights. Broadly, the following questions could serve to frame further analyses of such an accountability gap across the domestic-international divide. First, who are the actors and what are the interests that contribute to the existing accountability gap with respect to corporate activity that violates indigenous peoples'' recognized land rights? Second, what possibilities exist for assigning meaningful corporate accountability for such activity within existing domestic accountability frameworks? Third, could the international system constitute an effective site for the assignment of corporate accountability in this context?This essay undertakes a representative case study of the U''wa peoples'' resistance to oil activities by Occidental Petroleum, and through such a case study, provides a focused analysis of corporate accountability for violations of indigenous peoples'' land rights across the domestic-international divide. Engaging this analysis through the U''wa case study is particularly useful because the U''wa sought recourse for alleged violations of their land rights under both domestic and international accountability frameworks. Part I of this essay examines the interests of the primary parties involved in the oil exploration project and reviews the domestic and international avenues of legal recourse that were available to the U''wa against Occidental Petroleum. Drawing conclusions from this case study, Part II analyzes the scope and potential limits of existing domestic approaches to corporate accountability for violations of indigenous peoples'' land rights. Part III further analyzes the scope and potential limits of existing approaches to corporate accountability under international law. This essay concludes that domestic avenues of corporate accountability available to indigenous peoples are often ineffective where state and corporate interests are aligned in the execution of large-scale land development projects, particularly projects involving natural resource extraction. As a result, this essay prompts further inquiry into potential international legal responses to indigenous peoples'' claims regarding the ownership, occupancy, use, and control of their traditional lands and natural resources vis-a-vis corporate actors. To that end, the conclusion identifies remaining questions that should be addressed in the context of theorizing international approaches.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term coalition comes from the Latin coalescere or ‘coalesce’, meaning “come or bring together to form one mass or whole”. Coalesce refers to the unity affirmed as something grows: co – “together”, alesce – “to grow up”. While coalition is commonly associated with formalised alliances and political strategy in the name of self-interest and common goals, this paper will draw as well on the broader etymological understanding of coalition as “growing together” in order to discuss the Australian government’s recent changes to land rights legislation, the 2007 Emergency Intervention into the Northern Territory, and its decision to use Indigenous land in the Northern Territory as a dumping ground for nuclear waste.

How to assess the issue of indigenous land rights in the face of man-m⁠a⁠d⁠e climate change and Amazon fires? How to classify the EU free trade agreement „Mercosur“ and relevant climate, environmental and indigenous rights? What are legal opportunities for indigenous people(s) on the international, inter-American and EU level, to prevent the loss of land and forests, and to protect themselves from climate change? On the basis of indigenous land and environmental rights in Brazil and reactions to the Amazon fires, environmental regulations of the "Mercosur Pact" as well as concerned human and indigenous rights are discussed. Further, this article deals with relevant inter-American law (individual indigenous land rights) and international law (collective land rights). Environmental and climate law provide legal and political options for indigenous people(s), for instance in Brasil. Negative impacts of climate actions on indigenous peoples, the competition between environmental protection areas and indigenous territories, the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in sustainable environmental protection and the allocation of Global Public Goods are discussed. There are various interactions between climate and biodiversity protection, human rights, indigenous peoples rights, and free trade between the EU and South America. While protecting forests as a carbon sink, negative environmental or social consequences must be avoided. Like trade agreements, environmental standards for the protection of the Brazilian Amazon rain forest should be enforceable. To reduce deforestation and to confine the effects of climate change, indigenous peoples rights have to be strengthened. The free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples to projects that may affect their territories is essential. It requires effective, coordinated solutions to protect human rights and indigenous land rights, and it needs a sustainable preservation of climate and forests - nationally and internationally. A collapse of the Amazon forest ecosystem would have global climate effects. In Brazil, alternatives to deforestation and destruction are: strengthening the rule of law and agro-ecology, and to defend indigenous territories.

Choices for tree conservation

Protecting indigenous land from mining : a study of activist representations of indigenous people, in the context of anti-mining movements, with a focus on an Indian case

The future of trade in forest products between the United States and Canada will be measured in terms of Canadian exports to the United States.From the statistics of world production and utilization a trend to self-sufficiency in forest products is evident. This trend is further borne out by the statements of forest policy of many countries which favour the development of local forest industries.Changes in manufacturing technology and in the methods of utilization of forest products have caused a considerable relaxation in the traditional specifications of quality in the raw material. This relaxation of specifications has placed in use raw materials which were formerly waste and has placed certain fast growing species in the class of commercial wood.The tremendous forest growth potential which exists in almost every country is made more evident by the modified specifications of the raw material. The desire for self-sufficiency in many countries, including the United States, is moving to fulfillment.The benefits of possession of a particular species or size of timber are rapidly fading. With the improved opportunities for growth because of changes in raw material specification, the ownership of extensive land area and large timber inventory is an advantage which is diminishing in importance.To the extent that certain regions of Canada are advantageously located relative to the U.S. market compared to competing regions, these will occupy a place in future U.S. markets if steps are taken now to provide a source of cheap raw material for the future. There is certainly no guarantee that future trade in forest products between Canada and the United States will be at a high level; it will depend on the extent to which Canadians recognize and take advantage of the opportunities provided by their accessible productive forest land.

The land rights of the indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh have deep historical roots dating back centuries. This article series examines the impact of various policies and programs, from the colonial era to the present, on the indigenous communities' land rights and traditional way of life. It discusses challenges faced by the indigenous people, loss of ancestral lands due to government interventions, and the significance of the Peace Accord of 1997 in addressing these issues. The evolution of land rights issues, loss of traditional privileges, displacement due to development projects, and the struggle for recognition and autonomy are analyzed, emphasizing the need for effective resolution of indigenous land and resource rights.

MaboLandmark and paradox Rhonda Evans Geoff Rodoreda and Eva Bischoff, eds. Mabo's Cultural Legacy. Melbourne: Anthem Press, 2021. 210 pp. A$125. ISBN: 9781785274294 "Mabo." The word conveys multiple meanings. It identifies a man, Eddie Koiki Mabo; it is shorthand for the High Court decision, Mabo and Others v Queensland (No 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1, that rejected the legal doctrine of terra nullius upon which Australia was colonized; and it marks a torturous turning point in relations between Australia's Indigenous peoples and its settler society. This edited volume by Geoff Rodoreda and Eva Bischoff collects papers presented at a 2017 workshop held in Stuttgart, Germany, that considered the complex cultural legacies of Mabo the man, Mabo the judicial decision, and Mabo the catalyst for change. It addresses profound questions about sovereignty as that concept applies to Indigenous land rights, Indigenous storytelling, and the authoritative definition of Indigenous identity. Because I come to the book as a lawyer and political scientist, my engagement with these subjects has been primarily from those disciplinary perspectives. I found the volume an insightful and accessible account of Mabo's cultural impact and implications. The introductory and closing chapters are especially strong. The volume's editors, Rodoreda and Bischoff, cogently yet concisely articulate the book's recurring themes. Mabo, they explain, embodies a cruel paradox. While the decision jettisons terra nullius from Australia's law books and recognizes Native Title, it simultaneously denies Indigenous sovereignty and sanctifies the dispossession of Indigenous land rights (2). Mabo's cultural significance, Rodoreda and Bischoff contend, derives from its "focus on territory, its specific intervention in historical narrative and its being spoken as law" (3). Because the authors refrain from rehearsing the content of the chapters that follow, Rodoreda and Bischoff's introduction works well as a stand-alone piece. The remainder of the volume is divided into five main sections, focusing on history, politics, film, literature, and memoir. A pair of historical chapters provide greater context for both Mabo the man and Mabo the judicial decision. Focusing on the Australian state of Victoria, Russell and Standfield recount decades-long efforts by Aboriginal activists for land and political rights, including freedom from the oppressive laws that from the mid-nineteenth century through the 1930s purported to "protect" them. Their contribution positions Mabo the man and Mabo the decision within the longer and broader struggles of Australia's Indigenous peoples. [End Page 291] Turnbull, by contrast, offers a more personal account of Eddie and Bonita Mabo's work in the Townsville community, especially with respect to providing educational opportunities for Indigenous peoples. His attention to Bonita's role corrects a general tendency to overlook her own considerable contributions. Turnbull's chapter also offers an interesting, firsthand perspective on the vibrant intellectual life of James Cook University in the 1980s, populated by the likes of Professor Henry Reynolds and Oodgeroo Noonuccal. This was the milieu in which Eddie Mabo formulated his own ideas about the world and his place in it. The legislative regime created to determine Native Title claims constitutes a key legacy of the Mabo decision. Two chapters examine the politics and practice of central elements of that regime. From anthropological and linguistic perspectives, respectively, Wergin and Ringel illustrate the important ways in which the regime's legal rules interact with Indigenous identities, shape those identities as well as the accompanying claims to land, and engender conflict among Indigenous peoples. Together, the chapters showcase the continuing centrality of the Australian state's sovereign role in defining and determining rights to land. They also illustrate the ways in which the regime empowers and privileges anthropologists and linguists in the Native Title process. A trio of chapters address issues concerning Mabo and film. Collectively, they highlight the importance of Indigenous peoples obtaining the requisite resources to tell their stories from their perspectives, or in other words, to exercise storytelling sovereignty. Chapters by Moreton and Davis and Kilroy do an excellent job of describing the development of both institutional capacity and film-production practices at Screen Australia and within the private sector that facilitate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling for both television and film. These developments, Moreton and...