Forest Governance Reforms Research Articles

Impact of Indonesia's Forest Management Units on the reduction of forest loss and forest fires in Sulawesi

The establishment of Forest Management Units (Kesatuan Pengelolaan Hutan/ KPH) represents one of Indonesia's most significant forest governance reforms, covering the 120 million hectares of designated Forest Areas. Sharing features with the Landscape Approach, KPHs are expected to reduce deforestation and forest degradation through improved forest planning, oversight, open access avoidance, and fire prevention and response. This paper assesses the impact of KPHs on the reduction of forest loss, including forest loss due to fire, and the factors that influence this impact (e.g. KPH's primary objective, deforestation risk). We use remotely sensed data to estimate difference-in-differences models accounting for differences in baseline characteristics and multiple time periods. Our case study, Sulawesi Island, is primarily shaped by smallholder farmer land use, where KPHs can exert significant influence. We do not find evidence of an overall effect of KPHs on deforestation. However, we observe intriguing heterogeneous effects depending on the year, including significantly less deforestation in already-established KPHs during the El Niño years of 2015–16, and a notable impact on the reduction of forest loss due to fire in some early-established KPHs. These findings warrant further investigation.

Examining the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan in Ghana through a governmentality lens

Over the past decade, the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan has emerged as a key global initiative in addressing deforestation and forest degradation. Yet, there is considerable scholarly debate and disagreement about the impact of FLEGT on forest governance, and ultimately, its effectiveness in arresting deforestation and degradation. This article contributes to this debate through a detailed examination of FLEGT in the case of Ghana. It applies a governmentality analytical lens that examines practices of problematization, knowledge production, intervention and subjectification. The article builds on a detailed review of the substantial literature on FLEGT in Ghana, the first timber producing country to enter into a voluntary partnership agreement with the EU. The article illustrates how FLEGT frames illegal logging as the central problem, and how this focus relegates other problems – especially those concerning tree tenure and benefit sharing – to secondary positions. This goes hand in hand with production of knowledge that stabilizes illegal logging as the key problem and provides legitimacy to the FLEGT implementation. The article then examines the many interventions which FLEGT has triggered. On the positive side, it has enhanced consultation and participation of private sector and civil society in forest governance, as well as increased forest sector transparency. Despite its stipulated aims, FLEGT has been less successful in nurturing deeper forest governance reforms that could provide incentives for agents in the sector to engage actively in forest conservation and cultivation of trees. FLEGT focuses on technical issues and challenges, failing to address inherently political issues concerning forest and tree tenure. It maintains local populations living in and close to the forest as passive subjects with limited rights to the forest or influence over its management. The article concludes that to achieve its aims, FLEGT needs to move away from its current technical focus and colonial forest governance model to seriously address issues of tree tenure, benefit sharing and access. It discusses what is required for such a change to take place, and more generally, what a governmentality lens has to offer political ecology.

How to make forest governance reform real? Formal and informal institutions during implementation of the forest rights act 2006 in India

Scholars are increasingly paying much attention on institutions and process of institutional change to find ways to improve environmental governance across the globe. This article tests the existing framework of studying the process of institutional change, particularly in the context of valued resources like forests, and argues for broader framework for improved understanding. Based on intensive field work during the implementation process of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in West Bengal state of India, this article examines the patterns of institutional reform in forestry sector. It shows how ambiguities while framing rules under the central Act helped the states to craft a new institutional structure during the implementation, serving their political interests. It also demonstrates how state agency is working to disrupt legal institutions and maintain pre-existing institutional structure to continue internal culture of forestry and ideology of the forest department. I argue for a broader perspective that not only includes political context and institutional characteristics, but also activities of actors who intentionally adopt informal institutions to resist change, and thereby maintain political power and / or reinforce the bureaucratic ‘command and control’ approach. This approach provides an improved understanding on institutional change and stability, particularly in the context of complex, multi-actor and multi-layered federal structure of forest governance in India.

State-community relations and deliberative politics within federal forest governance in Nepal

Despite widespread participatory governance reforms in the forest sector in Nepal, how forest administration can be re-organised at multiple levels to enable community based forest management remains unexplored. Forest governance reforms in Nepal have involved numerous forms of collaboration and contestation between the state agencies and community-based forest stakeholders in the rapidly evolving federalist political context. Analysing an empirical case of community forestry in Nepal, this paper shows how state agencies and communities interact in the process of controlling and managing forest resources. It is argued in the paper that instituting deliberative processes in multi-level governance structure is a key to the functioning of a well-devolved forest governance. With the nation already adopting a new federal system of governance, it is crucial to clearly define the authorities of the federal, provincial and local level administrations. We also argue that the need for creating institutions and spaces for deliberative engagement between forest dependent community groups and the public administration is at an all-time high for achieving accountability and more effective forest governance. The future of Nepal's forestry and people living around forest resources depend to a large extent on how powers are shared by different levels of governments, and how these governments interact with one another, and with people and civil societies in their respective domains of governance.

From global forest governance to domestic politics: The European forest policy reforms in Cameroon

This article's originality and major contribution lies in its empirical roots. Based on the case study of the European Voluntary Partnership Agreement on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (VPA-FLEGT) in Cameroon, the paper questions what happens when global forest governance reforms meet domestic politics in Africa. Coupled with a carefully selected literature, this entrenchment helped to clearly identify the formal and informal strategies deployed by key actors to put or resist the European sustainable forest management policy reforms on the agenda in Cameroon from 2003 to 2019. The signing of the VPA-FLEGT in Cameroon triggered several debates on the relevance of a new legal instrument for sustainable forest management against the backdrop of an already prolific (poorly or non-enforced) legislation. This article aims, on the one hand, at analysing the process through which VPA-FLEGT was put on the agenda in Cameroon, identifying the key actors involved and examining their roles, interests and strategies as regards this global forest policy instrument. On the other hand, it seeks to investigate how the institutionalisation of VPA-FLEGT in Cameroon change or not the politics of forestland governance in national arenas. In order to attain the aforementioned objectives, we adopted a sociology of the State-based approach. The research indicates that (i) although VPA-FLEGT is an innovative policy instrument in Cameroon, it essentially relies on recycled already existing forest policies. (ii) Several technical and political roadblocks, largely underestimated or overlooked by European actors hamper the implementation of this instrument. (iii) Lastly, the legitimacy and relevance of VPA-FLEGT in Cameroon is subject to many controversies and tensions among the main actors. Our research shows that Cameroonian state bureaucracy’s commitment to this initiative was mainly motivated by a ‘cunning government’ strategy of rents capture and blame avoidance tactics..

Recent transformations of land-use and land-cover dynamics across different deforestation frontiers in the Brazilian Amazon

After forest governance reforms by the Brazilian government, Amazon deforestation rates dropped by almost 80% between 2004 and 2012. Since then, however, deforestation has slowly increased again, casting doubts on the long-term sustainability of past conservation policy achievements. Clearly, deforestation rates and the associated local drivers of land-use and land-cover change differ considerably across the region, and adapting public policies to dynamic local contexts and actor constellations remains a major challenge for decision-makers. This paper seeks to contribute to the related science-policy debate by applying frontier theory insights to map, quantify, and compare land-cover dynamics in the Brazilian Amazon between 2004 and 2015. Our theoretical framework performs well in explaining broad variations in scope, nature, and agents of land-use and land-cover change across different frontier regions. We observe two types of transformative processes at deforestation frontiers in the Amazonian context. First, recent frontier development is characterized by an intensification of cattle ranching, and an increasing share of agricultural activities in the production portfolio, which could be the result of better access to modern technologies and markets, combined with forest governance induced scarcity of land for expansion of historically dominant extensive pasture systems. Second, the share of medium and large-scale deforestation declines at first, but rebounds during the observation period in all frontier types after 2012. Further research is needed to better understand the role of the changing political environment in driving these medium and short-term transformations in land-use and land-cover change. Furthermore, policy-makers, international cooperation, and civil society must seek strong integration between value chain based governance measures and effective environmental law enforcement.

Does the ‘One Map Initiative’ Represent a New Path for Forest Mapping in Indonesia? Assessing the Contribution of the REDD+ Initiative in Effecting Forest Governance Reform

This study investigates one notable result that the REDD+ (‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and enhancing forest carbon stocks and conservation’) initiative effected within Indonesia’s forest institutions. It argues that during its interplay with existing National forest institutions REDD+ produced a significant benefit; namely, the ‘one map initiative’ (OMI) being the government’s response to the call for greater transparency and enabling of REDD+ implementation. It asks: “Does the ‘One Map Initiative’ signify a switch to a new path of map-making, or is it just another innovation within an existing path dependence of forest governance?” Through eighty semi-structured interviews with ‘REDD+ policy actors’ and the deployment of ‘path dependence’ theory, this study seeks to determine the extent to which the REDD+ initiative created a ‘critical juncture’ (i.e., momentum for institutions to move to a new path). This study maps the institutional path dependence within forest-mapping as a means for the state to gain control of forest resources. In its development process the OMI has shown its ability to break the old path-dependence of map-making (e.g., lack of transparency, low level of public participation, and poor coordination amongst ministries). Moreover, this paper identified several historical events (i.e., ‘critical junctures’) that preceded the REDD+ initiative as contributing factors to the relative success of REDD+ in effecting forest governance reform.

Indonesia's Forest Management Units: Effective intermediaries in REDD + implementation?

Previous literature encouraged a hybrid institutional approach for REDD+ implementation, where clear government policies help reconcile the rules, regulations and interests of external institutions with those of the communities involved. However, it is unclear how such an approach can be designed in the scale necessary to match local, national and international interests in protecting forests. For this reason, the functions of intermediaries deserve explicit recognition by key actors in shaping REDD+ policy nationally and internationally. Indonesia is promoting the more localized Forest Management Unit (Kesatuan Pengelolaan Hutan or KPH) as a key element of forest governance reform for embracing REDD+ and related initiatives. Using a case study from eastern Indonesia, we analyzed local factors driving deforestation and forest degradation. We then reviewed the work of the local KPH to examine the necessary roles of a potential REDD+ intermediary. We argue that progress made by the local KPH in improving forest governance, including partnerships with local communities, is made possible by the KPH fulfilling the role of policy intermediary while taking on transformative roles reshaping internal and external relations. However, for the KPHs to fulfill their mandate as effective REDD+ intermediaries, more concerted efforts from the central and provincial governments, as well as from international donors, are still needed. These include greater consistency in government policies and regulations, improved policy communications, and the commitment to strengthening the capacity of individual KPHs.

The politics of forestland use in a cunning government: lessons for contemporary forest governance reforms

The stakes are high for tropical forestlands in multi-actor power relations because of their interdependence (climate change mitigation), their above- and below-ground resources (wood, mines) and their arable lands. In tropical countries, where the State owns most of the forestlands, many governments feel that any external initiative to change their forestland use policies infringes on their sovereignty. The governments' reactions to pressure for forestland governance reforms advocated by the international community may reflect the level of their national strength, international credibility and the attractiveness of offsets for forestland use conversion. Governments either use a tactic based on strength or on cunning, in the Machiavellian sense of the term, to impose their domestic agenda. Referring to the two last decades of forestland use policy reforms in Cameroon, this article seeks to understand why and how some governments of developing countries like Cameroon use cunning strategies to circumvent the implementation of undesired forest policy reforms while avoiding blame from the international community.

Prospects and challenges of tenure and forest governance reform in the context of REDD + initiatives in Nepal

This paper argues that the Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) initiatives in Nepal have not adequately understood and considered institutional and political issues around forest tenure and governance challenges. The paper is developed based on reviews of polices, assessments of project activities, interviews with key informants, and observation of ongoing REDD+ related public discussions. We found that the REDD+ initiatives so far appear to have prioritized technical issues such as carbon assessment, reference scenario, and measurement, reporting and verification of emissions. However, a major policy challenge in Nepal is the substantial deforestation and degradation going on, which leads to substantial challenges of leakage and threatens Nepal's National REDD+ policy ambition. The key drivers of deforestation and degradation in Nepal are still poorly identified, analyzed and understood. Inadequate focus of Nepal's present REDD+ readiness on the core issues of contested forest tenure and frail governance entails that an unrealistic policy and institutional measures would be developed in addressing these issues of deforestation and degradation. Consequently, it would seriously undermine the prospect of achieving emission reduction — the very goal of REDD+. It is suggested that a robust analysis, collective understanding and broadly agreed policy measures for curbing deforestation must be at the core of REDD+ readiness process.

Reform or reversal: the impact of REDD+ readiness on forest governance in Indonesia

Indonesia has turned its alleged role as global leader of land-based carbon emissions into a role as a global trailblazer exploring modalities for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). REDD+ readiness is largely about improving forest governance, but this itself is a multilayered concept. This article analyses how the processes and practices of REDD+ readiness are leading to various forest governance reforms in Indonesia. We analysed six dimensions of REDD+ readiness progress over the past six years and the way these interact with land tenure reform and land-use planning. We found evidence that (1) tenure issues are taken more seriously, as evidenced by the development of social safeguard mechanisms and efforts to accelerate the gazettement of forest boundaries, although a constitutional court recognition in 2013 for customary forest management is, however, yet to be operationalized; (2) spatial planning relates forests more clearly to other parts of the landscape in terms of compliance with Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) commitments; and (3) the forest and peatland conversion moratorium initiative led to a revamping of forest management. Despite progress, there are still major obstacles to full REDD+ implementation in Indonesia. The discussion focuses on the weaker part of readiness and possible ways forward.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), Transnational Conservation and Access to Land in Jambi, Indonesia

Indonesia is engaging in the UN-backed Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation scheme (REDD+) to reduce its land-use-based greenhouse gas emissions. This paper begins with the assumption that REDD+ and general trends towards privatization of nature and conservation are impacting the ability of local communities to access land. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Jambi in 2012, I explore land access patterns in the context of Indonesia’s emerging REDD governance framework. Initial findings show that, despite recent REDD-related forest governance reforms, land tenure issues remain unresolved. The results of fieldwork in the Harapan Rainforest area show that the reality on the ground is still characterized by overlapping and competing land claims backed by different authorities.

Diverse local regulatory responses to a new forestry regime in forest communities in the Bolivian Amazon

Over the last decade, important land and forest governance reforms have taken place in many tropical countries, including the devolution of ownership rights over land and forests, decentralization that created mechanisms for forest dwellers to participate in decision making in lowest tiers of governments. These reforms have resulted in an intensive academic debate on governance and management of forests and how actors should be involved. An important but understudied element in this debate is the ways in which communities cope with new legislation and responsibilities. Property rights bestowed by the government leave many aspects undecided and require that local forest users devise principles of access and allocation and establish authority to control those processes. We studied 16 communities in the northern Bolivian Amazon to evaluate how forest communities develop and control local rules for resource access and use. We found that the first requirement to community rule design, enforcement, and effective forest management is the opportunity to, and equity of, access to forest resources among members. Under the newly imposed forestry regulations, communities took matters in their own hands and designed more specific rules, rights and obligations of how community members could and should use economically important resources. The cases suggest that communities hold and maintain capacity to prepare their own ownership arrangements and related rules, even if they are strongly conditioned by the regulatory reforms. Very specific local histories, that may differ from community to community, influence strongly how specific ideas are being shaped, which in northern Bolivia resulted in notable local differences. The results suggest that new regulatory regimes should create appropriate conditions for communities to define adequate or at least convenient forestry institutions that assure an acceptable level of collective coexistence according to each particular communal history.

Fighting Over Forest: Toward a Shared Analysis of Livelihood Conflicts and Conflict Management in Ghana

Conflicts undermine forest-based livelihoods for the rural poor. Conflict management is key to preventing such conflicts. This article analyzes actor perceptions of forest- and tree-related conflicts and conflict management in Ghana's high forest zone. It also assesses a phased methodology that promotes shared problem definition and ownership of recommendations on conflict resolution strategies through the presentation and discussion of findings from document analysis, surveys, interviews, and focus-group discussions at a workshop with forest professionals held in Kumasi, Ghana. The study found that conflicts are inherent in forest-based livelihoods due to policy and legislative failures and institutional deficiencies, perceived goal incompatibility, opportunities for interfering with the attainment of one another's goals, and environmental scarcity. Ongoing forest governance reforms in Ghana should consider the stepwise conflict management model developed by the workshop participants involved in this study, but expand it to include the views of other stakeholder groups.

Building on Forest Governance Reforms through FLEGT: The Best Way of Controlling Forests' Contribution to Climate Change?

Illegal logging is a major problem in the forestry sector, and legislation to combat it has recently been introduced in both the United States and the European Union (EU) – two of the world's largest importers of timber. Non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) and the timber industry have urged governments to use trade incentives to control illegalities, and this has been instrumental in the development of these laws. The Lacey Act, an American conservation law revised in 2008 to include illegal timber, requires businesses to demonstrate that their purchasing policies and mechanisms effectively avoid sourcing timber from illegal sources. Because tackling the problem depends on cooperation between importing and exporting countries, the EU has been working since 2002 on a comprehensive plan to control illegal timber imports: the EU Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT). This Action Plan has led to new legislation to control illegal timber imports and help timber‐producing countries to improve forest governance. It is hoped that in this way FLEGT will also contribute to keeping forests standing, thereby mitigating climate change. However, it is feared that World Bank and United Nations initiatives on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) may undermine the FLEGT initiative if they do not recognize the need to begin with forest governance reforms.

People, Governance and Forests—The Stumbling Blocks in Forest Governance Reform in Latin America

This article examines common barriers to achieving adequate levels of forest resource governance in countries of Latin America. It looks at the deficiencies of the policy and regulatory frameworks affecting forests, the common failure to impose the rule of law, the main factors that constrain the effectiveness of government actions in the forest sector and at the political barriers to introducing reforms for change in governance structures. The elimination of these barriers acquires new importance in the implementation of successful REDD+ programs in the countries of the region.

Governing sustainable forest management in the new climate regime

AbstractThe newly appreciated role of deforestation and forest degradation as globally significant sources of carbon emissions has focused fresh political attention and large prospective financial flows on tropical forest management. Negotiations at the Thirteenth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change produced a ‘road map’ toward including compensation to tropical countries for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in a future global climate agreement. The prospect of a global REDD mechanism has spurred the development of REDD initiatives by national governments, international organizations, and private actors. These new initiatives are facing many of the same forest governance challenges that have stymied past efforts to improve the conservation and management of tropical forests. To be effective, efficient, and equitable, REDD efforts will not only have to reverse the economic incentives that drive forest loss, but will also need to clarify land tenure, link to international efforts to curb illegal logging and trade, and manage trade‐offs among competing objectives. They will also need to strengthen the institutional capacity for inclusive REDD design processes, transparent monitoring of carbon emissions and financial flows, and cross‐sectoral and cross‐scale coordination. At the same time, REDD initiatives could provide opportunities to accelerate the required forest governance reforms. WIREs Clim Change 2010 1 803–810 DOI: 10.1002/wcc.70This article is categorized under: Climate and Development > Social Justice and the Politics of Development Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance

Assessment of an iterative process: The double spiral of re-designing participation

Abstract The procedures for reforming forest policies and programmes as promoted through the international dialogue on forests are addressing hard challenges to forest administrations, which are basically still working along a very different scheme for decision making (top-down and command-and-control systems, with no evaluation of the results). One of the most relevant conceptual frameworks to address the issue of forest governance reform under such conditions is the mixed model which tries to link the deductive instrumental and the communicative approaches in a progressive process for change. In the mixed model, the basic structure of the decision making process is a chronological deductive series of steps whose content is defined through a negotiation procedure. The monitoring of the implementation of the forest policy reform aiming at a permanent adaptation to the changes in the context, including those brought from the reform process itself, is provided by the means of participatory assessments along the chain. The mixed model is especially adapted to the follow-up of the National Forestry Programmes, which are supposed to be carried out through an iterative and participatory scheme. As most of the time the deductive and communicative approaches are not completely fitting to each other, the process of re-designing the forest programme works as a combination of outward and inward spirals (the double spiral), revealed by evaluation procedures. The experience of the evaluation of a complete cycle of forest policy development in Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia, ex-USSR country), an 8-year case history of implementation of the “mixed model”, is presented. The paper explains why the mixed model was used as a basis for the process of forest policy reform in Kyrgyzstan, and how in this framework the various forces expressing participants' interests were alternatively balancing from collaborative learning (outward spiral) to target oriented strategies (inward spirals). The paper also shows how the evaluation exercise carried out after 5 years led to a re-definition of the participatory procedures linked with a re-construction of the forest administration authority.