Sustainable Forest Governance Research Articles

Deforestation-induced the EKC framework: The role of corruption control and trade openness in Southeast Asia

Reducing the deforestation rate and formulating sustainable forest governance are still challenging for Southeast Asia. This empirical research intends to explore the dynamic connection between GDP, trade openness, corruption, and deforestation within the EKC framework by considering controls over agriculture and population. This article uses panel data from nine countries from 1996 to 2018. Pooled Mean Group (PMG) procedure and Dumitrescu-Hurlin (DH) causality tests were applied to examine the variables’ long-term relationships and the direction of the causality. This article also features the unit root and cointegration tests. The estimation supports the EKC hypothesis that the nexus between economic growth and deforestation forms an inverted-U curve. The turning point of the per capita GDP is USD 26785, i.e., the advanced stage of development. Other findings are that trade openness is a driver of deforestation, while control of corruption is an effective instrument to reduce the deforestation rate in the long run. Deforestation will still occur in Southeast Asia because only Brunei Darussalam has passed the turning point. However, implementing development programs while reducing the deforestation rate can be done because the bidirectional causality between GDP and deforestation is not confirmed. Improving trade regulations and governance is a necessary scheme to reduce deforestation rates in the future.

Understanding local beneficiaries of ecosystem services in the Bia-Tano Forest Reserve for sustainable forest governance

Understanding local beneficiaries of ecosystem services in the Bia-Tano Forest Reserve for sustainable forest governance

Sustainable Forest Governance: A New Policy Strategy in Handling Forest Fires in Jambi Province

Jambi Province is one of the areas most prone to forest destruction in Indonesia. The case of forest fires is an annual disaster that regularly occurs in Indonesia, including one in Jambi province. The problem of forest fires often occurs in Indonesia, whether human activities cause it or are caused by a long dry season. This study analyzes Sustainable Forest Governance from the point of view of the New Policy Strategy in Handling Forest Fires in Jambi Province. This research focuses on Jambi Province, one of Indonesia’s regions with the largest forest. This research method is qualitative exploratory with secondary data carried out to describe and describe the research. Data were collected from field interviews, online media, and related literature related to the research topic. The analysis technique uses the NVivo 12 plus data processing application, a qualitative document analysis tool with the help of a computer. Equipment. They are easy to use and can word-process and explore word frequency, attributes, and cases from big data. They also generate factor or sub-factor categories in journalistic and research applications related to the research topic. The study results show that the government’s program in making new policy strategies for handling forest fires in the province has several indicators, then the cooperation of actors in forest fire prevention in the region.

Rethinking The Roles and Institutions of Pawang Uteun for Sustainable Forest Management: Literature Review

Customs that are sourced from local traditions and knowledge offer alternative perspectives for solutions in environmental management, one of which is sustainable forest governance. Local knowledge contains about how to interact and use resources born of an adaptive process with nature and the environment which is transmitted orally and shared practice from generation to generation. This study discusses the role of the pawang uteun in using their cultural authority as a manifestation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge to respond to the increasingly complex forest governance in Aceh. This research is a literature review research, using library research method. Data obtained from several articles and books, which were analyzed using descriptive analysis techniques. From the results of the study, it is known that studies related to Pawang Uteun discuss more about the role of institutions, customary law and as Indatu Tradition but very minimally discuss the existence of Pawang Uteun from the perspective of local ecological knowledge and the ecological wisdom of Acehnese indigenous peoples as a solution in overcoming forest destruction. The Pawang Uteun is only seen as a traditional representation but ignores the Pawang Uteun as a manifestation of local knowledge about ecological wisdom. The diminishing role of the pawang utuen (delegation) is directly proportional to the high rate of clearing of forest land cover. Keywords: pawang uteun, ecological wisdom, local knowledge, sustainability.

Managing Risks Arising from Conservation Complexities of Forests: Insights from China’s “Chief Scheme” Practice

Forests play a critical role in combating climate change. It takes China from timber production to ecosystem rehabilitation and then to the future of carbon neutrality. Even though China’s forestry has made great achievements, there remain many problems with its sustainable management, especially the difficult balance between rural livelihood and forest conservation. Under these circumstances, the forest chief scheme was transformed from local trials to a national mechanism. This article seeks to analyze the origin and evolution of the “forest chief” scheme and the complexities and challenges related to China’s sustainable forestry development. Taking the risk governance framework, this study provides a systematic overview of the functioning of the “forest chiefs” element integral to sustainable governance. It offers innovative ways of top-down participation in the specific context by integrating the adaptive risk governance approach, thereby provoking critical thinking about sustainable forest governance.

Analysis of Policy and Legal Framework Affecting Sustainable Forest Management in Ethiopia

Forest resources in Ethiopia provide multiple goods and services including food, medicine, energy, shelter, clean water, land stabilization, erosion control, maintaining biodiversity, and regulation of climate change. However, these resources have been facing numerous challenges and are increasingly under threat for quite a long time. This study adopted the Governance of Forests Initiative (GFI) framework to assess the impacts of policies and legal framework on sustainable forest governance in Ethiopia. The GFI framework is a comprehensive tool used to diagnose and assess strengths and weaknesses of legal and policy arrangement governing forestry sector. Ethiopia has formulated and implemented various forest policies and legal instruments to address the persistent challenges of sustainable forest management and to fulfill the economic and societal benefits expected from the sector. However, our analysis shows a huge gap between legal and policy design and implementation. The existing efforts have focused on developing policy and legal instruments, while little has been done to implement them at the local level. Implementation instruments such as regulations, directives and guidelines have not sufficiently developed to translate the broader policy intents into practice. Lack of proper implementation instruments not only undermine forest management but also hinder national efforts to halt deforestation and achieve the country's ambitious plan for fast and sustainable development. Therefore, it is crucial to translate policy and legal provisions regarding forest governance into implementation instruments such as regulations, directives, and guidelines. Accurate and up-to-date information and records that contain comprehensive legal and spatial information about forest conservation areas should be maintained centrally both at regional state and federal level and freely accessible by the public. Keywords: policy impact; legal framework; Governance of Forests Initiative; implementation, forest management; Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/10-4-02 Publication date: April 30 th 2020

Impacts of Policy and Legal Framework on Sustainable Forest Governance in Ethiopia

Forest resources in Ethiopia provide multiple goods and services including food, medicine, energy, shelter, clean water, land stabilization, erosion control, maintaining biodiversity, and regulation of climate change. However, these resources have been facing numerous challenges and are increasingly under threat for quite a long time. This study adopted the Governance of Forests Initiative (GFI) framework to assess the impacts of policies and legal framework on sustainable forest governance in Ethiopia. The GFI framework is a comprehensive tool used to diagnose and assess strengths and weaknesses of legal and policy arrangement governing forestry sector. Ethiopia has formulated and implemented various forest policies and legal instruments to address the persistent challenges of sustainable forest management and to fulfill the economic and societal benefits expected from the sector. However, our analysis shows a huge gap between legal and policy design and implementation. The existing efforts have focused on developing policy and legal instruments, while little has been done to implement them at the local level. Implementation instruments such as regulations, directives and guidelines have not sufficiently developed to translate the broader policy intents into practice. Lack of proper implementation instruments not only undermine forest management but also hinder national efforts to halt deforestation and achieve the country's ambitious plan for fast and sustainable development. Therefore, it is crucial to translate policy and legal provisions regarding forest governance into implementation instruments such as regulations, directives, and guidelines. Accurate and up-to-date information and records that contain comprehensive legal and spatial information about forest conservation areas should be maintained centrally both at regional state and federal level and freely accessible by the public. Keywords: policy impact; legal framework; Governance of Forests Initiative; implementation, forest governance; Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-5-03 Publication date: March 31 st 2020

Unearthing the myths of global sustainable forest governance

Non-technical summaryDespite efforts to address the global forest crisis, deforestation and degradation continue, so we need to urgently revisit possible solutions. A failure to halt the global forest crisis contributes to climate change and biodiversity loss and will continue to result in inequalities in access to, and benefits from, forest resources. In this paper, we unpack a series of powerful myths about forests and their management. By exposing and better understanding these myths and what makes them so persistent, we have the basis to make the social and political changes needed to better manage and protect forests globally.

Rethinking Effective Public Engagement in Sustainable Forest Governance

Addressing environmental problems through conventional expert and scientific approaches alone is largely ineffective. Therefore, Canadian forest management has evolved to include governance processes such as public advisory committees. Public participation is mandated by federal and provincial policy and is a key part of forest certification processes. In this context, self-reports of committee effectiveness and satisfaction are common indicators of meaningful governance. Yet we often know very little about what people mean when they indicate that a process is effective. Using a 2016 national survey of PAC members across Canada (n = 345), empirical findings confirm that personal perceptions of fairness, inclusion, and (to a lesser extent) social learning determines individual judgments of committee effectiveness and satisfaction. Policy recommendations include a sharper focus on social learning as a key governance outcome.

Norm Entrepreneurs Sidestep REDD+ in Pursuit of Just and Sustainable Forest Governance

This paper explores the dissonance between conceptions of justice among forest-adjacent communities and their representation in global forest policies, a persistent barrier to delivering just sustainability. We empirically track justice claims of rural villagers upwards through specific intermediaries or ‘justice brokers’: civil society, state, or private sector actors operating at local to international levels, who navigate different institutions to advance various social and ecological interests. We draw on interviews with 16 intermediaries in each of Nepal and Uganda and find that recognition of local values and practices such as customary tenure systems are key justice concerns of forest-adjacent communities in each country. However, intermediaries perceive a low likelihood of advancing those claims through national or international climate and forest policy debates, such as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), in large part because deliberations on justice are subordinated to concerns such as carbon accounting and arrangements for distributing monetary benefits. This suggests these policy processes must be modified to offer potential for transformational pathways. Intermediaries who pursued recognition justice issues developed innovative tactics in alternative forums. These ‘norm entrepreneurs’ adopted a suite of complementary strategies to attain influence, including: (1) formation of associations at the grassroots level; (2) media and advocacy campaigns through national coalitions to reach powerful international donors, and; (3) drawing on international support networks for advice, training and to influence national government. In both Uganda and Nepal these strategies were evidenced to enhance recognition for local values and practices.

Non-conformities to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards: Empirical evidence and implications for policy-making in Brazil

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards are becoming increasingly important in sustainable forest governance. In 2016, FSC certified a total forest area of 195Mha across 80 countries. While there is considerable room for expanding FSC's reach, there has been a lack of incentives for producers to seek certification, particularly in tropical countries. Information about existing barriers and challenges to comply with FSC standards are fundamental to promote such incentives. The objective of this study was to explore the main challenges faced by firms in the FSC certification process and discuss their policy implications. This was carried out by analyzing the quantity, spatial distribution, non-compliant principles, potential triggers and thematic areas of non-conformities (NCs) to FSC certification disclosed in the Public Summary Reports of third-party audits in Brazil. More specifically it tried to understand the specific issues to which the NCs were potentially associated to. This study generated descriptive and inferential statistics of a sample of 1086 NCs to FSC standards disclosed in the 110 Public Summary Reports, from which the overall majority were related to the certification of plantation forests that had gone through maintenance audits. The occurrence of NCs was found to be most frequently associated with FSC Principles 4 (26,07%), 6 (21,82%) and 8 (13,72%), which are related to the themes “Community Relations and Worker's rights”, “Environmental Impact” and “Monitoring and Assessment”, respectively. Many NCs were triggered by aspects of forest planning, operation and monitoring, which altogether accounted for 42.91% of all NCs. Problems related to occupational health and safety were also a relevant theme, accounting for almost 20% of the total non-conformities. Findings from the Kruskal-Wallis tests suggest that auditors tended to identify similar NCs, regardless of the geographical region, of the type of forest and of the type of audit (certification or maintenance). Spearman Correlation tests indicated significant relationships between certified forest area and non-conformities with FSC Principles 4 and 7 (Community Relations and Worker's Rights, and Management Plans, respectively). The meaning of this relationship is unclear. Overall, findings corroborate previous studies that found FSC Principles 4 and 6 among the most challenging of the global FSC system. There seems to exist an opportunity for the development of stronger technical guidance and capacity building policies related to community relations, worker's rights, and environmental impacts. If such issues are already challenging in the context of large forest plantations, Brazilian policy-makers should expect small-scale firms to face even higher levels of difficulty, given their lack of financial and human resources. The study concludes by discussing its limitations and suggesting future research avenues.

Experimentalism in transnational forest governance: Implementing European Union Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreements in Indonesia and Ghana

AbstractOver the past decade, the European Union (EU) has created a novel experimentalist architecture for transnational forest governance: the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative. This innovative architecture comprises extensive participation by civil society stakeholders in establishing and revising open‐ended framework goals (Voluntary Partnership Agreements [VPAs] with developing countries aimed at promoting sustainable forest governance and preventing illegal logging) and metrics for assessing progress toward them (legality standards and indicators) through monitoring and review of local implementation, underpinned by a penalty default mechanism to sanction non‐cooperation (the EU Timber Regulation that prohibits operators from placing illegally harvested wood on the European market). This paper analyzes the implementation of VPAs in Indonesia and Ghana, the two countries furthest advanced toward issuing FLEGT export licences. A central finding is the reciprocal relationship between the experimentalist architecture of the FLEGT initiative and transnational civil society activism, whereby the VPAs’ insistence on stakeholder participation, independent monitoring, and joint implementation review, underwritten by the EU, empowers domestic non‐governmental organizations with local knowledge to expose problems on the ground, hold public authorities accountable for addressing them, and contribute to developing provisional solutions.

Feminist Institutionalist Interpretation of Forest Tenure Regimes in Nepal

Forest tenure reform is one of the key agenda for sustainable forest governance. But forest tenure is not gender neutral. We examine various forest tenure regimes of Nepal from feminist institutionalist approach and explore, to what extent, each regime recognises the right of women to forest tenure. Five community-based forest tenure regimes, namely community forest, pro-poor leasehold forest, collaborative forest, buffer zone community forest and conservation area are taken into account for assessing gender dimension. Historical changes and continuity are presented in forestry governance in terms of women’s bundle of rights over forest resources across three key phases – before 1950s, from 1950s to 1970s and from 1970s onward. Formal and informal institutions in each of the five tenure regimes were analysed and we found that the formal institutions in community forestry recognises the roles of the women in forest tenure, but those in other regimes and informal rules in all the regimes, by and large, prevent women from having access to and control over forest resource decisions. Emerging aspects of forestry, mainly forest-based enterprises and REDD+ have not been able to address gender issues properly. Some recommendations are made for gender equality in forest tenure regimes.

Theorising Derecognition of Local Government Authorities as Political Injustice: The Effects of Technical Claims in Senegal's Forestry

Most developing-country governments have 'recognised' elected local governments (ELGs) by transferring to them the authority (e.g. rights and resources) over the forests within their jurisdiction. In practice, however, Forest Services are 'derecognising' ELGs – taking back these decentralised powers. This article shows that 'derecognition' is effectively a new 'recognition' dynamic in decentralised forest management in Senegal, in which Forestry officials and agents derecognise ELGs drawing upon technical claims. It also theorises derecognition as political injustice by demonstrating how the technical claims, although used in support of sustainable forest governance, cause political injustice through the following observed derecognition outcomes: 1) circumvention of ELGs that deprives them of the means to be responsive to local people (and thus disables them as democratic institutions); 2) subordination of the new participatory organisations created to receive the powers taken from ELGs to instrumental objectives of central forestry authorities; and 3) progressive privatisation of the forests that diminishes the democratic public domain.

Experimentalism in Transnational Forest Governance: Implementing EU Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (Flegt) Voluntary Partnership Agreements in Indonesia and Ghana

Over the past decade, the European Union has created a novel experimentalist architecture for transnational forest governance: the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative. This architecture comprises extensive participation by civil society stakeholders in the establishment and revision of open-ended framework goals (bilateral Voluntary Partnership Agreements or VPAs with developing countries aimed at promoting sustainable forest governance and preventing illegal logging) and metrics for assessing progress towards them (legality standards and indicators) through ongoing monitoring and review of local implementation by countries and firms, underpinned by a penalty default mechanism to sanction non-cooperation (the EU Timber Regulation that prohibits operators from placing illegally harvested wood on the European market). This paper analyzes the implementation of VPAs in Indonesia and Ghana, the two countries that are closest to being able to issue FLEGT export licences. A central theme of the analysis is the reciprocal relationship between the experimentalist architecture of the FLEGT initiative and transnational civil society activism, whereby the VPAs’ insistence on stakeholder participation, independent monitoring, and implementation review, underwritten by the EU, empower domestic NGOs with vital local knowledge to expose problems on the ground, hold public authorities accountable for addressing them, and contribute to developing joint solutions.

Institutions for sustainable forest governance: Robustness, equity, and cross-level interactions in Mawlyngbna, Meghalaya, India

This study adopts Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework in empirical fieldwork to explain how local forestry institutions affect forest ecosystems and social equity in the community of Mawlyngbna in North-East India. Data was collected through 26 semi-structured interviews, participatory timeline development, policy documents, direct observation, periodicals, transect walks, and a concurrent forest-ecological study in the village. Results show that Mawlyngbna's forests provide important sources of livelihood benefits for the villagers. However, ecological disturbance and diversity varies among the different forest ownership types and forest-based livelihood benefits are inequitably distributed. Based on a bounded rationality approach, our analysis proposes a set of causal mechanisms that trace these observed social-ecological outcomes to the attributes of the resource system, resource units, actors and governance system. We analyse opportunities and constraints of interactions between the village, regional, and state levels. We discuss how Ostrom’s design principles for community-based resource governance inform the explanation of robustness but have a blind spot in explaining social equity. We report experiences made using the SES framework in empirical fieldwork. We conclude that mapping cross-level interactions in the SES framework needs conceptual refinement and that explaining social equity of forest governance needs theoretical advances.

Forest certification with Chinese characteristics: state engagement with non-state market-driven governance

Forest certification is conceptualized as non-state market–driven (NSMD) governance, whereby forces within the market are used to drive sustainable practices at the forest management level and throughout supply chains. Whilst recent scholarship has considered the “cross fertilization” and hybrid nature of the state and non-state in creating sustainable forest governance, these studies have tended to focus on national cases involving democratic countries where the “space” for private standards and auditors is relatively unconstrained. This study seeks to fill this gap though an examination of the entry of transnational forest certification approaches into China. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in China during 2010, it traces the creation of a new forest certification scheme, which aims to be adopted under the Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC). The study examines the legitimacy sought by the Chinese government on three fronts–to appeal to the differing needs of both international and domestic markets simultaneously, whilst ultimately assuming a legitimate form of (institutionalized) domestic governance, which allows the government to maintain their authority over the mechanism and its operations. The study also focuses on the principles of NSMD governance through an analysis of the legitimate authority afforded to the state, third-parties and NGOs within China. It contributes to political geography by examining how isomorphic forms of institutionalized governance are reproduced within local settings, with the aim of adhering to both global norms of legitimate governance and domestic norms of legitimate power.

Learning on governance in forest ecosystems: Lessons from recent research

<!--[if gte mso 10]> <mce:style><! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} > <! [endif] > <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" _mce_style="font-size: 12pt;" mce_style="font-size: 12pt;">Research on forest governance has intensified in recent decades with evidence that efforts to mitigate deforestation and encourage sustainable management have had mixed results. This article considers the progress that has been made in understanding the range of variation in forest governance and management experiences. It synthesizes findings of recent interdisciplinary research efforts, with particular attention to work conducted through the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change and the International Forestry Resources and Institution Research Program. By identifying areas of progress, lessons learned, and challenges for successful forest governance, the discussion points to policy implications and priorities for research.</span>< ><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;" _mce_style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" _mce_style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;" _mce_style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Research on forest governance has intensified in recent decades with evidence that efforts to mitigate deforestation and encourage sustainable management have had mixed results. This article considers the progress that has been made in understanding the range of variation in forest governance and management experiences. It synthesizes findings of recent interdisciplinary research efforts, which indicate that sustainable management of forest resources is associated with secure rights, institutions that fit the local context, and monitoring and enforcement. At the same time, the variability in local contexts and interactions of social, political, economic and ecological processes across levels and scales of analysis create uncertainties for the design and maintenance of sustainable forest governance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>By identifying areas of progress, lessons learned, and gaps in knowledge, the discussion suggests priorities for further research.</span></span><--><div> Research on forest governance has intensified in recent decades with evidence that efforts to mitigate deforestation and encourage sustainable management have had mixed results. This article considers the progress that has been made in understanding the range of variation in forest governance and management experiences. It synthesizes findings of recent interdisciplinary research efforts, which indicate that sustainable management of forest resources is associated with secure rights, institutions that fit the local context, and monitoring and enforcement. At the same time, the variability in local contexts and interactions of social, political, economic and ecological processes across levels and scales of analysis create uncertainties for the design and maintenance of sustainable forest governance. By identifying areas of progress, lessons learned, and gaps in knowledge, the discussion suggests priorities for further research. </div>

Learning on governance in forest ecosystems: Lessons from recent research

<!--[if gte mso 10]> <mce:style><! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} > <! [endif] > <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" _mce_style="font-size: 12pt;" mce_style="font-size: 12pt;">Research on forest governance has intensified in recent decades with evidence that efforts to mitigate deforestation and encourage sustainable management have had mixed results. This article considers the progress that has been made in understanding the range of variation in forest governance and management experiences. It synthesizes findings of recent interdisciplinary research efforts, with particular attention to work conducted through the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change and the International Forestry Resources and Institution Research Program. By identifying areas of progress, lessons learned, and challenges for successful forest governance, the discussion points to policy implications and priorities for research.</span>< ><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;" _mce_style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;" _mce_style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;" _mce_style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Research on forest governance has intensified in recent decades with evidence that efforts to mitigate deforestation and encourage sustainable management have had mixed results. This article considers the progress that has been made in understanding the range of variation in forest governance and management experiences. It synthesizes findings of recent interdisciplinary research efforts, which indicate that sustainable management of forest resources is associated with secure rights, institutions that fit the local context, and monitoring and enforcement. At the same time, the variability in local contexts and interactions of social, political, economic and ecological processes across levels and scales of analysis create uncertainties for the design and maintenance of sustainable forest governance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" _mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>By identifying areas of progress, lessons learned, and gaps in knowledge, the discussion suggests priorities for further research.</span></span><--><div> Research on forest governance has intensified in recent decades with evidence that efforts to mitigate deforestation and encourage sustainable management have had mixed results. This article considers the progress that has been made in understanding the range of variation in forest governance and management experiences. It synthesizes findings of recent interdisciplinary research efforts, which indicate that sustainable management of forest resources is associated with secure rights, institutions that fit the local context, and monitoring and enforcement. At the same time, the variability in local contexts and interactions of social, political, economic and ecological processes across levels and scales of analysis create uncertainties for the design and maintenance of sustainable forest governance. By identifying areas of progress, lessons learned, and gaps in knowledge, the discussion suggests priorities for further research. </div>

Polity and Group Difference: A Critique of the Ideal of Universal Citizenship

An ideal of universal citizenship has driven the emancipatory momentum of modern political life. Ever since the bourgeoisie challenged aristocratic privileges by claiming equal political rights for citizens as such, women, workers, Jews, blacks, and others have pressed for inclusion in that citizenship status. Modern political theory asserted the equal moral worth of all persons, and social movements of the oppressed took this seriously as implying the inclusion of all persons in full citizenship status under the equal protection of the law. Citizenship for everyone, and everyone the same qua citizen. Modern political thought generally assumed that the universality of citizenship in the sense of citizenship for all implies a universality of citizenship in the sense that citizenship status transcends particularity and difference. Whatever the social or group differences among citizens, whatever their inequalities of wealth, status, and power in the everyday activities of civil society, citizenship gives everyone the same status as peers in the political public. With equality conceived as sameness, the ideal of universal citizenship carries at least two meanings in addition to the extension of citizenship to everyone: (a) universality defined as general in opposition to particular; what citizens have in common as opposed to how they differ, and (b) universality in the sense of laws and rules that say the same for all and apply to all in the same way; laws and rules that are blind to individual and group differences. During this angry, sometimes bloody, political struggle in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many among the excluded and disadvantaged thought that winning full citizenship status, that is, equal political and civil rights, would lead to their freedom and equality. Now in the late twentieth century, however, when citizenship rights have been formally extended to all groups in liberal capitalist societies, some groups still find themselves treated as second-class citizens. Social movements of oppressed and excluded groups have recently asked why extension of equal citizenship rights has not led to social justice and equality. Part of the answer is