Tropical forests represent half of the Earth’s remaining forest area, but they are shrinking at high rates, which poses a threat to their multiple ecosystem services. As a response, international environmental agreements and related programs require information about tropical forested landscapes. Despite the increasing quantity and quality of remote sensing-based data, the effective monitoring of forests in the tropics still faces operational challenges: (a) applicability at local levels, with lack of reference or cloud-free information; (b) overcoming geographical, ecological, or biophysical variability; (c): stratification, distinguishing forest categories related to functionality and disturbance history.
Tag: deforestation
How to halt deforestation in the Amazon? A Bayesian process-tracing approach
In this paper, we employ for the first time a Bayesian process-tracing approach to assess the role of different interventions designed to halt deforestation. We applied the methodology to six initiatives implemented between 2006 and 2019 in the municipality of São Felix do Xingu, namely: (i) institution of protected areas, (ii) environmental monitoring and enforcement, (iii) credit restrictions, (iv) commodity agreements, (v) multi-stakeholder processes, and (vi) value chain projects. Bayesian process tracing is an alternative to traditional counterfactual approaches that allows the gleaning of in-depth insights into ‘causal chain’ mechanisms and complex interrelationships in individual cases, rather than identifying common or cross-cutting features across different cases. Contrary to traditional process-tracing methodologies, the Bayesian approach provides analytical transparency and replicability through a formal and fine-grained assessment of the strength of the evidence. We assessed 31 individual pieces of evidence, developed using data collected through a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. We grouped these into interventions spanning three periods of time and traced the causal mechanisms linked to their success or failure. In total, we developed nine theory components. Our results reveal that we are practically certain that four theory components are true. We are also reasonably certain or highly confident that four other theory components are true, and only cautiously confident that one component is true. Drawing on the nine components, we offer a composite theory explaining deforestation outcomes. Our findings provide four implications for global debates. Namely, they provide a strong case for the importance of conceptually distinguishing: the types of actors targeted (e.g., smallholder or medium-to-large landholders) and the frontier status (i.e., whether interventions take place in active frontiers or in consolidated areas). They also prove that interventions may be well implemented for a certain period but can lose effectiveness over time. Finally, our findings call attention to synergies among interventions, and in particular to the combination of regulatory interventions to halt frontier expansion with market-based approaches to incentivize non-deforestation behaviour.
Three interrelated forest pathways could contribute to green recovery and a transition to sustainable economies
Forests are resources of global significance. They cover nearly one-third of the Earth’s land surface and contain the majority of terrestrial biodiversity. The forest area continues to shrink, however, despite efforts to halt deforestation and restore degraded lands.
REDD+ Challenges and Lessons Learnt
Experience to date stemming from the different phases of REDD+ in over 65 countries provides useful insights into both challenges and lessons for the future of REDD+. The questions we seek to answer in this chapter are: 1. Which current technical, institutional, management and financial challenges at the local, sub-national, national and international scales, as well as across these scales, are likely to affect future implementation of REDD+ and related forest-based mitigation activities? 2. For each of these spatial scales, what relevant lessons can be identified for different stakeholder groups? In light of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021 – 2030), we also chose to place an emphasis on exploring some of the parallels between REDD+ and forest landscape restoration (FLR) given that forest restoration is one of the dimensions of REDD+ and an important component of the UN Decade.
Enforcement and inequality in collective PES to reduce tropical deforestation: Effectiveness, efficiency and equity implications
Collective Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), where forest users receive compensation conditional on group rather than individual performance, are an increasingly used policy instrument to reduce tropical deforestation. However, implementing effective, (cost) efficient and equitable (3E) collective PES is challenging because individuals have an incentive to free ride on others’ conservation actions. Few comparative studies exist on how different enforcement strategies can improve collective PES performance. We conducted a framed field experiment in Brazil, Indonesia and Peru to evaluate how three different strategies to contain the local free-rider problem perform in terms of the 3Es: (i) Public monitoring of individual deforestation, (ii) internal, peer-to-peer sanctions (Community enforcement) and (iii) external sanctions (Government enforcement). We also examined how inequality in wealth, framed as differences in deforestation capacity, affects policy performance. We find that introducing individual level sanctions can improve the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of collective PES, but there is no silver bullet that consistently improves all 3Es across country sites. Public monitoring reduced deforestation and improved the equity of the program in sites with stronger history of collective action. External sanctions provided the strongest and most robust improvement in the 3Es. While internal, peer enforcement can significantly reduce free riding, it does not improve the program’s efficiency, and thus participants’ earnings. The sanctioning mechanisms failed to systematically improve the equitable distribution of benefits due to the ineffectiveness of punishments to target the largest free-riders. Inequality in wealth increased group deforestation and reduced the efficiency of Community enforcement in Indonesia but had no effect in the other two country sites. Factors explaining differences across country sites include the history of collective action and land tenure systems.
Forests and trees provide vital goods and ecosystem services but are undervalued in economic systems
Humanity is facing multiple global threats. These include a health pandemic and related economic hardships, food insecurity, poverty, climate change, conflicts, land and water degradation, and biodiversity loss.
The glasgow leaders’ declaration on forests and land use: Significance toward “Net Zero”
Reaching a ‘Net Zero’ GHG emissions by 2050 is our only way to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5°C and achieve the Paris Agreement. To achieve this, we have to reduce our total GHG emissions by 55% from 58 GtCO2e in 2019 to about 25 GtCO2e by 2030 (UNEP, 2021).
Between zero-deforestation and zero-tolerance from the state: Navigating strategies of palm oil companies of Indonesia
Since late 2013, Indonesia’s biggest palm oil companies have positioned themselves as strong advocates of zero-deforestation. However, their commitments to zero-deforestation have not always been well-received by the Indonesian government. The government has taken many initiatives to promote sustainable palm oil and to put an end to deforestation, but prefers to do so on its own terms. The palm oil companies have had to organize and frame their zero-deforestation policies vis-a-vis the government strategically. Our research question is: how have the major palm oil companies of Indonesia navigated their zero-deforestation commitment around Indonesian public authorities’ regulatory power? Using the concept of corporate political activity, we distinguish three episodes of corporate zero-deforestation commitment, each characterized by different strategies of companies. We show that palm oil companies have changed the strategies of implementing their zero-deforestation policies from trying to influence government policy to operating in the shadow of hierarchy.
The forest frontier in the Global South: Climate change policies and the promise of development and equity
Halting forest loss and achieving sustainable development in an equitable manner require state, non-state actors, and entire societies in the Global North and South to tackle deeply established patterns of inequality and power relations embedded in forest frontiers. Forest and climate governance in the Global South can provide an avenue for the transformational change needed—yet, does it? We analyse the politics and power in four cases of mitigation, adaptation, and development arenas. We use a political economy lens to explore the transformations taking place when climate policy meets specific forest frontiers in the Global South, where international, national and local institutions, interests, ideas, and information are at play. We argue that lasting and equitable outcomes will require a strong discursive shift within dominant institutions and among policy actors to redress policies that place responsibilities and burdens on local people in the Global South, while benefits from deforestation and maladaptation are taken elsewhere. What is missing is a shared transformational objective and priority to keep forests standing among all those involved from afar in the major forest frontiers in the tropics.
Public and Private Sector to Zero Deforestation Commitmen in South Sumatra
To address deforestation, South Sumatra Goverment was committed to be the frontrunner in attaining Green Growth 2017. All economic activities related to land use must comply with the regulations. The private sector supports them with some initiatives by several certifications as their commitment toward zero deforestation (ZDC). However, from the land cover data, South Sumatra Province is one of the highest forest cover loss in Indonesia followed by increasing economic activities. This study aims to explain commitments of the public and private sectors in complying toward zero deforestation. We conducted interviews with relevant agencies and collect the data regarding interventions and initiatives. This study used compliance theory to analyze the commitments of both sectors. The results showed that the public and private sectors in South Sumatra have shown their commitment with the type of treaty-induced compliance. The compliance showed how the commitment is integrated into policies, aligned public and private governance arrangements, and a good environmental quality change by reduced deforestation rate. This showed that one of the ZDC’s objectives is at least halve the rate of loss of natural forests globally by 2020 has been implemented by both. Thus, they strive to end natural forest loss by 2030.