The global challenge of climate change is a symptom of unsustainable development pathways. It also is a direct cause of concern through its impacts on lives and landscapes in the countries that have large emissions as well as those without. Indonesia is part of the global problem, mainly due to the high emissions from peatlands and forest fire s, and will have to be part of the solution. Globally, the excess of ‘ecological footprint’ over available space urges for a more efficient use of space, with multifunctionality and the co- production of goods and services as a requirement. Forms of agroforestry are well placed to provide such multifunctional solutions, even if they involve tradeoffs and compromises internal to the system. These tradeoffs can only be managed if goods and services are bot h rewarded at appropriate levels. Compared with the traditional prof essional training of foresters and agronomists, the current requiremen ts for integrated natural resource management are much broader and indeed integrated. Adaptation to the shifting opportunities and challenges of cl imate, on top of shifts in globalizing markets and transforming economies and adjustments in the balance of power between local, national and global governance, will require a high degree of ‘sustainagility’ rather than adoption of pre-conceived plans. A mix of analytical and synthetic skills is needed from our next generation of professionals and leaders, as well as an ability to assist multiple stakeholders in the negotiation of multifunctionality in rapidly changing landscapes..
Tag: environmental management
Navigating power in conservation
Conservation research and practice are increasingly engaging with people and drawing on social sciences to improve environmental governance. In doing so, conservation engages with power in many ways, often implicitly. Conservation scientists and practitioners exercise power when dealing with species, people and the environment, and increasingly they are trying to address power relations to ensure effective conservation outcomes (guiding decision-making, understanding conflict, ensuring just policy and management outcomes). However, engagement with power in conservation is often limited or misguided. To address challenges associated with power in conservation, we introduce the four dominant approaches to analyzing power to conservation scientists and practitioners who are less familiar with social theories of power. These include actor-centered, institutional, structural, and, discursive/governmental power. To complement these more common framings of power, we also discuss further approaches, notably non-human and Indigenous perspectives. We illustrate how power operates at different scales and in different contexts, and provide six guiding principles for better consideration of power in conservation research and practice. These include: (1) considering scales and spaces in decision-making, (2) clarifying underlying values and assumptions of actions, (3) recognizing conflicts as manifestations of power dynamics, (4) analyzing who wins and loses in conservation, (5) accounting for power relations in participatory schemes, and, (6) assessing the right to intervene and the consequences of interventions. We hope that a deeper engagement with social theories of power can make conservation and environmental management more effective and just while also improving transdisciplinary research and practice.
Certifying Borneo’s Forest Landscape: Implementation Processes of Forest Certification in Sarawak
Sarawak has a history of imposing political constraints on natural resource governance. Forest certification is expected to bring important changes to forestry in Sarawak, heralding a new era of forest management. However, the effects of a new environmental regulatory system have yet to be adequately examined, particularly the social consequences of certification which vary depending on the standards employed, audit procedures and the levels of stakeholder participation. This chapter examines experiences to date with forest certification in Malaysia, specifically certification by the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) in Sarawak, to investigate the effects of certification on both forest management and rural communities. It is therefore important to focus attention on issues related to both indigenous peoples’ land and natural resources use. The example of Malaysia and the divergent experiences in different states illustrates that the situation on the ground can vary greatly, even with the same forest certification scheme and within the same country.