Access and accessibility are important determinants of people’s ability to utilise natural resources, and have a strong impact on household welfare. Physical accessibility of natural resources, on the other hand, has generally been regarded as one of the most important drivers of land-use and land-cover changes. Based on two case studies, this article discusses evidence of the impact of access to services and access to natural resources on household poverty and on the environment. We show that socio-cultural distances are a key limiting factor for gaining access to services, and thereby for improved household welfare. We also discuss the impact of socio-cultural distances on access to natural resources, and show that large-scale commercial exploitation of natural resources tends to occur beyond the spatial reach of socio-culturally and economically marginalised population segments. We conclude that it is essential to pay more attention to improving the structural environment that presently leaves social minority groups marginalised. Innovative approaches that use natural resource management to induce poverty reduction for example, through compensation of local farmers for environmental services appear to be promising avenues that can lead to integration of the objectives of poverty reduction and sustainable environmental stewardship
Tag: forest cover
Oil, macroeconomics, and forests
How does an oil boom affect the forest cover of tropical oil exporting-countries? Are they more or less likely than non-oil countries to experience forest loss? What macro-economic linkages and policies are decisive? This article summarises research on land-use changes in eight tropical developing countries. Our country-comparative approach reveals that the direct oil impacts on forests are unquestionably subordinate compared to oil’s derived macroeconomic impact. In most cases, oil wealth indirectly but significantly comes to protect tropical forests. The core mechanism here is that oil rents cause ‘Dutch Disease’, decreasing the price-competitiveness of agriculture and logging, which strongly diminishes pressures for deforestation and forest degradation. But domestic policy responses to oil wealth are also vital determinants for the forest outcome. When governments use most oil wealth for urban spending sprees, this reinforces the core effect by pulling more labor out of land-using and forest-degrading activities. Yet, in extreme cases when boosting oil revenues finance large road-construction programs or frontier-colonization projects, the core forest-protective effect of oil wealth can be reversed. Repeated currency devaluation and import protection of heavily land-using domestic sectors also contribute to increased forest pressures. These conclusions have ample policy implications, reaching beyond the group of tropical oil countries. Other international capital transfers, like bilateral credits, aid or debt relief can have similar impacts. These measures will alleviate pressures on forests, unless they come to bolster specific forest-detrimental policies. This also provides some suggestions on what forest-friendly safeguards could realistically be taken in the design of structural adjustment programs, considering the important trade-offs between development and conservation objectives.
Long-term (1990–2019) monitoring of forest cover changes in the humid tropics
Accurate characterization of tropical moist forest changes is needed to support conservation policies and to quantify their contribution to global carbon fluxes more effectively. We document, at pantropical scale, the extent and changes (degradation, deforestation, and recovery) of these forests over the past three decades. We estimate that 17% of tropical moist forests have disappeared since 1990 with a remaining area of 1071 million hectares in 2019, from which 10% are degraded. Our study underlines the importance of the degradation process in these ecosystems, in particular, as a precursor of deforestation, and in the recent increase in tropical moist forest disturbances (natural and anthropogenic degradation or deforestation). Without a reduction of the present disturbance rates, undisturbed forests will disappear entirely in large tropical humid regions by 2050. Our study suggests that reinforcing actions are needed to prevent the initial degradation that leads to forest clearance in 45% of the cases.
East and Southern Africa Forest Observatory: Fostering regional data sharing
The objective of the observatory is to produce a comprehensive and harmonized regional dataset on the latest trends and threats to forests, and to make information useful and easily accessible to policymakers, funders, forestry practitioners and citizens.
Report on policy review and institutional analysis for development of commercial forestry investment sub-projects
This policy and institutional review puts forward six clusters of conclusions and recommendations to help restore investors’ confidence in the Philippines, and the emergence of stronger and better-organized smallholders and small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) producing both timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs).
Community forest management and forest cover change in Lampung, Indonesia
Community-based forestry (CBF) is often cited as a way for improving livelihood of local communities while conserving biodiversity and mitigating climate change. However, empirical assessments of CBF outcomes are still lacking, especially for their biophysical conditions. This study investigates the extent to which a type of CBF practices in Indonesia, Community Forest (HKM), managed to maintain forest cover. We applied a propensity scoring approach to empirically measure the rates of deforestation between 2007 and 2016 for Conservation Forests and Protection Forests with and without HKM concessions. Our finding is that HKMs are less effective than Conservation Forests (e.g. National Parks) in reducing forest cover loss, but more effective than other similar forests without CBF management. This is a promising starting point for expanding CBF in Indonesia. We recommend: 1) explicit consideration of biophysical characteristics of CBF locations in designating future sites; 2) providing site-specific financial and technical supports for local communities; 3) utilizing remotely sensed data and propensity scoring for monitoring conservation outcomes.