Au cours des dernières années, développer le dispositif de répartition des bénéfices a été une priorité nationale essentielle pour nombreux pays REDD+ (Réduction des émissions dues à la déforestation et à la dégradation des forêts, et renforcement des stocks de carbone forestier) car les politiques ainsi que les projets REDD+ cherchent à encourager les propriétaires forestiers afin qu’ils modifient leurs pratiques de gestion forestière dans les forêts dont ils dépendent pour leur survie et pour qu’ils sauvegardent à la fois l’environnement et la justice sociale. Les débats sur la répartition des bénéfices commencent souvent par la somme qu’il faudrait payer ou par quel pourcentage du montant total devrait être alloué aux bénéficiaires. Cependant, ce n’est pas aussi facile qu’il en a l’air, puisque les propriétaires forestiers utilisent, gèrent et protègent les forêts pour des raisons qui vont au-delà du gain économique.
Tag: knowledge management
Diseñando mecanismos para la distribución de beneficios de REDD+: De la política a la práctica
En los últimos años, el desarrollo de un mecanismo de distribución de beneficios ha sido una prioridad nacional clave para muchos países REDD+ (Reducción de las emisiones derivadas de la deforestación y la degradación de los bosques). Esto se debe a que las políticas y los proyectos de REDD+ tienen como objetivo incentivar a que los usuarios de los bosques, cuyas vidas dependen de estos, cambien sus prácticas de manejo forestal para así garantizar la justicia ambiental y social. A menudo, la mayoría de las discusiones sobre la distribución de beneficios comienza con cuánto se debe pagar o cuánto del pago total se debe canalizar a los beneficiarios; sin embargo, esto no es tan simple como parece, ya que los usuarios de los bosques usan, manejan y protegen los bosques por razones que van más allá de las ganancias económicas.
Agroforestry – making a difference in people’s lives
The Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS): mobile apps and collaboration for optimizing climate change investments
Massive investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation are projected during coming decades. Many of these investments will seek to modify how land is managed. The return on both types of investments can be increased through an understanding of land potential: the potential of the land to support primary production and ecosystem services, and its resilience. A Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS) is being developed and implemented to provide individual users with point-based estimates of land potential based on the integration of simple, geo-tagged user inputs with cloud-based information and knowledge. This system will rely on mobile phones for knowledge and information exchange, and use cloud computing to integrate, interpret, and access relevant knowledge and information, including local knowledge about land with similar potential. The system will initially provide management options based on long-term land potential, which depends on climate, topography, and relatively static soil properties, such as soil texture, depth, and mineralogy. Future modules will provide more specific management information based on the status of relatively dynamic soil properties such as organic matter and nutrient content, and of weather. The paper includes a discussion of how this system can be used to help distinguish between meteorological and edaphic drought.
Blogging for impact – lessons from the ASB partnership for the tropical forest margins
Why we did it One of the challenges we were facing was fairly low traffic on our webpage, coupled with confusion about when to update news stories and what really counted as news. We also ran an email listserv where we would occasionally post items like new publications, calls for proposals, or stories from the media related to our work. We decided to renew our strategy a little bit after our global steering group suggested that we send out all the emails in one monthly package rather than sporadically. With a new mandate to develop an email newsletter we had to rethink what our website was for and how it would relate to our e-news. We decided to rework the site as a blog to make posting and searching stories more easy. the blog also allows people to make comments and it is easy to see when somebody else has linked to your page – it’s automatically tracked.
Digital knowledge of Kenyan succulent flora and priorities for future inventory and documentation
Biodiversity inventory in Kenya has been ongoing for about a century and a half, coinciding with the arrival of naturalists from Europe, America, and elsewhere outside Africa. Since the first collections in the mid-to-late 1800s, there has been a steady increase of plant surveys, frequency of inventory, and discovery of new species that have considerably increased knowledge of faunal and floristic elements. However, as in all other countries, such historical biological collection activities are more often than not, ad hoc, resulting in gaps in knowledge of species and their habitats. While Kenya is relatively rich botanically, with a succulent flora of about 428 taxa, it is apparent that the list is understated owing to, among other factors, difficulty of preparing herbarium material and restricted access to some sites. This study investigated completeness of geographic knowledge of succulent plants in Kenya, with the aim of establishing species distribution patterns and identifying gaps that will guide and justify priority setting for future work on the group. Species data were filtered from the general BRAHMS database at the East African Herbarium and cleaned via an iterative series of inspections and visualizations designed to detect and document inconsistencies in taxonomic concepts, geographic coordinates, and dates of collection. Eight grid squares fulfilled criteria for completeness of inventory: one in the city of Mombasa, one in the Kulal–Nyiro complex, one in Garissa, one in Baringo, and four grid squares in the Nairobi–Nakuru–Laikipia area. Poorly-known areas, mostly in the west, north, and north-eastern regions of the country, were extremely isolated from well-known sites, both geographically and environmentally. These localities should be prioritised for future inventory as they are likely to yield species new to science, species new to the national flora, and/or contribute new knowledge on habitats. To avoid inconsistencies and data leakage, biodiversity inventory and documentation needs streamlining to generate standardised metadata that should be digitised to enhance access and synthesis.
Toward a general theory of boundary work: insights from the CGIAR’s natural resource management programs
Previous research on the determinants of effectiveness in knowledge systems seeking to support sustainable development has highlighted the importance of “boundary work” through which research communities organize their relations with other fields of science, other sources of knowledge, and the worlds of action and policymaking. A growing body of scholarship postulates specific attributes of boundary work that promote used and useful research. These propositions, however, are largely based on the experience of a few industrialized countries. We report here on an effort to evaluate their relevance for efforts to harness science in support of sustainability in the developing world. We carried out a multi-country comparative analysis of natural resource management programs conducted under the auspices of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). We discovered 6 distinctive kinds of boundary work contributing to successes of the CGIAR programs – a greater variety than has been documented in previous studies. We propose that these different kinds of boundary work can be understood as a dual response to the different uses for which the results of specific research programs are intended, and the different sources of knowledge drawn on by those programs. We show that these distinctive kinds of boundary work require distinctive strategies to organize them effectively. Especially important are arrangements regarding participation of stakeholders, governance, and the use of boundary objects. We conclude that improving the ability of research programs to produce useful knowledge for sustainable development will require both greater and differentiated support for multiple forms of boundary work.
A stocktaking of knowledge products on peatlands, fires and haze in Southeast Asia, 1990 to 2020
One key activity of MAHFSA is to stocktake existing knowledge products and develop and deploy the knowledge products related to peatlands and fires in Southeast Asia. The stocktake analysis synthesises existing knowledge products by categorising them into five thematic areas policies, tenure, economics, best practices, and monitoring. It also classified knowledge products based on geographical location, focusing on the country and regional levels. Moreover, the study categorises the knowledge products based on the elements of integrated fire management, from prevention, preparedness, suppression, and recovery. By applying text and co-occurrence analyses, the study highlights salient topics of the knowledge products related to peatlands in Southeast Asia. The result shows that thematic areas and knowledge product types vary between ASEAN member states.
International scientific associations and conferences as agents in the unequal circulation of knowledge
International scientific associations and conferences are commonly assumed to play a decisive role in the transnational circulation of academic knowledge. Associations themselves justify their own relevance by the extent to which they contribute to structuring a global profession and fostering international scientific exchanges. Conferences provide important spaces for such exchanges, impacting research trajectories of individuals and disciplines alike. However, a closer look at who is involved in such international venues reveals that they are often less “global” and “international” than proclaimed, and representation is highly skewed. This chapter considers international scientific associations and conferences as agents of knowledge circulation that are structured by and constitutive of multiple inequalities. It examines these inequalities and their epistemic effects by relying on literature review and our own empirical studies focusing on social sciences and the interdisciplinary field of forest research.
Designing REDD+ benefit-sharing mechanisms: From policy to practice
In recent years, developing benefit-sharing mechanisms has been a key national priority for many REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) countries as REDD+ policies and projects seek to incentivize forest owners to change their forest management practices in the forests they depend on for their livelihoods, and to ensure both environmental and social justice. Discussions around benefit-sharing often start with how much should be paid or what percentages derived from total payment should be channelled to beneficiaries. However, this is not as simple as it sounds, as forest owners use, manage and protect forests for other reasons beyond economic gain.