Community forestry in the middle hills of Nepal has been undergoing unprecedented changes in recent years. Community forestry was first introduced in 1978 to address forest degradation through partnership between local people and the government to manage community forests. Development practitioners and policy makers are recently and increasingly concerned with gender and social equity issues in community forestry. Furthermore, a myriad of external actors are invovled directly in community forestry at the local level. Academic research on community forestry in Nepal, however, has not adequately studied the interrelationships between gender relations, local institutions of community forestry governance, and external intervention. In light of the above, my research examines and explicates gender relations in two field sites in the middle hills; the interrelationship between gender relations and the formation, functioning and change in institutions; and analyzes the interface between forest officials and local users. My research findings posit that institutions are 'embedded' in existing gender relations. Intra and extra-household relations define the terms under which men and women enter, interact and influence institutions. Parallel social institutions are drawn upon to mediate the governance of resources, which in turn are influenced by existing 'distribution of power' amongst the genders, and field level extension agent's dual relationship with the organizations they represent and the local users. My research draws from and engages with the debates and understandings in the scholarships on gender and environment; gender analysis of intra/extra household; and local institutions of natural resource governance. I use a combination of qualitative research methods and engage with questions of reflexivity and positionality in the research process. The findings of my research serve to inform theoretical debates on gender and natural resource governance as well as national level policy changes in Nepal.

This thesis provides a detailed study of the New Forest National Park (NFNP) boundary - an artificial, geo-political construct - contributing towards wider debates (and issues) around the representation of this and other 'divisions' within the landscape. Further, the thesis challenges its function by producing an original anti-pictorial re-constructed series of images that serve as an antidote to the superficiality of the 'scenic view', and fills an important gap in the field of contemporary landscape photography. Part one of the thesis comprises an exhibition of twelve photographs of the NFNP boundary that highlight the unnecessary, artificial categorisation of landscape and provides a visual anti-pictorial declaration for the unification (and democratisation) of landscape. Part two is an illustrated written text separated into two further sub-sections. The first section provides a detailed study of how the development of a 'romanticised' landscape aesthetic evolved and continues to not only, shape the public's perception but also, reinforce stereotypical representations of the 'scenic' forest landscape. This is followed by an analysis of psychogeography and the notion of the 'wanderer' seeking out the 'non-place' in the rural landscape and a review of how and to what extent regional boundaries and national borders have been represented divisions and tensions within political, ideological and geographical contexts. Finaiiy, a review of the 'non-scenic' landscape existing as a 'social document' as opposed to an 'artwork' incorporating notions of 'stillness' and the 'un-dramatic' is provided. The second section details an inclusive research methodology, which comprises three distinct phases: (i) exploration and experimentation, (ii) re-focus and refinement and (iii) synthesis. Each phase charts and critically appraises the chronological development of the research journey in terms of the information sources consulted and the photographic practice undertaken in order to realise the thesis aims. This part-theory, part-practice based empirical study demonstrates how and why the NFNP boundary has created an artificial categorization of the 'scenic' and the 'nonscenic' landscape and acts as a superficial and divisive construct i.e. the barricade of beauty.

Restoring plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS) IS an important part of British forestry and conservation policy. Guidelines recommend the gradual removal of planted trees over clearfelling. However, this advice has not been thoroughly tested. My first study tests the assumptions that clearfelling is detrimental to woodland and shade tolerant plant species, and favours competitive species. I surveyed the ground flora of native woodlands, PAWS, clearfelled PAWS and PAWS plots where the planted trees are being gradually removed via regular thinning. Although clearfelled plots had a greater competitive-signature and more light demanding species in the ground flora, there were no differences in shade tolerant or woodland species richness between plot types. My second study investigated the leaf-miner communities. It is often assumed during restoration that as plant species richness increases the species richness of invertebrate herbivores will also increase. Whilst this was the case on PAWS plots undergoing gradual removal of planted trees it was not true on clearfelled plots. The two restoration methods therefore have different effects on the leaf-miner community. Finally I sampled Diptera and Coleoptera carrion and dung decomposers. The overall abundance of these decomposers did not differ between plot types. However, clearfelled plots had a smaller biomass of beetles and a lower abundance of the dominant, and functionally unique beetle, Anoplotrupes stercorosus. There may therefore be consequences of clearfelling for the function of decomposition. I conclude that it is essential to test restoration advice and to monitor a range of taxa, not just plants, throughout restoration. It is vital to do this when undertaking ecological restoration in order that informed management decisions can be made.

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Since the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan has been undergoing a difficult process of economic, political and social transition. This applies as much to the country and its society and national economy as a whole as to the forest sector.

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Thailand supports a variety of tropical ecosystems and biodiversity. The country has approximately 12,050 species of plants, which account for 8% of estimated plant species found globally. However, the forest cover of Thailand is under threats: habitat degradation, illegal logging, shifting cultivation and human settlement are the main causes of the reduction in forest area. As a result, rates of biodiversity loss have been high for some decades. The most effective tool to conserve biodiversity is the designation of protected areas (PA). The effective and most scientifically robust approach for designing networks of reserve systems is systematic conservation planning, which is designed to identify conservation priorities on the basis of analysing spatial patterns in species distributions and associated threats. The designation of PAs of Thailand were initially based on expert consultations selecting the areas that are suitable for conserving forest resources, not systematically selected. Consequently, the PA management was based on individual management plans for each PA. The previous work has also identified that no previous attempt has been made to apply the principles and methods of systematic conservation planning. Additionally, tree species have been neglected in previous analyses of the coverage of PAs in Thailand. These indicate the importance of this research. This research deals with the identification of complementary areas to the PA network in Thailand, specifically to support the conservation of tree species. This work also contributes to the improvement of conservation planning and PA network design in Thailand using the application of systematic conservation planning techniques. The research focused specifically on 783 target tree species, belonging to 92 families in Thailand, consisting of four groups of tree species that are respectively threatened with extinction, dominate the different forest types in Thailand, are of particular economic importance, and are important to in situ genetic conservation. A GIS-based multi-criteria analysis (MCA) approach was used to support systematic conservation planning. ILWIS, a GIS support software was used to identify priority conservation areas in this research. With currently data available, the crucial finding from this research is that the priority areas that should be considered for establishment of new PAs, or to expand existing PAs comprise: (1) areas next to current PAs in the Southern region and (2) areas near to Cambodia in Trat province in the Eastern region, areas near to PAs on Ko Chang and Ko Kut islands in the Gulf of Thailand. It also confirmed that the systematic conservation planning approach should be introduced to PA managers or planners. This should be possible because it is transparent and beneficial, and utilizes user-friendly spatial software to generate spatial data and easy to understand output maps.

The use of incentives to encourage sustainable natural resource use is widespread in conservation. Yet, the relative or combined effects of conservation interventions on resource use can be difficult to predict. This is particularly so in contexts with weak institutions or poorly defined property rights, conditions that typify forest commons. In this study, I investigate the effect of different policy options, currently being implemented or under consideration in a protected area in Cambodia, on the resource appropriation of indigenous smallholder farmers in order to develop a framework for predicting the effectiveness of conservation interventions. I begin by evaluating the progress made towards two project targets relating to the security of natural resources important for local livelihoods, showing that, whilst security issues exist, the project has so far been successful in protecting key resources. I also evaluate an existing programme of indigenous land titling, which is shown to be consistent with conservation goals but vulnerable to interference from land grabs. Using two approaches for predicting behavioural response to planned interventions, experimental games and scenario analysis, I demonstrate that collective performance payments are more effective than individually contracted payments or increased law enforcement effort. Previous research has shown that externally imposed rule enforcement can undermine existing norms for cooperation, particularly in contexts where social cohesion is high. I build upon this research by demonstrating that exogenous rule enforcement, when coupled with reward payments that have been found to encourage high levels of cooperation, can increase resource extraction compared to when payments are offered in isolation. The research presented highlights the difficulty of predicting the effect of policies designed to reduce resource use, particularly when interventions interact to increase the institutional complexity in which resource use decision-making takes place, but offers a novel framework for the investigation of intervention effectiveness.

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