Contemporary and future societies are facing a myriad of challenges, some of which are throwing into question the future viability of humanity on Planet Earth. These challenges are complex and systemic, and to solve them we must transition to more sustainable ways. Increasingly, researchers have a role to play in not only researching transitions but also facilitating transition through research design which postulates closer engagement in practical contexts and empowering actors of governance to identify pathways for transition. Transition management offers a framework for those interested in bringing about such transitionary potential through research, and potentially offers a tool for students interested in using their university work as a means to bring about transition. This study applies transition management framework using Kosovo’s forest governance as a case study asking the question: How can Kosovo transition towards more sustainable forest governance? The paper finds that forest governance in Kosovo is highly chaotic and inefficient. Issues of lack of capacity, competencies, expertise as well as knowledge are coupled with legal framework which does not allow for local ecological contexts nor local needs to produce a regime of governance subject to environmental degradation, corruption and contestation. Moreover, the absence of capacity on both central and local levels means that the regime configuration is very weak and malleable, and niches have potential to bring about transitions in regime configurations. For Kosovo, moreover, it finds that operative activities are not only possible but desirable, and that actors engaged in forest governance have good conditions and a receptive society for transition. None of the actors which participated in the study were happy with the situation and the need for change is well understood. The challenge for Kosovo is thus identified as how best to facilitate participation for transition, how best to balance centralised vs. decentralised governance, as well as how best to facilitate learning through both raising awareness and listening. These issues are found to be best pursued collectively with wide participation. It identifies three suggestions for transitions which are aimed at bolstering and streamlining existing niche innovations in Kosovo: i) participatory forest governance plans, ii) a forest community centre as well as iii) citizen science initiatives. Lastly, it reflects on the process of involved, participatory and complexity-oriented research to address complex issues, as well as the merit of transition management. It finds that whilst epistemologically diverse and more action-oriented research is important and productive for students of Sustainable Development, even necessary, the transition management framework is difficult to implement, cumbersome and possibly not possible for students. Whilst strategic, tactical and reflexive activities are possible, operative activities are more difficult and exposes the weak standing of students within the politics of environmental governance.

In recent decades, political scientists have devoted substantial attention to the changing role of the state towards more inclusion of non-state actors in policymaking. This deliberative turn, or move towards governance, may signal inability to handle complex problems without cooperation with nonstate actors. On the other hand, governance is frequently credited with generating legitimate decision-making processes and results. In some instances, non-governmental actors have even taken the lead in policymaking. One archetype of such private governance, which has received significant scholarly attention, is forest certification. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is frequently described as the most democratic and therefore legitimate forest certification organization since it grants equal voting rights to three stakeholder groups in the formulation of criteria for responsible forestry: environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), social groups (indigenous peoples and labor organizations) and forest owners. However, in Sweden, a country often described as a role model in forest certification, the FSC has increasingly received critique for failing to generate legitimate processes and results, and recently three of five ENGOs have chosen to exit the FSC organization. Such processes of de-legitimation have received little attention in the forest certification literature. This thesis therefore provides a critical assessment of the legitimacy of forest certification in Sweden. Legitimacy is analyzed through concerned stakeholders’ perceptions of both procedural qualities (input legitimacy) and problem-solving capacity (output legitimacy). This study of legitimacy is combined with an assessment of the ability of certification to enhance environmental protection, defined as changes in both forest management practices and biophysical conditions. The thesis focuses not the least on legitimacy on the local level, which is where the actual implementation takes place. Today local studies of the legitimacy of forest certification are rare. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are applied and a number of sources are analyzed: forest monitoring data, survey data, interviews with and documents produced by the participating stakeholders. Papers I and IV analyze the perceived legitimacy of forest certification, while Papers II and III analyze forest certification schemes’ ability to enhance environmental protection. The results show that a process of de-legitimation is occurring in Swedish forest certification. In particular, certification has lost legitimacy with ENGOs, which increasingly consider Swedish forest certification to lack both input legitimacy and output legitimacy. Moreover, although the Swedish FSC standard pays attention to reindeer husbandry, the results show that reindeer herders consider themselves to have limited power to influence long-term forest planning and management (low output legitimacy). The forest industry, on the other hand, increasingly grants legitimacy to forest certification due to customer demands, which are created not the least by pressures from international ENGOs and by EU regulation. The results also show that Swedish forest companies have paid more attention to their environmental practices after obtaining certification. However, to what extent these changes result in positive environmental impacts remains uncertain, especially since forests in Sweden grow slowly, which requires analyses over time. There are also measurement problems resulting from the low certification rate among small-scale forest owners and from the fact that certified small-scale owners tend to be more active in their management. These findings highlight that research on private forest governance should not neglect the role of the state, neither as a buyer nor as a regulator. These findings also suggest that further research should pay attention to power asymmetries in private governance and develop methods for better understanding and evaluating the certification schemes’ environmental and social impacts.

A policy mechanism known as REDD+ (‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and enhancing forest carbon stocks and conservation’) is designed to contribute to climate change mitigation efforts and simultaneously support developing countries’ national development agendas. This is effected by providing REDD+ host countries with financial incentives to produce measurable reductions in carbon emissions beyond what would have occurred without REDD+. Indonesia is a key target of the REDD+ mechanism for several reasons, eg: (i) its forests support 10% of the world's remaining tropical rain forests and represent the fourth largest forest carbon stock globally, (ii) 80% of its GHG emissions result from deforestation and forest degradation, and (iii) it has the potential to reduce up to 120 million tons of CO2 per year. Consequently, to date Indonesia has received donor’s commitments of nearly US$2 billion for REDD+ development. Given this profile, Indonesia’s success in implementing REDD+ can contribute significantly to the efficacy of REDD+ globally. However, achieving this potential is undermined by a set of long-standing problems inherent within Indonesia’s forest institutions, including issues of corruption, coordination, uncertainty in the forests’ legal system, capacity to manage forests at multiple levels of government, and the use of forest concessions to consolidate political power. This thesis asks the primary research question: <b>“How do REDD+ institutions effect governance reform within Indonesia’s existing national and sub-national forest institutions?”</b> 'Institutionalism', in particular the concept of 'institutional interplay' is the main conceptual framework deployed and grounded in the context of the vertical interplay between the internationally-formulated REDD+ mechanism and Indonesia's forest institutions. Guided by the themes that emerged from the data collected, this research explored and expanded certain analytical approaches within the perspectives of institutionalism and governance, namely ‘historical institutionalism’, ‘clientelism’, 'critical juncture', ‘policy networks’ and ‘social learning’. This thesis adopted the ‘four paper route’ and employed mixed methods of data collection (ie interview, shadowing, and policy document review). It found that during the process of institutional interplay as REDD+ institutions deployed the principles of good governance, advanced a robust system of measurement, reporting and verification of reductions in carbon emission, attracted large funding, and involved a broad range and multi-scale of actors, the REDD+ mechanism produced 'collateral benefits'. The tangible form of these benefits was the production of new policy instruments, eg the 'national REDD+ strategy' (paper 2), 'one map initiative' (paper 3), and ‘village agreement’ (paper 4) through which a significant body of evidence showed the capability of REDD+ to effect governance reform within and beyond Indonesia's forestry sector. Paper 1, revealed how policy actors perceived REDD+ and as such provides the basis of these three papers. The positive results of institutional interplay that occurred were determined not only by the characteristic of REDD+ institutions themselves but also by the existence of domestic reformists and the national reform agenda.

The purpose of this research is to contribute to the identification of appropriate forest tenure and governance designs that are in congruence with Aboriginal values, interests and rights. The research is highly relevant to current societal deliberations on sustainable forest management as well as to the future of the forest sector in Canada. First Nations culture and ways of life are intimately and inextricably tied to the land. Some eighty percent of Canada’s First Nations communities are situated in productive forest regions (NAFA 2003). Even so, First Nations have been largely excluded from forest development and planning activities. Furthermore, the provincial policy emphasis on industrial timber production may not be consistent with Aboriginal forest values. This community-based research takes a participatory approach to forest policy analysis. The work is conducted in partnership with the Stellat’en First Nation and Carrier Sekani Tribal Council in central British Columbia. Stellat’en criteria for forest tenure and governance are identified in a series of workshops and interviews. These criteria are then applied in the analysis of four alternative models: the Community Ecosystem Trust, the Gitanyow joint land use planning model, BC Community Forest Agreements and Aboriginal reservations in the United States. The results indicated that Stellat’en have three main goals regarding forest tenure and governance: protect the traditional territory for future generations, protect Stellat’en culture and support Stellat’en economic self-determination. Implementation of the Stellat’en vision calls for a greater emphasis on ecological and cultural values in forest management, devolution of decision making authority to First Nations, reallocation of harvesting rights and redistribution of wealth generated by forest activities. The Stellat’en perspective emphasizes co-existence and stewardship. Evaluation of the four alternative models provided useful insights for progressive tenure and governance design. All four models had positive aspects to contribute, as well as shortcomings. The models are not mutually exclusive. Since each model addresses different management and institutional functions, they could be combined into a new system for the future.

The purpose of this research is to contribute to the identification of appropriate forest tenure and governance designs that are in congruence with Aboriginal values, interests and rights. The research is highly relevant to current societal deliberations on sustainable forest management as well as to the future of the forest sector in Canada. First Nations culture and ways of life are intimately and inextricably tied to the land. Some eighty percent of Canada’s First Nations communities are situated in productive forest regions (NAFA 2003). Even so, First Nations have been largely excluded from forest development and planning activities. Furthermore, the provincial policy emphasis on industrial timber production may not be consistent with Aboriginal forest values. This community-based research takes a participatory approach to forest policy analysis. The work is conducted in partnership with the Stellat’en First Nation and Carrier Sekani Tribal Council in central British Columbia. Stellat’en criteria for forest tenure and governance are identified in a series of workshops and interviews. These criteria are then applied in the analysis of four alternative models: the Community Ecosystem Trust, the Gitanyow joint land use planning model, BC Community Forest Agreements and Aboriginal reservations in the United States. The results indicated that Stellat’en have three main goals regarding forest tenure and governance: protect the traditional territory for future generations, protect Stellat’en culture and support Stellat’en economic self-determination. Implementation of the Stellat’en vision calls for a greater emphasis on ecological and cultural values in forest management, devolution of decision making authority to First Nations, reallocation of harvesting rights and redistribution of wealth generated by forest activities. The Stellat’en perspective emphasizes co-existence and stewardship. Evaluation of the four alternative models provided useful insights for progressive tenure and governance design. All four models had positive aspects to contribute, as well as shortcomings. The models are not mutually exclusive. Since each model addresses different management and institutional functions, they could be combined into a new system for the future.

The purpose of this research is to contribute to the identification of appropriate forest tenure and governance designs that are in congruence with Aboriginal values, interests and rights. The research is highly relevant to current societal deliberations on sustainable forest management as well as to the future of the forest sector in Canada. First Nations culture and ways of life are intimately and inextricably tied to the land. Some eighty percent of Canada’s First Nations communities are situated in productive forest regions (NAFA 2003). Even so, First Nations have been largely excluded from forest development and planning activities. Furthermore, the provincial policy emphasis on industrial timber production may not be consistent with Aboriginal forest values. This community-based research takes a participatory approach to forest policy analysis. The work is conducted in partnership with the Stellat’en First Nation and Carrier Sekani Tribal Council in central British Columbia. Stellat’en criteria for forest tenure and governance are identified in a series of workshops and interviews. These criteria are then applied in the analysis of four alternative models: the Community Ecosystem Trust, the Gitanyow joint land use planning model, BC Community Forest Agreements and Aboriginal reservations in the United States. The results indicated that Stellat’en have three main goals regarding forest tenure and governance: protect the traditional territory for future generations, protect Stellat’en culture and support Stellat’en economic self-determination. Implementation of the Stellat’en vision calls for a greater emphasis on ecological and cultural values in forest management, devolution of decision making authority to First Nations, reallocation of harvesting rights and redistribution of wealth generated by forest activities. The Stellat’en perspective emphasizes co-existence and stewardship. Evaluation of the four alternative models provided useful insights for progressive tenure and governance design. All four models had positive aspects to contribute, as well as shortcomings. The models are not mutually exclusive. Since each model addresses different management and institutional functions, they could be combined into a new system for the future. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

This thesis investigates how seven communities in a subregion of the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca are conserving high forest cover in the absence of national protected areas. To conduct this study I relied on archival research and the review of community documents, focus group interviews and land use transects to explore historical and current land use. I found that communities have conserved 88.34% of the subregion as forest cover, or 58,596 hectares out of a total territory of 66,264 hectares. Analysis suggests that the communities have undergone a historical transition from more passive conservation to more active, conscious conservation particularly in the last decade. This thesis further contends that communities deserve additional financial compensation for this active conservation of globally important forests for biodiversity conservation and that exercises in systematic conservation planning ignore the reality that existing biodiversity conservation in the subregion is associated with community ownership.

La recherche porte sur l’action collective locale et la gestion des forêts communautaires à Djoum au Sud Cameroun. Elle analyse l’approche gouvernementale d’octroi et de gestion communautaire des ressources forestières, afin de responsabiliser et d’autonomiser les communautés villageoises dans la prise en charge des activités de production économique pour réduire la pauvreté, améliorer les conditions de vie et assurer le développement local. L’objectif est de rendre compte de la capacité des forêts communautaires à fournir des avantages économiques pour répondre à ce défi. C’est aussi pour rendre compte des territoires villageois, vus comme l’échelle de référence pour la gouvernance des forêts communautaires et de l’influence de l’identité spatiale sur l’organisation communautaire de cette gestion. La méthodologie mise en œuvre est pluridisciplinaire. Les résultats de notre étude montrent plusieurs faiblesses structurelles. Les forêts communautaires étudiées sont des espaces spécialisés en plusieurs zones, correspondant chacune à des usages particuliers. Cette perspective exclue l’exploitation du bois d’œuvre sur toute la surface de l’espace forestier. Pourtant toutes les forêts communautaires sont divisées en secteurs quinquennaux, eux-mêmes divisés en parcelles annuelles d’exploitation de bois. Ensuite, ces forêts ont été fortement perturbées dans le passé, un indicateur qui devrait les destiner plus à la conservation qu’à l’exploitation. Mais ce n’est pas le cas, toutes les communautés ou presque, ayant opté pour leur exploitation. De même, les volumes de bois exploités dans ces forêts sont très faibles, ce qui atteste clairement que les possibilités qu’on leur attribue dans les plans simples de gestion sont fausses. Au plan des réalisations socioéconomiques et des emplois créés, le bilan est très loin des espoirs engendrés. Les quelques emplois créés sont de type temporaire, précaires et non qualifiés. Par ailleurs, l’exploitation du bois d’œuvre n’a généré jusqu’ici, aucune infrastructure ni réalisation socioéconomique collectives, puisque les revenus ex post générés restent largement inférieurs aux prévisions financières ex ante. Enfin, ces forêts sont assises sur des espaces appropriés. Cette situation soulève des équivoques sur leur statut supposé de biens communs et pose la question du partage de leurs retombées économiques. D’autres faiblesses dites conjoncturelles existent et expliquent la léthargie dans laquelle sombre l’organisation communautaire de la gestion des forêts. Nos résultats ont montré la défaillance des acteurs communautaires à se situer par rapport à leur objectif. Leurs capacités à s’approprier un projet et à mettre en œuvre une vraie stratégie de mobilisation collective sont également défaillantes. Le manque de solidarité communautaire et la non valorisation des savoirs et savoir-faire locaux rendent les communautés vulnérables dans les partenariats qu’ils nouent et renforcent le poids et l’influence des acteurs extérieurs. Sur les territoires villageois comme échelle de référence pour la gouvernance des forêts communautaires, l’étude a montré que ceux-ci apparaissent comme des lieux d’expression des divisions, des dissensions, de fabrique des soupçons et gouvernés par l’individualisme. Les organisations communautaires sont à leur tour décrites comme des dispositifs de mise à distance, minés par les pressions exercées par les acteurs porteurs de logiques différentes, des stéréotypes et des représentations qui inhibent plutôt l’action collective communautaire. Ce sont aussi des dispositifs contrôlés par l’appât du gain. Les forêts communautaires produisant peu ou pas d’argent, la démobilisation collective ici prend alors tout son sens.L’étude s’achève avec les perspectives à envisager pour faire de l'action collective locale l'outil sans lequel l’atteinte des objectifs d’amélioration des conditions de vie, de réduction de la pauvreté et les perspectives de développement local, n'est pas envisageable. / The research focuses on local collective action and management of community forests in southern Cameroon, at Djoum. It analyzes the government’s approach for granting and community management of forest resources, in order to empower and empowering village communities in the management of economic production activities to reduce poverty, improve living conditions and ensure local development. The objective is to realize the capacity of community forests to provide economic benefits to meet this challenge. It is also to account for village territories, seen as the reference scale for the governance of community forests and the influence of the spatial identity on community organization of this management. The implementation methodology is multidisciplinary. The results of our study show several structural weaknesses. First, it appears that the studied community forests are spaces specialized in several areas, each corresponding to particular uses. This perspective excludes timber exploitation on the entire surface of forest area. Yet all Community forests are divided into five-year sectors, themselves divided into annual surfaces of timber exploitation. Then, these forests have been heavily disturbed in the past, an indicator that should send these more to conservation than the exploitation. But this is not the case, all communities or almost, having opted for their exploitation. Similarly, the volumes of wood exploited in these forests are very low, which clearly demonstrates that the possibilities that ascribed to them in the management simple plan are false. In terms of socio-economic achievements and jobs created, the balance sheet is very far from begotten hopes. The few jobs created are temporary, precarious and unqualified. Moreover, the exploitation of timber has generated so far here, neither infrastructure nor collective socio-economic achievement, since ex post generated incomes remain far below ex-ante financial forecast of timber exploitation. Finally, these forests are sitting on appropriate spaces. This raises ambiguities about their supposed status of common goods and raises the question of sharing of their benefits. Others cyclical said weaknesses exist and explain the lethargy into which sinks community organization of forest management. Our results showed the failure of community actors to position themselves in relation to their objective. Their capacities to take a project and to implement a genuine strategy of collective mobilization are also failing. The lack of Community solidarity and the not valorization of local knowledge make vulnerable communities in the partnerships they formed and strengthen the weight and influence of external actors. On village territories as reference scale for the governance of community forests, the study showed that these appear as places of expression of divisions, conflict, and factory of the suspicions and governed by individualism. Community organizations are in turn, described as devices remotely, undermined by pressures from actors of different logics, stereotypes and representations that inhibit rather community collective action. They are also devices controlled by the lure of profit. Community forests producing little or no money, the collective demobilization here makes sense then. The study ends with the perspective to consider for making the local collective action the tool without which the achievement of the objectives of improving the living conditions, poverty reduction and the prospects for local development, is not possible.

Étudier la mise en œuvre de la décentralisation forestière au Cameroun est l’objet de cette recherche dont la question principale est de savoir si le transfert de la gestion des forêts aux communes et communautés villageoises conduit à de nouvelles formes de gouvernance concourant au développement socio-économique local et à la conservation des forêts dans la région Est. Les résultats de cette étude, basée sur une méthodologie pluridisciplinaire et utilisant la gouvernance comme cadre d’analyse, indiquent des relations complexes d’interdépendances inégales entre les communes et les communautés villageoises vis-à-vis des exploitants forestiers. Ils montrent également des rapports de dépendance de ces trois catégories d’acteurs vis-à-vis de l’État dont le pouvoir autoritaire reste fort et prégnant. Quant au développement socio-économique et à la conservation des forêts escomptés, les résultats obtenus sont en-deçà des espérances dans les communes de Gari Gombo et de Yokadouma. Certes l’on note quelques retombées socio-économiques pour les populations locales mais de nombreuses faiblesses limitantes pour une gouvernance efficace sont mises en lumière. Des perspectives pour une gouvernance efficace, au Cameroun en général et dans la zone d’étude en particulier, suggèrent l’organisation d’une action collective autour d’un objectif partagé, relatif au développement socio-économique et/ou à la conservation des forêts, entre les différents acteurs stratégiques pertinents. Il est également important que les bénéficiaires des forêts communales et communautaires en tirent des revenus suffisants pour réaliser des projets de développement local et assurer la régénération forestière. / Study the implementation of forest decentralization in Cameroon is the subject of this research that the main issue is whether the transfer of forest management to councils and local communities led to new forms of governance contributing to the socio-economic local development and the conservation of forests in the Eastern region. The results of this study, based on multidisciplinary methodological approach and using governance as a framework for analysis, indicate unequal interdependence relationship between the councils and logging companies on the one hand and between village communities and loggers in the other. They also indicate the dependency of these three categories of actors toward state institutions whose authoritarian power remains strong and meaningful. With regard to the local development and the conservation of forests expected, the analysis shows results below expectations in the councils of Gari Gombo and Yokadouma. Although we note some socio-economic benefits for local people, but overall many weaknesses limiting for effective governance are highlighted. The prospects for the effectiveness of governance in Cameroon in general, and in the study area in particular, suggest an organisation of collective action around a shared goal, for the local development and the forest biodiversity conservation, between relevant strategic actors. In addition, it is also necessary that the council and community forests generate sufficient incomes to their beneficiaries, to achieve local development projects and to ensure forest regeneration.

Nearly four decades of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-European Union (EU) relationship have witnessed the importance of ideas and identity alongside the economic interests in shaping the behaviour of the two sides. The study takes interest in understanding the EU’s actorness and the EU as a normative actor with and within Southeast Asia through a reflectivist lens. The thesis is an attempt to provide a new perspective on a relationship commonly assessed from an economic angle. It outlines the opportunity of non-traditional security (NTS) challenges to enhance EU actorness and normative influence in Southeast Asia. Against this backdrop, the study explores the dialogue and cooperative initiatives of two regions, which attach relatively little salience to each other. The study employs a NTS lens and draws upon the case of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98, the haze in relation to forest governance, the Bali bombings of 2002 and the political conflict in Aceh. The study assumes that these NTS issues can stimulate processes of threat convergence as well as threat ‘othering’. It argues that these processes enhance European engagement in Southeast Asia and contribute to shaping regional stability in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, NTS crises present situations, where norms can become unstable, contested and substituted. This allows us to better examine the EU as a normative actor. To establish an understanding of the EU’s actorness and the EU as a normative actor, the empirical evidence will focus on the threat perceptions, motivations of action and activities of the EU and its member states. For the purpose of differentiating the EU as a normative actor, the study will also include the discussion of the normative objectives and behaviours of the EU and its member states and apply a reflectivist theoretical framework. Hypothetically, NTS crises trigger external assistance and normative influence and thus, they offer an opportunity to establish a more nuanced picture of the EU in the region. At the same time, the study acknowledges that there are a variety of constraints and variables that complicate the EU’s actorness. The thesis seeks to identify and discuss these. So far, scholarly publications have failed to apply the NTS perspective systematically. This thesis provides the first monograph-length treatment of the EU in Southeast Asia through a NTS and reflectivist lens.