Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 401-411). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

International efforts to promote REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest-carbon stocks) have enjoyed widespread support in climate negotiations. While proponents of this ‘payments for ecosystem services’ approach proclaim win-win benefits, others critique this commodification of forest carbon for contributing to social and environmental injustices that will undermine conservation and development in the longer-term. In this dissertation I respond to these concerns by critically examining how REDD+ initiatives emerge in the context of Lindi Region, Tanzania. I specifically investigate how REDD+ initiatives interact with local livelihood practices, local forest governance and the drivers of land use in order to interrogate the mechanism’s contribution to local development. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in two villages, both characterised by relatively large forest areas and ‘shifting cultivation’, where different REDD+ projects are underway. In total I stayed in Tanzania for 11 months and applied qualitative and quantitative methods that resulted in 116 recorded interviews, one focus group discussion, innumerable journal entries from ethnographic interviewing and participant observation, 118 household surveys and data from document analysis. Drawing on debates within international development and neoliberalisation of nature I conceptualise REDD+ initiatives as processes promoting ‘inclusive’ neoliberal conservation. In doing so I point at the inherent contradictions of this mechanism that aims to combine a neoliberal conservation logic with inclusive development objectives. I empirically examine local livelihood practices to question popular notions of land use and argue that REDD+ initiatives must grapple with poverty, intra-village inequality and villagers’ dependence on land for crop production to contribute to inclusive economic development. I follow up on this argument by discussing the importance of material and discursive effects of REDD+ initiatives to the livelihoods of poor, middle income and wealthy households and to forest conservation. I then link these effects to an examination of how power and politics shape the implementation of REDD+ initiatives on the ground, specifically discussing the technically complex and politically contested process of territorialisation and the local practices of community-based forest management. I illustrate how seemingly technical REDD+ initiatives are inherently political, which gives them the potential to contribute to local empowerment. At the same time I question naïve assumptions over community conservation and good governance reforms by showing in detail how community-based forest management institutions are practiced on the ground and how this affects benefit distribution within the villages. My last empirical chapter examines how Conservation Agriculture is introduced in the villages as the best way to reconcile agricultural development with forest protection. I specifically discuss the role of social relations in shaping the dissemination and adoption of this new technology in rural Tanzania. Throughout this thesis I argue that local livelihood practices, power struggles and politics over land and people shape how REDD+ initiatives, as inherently contradictory processes of ‘inclusive’ neoliberal conservation, emerge on the ground and I empirically show what this means to different forest stakeholders.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-22T22:18:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nasthya Cristina Garcia Pereira.pdf: 759782 bytes, checksum: 9404a9589096adf68e054e603ecb0c22 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-10-23 / From a representative point of view, this thesis seeks to demonstrate the understanding of nature by the governors of the state of Amazonas between the years of 1852 and 1889. Concomitant to this purpose, the view on the social milieu of these representatives of the monarchic power has also been taken into consideration in this discourse. Throughout the almost four decade existence of the province, the general view on nature in this region has been maintained. Nevertheless a new connection is perceived regarding the postures of decrees on the natural environment during the last two decades, presenting themselves as more pragmatic actions for the organization of this environment. Primarily through reports from governors of the Amazon province, the natural and human characteristics of the region are analyzed with the additional intention of outlining the difficulties of implementing the nation s civilization project. This project involved the recognition, as part of the national territory as well as the regional survey, of the people living in secluded areas of the country. Nature played an essential role in the definition of nationality as it contained the most valuable assets of the Brazilian empire, which was seeking to establish itself as a civilized nation that had the knowledge and was essentially able to cultivate the rich uncivilized lands. In the face of the of the civilization project that involved the natural environment as well as the inhabitants of the country, the Amazon governors, defending and representing the same project, explained in their reports the difficult task of its realization. The region has been described as a deserted and backward place; in the reports its still uncultivated nature and its idle and wandering population appear as a problematic reality still subject to transformation. Therefore by proclaiming a dull social state they presented plans and ways of civilizing nature and native tribes and clearly believed Amazon region represented a great promise for the future / Esta Dissertação procurou examinar e interpretar, valendo-se especialmente da noção de representação, as visões de natureza e de meio social que os presidentes da Província do Amazonas, entre os anos de 1852 e 1889, deixaram expressas em seus relatórios de governo. No decorrer de quase quatro décadas de existência da província, a visão geral de natureza deste segmento foi tenazmente mantida; contudo, percebe-se um novo enlace a respeito das atitudes de ordenação do meio natural nas duas últimas décadas, apresentando-se como ações mais pragmáticas para a organização desse ambiente. Por meio, primordialmente, do exame dos relatórios dos presidentes da Província do Amazonas, a particularidade natural e humana da região foi analisada com a intenção complementar de evidenciar as problemáticas para a execução do projeto civilizador defendido pelo Império. Projeto que envolvia a afirmação e o reconhecimento do território nacional junto de um levantamento dos grupos humanos de lugares recônditos do país. Nesse processo, a natureza representou um elemento essencial para a questão da nacionalidade, pois encerrava a maior riqueza e o maior patrimônio do Império brasileiro, que desejava se elevar como nação civilizada com o conhecimento e, especialmente, com o cultivo das ricas terras ainda incultas. Diante do projeto civilizador que envolvia a natureza e os habitantes do país, os presidentes do Amazonas, defensores e representantes desse projeto, explicitaram nos relatórios a difícil tarefa para sua realização. A Província era representada como um lugar deserto e atrasado; a natureza ainda inculta e a população ociosa e errante transparecem nos relatos como elementos de uma realidade problemática, todavia passível de transformação. Embora descrevessem um estado social desanimador, não deixaram de apresentar os planos e os meios para civilizar a natureza e os grupos humanos, e claramente acreditaram que o Amazonas representava uma grande promessa para o futuro