Diss. (sammanfattning). Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Brazil has committed to reducing deforestation in the Amazon and has identified target goals for 2020. A variety of environmental policies and tools are used to reduce deforestation in the region, including payments for ecosystems services (PES). This report analyzes whether payments for ecosystem services are a viable option for supporting conservation and socio-economic goals in the Amazon. PES schemes provide economic incentives in exchange for meeting an environmental goal. They have been relatively successful in developed countries but have had limited applications or success in developing contexts. This report identifies the agents and activities that drive deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and determines which of these may be suitable for PES applications. It also provides a framework for analyzing current PES schemes in order to draw out best practices and lessons learned which may be applied to future program. PES schemes do have a role to play as one of the tools used in addressing deforestation in the Amazon. They can be cheaper than indirect approaches but do face some challenges in evaluation. Future PES applications may benefit from the lessons learned in the early applications of these programs. / text

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This study examines how deforestation in Malaysia is framed as an economic issue fought out in the political arena using cultural codes as an entry point to examining the political tensions of contemporary Malaysia. Three themes recur throughout this work. The first theme concerns the centrality of resources in Malaysia's colonial and post-colonial political economy. The second theme concerns the displacement of the anxieties of national and cultural survival onto the contests over economic rights. And the third theme is the way collective memories 'flesh out' contemporary contests between the state and civil society. In the sense that the three themes are inter-related, this study traces the twinned construction, and opposition, of the two central ideas: of 'nature' in the form of the rainforest and 'race' in the guise of nation. In keeping with the role of memory in present-day social and political engagements, this study weaves both archival and contemporary material to trace the construction of the history, imagery and vocabulary that have been mapped onto the physical space of the rainforest. I explore the production of the cultural codes through this mapping process that are then used to articulate the contests over the rainforest. These codes are the consequence of negotiations that reflect the unstable alliances and inconsistent identities of contemporary Malaysia, and they are the legacies, albeit translated, of colonialism. In retracing the contests over and about the forests, I hope to shed some light on why Malaysians made, and continue to make, decisions that appear to work against them. The decisions affecting the fate of the rainforest reflects choices made about the kind of society Malaysians live with. Hence, the three core chapters of this study examine military, political/cultural and economic contests and negotiations surrounding the birth of the Malayan/Malaysian nation-state through their impacts on the rainforest. By acknowledging how much of Malaysia's contemporary politics is its colonial legacy, I hope to highlight the trade-off we have made between limited political engagement and development. To accept that we cannot protect basic rights as the price of economic success is to continue to live within the racist framework of colonialism that human rights are only for some humans.

Deforestation contributes approximately 20 percent of global annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Increased CO2 is thought to contribute to increased global temperatures. Proposals have been brought forward to use carbon finance to compensate developing countries for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). International negotiations at the UN Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen in December 2009 will determine if REDD Offsets will be included in a post-Kyoto Protocol framework. At the time of writing, Canada proposes to achieve a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse emissions below 2006 levels by 2020 through an intensity based cap-and-trade scheme. International forestry-based offsets are specifically excluded from the proposed Canadian regulatory scheme. The international demand for REDD Offsets will likely grow with acceptance under the proposed US scheme, and others. With proper regulations, international REDD Offsets could be included in the proposed Canadian regulatory system providing benefit to regulated entities and the developing world.

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Tropical deforestation threatens both the livelihoods of people that inhabit forests and the environment. The Mezimbite sustainable indigenous forestry project in Mozambique aims to develop livelihoods and use community forest resources in a sustainable manner by harvesting timber and non-timber resources at an environmentally sustainable rate. The project brings together a private company, two communities that own forest resources, workers from other communities, and funding from external sources. Livelihoods are developed by transforming forest resources into a wide range of products such as furniture, doorframes, bracelets and household goods. A value chain analysis of two of the projects most important product categories in terms of revenues, designer bracelets and furniture, reveals that the project captures important economic rents that give it the potential to become economically sustainable. The design and training skills of the project leader and the skills of turners and carpenters (human resource rents), combined with access to high quality hardwoods (natural resource rents) result in quality products of unique design that can be sold in high-end markets in Europe, the US and South Africa. These products can realise high margins because they are competitive with similar products that are less environmentally or socially friendly. The project also has access to marketing agents at reduced cost (marketing rents), while the personal network of the project leader (relational rents) brings in private customers to buy furniture, interior decorators who resell furniture, bracelet retailers, and a marketing agent. The environmental and social character of the project helps to secure the cooperation of the agents, gives the project access to grants from foundations and NGOs (financial rents), and it ensures access to niche markets of environmentally conscious consumers in Europe and the US. Unfortunately, there are no infrastructural rents as the project site is not connected to the electricity grid, and no fixed telephone, fax or email is on site. It is also far away from markets, which leads to long delivery times and high transport cost, especially for furniture. A number of recommendations are made in order to increase sales and strengthen the project's economic sustainability. These recommendation relate to functional, product and process upgrades of the value chain. Firstly, the project should consider bringing its furniture into retail stores to reduce dependency on relational rents, which requires development of a standard furniture collection with a catalogue. This also requires stocking furniture closer to the markets in the US, Europe and South Africa to reduce transportation cost en delivery times. Secondly, the bracelet collection should be reduced to small limited editions that change every twice a year. Thirdly contact with customers, agents and retailers should be improved, for instance by establishing a small office in the nearby city of Beira with email, fax and telephone and of a dedicated sales person. The amount of wood that can be harvested under the sustainable management plan is large enough to deal with an increase of furniture and bracelet production. However, it remains unclear whether the economic benefits are large enough for the community to keep their support for the project. Only a small percentage of the sales revenues of the bracelets and furniture flow towards members of the forest communities and most jobs are created outside the community. I recommend that the project consider employing more people in the Mezimbite Forest Centre from the participating communities. In spite of low employment rates, community members receive fruit trees from the nursery, degraded woodlands are reforested and income is derived from the sales of the other products manufactured in the project. An increase in sales and production would lead to higher benefits and more employment. A recommendation is that further monitoring and evaluation of the project take place to ensure dual goals of economic development and sustainable use of forest resources is achieved. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

The study of tropical forest fragmentation addresses the difficult issues of diminishing forest area and concurrent biodiversity losses. In recent years much of the deforestation of the tropics has been challenged with policy changes and conservation efforts. The Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology, located in Costa Rica, is an area of relatively conserved and restored forest fragments that has proven resilient. This study focuses on a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis, used to assess the level of forest fragmentation in the area. Fragmentation is the process by which continuous forest is diminished into smaller, geographically isolated portions of forest. It was determined that the area is relatively unfragmented, as compared to it’s status in 1972. Though anthropogenic stresses continue, fragmentation of primary forest is limited and the majority of forested area is in large, semi-continuous blocks made up of a mixture of primary and secondary forest, which likely allows for a preservation of biodiversity in the region. Further on-site studies are necessary to fully evaluate the level of anthropogenic stress on the region. However, compared to many tropical areas, Costa Rica is conserving forest and ecological diversity.