Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborgs universitet, 2002. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-317).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2004. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 171-189). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 342-371).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, Jan., 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-246).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Anthropology, Jun. 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Three recent global economic trends are shifting forest livelihoods and ‘development’ intervention in Mozambique. These trends are China’s growing influence in Africa, large–scale land grabbing and climate change politics. Based on eighteen months of mixed–methods research between 2009 and 2011, this dissertation examines the interactions of these global trends with day–to–day social, political and ecological processes in two rural communities in Zambézia Province (central Mozambique)—one in the miombo woodlands of Maganja da Costa district and the other near expanding timber plantations in Gurué district. The community in Maganja da Costa is at the center of clashes between conservation groups and illegal loggers selling precious hardwoods to China. The community in Gurué is responding to a Presidential mandate for every local leader to establish ‘forests’ (predominantly exotic monocultures) that represent a dispersed form of land grabbing. Drawing on recent agendas within the field of feminist political ecology, the author highlights key encounters or ‘place–events’ (following Doreen Massey) that explain the complex historical, political and ecological dynamics shaping contemporary forest transformation in Zambézia. These place–events can only be understood through attention to bodies and identity performance, key sites where assemblages of power and meaning are enacted and negotiated. This approach provides insight into less visible dimensions of landscape change by moving beyond commodity chain analysis and local/national/global hierarchies of causality. Examples of place–events examined include: girls becoming women through scarification with battery acid in a forest grove; men singing about their boss’ wife as they haul timber; NGO staff distributing pesticide spray information pamphlets in an anti–malaria campaign and elite women beating their husbands for planting ‘government’ trees. Attention to bodily performances that fundamentally constitute these place–events demonstrates how interventions in the name of sustainable development play out and often fail. It also elucidates how some loggers are able to extract valuable timber more than others. In fact, local community members see all of these outsiders—despite their distinct ideologies—as equally foreign based on similar ‘outsider’ bodily comportment. Such embodied dynamics are political and cultural, and they should be a key concern for anyone involved in shaping the future of Mozambique’s forests. / 10000-01-01

Conservation management of state-controlled forests has shifted away from strict, centralized management by incorporating community-based co-management initiatives. Often termed participatory forest management, these initiatives include local residents in forest planning, implementation, and management. This thesis examines two case studies located at the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve, Kenya. The case studies illustrate how imbalances of power establish participant (actor) roles through policies set by governments and NGOs. Power imbalances are perpetuated through hegemonies of postcolonialism that reinforce actor role perceptions. Awareness and understanding of role perceptions is paramount in participatory conservation initiatives that benefit both the physical environment and community development. Analyzing histories of past conservation initiatives with assessments of current and perceived future issues may reduce unrealistic role expectations. Examining actor role contributions at multiple scales of power is necessary. Reflection upon how roles influence perceptions may decrease failures of conservation initiatives involving affluent global donors and marginalized local communities.

This case study examines the relationship between agriculture and urbanization in the context of Oregon's comprehensive land use planning system. The first article assesses the historical relationship between rural real estate development and investment in agriculture in Jackson County southern Oregon. The second article uses the theory of global urbanization to reflect on the patterns of urbanization in Jackson County and suggests that global urbanization might provide a useful framework for connecting urban political ecology and exurban political ecology. The third article focuses on the political economies of farmland preservation in Jackson County where there have been repeated calls for increased local control of land use planning. / 2016-09-29

Rivers are vital for sustaining biodiversity and human development, yet globally only a small fraction of rivers enjoy protection and those with protections are often impaired or modified. Rapid rates of freshwater species’ extinctions indicate current conservation practices are failing. Despite over fifty years of scientific evidence justifying river conservation, it remains that less attention is focused on protecting ecosystems than on developing water resources for economic growth. This disparity is indicative of the ‘nature as resource’ versus ‘conservation of nature’ paradigm. Today, this paradigm is complicated by new attentions centering both on water resource development projects and conservation policy as climate change adaptation strategies. Policies protecting rivers are recommended for contending with more intense storms and flooding, increasing resilience for species, forests, and agricultural areas, and fostering some types of water security. Creating, implementing, and managing climate adaptation policies will require a strong state presence in water resource governance. We know, however, the aforementioned paradigm hinders conservation policymaking. Therefore, understanding how conservation policy has already been rationalized, implemented, and managed is critical to advancing climate adaptation policymaking. Yet, little empirical research has been conducted on federal river conservation policy creation or application across the U.S. To that end, this dissertation, presented in three discrete original research articles, examines the United States National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Specifically, this study investigates the socio-ecological drivers behind the creation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (WSRA hereinafter) and the spatial dimensions of the policy’s application and management over time. This study is grounded empirically in extensive archival materials, interviews with federal land management agency personnel, conservation advocates, and technical experts, as well as spatial and temporal analysis of a geodatabase. Together, these methods were employed to answer the following research questions which guide this study: (1) What factors influence the temporal and spatial distribution of river segments protected under the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act? (2) What does the history of management in designated segments suggest about emerging trends and patterns in river conservation? (3) How are competing environmental values and ideologies understood and reconciled in the context of river conservation?

This thesis is concerned with the demands that humans are placing on the planet. Such demands are interrogated in long-running debates about how to reconcile the tensions between development, as an immanent process of capitalist expansion (see Cowen & Shelton 1996), and the environment, taken broadly in reference to finite natural resources, landscapes and wildlife. As environmental issues become increasingly prominent in local struggles, national debates, and international policies and programmes, we need to be paying more attention to how they are produced and shaped by politics and power relations, as well as to the differences between how groups relate to their biophysical environments. In this thesis, I do this by investigating the political ecology of post-neoliberalism in Bolivia. The country has been heralded as one of the most radical political projects in Latin America and a reformed state is being implemented in the name of radical politics and revolution, appropriating discourses of indigeneity and social movements. Here, the state has blamed the global environmental crisis on the continuing dominance of capitalism and neoliberalism. This has been publically rejected by the state, whilst new ‘post-neoliberal’ forms of development and harmonious relationships between people and nature have been promoted. However, Bolivia’s post-neoliberal state project has become increasingly dependent on hydrocarbon extraction becoming the most natural resource-dependent country in the region. This has created new sites of contestation and conflict between citizens and the state, as well as complicating what the Bolivian case contributes to wider debates about development and the environment. In this project I research an ongoing conflict over the Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS) concentrating on the key themes of development, environment and indigeneity. This political ecology of post-neoliberalism contributes both to our understanding of this emerging political project and to broader debates about human/nature relationships - by questioning the dynamics of fringe politics. This means questioning how the terms and content of ‘alternatives’ and ‘radical’ politics are set and how this in turn shapes the possibilities for transformative paths towards more sustainable human/nature relationships.