Can rural renewable energy projects simultaneously meet the multiple goals of sustainable development, climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation? If so, under what conditions? Rural communities throughout Latin America have increasingly suffered the impacts of climate change and few policies exist to help them adapt to these impacts. The basic infrastructure and services that they frequently lack can be provided by low carbon technologies, potentially funded by international carbon finance flows that could enable the Millennium Development Goals of economic growth and poverty alleviation to be met while minimizing carbon emissions. This research will focus on this interrelationship among development, climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation policies and practices using political ecology to analyse community renewable energy projects in rural Central America. I assess fifteen community-owned renewable energy projects in Guatemala and Nicaragua to analyse whether current renewable energy projects are achieving these goals in an integrated way. The projects were established primarily as development, emissions reductions, climate change adaptation and disaster relief. The projects are evaluated on economic, development and climate change indicators that include sustainable development, poverty alleviation, emissions reductions, and climate vulnerability. I examine how the type of common property governance, local historical and environmental background and project implementation process influence the project success in meeting multiple objectives of climate adaptation, mitigation and development. Research methods include participatory poverty assessment techniques, semi-structured interviews, stakeholder analysis, and a combination of rapid and participatory methods. The analysis of sustainable development and vulnerability used the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach methodologies and emissions reductions were calculated using standard carbon reduction methodologies. The results show that, under certain conditions, renewable energy projects can simultaneously meet these three objectives, and thus that responses to climate change can be integrated with poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Small scale hydroelectric and solar systems can reduce emissions, enable adaptation and help local livelihoods although there are numerous problems that limit the success of projects including poor design, inequitable distribution of benefits, and poorly designed governance and maintenance structures.

Global climate change is one of the defining issues of the 21st century. The phenomenon of natural climate variation being pushed beyond normal ranges has been fueled largely by industrial activities and those which support them (i.e. land-use change and the over-exploitation of natural resources). The urgency is well established with reports demonstrating an increased occurrence of rare, highly damaging weather events, and shifts in the natural range of species. The necessity of action on climate change has resulted in the development of novel global initiatives designed to address the problem across global and regional scales. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) is emblematic of this new wave of conservation strategy. It brings together parties which are often seen as opposed on environmental issues in collaborative environmental practise. This thesis explores the development of REDD+ as an effective and equitable solutions to this problem. REDD+ is a policy architecture designed for global deployment, the success of which will depend largely upon the engagement and involvement of local community groups. Community forest management (CFM) may inform the REDD+ design process, and enhance both land-use strategies by way of synergy. The pathway to that point is, however, uncertain and marred with potential pitfalls. This thesis uses the instructive and critical lens of political ecology to assess the potential for integrating greater CFM elements into the REDD+ policy structure. It explores how the narratives of CFM and REDD+ clash at discursive levels, while also identifying elements of each which may make them mutually beneficial. The thesis finds that much of the conflict between positions on REDD+ are the result of contrasting environmental understandings, some of which are informed by negative experiences with past environmental conservation initiatives. Greater community-centric attributes may assist in improving the local and regional acceptability of REDD+ projects by appealing to the “alternative” values of forest-dependent peoples. Some suggested policy modifications are made to improve the overall design of REDD+ to be inclusive of the concerns of forest user groups, and potential areas for future research projects are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Environmental Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-01-28 14:57:55.951

Derrière l’apparent consensus de l’application du registre de la durabilité à la ville, notre recherche contribue à analyser, dans une perspective critique, ce que recouvre la locution de ville durable dans le champ de l’urbanisme. Nos investigations reposent tout d’abord sur l’étude des modalités d’émergence de l’expression, conjuguée à l’examen du traitement dont la notion fait l’objet dans la littérature scientifique et professionnelle. Nourrie du rapport dressé entre méditerranéité et pensée complexe (MORIN 1999), l’approche est ensuite incarnée au sein d’une ville méditerranéenne : Marseille. Elle se fonde alors sur l’analyse des représentations que les acteurs en charge de la fabrique urbaine se font de la ville durable, éclairant ainsi ce qui fonde leurs actions dans ce domaine. L’enjeu réside enfin dans la mise en regard de l’ensemble avec les conséquences matérielles, socio-spatiales et vécues des productions effectives. Celle-ci s'opère à travers un cheminement exploratoire sensible ponctué d’observations et de récits d’habitants, au sein d’un secteur dont les principes de réalisation sont rattachés à l’idée de ville durable. Notre parcours de thèse montre ainsi comment, exogène aux sphères de l’urbanisme, la notion de ville durable ne constitue pas un cadre suffisamment émancipateur et robuste pour permettre aux acteurs du champ de parvenir à un renouvellement des savoirs ni de s’affranchir des contraintes et tendances lourdes qui pèsent sur la fabrique urbaine. Il propose, ce faisant, une démarche écologique permettant d’explorer ce/ceux sur quoi/qui pourraient reposer la ou plutôt les durabilités urbaines et comment. / Whilst there seems to be a consensus on the feasibility of applying sustainability thinking to town and city development, our research contributes to the critical understanding of the notion of a sustainable city within the field of urban planning. We will begin with a study of the modalities of the emergence of this term, combining it with an analysis of the ways in which the notion is used in professional and scientific literature. Following on from the correspondence drawn between "méditerranéité" and complex thinking (MORIN 1999), our approach will then be embodied in the heart of a Mediterranean city : Marseille. Considering the mental pictures conjured up by the notion of sustainable city, we thus analyse the ways in which the elements of meaning previously highlighted are being used or not, interpreted, or even diverted, and how they influence decisions and actions. As the object of our work is the relationship between these and their material, socio-spatial and experiential impact, we then go on to conduct a sensitive exploration using observations and stories told by local residents within a sector in which actualisation principles are relating to the idea of sustainable city. This research shows, in the end, how the notion of sustainable city, which is exogenous to the domain of urban planning, does not offer a sufficiently emancipating or robust framework to allow the development of new “knowledge and know-how” or to outweigh the constraints and forceful trends that hinder the development of the town. This leads us to propose an "ecological" approach to explore what and whose contributions urban sustainability or rather sustainabilities might be built upon.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, 2017 / This research report conducts a critical examination of Ayo Akinfe’s Fuelling the Delta Fires by paying attention to the writer’s use of satire to highlight social problems such as corruption, deception and exploitation in Nigeria. The focus is on how Akinfe’s novel represents exploitation, waste, and excess that have become normative in a country on the brink of collapse. The work also seeks to identify and critique how Akinfe employs satire to interrogate the syndrome of the ‘big-man’ in Nigeria, showing how their actions contribute to social decay and violence. The research will also examine issues of ecology in the Niger Delta. Ecology has often been construed as a Western ideology that has little resonance within the framework of the African novel. However, this work, tries to show that as the scholarship on ecological humanities has evolved over the years, African alternatives which take account of the unique challenges of the continent have also being developed. Akinfe draws from these proposed models of ecology to focus attention on the ecological issues that are a direct outcome of the exploration of oil in the Niger Delta and by so doing, brings attention to the transgressions of government and multinational corporations who go to great lengths to extract oil in the region. Applying ecocritical examples suggested by scholars like Anthony Vital, Byron Caminero-Santangelo and others, the research report demonstrates how literature has been used as a medium to expose greed that facilitates ecological degradations and how the culture of consumerism affect the daily lives of the inhabitants of the Niger Delta. / XL2018

Previous research and literature commonly agree to the fact that women, especially rural women, is the most vulnerable group in society. Many of them tend to be found in the poorest sections of society. Women depend on natural resources for their livelihoods and are discriminated concerning labour division and access, control and knowledge about natural resources such as forests. Changes in the climate and natural degradation, especially forest degradation are threatening their livelihoods. Gender relations are structured around managing the environment where women are seen as major users and managers of the forests. The aim and the research questions of this study is to examine how women in Senegal experience that their everyday life and livelihood activities within fuelwood collection have been affected by deforestation. Furthermore, what reason do women see behind deforestation and the changes in their local environments. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven women from two villages in southern Senegal in the region of Casamance and Sine-Saloum. All these women were involved in fuelwood collecting activities. The result of the study was analysed through previous research, feminist political ecology approach and through definitions of livelihood and sustainable development in order to explain women’s experiences and activities within fuelwood collection. The result found that all women experiences changes in their livelihoods because of deforestation. The amount of time spent on fuelwood collecting activities increased while it less time was left to other activities. Women’s income and resources from the forests reduced or disappeared and the main focus turned into cover the needs of the household. Women’s personal everyday lives have been negatively affected by deforestation. Heavy work had negative health effects on the women. Some women have left fuelwood collection for alternative sources of income because it has become too demanding. Furthermore, the results showed that women are worried about their future since they are in mutual need of forests as well as fuelwood to survive.

A agricultura de corte-e-queima é praticada há milhares de anos nas áreas florestadas do planeta, principalmente nas regiões tropicais. Muitos estudos atestam a sustentabilidade desses sistemas quando praticados tradicionalmente e sob baixas densidades populacionais, mantendo, ou mesmo, promovendo a biodiversidade local e garantindo a subsistência de milhões de pessoas pobres rurais. No entanto, é crescente na literatura acadêmica e no debate político o papel que a agricultura de corte-e-queima vem desempenhando no desmatamento e demais impactos ambientais e sócio-econômicos. Esse processo é conseqüência das mudanças no uso do solo, intensificação agrícola e aumento demográfico que estão alterando as práticas e comprometendo a sustentabilidade desses sistemas agrícolas tradicionais. No Vale do Ribeira, sudeste do Estado de São Paulo, comunidades quilombolas têm sofrido um processo acelerado de mudanças nos seus padrões de subsistência. Dessa forma, esse estudo traz uma revisão da literatura sobre a agricultura de corte-equeima com o objetivo de traçar um panorama geral do que foi produzido até o momento, identificar as principais correntes teóricas envolvidas e apontar as alternativas propostas para sua manutenção. Em seguida, são caracterizados o perfil demográfico e sócio-econômico de nove comunidades quilombolas do Vale do Ribeira e identificados os principais fatores responsáveis pelas mudanças recentes nos seus padrões de subsistência. Por fim, é feita uma análise etnográfica, através de informações levantadas em três comunidades quilombolas pré-selecionadas, para a caracterização das atividades agrícolas praticadas atualmente e no passado recente, bem como o processo de mudanças ocorridas e os impactos causados no sistema agrícola de corte-equeima. Os resultados mostram que as restrições impostas pela legislação ambiental, os conflitos de terra, a construção de uma rodovia na região, a crescente inserção no mercado regional, e a atuação de órgãos governamentais e não-governamentais de desenvolvimento são os principais fatores responsáveis pelas mudanças observadas no sistema agrícola de corte-e-queima e, conseqüentemente, na organização socioeconômica destas populações. / Slash-and-burn agriculture has been practiced for thousands of years in the forests around the world, especially in the tropics, where it provides for the livelihood of countless poor rural populations. Many studies claim that slash-andburn agriculture is sustainable when performed under conditions of low human demographic density, maintaining or even increasing local biodiversity. However, it is growing in the academic literature, as well as in development debates, the concern regarding the role that this system has been playing in the deforestation of the planet´s tropical forests. This process appears to be closely linked to changes in land use patterns (agricultural intensification) and urban and rural demographic growth. In Ribeira Valley, State of São Paulo, Quilombola communities have had a significant increase of changes in their subsistence system. On the thread of these concerns, this study presents a critical review of the international and national academic literature on slash-and-burn agriculture. Thus, this review intends to draw a broad scenario of the current academic debate on this issue, as well as to identify the main alternatives strategies proposed to maintain or replace this cultivation system. Following this study aims to characterize the socioeconomic and demographic profile of nine Quilombola populations in the Ribeira Valley, and to identify the main factors responsible for the recent changes in their subsistence system. Por fim, an ethnographic analysis is done, through informations gathered in three pre-selected Quilombola communities, to characterize the agricultural activities practiced nowadays and in the recent past, besides the change process and impacts on the slash-and-burn agriculture. The results show that restrictions imposed by environmental laws, conflict over land, the construction of a major road in the region, the growing insertion into a market economy, and the intervention of governmental and nongovernmental development agencies are the main factors behind the changes observed in the subsistence system and, consequently, in the socioeconomic organization of these populations.

Quilombolas são descendentes de escravos africanos. Os quilombolas do Ribeira estão estabelecidos em áreas remotas ao longo da Bacia do Rio Ribeira de Iguape (sul do Brasil), cobertas pela vegetação da Mata Atlântica, um dos hotspots de biodiversidade do mundo. Desde os primórdios da ocupação (século XVIII), os quilombolas tem sido historicamente dependentes do cultivo de arroz, milho, mandioca e feijão pelo sistema de corte-e-queima. No entanto, desde a década de 1970, seus estilos de vida vem sendo profundamente alterados por mudanças da economia-política regional como, por exemplo, a construção de estradas e escolas rurais, o estabelecimento de áreas de conservação na região e pela implementação de programas governamentais de transferência de renda. Assim, algumas tendências locais consistem no aumento da renda e na substituição do cultivo de corte-e-queima pela intensificação agrícola e trabalho assalariado. Para compreendermos como as mudanças nas estratégias produtivas podem estar interagindo com os padrões nutricionais locais, coletamos dados de dieta, antropometria e alocação de tempo dos indivíduos de duas comunidades quilombolas peri-urbanas/rurais. As pessoas da primeira comunidade encontram-se mais voltadas para o plantio de cultívares comerciais, trabalho assalariado e artesanato do que aquelas da segunda, que orientam suas atividades produtivas sobretudo para a agricultura de subsistência e para o extrativismo de produtos florestais não madeireiros. Apesar das diferenças nas estratégias produtivas, encontramos os mesmos padrões de dieta e de atividade física em ambas as comunidades: seus núcleos calórico-proteicos parecem ser constituídos por comidas ricas em calorias, processadas ou provenientes de animais domesticados e em ambas as comunidades parece haver uma tendência de redução quanto à demanda energética associada às atividades produtivas a ocorrência simultânea destas tendências caracterizam a ocorrência de um processo demográfico mais amplo chamado Transição Nutricional (TN) (Popkin e Gordon-Larsen, 2004). Em conclusão, nossos dados sugerem que independentemente da estratégia produtiva adotada, ambas as comunidades passam por de TN e que as mulheres vêm sendo mais impactadas pelo processo do que os homens, em razão destes últimos, provavelmente, ainda se manterem envolvidos, em algum nível, com atividades agrícolas. Os programas governamentais de transferência de renda (bolsa-família) podem ser relevantes na definição das similaridades nos padrões de consumo alimentar encontrados. / Quilombolas are African slave descendants. The Ribeira Valley is one of the most important areas of concentration of Quilombos in Southern Brazil. The Ribeira Quilombolas are settled in remote areas along the Ribeira River system covered by Atlantic rain forest vegetation, one of the worlds biodiversity hotspots. Since the first settlements (18th Century), they have been historically dependent on shifting cultivation of rice, maize, manioc and beans. However, since 1970\'s their life style has been profoundely affected by changes in regional political economy, such as the opening of a roadway, the establishment of conservation areas in the region and the setting-up of rural schools. Some of the local trends consist of replacing shifting cultivation and increasing household income mainly through agricultural intensification, wage labour and government cash transfer programs. In order to grasp the way changes in economic strategies have affected the nutritional patterns, we collected data of diet, anthropometry and time allocation of individuals from two Quilombola peri-urban/rural communities. People from the first community have become more oriented to commercial crops, wage labor and handicrafts than people from the other one, still more tied to subsistence agriculture and the gathering of non-timber forestall products. Despite the differences in productive strategies, we found the same diet and physical activity patterns: the energy-protein core consisted of the same energy rich and processed foodstuff or foods from domesticated animals, and Quilombolas seem to have had their energy demands reduced, probably because of the decrease of agricultural activities. However, only men are still significantly involved in agricultural oriented activities. We concluded that regardless of the economic strategy adopted, both communities are undergone Nutrition Transition process (a global trend that consists of increasing the comsumption of energy rich foodstuff and of decreasing of energy expenditure levels (Popkin e Gordon-Larsen, 2004)) and women might be more impacted by the process than men. Additionally, government cash transfer programs seem to affect the diet and physical activities patterns found.

The policy of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) has been promoted at the global level as an innovative approach to reduce forest loss that contributes to about one-fifth of global climate change. My dissertation brings together theories of policy processes and political ecology to examine REDD+ at three levels: global, national and local. It focuses on how this global climate policy is translated from one geographical scale to another and from policy into practice. The analysis of how REDD+ is transformed through this process provides insights into the extent to which REDD+ is likely to achieve its aims of reducing forest loss and mitigating global climate change. The national and local cases are drawn from Ghana, West Africa. The study is mainly qualitative, and employs semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, oral histories, participatory activities, and document analysis, as methodologies. At the global scale, I explore how REDD+ became a global climate policy and the range of global expectations that supported its rise to prominence. I argue that REDD+ became prominent because of three main strategies employed by its proponents: first, the re-introduction of the role of forest-sector emissions to climate change negotiations; second, the setting-up of financial schemes to attract and mobilise support for REDD+; and third, the establishment of safeguards mechanisms to address criticisms raised by stakeholders that opposed REDD+. At the national level, I examine how the policy processes related to REDD+ were translated from the global scale to the national context of Ghana. I critically examine the narratives around how deforestation was understood and the range of actions that were subsequently identified as options for achieving REDD+ outcomes. I show that REDD+ has created opportunities for promising reforms and structures on forest management in Ghana; yet it is unlikely to achieve its intended objectives because of (i) problems with the way the narrative has framed the causes of deforestation; (ii) a failure to fully address long-standing problems with tenure and benefit-sharing frameworks; and (iii) the centralisation of revenue generation that is limiting local-level implementation of plans. At the local levels, I focus on how two REDD+ pilot projects were unfolding. Similar to the national level, my analysis reveals that the projects have employed questionable narratives about the ways deforestation is produced in both cases. In addition, the solutions designed to address deforestation were found to contain misplaced assumptions that undermine the prospects of both projects to achieve their intended objectives. The research highlights the messy processes of translation of global climate policies such as REDD+ as they move from one scale to another, and from policy to practice. The study contributes to understanding how problematic narratives, misguided assumptions, and diverse interests, create gaps between the policy ideas and their implementation as global climate policy is translated from one geographical scale to another.

Despite years of investment in urban water infrastructure, and the state-a supposedly benign public entity-being the major actor in governing water, many poor residents in global south cities such as Blantyre experience unprecedented water-related problems. The neoliberal narrative unequivocally advocates privatising water; it frames the water problem as symptomatic of the unravelling of non-economic means of distributing this basic necessity of life while revering the free market as a panacea to this long-standing challenge. This thesis draws from the production/urbanisation of nature/space literature to contribute towards framing an alternative and more just political ecological water narrative. Through a radical critique of capitalist urbanisation, it argues that the contemporary urban water condition is the outcome and symptomatic of the unjust historical geographical legacies of modernist/capitalist means of producing water. It problematises the neo-liberal "tragedy of the commons" discourse that attributes these problems to the non-commodity nature of water. Through a case study of Blantyre City, the thesis frames this critique through two claims (1) that there is no such a thing as non-commodified produced water in contemporary Blantyre; (2) that the commodification of water is nothing new, it is a histo-geographical process deeply rooted in logics and contradictions of capitalist production of nature and space. It traces a critical moment in the capitalist remaking of hydro-social relations to colonial modernisation. British colonisation (late 1850s-early 1960s) inserted money and modern techniques at the heart of human-water interactions thereby significantly transforming traditional modes of accessing water. During this period, water began to change from being a common good to an economic resource that could privately be enclosed and harnessed as a means to economic/private ends through modern techniques. Institutions created to mediate this emergent modernist water architecture were dominated by vested private settler interests, depended heavily on external financing and revenue generated from exchanging water through money. British colonisations then sow first seeds in inserting monetary exchange, class and social power as mediators of the human-water interchange thereby entrenching social inequalities in Blantyre's waterscape. The post-colonial political transition in 1964 did little to radically reconfigure these colonial logics and their contradictions; in fact, albeit in qualitatively different ways, these dynamics intensified. The thesis establishes that these historical geographical dynamics continue to reproduce conditions through which underprivileged residents are alienated from water, and this basic need is commodified in contemporary Blantyre. In locating alienation and commodification within the wider historical geographical context of capitalist urbanisation, this thesis aims to critically engage with debates on neo-liberalisation of water. It takes issue with a particular ahistorical manner commodification of water is read and the failure of these debates to engage critically with the historical/colonial genesis of the present urban water condition in global south cities. The thesis hopes to contribute to academic and practical projects concerned with generating alternative understandings and finding just solutions to persistent water problems in the global south.

The large marine protected area (MPA) declared in 2010 around the Chagos Archipelago, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), has led to a conflict in the thick of environmental protection, colonialism, sovereignty claims, and the human rights dispute of the Chagossian people that once were exiled from the islands in the 1970s. By applying a Foucauldian inspired critical discourse analysis, this study interprets and examines how the nature/human relationship was portrayed during and after the creation of the Chagos MPA. Applying theories and concepts from political ecology and Foucault’s idea of biopower sheds new light on a conservation effort depicted as a global environmental success by some, and a geopolitical social justice disaster by others. Finally, this thesis applies Tim Ingold’s philosophical concept of the globe and sphere to discuss the implications of inclusion or withdrawal from nature.