Landscape plasticity and its erasure

Environment and Planning E Nature and Space ◽

10.1177/25148486211062004 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 251484862110620

Author(s):

Janet C. Sturgeon

Keyword(s):

Poverty Alleviation ◽

Shifting Cultivation ◽

Farming Practices ◽

Resource Access ◽

Space And Time ◽

Forest Policies ◽

International Border

For centuries, people who call themselves Akha had formed village landscapes of rotating shifting cultivation fields amid regenerating trees together with enduring wooded sites, all under the purview of their ancestors. In Mengsong, an Akha settlement on the ridge separating China and Burma, farmers had managed complex, biodiverse and flexible landscapes for 250 years. In 1996–1997, my extended research there identified cultivation patterns that I called landscape plasticity, referring to farming practices that were highly mutable over space and time, often transgressing state-allocated property lines and the international border with Burma. From 1997 to 2011, a combination of exclusionary state forest policies, the racialization of upland minorities, and a state poverty alleviation project brought landscape plasticity and the ancestors to an end. Using concepts from sentient landscapes, resource access, environmentalism, racialization, and capitalist markets, this paper seeks to explain how landscape plasticity and the ancestors were erased. At the same time, I explore the puzzle of why Akha farmers saw these contingent outcomes as positive

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Changing forest coverage and understanding of deforestation in Nepal Himalayas

Geographical Journal of Nepal ◽

10.3126/gjn.v13i0.28133 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 ◽

pp. 1-28

Author(s):

Prem Sagar Chapagain ◽

Tor H. Aase

Keyword(s):

Forest Management ◽

Poverty Alleviation ◽

Scientific Literature ◽

Environmental Processes ◽

Forest Policies ◽

Forest Coverage ◽

Fragile Environment ◽

Global Concern ◽

Global Agenda ◽

Initial Focus

The environmental situation of the Hiamlayas is a matter of global concern. Understanding on Himalayas environment is usually shaped by the changing views expressed by research institutions, doner organizations, and finally by politics and power relations. In line with changing paradigms in knowledge-producing institutions, different understandings of environmental challenges in the Himalayas have emerged. Based on the literature and available data, we have tried to discern changes in forest policies, their implication on forest management and various understandings of deforestation in Nepal Himalayas that are salient in the scientific literature. The debate of deforestation/degradation on the state of Himalayan environment came on the global agenda in the 1950s. The initial focus was on population growth and pressure on natural resources. It was followed by attention to processes of development and physical interventions in a fragile environment. Most recently local participation and poverty alleviation have been high on the agenda. In this context, the present paper attempts to examine the debates in the light of recent events and circumstances related to environmental processes in general and forest management of Nepal in particular.

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The Trees and the Bees: Using Enforcement and Income Projects to Protect Forests and Rural Livelihoods Through Spatial Joint Production

Agricultural and Resource Economics Review ◽

10.1017/s1068280500002872 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 424-438 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

H.J. Albers ◽

E.J.Z. Robinson

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Poverty Alleviation ◽

Rural Livelihoods ◽

Forest Degradation ◽

Joint Production ◽

Resource Access ◽

Forest Managers

Forest managers in developing countries enforce extraction restrictions to limit forest degradation. In response, villagers may displace some of their extraction to other forests, which generates “leakage” of degradation. Managers also implement poverty alleviation projects to compensate for lost resource access or to induce conservation. We develop a model of spatial joint production of bees and fuelwood that is based on forest-compatible projects such as beekeeping in Thailand, Tanzania, and Mexico. We demonstrate that managers can better determine the amount and pattern of degradation by choosing the location of both enforcement and the forest-based activity.

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Swidden agriculture in transition and its roles in tropical forest loss and plantations expansion

10.22541/au.161675059.94772443/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Peng Li ◽

Chiwei Xiao ◽

Zhiming Feng

Keyword(s):

Tropical Forest ◽

Poverty Alleviation ◽

Shifting Cultivation ◽

Climate Changes ◽

Demographic Data ◽

Forest Loss ◽

Climate Mitigation ◽

Swidden Agriculture ◽

International Debate ◽

The Tropics

Tropical forest and swidden agriculture are declining, while commercial plantation is continuously expanding. However, little is known about the mechanisms, processes and trends of the tropical forest-swidden-plantation (FSP) nexus. Global ongoing initiatives including the UN-REDD Programme, not only have repeatedly emphasized the significance of conserving forests, reforestation and afforestation, but re-pushed swidden agriculture to the forefront of a long-standing international debate of climate changes and biodiversity. Many facets limit our understanding of swidden agriculture. The lack of geographic and demographic data and their dynamics across the tropics undoubtedly further aggravate this situation since the first appeal of eradication of shifting cultivation by the FAO. Although recent studies have enriched significantly our knowledge of forest loss and plantation expansion, previous research has proceeded separately and has yet to be integrated under the umbrella of sustainable swidden agriculture. Efforts are needed to investigate the dynamics of the FSP nexus for sake of a synergetic goal of climate mitigation and poverty alleviation.

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