Political ecologies of resource governance

Bolivia’s natural resources have served as a ‘mechanism of trade’ mobilized by competing interest groups to build coalitions, create political pacts, and negotiate political settlements in which dominant actors attempt to win over those resistant to a particular vision of development and/or governance. These pacts and settlements are revisited constantly, reflecting the weak and fragmented power of the central state and of the elite and persistent tensions between national and subnational elites. Ideas about, and modes of, natural resource governance have been central to periods of instability and stability, and to significant periods of political rupture. The period since 2006 has been characterized by a stable settlement involving an alliance between the presidency, his dominant party, and national social movements. This settlement is sustained through bargains with parts of the economic elite and subnational actors with holding power, as well as through ideas of resource nationalism and state-led developmentalism.

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Achieving Social and Ecological Outcomes in Collaborative Environmental Governance: Good Examples from Swedish Moose Management

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13042329 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 2329

Author(s):

Sabrina Dressel ◽

Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist ◽

Maria Johansson ◽

Göran Ericsson ◽

Camilla Sandström

Keyword(s):

Social Learning ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

Collaborative Governance ◽

Theory Of Change ◽

Ecological Context ◽

Discretionary Power ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Resource Governance ◽

Social Ecological ◽

The Social

Collaborative governance approaches have been suggested as strategies to handle wicked environmental problems. Evaluations have found promising examples of effective natural resource governance, but also highlighted the importance of social-ecological context and institutional design. The aim of this study was to identify factors that contribute to the achievement of social and ecological sustainability within Swedish moose (Alces alces) management. In 2012, a multi-level collaborative governance regime was implemented to decrease conflicts among stakeholders. We carried out semi-structured interviews with six ‘good examples’ (i.e., Moose Management Groups that showed positive social and ecological outcomes). We found that ‘good examples’ collectively identified existing knowledge gaps and management challenges and used their discretionary power to develop procedural arrangements that are adapted to the social-ecological context, their theory of change, and attributes of local actors. This contributed to the creation of bridging social capital and principled engagement across governance levels. Thus, our results indicate the existence of higher-order social learning as well as a positive feedback from within-level collaboration dynamics to between-level collaboration. Furthermore, our study illustrates the importance of institutional flexibility to utilize the existing knowledge across stakeholder groups and to allow for adaptations based on the social learning process.

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Climate change and conflict in the Sahel: the acacia gum tree as a tool for environmental peacebuilding

International Affairs ◽

10.1093/ia/iiaa178 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 97 (1) ◽

pp. 201-218

Author(s):

Ousseyni Kalilou

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Social Inclusion ◽

Forced Migration ◽

Gum Arabic ◽

Local Environment ◽

Natural Soil ◽

Resource Governance ◽

Acacia Gum ◽

Promising Source ◽

Acacia Tree

Abstract Environmental stress contributes to food insecurity, poverty, forced migration and violent conflict in the Sahel, with climate change aggravating the situation. The production of gum arabic from the acacia tree increasingly aligns with the community stakeholders’ efforts to promote climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Based on expert interviews and field observations in Niger, and a reading of relevant documents, I found that gum arabic production is valuable for conflict mitigation because it helps tackle the root causes of violent conflicts. The acacia gum tree is a natural soil fixer and multinational companies have coveted the resin from the tree, which is a rising commodity and a promising source of revenue for the local inhabitants. As different communities work together and cooperate with outside actors (government agencies, international partners, NGOs and businesses), the opportunities to build social cohesion around the tree increase. By facilitating ecological improvement, social inclusion and poverty alleviation, the promotion of gum arabic production, despite other issues such as bad natural resource governance, is a critical environmental peacebuilding strategy. Hence, suitable funding of massive afforestation with the acacia tree fits with community-based natural climate solutions to global humanitarian issues by protecting and restoring the local environment.

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Reversing Channels and Unsettling Binaries: Rethinking Migration and Agrarian Change under Expanded Border and Immigration Enforcement

Land ◽

10.3390/land10030228 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 228

Author(s):

Richard L. Johnson

Keyword(s):

Environmental Change ◽

Central America ◽

Lived Experiences ◽

Agrarian Change ◽

Immigration Enforcement ◽

Labor Exploitation ◽

Agrarian Studies ◽

Political Ecologies ◽

Migrant Groups

Unauthorized migration under global regimes of border and immigration enforcement has become more risky and costly than ever. Despite the increasing challenges of reaching, remaining in, and remitting from destination countries, scholarship exploring the implications of migration for agricultural and environmental change in migrant-sending regions has largely overlooked the prevalent experiences and consequences of “failed” migration. Drawing from recent fieldwork in Central America with deportees, this paper demonstrates how contemporary migration at times reverses the “channels” of agrarian change in migrant-sending regions: instead of driving remittance inflow and labor loss, migration under contemporary enforcement can result in debt and asset dispossession, increased vulnerability, and heightened labor exploitation. Diverse migration outcomes under expanded enforcement also reveal a need to move beyond the analytical binary that emphasizes differentiations between migrant and non-migrant groups while overlooking the profound socioeconomic unevenness experienced among migrants themselves. With grounding in critical agrarian studies, feminist geographies, and emerging political ecologies of migration, this paper argues that increased attention to the highly dynamic and diverse lived experiences of migration under expanded enforcement stands to enhance our understanding of the multiple ways in which contemporary out-migration shapes livelihoods and landscapes in migrant-sending regions.

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Political Ecologies of State Land Management

The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology ◽

10.1017/9781108554510.021 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 315-330

Author(s):

John Zinda

Keyword(s):

Land Management ◽

Political Ecologies

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Mobilising Free, Prior and Informed Consent (fpic) from Below: A Typology of Indigenous Peoples’ Agency

International Journal on Minority and Group Rights ◽

10.1163/15718115-02702008 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 291-313 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Almut Schilling-Vacaflor ◽

Riccarda Flemmer

Keyword(s):

Informed Consent ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Latin American ◽

Indigenous Rights ◽

Legal Interpretation ◽

Resource Governance ◽

Natural Resource Governance ◽

Indigenous Participation ◽

Latin American Countries ◽

Public Decision

Based on rich empirical data from Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru – the three Latin American countries where the implementation of prior consultation processes is most advanced – we present a typology of indigenous peoples’ agency surrounding prior consultation processes and the principle of free, prior and informed consent (fpic). The typology distinguishes between indigenous actors (1) mobilising for a strong legal interpretation of fpic, (2) mobilising for meaningful and influential fpic processes, (3) mobilising against prior consultation processes, and (4) blockading prior consultation processes for discussing broader grievances. We identify the most prominent indigenous strategies related to those four types, based on emblematic cases. Finally, we critically discuss the inherent shortcomings of the consultation approach as a model for indigenous participation in public decision-making and discuss the broader implications of our findings with regard to indigenous rights and natural resource governance.

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