Paper short abstract:

Water management climate change adaptation programs in Vietnam are shaped by scaled historical dynamics. Specifically, program formulation reflects rescaled, domestic(ated) rationalities rather than novel global adaptation agendas, with implications for the nature of programs implemented.

Paper long abstract:

This paper sheds light on how historical dynamics and scales inform the framing of water management climate change adaptation programs. Rather than add to the burgeoning literature on the production of scales themselves, I contribute instead to the limited literature on how scales influence the formulation of particular programs. I do this in the setting of water management in Vietnam. Based on a historical view, semi-structured interviews and document and policy reviews, I examine historical water management in Vietnam before presenting the current program of Thao Long Dam which has been presented as climate change adaptation. I consider how historical dynamics and scales have informed the framing of such programs and find that program formulation reflects domestic(ated) rationalities rather than novel global adaptation agendas. This suggests that global agendas may not easily influence sub-national program formulation unless they have been adopted through a process of rescaling, gaining traction within new scales and the programs enacted from them. The paper also highlights the inherent power implications of whose rationalities prevail in program formulation.

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Paper short abstract:

Systematic mapping is used to describe and catalogue evidence related to the governance of ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. The protocol, setting out the rationale for search terms and coding, and preliminary results are presented.

Paper long abstract:

Governance affects the sustainability of natural resources and associated livelihoods and human wellbeing in developing countries. However, the literature relevant to natural resource governance and wellbeing is diffuse in focus and approach, drawing on a range of variables, theories and frameworks, thus making it difficult to tease out commonalities and generalisations across contexts. Systematic mapping, a method used to describe and catalogue the available literature and evidence using systematic and transparent review processes, can bring clarity to this topic. A systematic mapping is being carried out as part of a synthesis project looking at governance research within the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme, which has funded research on the links between ecosystem services and poverty alleviation for a decade. The protocol for the systematic mapping, setting out the rationale for search terms, selection criteria, and coding of the literature is presented along with preliminary results that show trends and gaps in research on natural resource governance and wellbeing.

Paper short abstract:

In South Africa, rural communities rely on natural resources for livelihoods. Simultaneously, coastal governance remains highly contested by plural governance actors and institutions whose roles and mandates are usually ambiguous. This has wide implications for sustainable resource governance.

Paper long abstract:

Coastal resources are significant in supporting the livelihoods of marginalized communities adjacent to the coastal zone. Rural households rely on harvesting marine resources, forest products and agricultural resources for livelihoods. Simultaneously, biodiversity protection in the form of internationally and nationally recognized protected areas are increasingly being enacted in South Africa in areas adjecent to rural communities which have been historically marginalized. Moreover, coastal governance in rural areas of South Africa remains highly contested by plural co-existing governance actors and institutions whose roles and mandates are usually confusing not only to the local communities, but sometimes also among themselves. This is exacerbated by the fact that institutions with mandates over coastal governance in rural areas also usually operate in silos, creating a case of red tape the slows down development opportunities in these areas. Plurality in coastal governance in coasts adjecent to rural areas predominantly exists between and within statutory and customary governance systems operating under different sources of law. Through the lens of Kosi Bay, a rural area existing within South Africa's first World Heritage Site, iSimangaliso; this study is therefore interested in documenting livelihood strategies in rural coastal communities and interrogating how people's livelihoods are influenced by the existence of multiple and plural coastal governance systems and processes. This is done in view to contribute towards knowledge that links sustainable livelihoods thinking to governance debates in order to further the understanding of interactions between the two.

Paper short abstract:

We investigate the extent to which 10 years of research on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation informs debates and tensions between environment and development agendas, and what this means for natural resource governance and sustainability.

Paper long abstract:

There remain unresolved tensions between environmental and development agendas regarding the use of ecosystem services and natural resources. We assess how recent research has addressed these tensions and explore to what extent it informs resilience and wellbeing and whether it identifies synergies and trade-offs. We synthesise and review outputs from more than 100 collaborative projects emerging from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation programme to see how concepts of well-being and resilience have been analysed in recent research, how they might relate to each other and how they inform contemporary development.

We seek to answer core questions which are pertinent for natural resource governance: What are the trade-offs between resilience and well-being approaches? How can resilience building strategies affect well-being and of whom? Our research addresses the criticism that resilience thinking should take greater account of how adaptation strategies, which can build greater resilience, affect wellbeing outcomes, recognizing the trade-offs and decision-making that are involved in negotiating different pathways. Similarly, we also query whether resilience can strengthen our understanding of poverty dynamics and consequences of change in the context of a broad social-ecological lens.

Paper short abstract:

The UN climate change framework recognizes resettlement as a legitimate response to climate change in climate vulnerable areas. This paper presents fieldwork from rural Zambia on how communities respond to such controversial measures, and what the implications are for governance.

Paper long abstract:

The UN climate change framework increasingly recognizes that resettlement of climate vulnerable populations - so-called "planned relocation" - can be a legitimate and necessary response to climate change. The empirical work on such relocation is however still very limited, and most attention has been focussed on the situation in Small Island nations.

However, climate induced resettlement in response to floods is now also emerging in some southern African countries. This happens in a historical context where resettlement is a well known and controversial intervention.

This paper presents fieldwork from rural Zambia on how communities actually respond to such measures, and what the implications are for governance. The paper examines a particular flood resettlement scheme in southern Zambia, exploring the strategies that different households have taken vis-a-vis the scheme, and the community governance scheme that has developed in extension of this.

It shows how some community members have rejected the scheme outright, while others have used it as way to enhance land tenure security by spreading land and institutional relationships across customary and statutory land. It further shows how community members seek to navigate and reshape the institutional framework that governs the resettlement scheme.

Paper short abstract:

We explore the social interface between the international forest governance initiative of REDD+ and realities of Tanzanian villagers' lived experiences of REDD+ pilot projects. Focusing on knowledge processes and interface negotiations, it contributes insights into the social process of piloting.

Paper long abstract:

The early stages of new international forest governance initiatives often involve implementing pilot projects with forest-adjacent communities in developing countries. In Tanzania, REDD+ pilot projects were implemented with the objectives of getting communities 'REDD+ ready' and testing different aspects of the mechanism. Instrumental research on the pilot projects, focusing on their performance against project objectives abounds. However, little consideration has been given to the lived experiences and social realities of the pilot projects from the perspective of the actors involved. Drawing on the concept of social interface and based on ethnographic data collected in two REDD+ pilot projects, this paper examines the intersection between the international governance initiative of REDD+ and the realities of Tanzanian villagers' lived experiences in their situated contexts. By analysing detailed actor accounts of the pilot projects, this paper addresses two main elements central to this social interface: knowledge processes and the interface as a place of actor negotiation. It looks at how international concepts introduced by the practitioners of pilot projects are mediated and re-framed by village actors, and how knowledge and meanings are negotiated and contested. It then explores the experiences of different village actors, including ways in which they were able to negotiate, manoeuvre, create opportunities through, and resist the pilot projects. This paper reconceptualises piloting as complex social process by contributing new empirical and theoretical insights into the realities of the social interface between global forest governance ideas and initiatives such as REDD+, and the local contexts into which they are introduced.