Governance

Perceptions of local communities on mangrove forests, their services and management: implications for Eco-DRR and blue carbon management for Eastern Samar, Philippines

Background

Open access copy available

Smallholder bargaining power in large-scale land deals: a relational perspective

Background

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Limits to Indigenous Participation: The Agta and the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, the Philippines

Background

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Co-managers or co-residents? Indigenous peoples’ participation in the management of protected areas: a case study of the Agta in the Philippines

Background

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The system dynamics of forest cover in the developing world: Researcher versus community perspectives

Background

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Between a rock and a hard place: The burdens of uncontrolled fire for smallholders across the tropics

Background

The growing prevalence of uncontrolled tropical landscape fires significantly threatens tropical forests and causes substantial social and economic burdens. These burdens continue to be largely overlooked in favor of aggregate-scale losses like climate change and biodiversity, despite the severe local impacts on smallholder farming communities across the forested tropics. Furthermore, people often unfairly portray smallholders as the primary culprits of fire contagion due to their customary fire-based agricultural practices. This narrative is rooted in colonial-era condemnations.

Open access copy available

Community perceptions of long-term mangrove cover changes and its drivers from a typhoon-prone province in the Philippines

Background

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Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Oversight of Defaunation in REDD+ and Global Forest Governance

Background

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is a global initiative aimed at mitigating climate change by preserving forest carbon stocks. While REDD+ has focused primarily on reducing deforestation, it largely ignores the role of defaunation—the loss of forest wildlife due to unsustainable hunting. Many tropical forests are increasingly experiencing "empty forest syndrome," where large frugivores and seed dispersers are being hunted out, leading to disruptions in seed dispersal and carbon sequestration. This study highlights how REDD+ policies fail to address the ecological role of forest fauna and argues that overlooking defaunation could compromise the long-term effectiveness of forest conservation efforts.

Open access copy available

Roles of indigenous women in forest conservation: A comparative analysis of two indigenous communities in the Philippines

Background

This study examines the roles of indigenous women in forest conservation in Nueva Ecija, Philippines: the Ikalahan-Kalanguya of Caraballo Mountain in Carranglan and the Dumagat women of Mount Mingan in Gabaldon. These communities contain the highest number of indigenous people living in or near the forest in the province and have retained indigenous forest preservation practices. Historically, people have considered indigenous peoples in the Philippines, including women, protectors of the environment. However, specific studies focusing on the direct contributions of indigenous women to forest protection are lacking.

Open access copy available

The social and ecological costs of reforestation. Territorialization and industrialization of land use accompany forest transitions in Southeast Asia

Background

Open access copy available
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