Policies

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

Background

Open access copy available

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

Open access copy available

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

Background

Open access copy available

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

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

Background

REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) aims to mitigate climate change by preserving forest carbon stocks. Although REDD+ focuses mainly on reducing deforestation, it largely ignores defaunation—the loss of forest wildlife caused by unsustainable hunting. Many tropical forests suffer from "empty forest syndrome," where hunting removes large frugivores and seed dispersers, disrupting seed dispersal and carbon sequestration. This study highlights how REDD+ policies overlook the ecological role of forest fauna and argues that neglecting defaunation threatens the long-term success of forest conservation.

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

Institutional Design of Forest Landscape Restoration in Central Togo: Informing Policy-making through Q Methodology Analysis

BACKGROUND:

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Prospects for integration of carbon and biodiversity credits: an Australian case study review

BACKGROUND:

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Navigating power in conservation

Background

Conservation has traditionally centered on the natural sciences, but there is a growing recognition that it also deeply involves people and society. As a result, conservation efforts constantly navigate power dynamics, often without fully acknowledging them. Conservationists wield power when they decide which animals or plants to protect, where to focus their efforts, and how to implement them. Recognizing these power dynamics is essential for making conservation more effective, fair, and just. However, many conservationists either overlook or misunderstand the concept of power.

Open access copy available
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