Social Aspects

Hope for Threatened Tropical Biodiversity: Lessons from the Philippines

Background

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The Prospects for Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) in Vietnam: A Look at Three Payment Schemes

Background

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Automating violence? The anti-politics of ‘smart technology’ in biodiversity conservation

Background

Biodiversity conservation initiatives, such as the UN's post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (30x30), increasingly use smart technologies. Despite recognizing Indigenous and local rights for successful conservation, these initiatives often neglect customary rights and uses. Smart technologies, like AI, camera traps, and drones, enable new surveillance methods. State, private, and corporate actors, including big tech and BINGOs, actively adopt these tools to enhance data access and form smart governance networks.

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Experimental Science for the ‘Bananapocalypse’: Counter Politics in the Plantationocene

Background

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Recalibrating burdens of blame: Anti-swidden politics and green governance in the Philippine Uplands

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.

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

BACKGROUND:

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The Realities of Community Based Natural Resource Management and Biodiversity Conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa

BACKGROUND:

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Climate Risk Management

BACKGROUND:

Worldwide efforts are underway to devise and apply strategies to manage these risks effectively. Key challenges in climate risk management include the integration of necessary scientific disciplines, articulating stakeholder values and objectives, and quantifying pivotal uncertainties and trade-offs, all of which are vital for crafting effective management strategies. The paper addresses the intensification of global climate risks driven by accelerating climate change. The authors review these challenges based on existing literature to identify potential avenues to overcome them. 

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Livelihoods, Forests, and Conservation in Developing Countries: An Overview

BACKGROUND:

Poverty is a huge challenge, with 2.8 billion of the world’s 6 billion people living on less than $2 a day. The paper highlights the alarming extent of poverty in developing countries and addresses the rapid deforestation, which compromises ecological integrity and exacerbates social inequities. The authors focus on exploring whether poverty alleviation and forest conservation can be aligned as complementary rather than conflicting objectives.

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