people and forests trajectory
TRANSCRIPT
Overview
Early days of attention to people in forests
Rare but encouraging recent examples – toward sustainability
Importance of addressing gender
Some methodological considerations
Concluding with ‘why bother?’
[Photos by Colfer & Anastasia Widyaningsih]
World Forestry Congress Trajectory 1978 – 8th World Forestry Congress in Jakarta, Indonesia –
‘Forests for People’ – a first
1985 – 9th WFC, youth added
1991 - 10th WFC, ‘forest heritage’ added
A New Era:Aiming for
Broader Sustainability
By 2003 - 12th WFC, included three main themes:• Forests for people
• Forests for the planet
• People and forests in harmony
For 2015: Forests and People: Investing in a Sustainable Future
CIFOR Trajectory: Sadly, an Atypical Example
Started in 1993, CIFOR began with several important
commitments:
• Policy-oriented
• Interdisciplinary teamwork
• Research at all scales (int’l to field-based)
• Addressing both human and ecological, as well as strictly
forest concerns
Sample ‘People-Forests Research’ from CIFOR & its Partners (1)
Attention to human well being
• criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management
• poverty and environment network
Working collaboratively with communities and their
subgroups
adaptive collaborative management of forests
Some REDD+ work
Working with Women
Sample ‘People-Forests Research’ from CIFOR & its Partners (2)
Attention to people’s knowledge about forests indigenous knowledge (IK, ITK, IEK, etc.)
non timber forest products
A focus on power relations
ethnic and gender studies
decentralization and devolution studies
Involving Officials
A More Controversial SetFrom CIFOR & Partners
Swidden agriculture – as a complex and sometimes
sustainable system
Human health – looking at the interactions with forests and
their management
Nutrition – identifying nutritional implications of forest use
and management
Population – Recognizing the key roles birth control can play
in life chances
But attention to these issueshas NOT been typical
Most forestry institutions still have:
Little or no community experience or training
Single-minded concentration on timber (no NTFPs or biodiversity)
No social scientists
Even antagonism to local people (‘poachers’, ‘slash and burn farmers’, ‘illegal loggers’)
And What Results Have we Attained?
Forests remain in decline
Human well being has hardly improved
Benefits continue to be
inequitably distributed
Truly sustainable forest
management remains
a chimera
Women and Forests
Despite evidence of women’s
involvement in forests,
women remain relatively
invisible to the forestry world
(despite encouraging signs).
We have been ignoring
the potential contribution
of half the world’s
population.
Versus Gender and Forests
Looking at women alone
is not enough
(cf. little success integrating
new findings)
We need to look at
• the relations between
men and women
And
topics that have seemed
taboo
Elephant in the Room No. 1
Population
Local population
growth is a big
problem for forests
women without
access to birth
control, have limited
options
[A rare win-win issue]
Elephant in the Room No. 2
“Engaging men in care-giving …
is nothing less than afundamental
reworking of our work–life balance
and our beliefs in the purpose of our lives
andrelationships.”
[Gary Barker 2014]
The
‘Domestic’
(Reproductive)
If women
enter new fields
their existing
work must be
reduced by
men’s greater
involvement at
home
Elephant in the Room No. 3
Violence against women
Women who are routinely
subjected to violence ---
or even who witness
such violence --- dare not
move outside their (and
their spouses’) comfort
zones.
So How do we Incorporate Gender
considerations in our Work?
Methodologically Complex Topics
Not subject to conventional experimental designs, but they are studied by social scientists:
• Culture – a complex whole (knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and other learned capabilities and habits, Tylor 1871)
• Norms - a standard or pattern, especially of social behavior, that is typical or expected of a group.
• Values - a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.
Examples 1 & 2
A variety of site-specific and intangible, but powerful cultural
topics (e.g., from ongoing governance work in Sulawesi):
• Bugis-Makassar: concept of ‘honor’ has powerful inhibiting
effects on behaviour…
∆ Reducing women’s forest options.
• Makassar & Tolaki: women, rather than men, are accepted
as the legitimate managers of household income.
∆ Women have cash to invest (in forests?).
Examples 3 & 4
• Women speak up publicly to varying degrees, but some
groups report near gender equality.
∆ Women may have unrecognized power.
Tolaki: These ‘primitive’ people manifest a strong sense of
everyone’s right to be involved in decision-making.
∆ The people could provide a more gender-equitable
example for managing forests democratically.
Why should forest researchers venture into such topics?
To Enhance Sustainability
By What Means? In What Ways?
Ensuring that we ‘do no
harm’
Strengthening people’s
motivation to
maintain/improve forests
by ensuring more equitable
distribution of benefits
Catalyzing the creativity
(‘power to’) of all affected
people in better forest
management
Useful Approaches to Add (1) Conventional academic studies – though reliable, often couched
in alien jargon and requiring more time
Participatory Rural Appraisal – though good for exposing policymakers to rural realities, can provide misleading results
Useful Approaches to add (2) Ethnographic approaches---by those trained in the method---
allow researchers to gain holistic, reliable information on such topics
Participatory approaches---by those so trained---allow researchers to learn and build on the goals, interests, knowledge and capabilities of community partners
In Conclusion – In Search of Sustainability
We have much work to do
Assumptions about men
and women to overcome
Information to gather
and analyze (focused and
holistic)
Thinking about how to
integrate what we learn
into our ongoing forest
management
Where now arbitrary and culturally prescribed gender roles
have inordinate power to
determine---and preclude---life chances
for both men and women.
We can and should work toward a forest world in which women’s
and men’s strengths, interests and voices can
structure their own lives and
their interactions with forest landscapes.
The result should be worth the effort!