Marc Hufty

Native Forests and Agriculture in Salta (Argentina) Conflicting Visions of Development

Despite much deforestation in the past, the northwestern Argentinean province of Salta still has more than 6 million hectares of native forests. Land use conversion for agriculture is threatening these forests and the survival of indigenous populations and small-scale farmers. In November 2007, Argentina’s National Congress passed a law to regulate the management and conservation of native forests. This “Forest Law” required provincial governments to implement comprehensive and participatory Land Use Planning Processes (LUPPs). In this article, we describe and analyze, within a political ecology framework, the LUPP carried out in Salta. We focus on the conflicts derived from the different visions of development held by the interest groups involved, and we highlight some contradictions between their discourses and practices. We argue that “development” or “progress,” understood as a process of wealth and power accumulation linked to the possession of land and the production of agricultural commodities, was the leading ideology of political and economic elites in Salta during the LUPP. This ideology, and the established institutional power system behind it, was challenged when the National Supreme Court of Justice decided to suspend logging and deforestation activities on land claimed by marginalized ethnic and socioeconomic groups. We assess the implications of this ruling for the conservation of native forests and local livelihoods. As the final outcome of this case is still uncertain, a number of possible scenarios are presented and discussed.

Reduced Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation: A Critical Review

“Reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation” (REDD) is emerging as a major new climate change mechanism that could deeply impact the financial, social and institutional dynamics of deforestation, conservation, and development in many developing countries. It has the potential to influence global forest governance in a socially acceptable way. The mechanism as it stands needs much improvement to avoid the pitfalls of earlier forest governance mechanisms. The research, at this stage, is not sufficient to improve it. Most of the literature is fairly slanted towards technical issues and the prospective design of the scheme or normative opposition to it. Despite this copious amounts of scholarly and advocacy work, there is too little attention focused on the social and governance dimensions of the proposals. Author’s Note Forests are crucial in the struggle for sustainable development. Not only do they have a role in the preservation of global ecological systems, but moreover they are especially important for supporting the livelihoods of local populations. When forests were first addressed in the context of climate change, they were assessed in mostly financial and technical terms. We think there is a need to insert a social perspective into the debate, taking into account the lessons learned from many years of intervening in developing countries‟ forests. Engineers who have designed REDD as a brilliant, but top-down, scheme for tropical forests conservation seem to have forgotten such lessons. Without addressing deforestation, climate objectives cannot be reached. But further, drawing from years of work on forests, we see that without considering the impacts on local societies and the lessons learned from development aid REDD cannot succeed. This paper is part of the effort to ensure REDD will prevail in social terms.

Indicadores de gobernanza en políticas y programas de salud mental en México: una perspectiva de actores clave

OBJECTIVE To analyse the role of Mexicos mental health system governance in the development of mental health policies and programmes, from the perspective of its own actors. METHODS A map was developed for identifying the actors in Mexicos mental health system. A guide was designed for in-depth interviews, which were recorded and arranged in categories for their analysis. The Atlas-ti v.7 software was used for the organisation of qualitative data and Policy Maker v.4 was used to determine the position and influence of actors within the health system. RESULTS The actors were identified according to their level of influence in mental health policies: high, medium and low. Actors with a high level of influence participate in national policies, actors with medium influence are involved in regional or local policies and the participation of actors with a low level of influence is considered marginal. CONCLUSIONS This study facilitated understanding of governance in mental health. The level of influence of the actors directly affects the scope of governance indicators. Relevant data were obtained to improve policies in mental health care.

Small and smart: the role of Switzerland in the Cartagena and Nagoya protocols negotiations

This paper looks at Switzerland to examine the role of a small state during the negotiations of the Cartagena and the Nagoya Protocols to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The influence of this small country was substantial at some point in the negotiation processes and on important features of the protocols. The main explanatory factors for this influence are identified as the competence and the tactical skills of the Swiss delegations as well as the flexible and timely mandates they received. This was reinforced by the way the position formation process was organized at the domestic level, namely a lead ministry strongly committed to the process and an efficient coordination between domestic actors, including the delegations. The Swiss delegations were thus able to support the progress of the negotiations, and in parallel to secure some of their interest, by assuming entrepreneurial and intellectual leadership strategies in function of the evolution of domestic and international constraints and opportunities.