Salla Rantala

Understanding and Integrating Local Perceptions of Trees and Forests into Incentives for Sustainable Landscape Management

We examine five forested landscapes in Africa (Cameroon, Madagascar, and Tanzania) and Asia (Indonesia and Laos) at different stages of landscape change. In all five areas, forest cover (outside of protected areas) continues to decrease despite local people’s recognition of the importance of forest products and services. After forest conversion, agroforestry systems and fallows provide multiple functions and valued products, and retain significant biodiversity. But there are indications that such land use is transitory, with gradual simplification and loss of complex agroforests and fallows as land use becomes increasingly individualistic and profit driven. In Indonesia and Tanzania, farmers favor monocultures (rubber and oil palm, and sugarcane, respectively) for their high financial returns, with these systems replacing existing complex agroforests. In the study sites in Madagascar and Laos, investments in agroforests and new crops remain rare, despite government attempts to eradicate swidden systems and their multifunctional fallows. We discuss approaches to assessing local values related to landscape cover and associated goods and services. We highlight discrepancies between individual and collective responses in characterizing land use tendencies, and discuss the effects of accessibility on land management. We conclude that a combination of social, economic, and spatially explicit assessment methods is necessary to inform land use planning. Furthermore, any efforts to modify current trends will require clear incentives, such as through carbon finance. We speculate on the nature of such incentive schemes and the possibility of rewarding the provision of ecosystem services at a landscape scale and in a socially equitable manner.

Who Gains and Who Loses from Compensated Displacement from Protected Areas? The Case of the Derema Corridor, Tanzania

Increasing attention is being paid to the social impacts of the exclusionary nature of conservation, as well as the mechanisms and policies put in place to mitigate negative impacts. Yet, factors that condition the restoration of well-being among people whose access to resources has changed due to conservation are still poorly understood. In this article we present an analytical framework for studying the social impacts of conservation interventions, and factors affecting post-intervention livelihood rehabilitation. We use this framework to analyse the consequences of the displacement of farmers from the Derema Corridor in northeastern Tanzania, who were given monetary compensation to mitigate livelihood losses. Drawing from qualitative and quantitative data collected over two years following their displacement, we find that the conservation intervention contributed to local social differentiation. Women and the poorest farmers experienced the strongest negative impacts, whereas those who were previously better-off emerged as relative winners among those affected. For more fair and equitable social outcomes, we recommend that conservation planners give careful attention to identifying rights-holders entitled to compensation, promptly implement ex ante risk management mechanisms, and give careful attention to the most appropriate forms of compensation and support measures in the local political economy context.

Mating system and reproductive success in the Siberian flying squirrel

Abstract Mating systems and factors affecting reproductive success are much studied especially for mammals that are large bodied, have marked sexual size dimorphisms, and have a female-defense mating system. For species that deviate from these patterns, we need more information on mating systems and reproductive success. Here, we study mating system and factors related to reproductive success in a solitary rodent, the Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans). In contrast to most other mammals, males are not larger than females in flying squirrels. Similarly to most mammalian species, we observed multimale paternity within litters and reproductive success of males being positively related to body mass. Variation in reproductive success was clearly higher for males than for females, although remained lower than observed in species with highly male-biased sexual size dimorphism. Female flying squirrels lived in nonoverlapping home ranges and reproductive success was positively related to body mass, in line with earlier predictions for large female size in mammals.

Ecological and social outcomes of a new protected area in Tanzania.

Balancing ecological and social outcomes of conservation actions is recognized in global conservation policy but is challenging in practice. Compensation to land owners or users for foregone assets has been proposed by economists as an efficient way to mitigate negative social impacts of human displacement from protected areas. Joint empirical assessments of the conservation and social impacts of protected area establishment involving compensation payments are scarce. We synthesized social and biological studies related to the establishment of the Derema forest corridor in Tanzanias biodiverse East Usambara Mountains. This lengthy conservation process involved the appropriation of approximately 960 ha of native canopy agroforest and steep slopes for the corridor and monetary compensation to more than 1100 claimants in the surrounding villages. The overarching goals from the outset were to conserve ecological processes while doing no harm to the local communities. We evaluated whether these goals were achieved by analyzing 3 indicators of success: enhancement of forest connectivity, improvement of forest condition, and mitigation of negative impacts on local peoples livelihoods. Indicators of forest connectivity and conditions were enhanced through reductions of forest loss and exotic species and increases in native species and canopy closure. Despite great efforts by national and international organizations, the intervention failed to mitigate livelihood losses especially among the poorest people. The Derema case illustrates the challenges of designing and implementing compensation schemes for conservation-related displacement of people.

Community-Based Forest Management: What Scope for Conservation and Livelihood Co-Benefits? Experience from the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania

The Tanzanian Community-Based Forest Management policy is based on the assumption that formalized forest tenure by village communities results in increased incentives for sustainable forest management. We compared the policy expectations to village forest management practices in northeastern Tanzania. Findings suggest that the practices follow policy in terms of increased security of rights, but exclusionary management of village forests precludes livelihood benefits while costs are unevenly distributed. Management appears effective at the village scale, but concerted efforts are likely to be needed to increase its long-term and landscape-level sustainability, and to create more significant incentives for the communities involved.

Exploring village governance processes behind Community- Based Forest Management: legitimacy and coercion in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania

SUMMARY Democratic forest decentralization is often justified by expectations of greater management effectiveness and increased equity of access to forest benefits; yet these outcomes do not always coincide. It is proposed that to enhance understanding of the outcomes of theoretically progressive decentralized forest policies in varying and dynamic contexts, the processes through which the legitimacy of local forest regimes is constructed and contested needs to be better understood. This case study of northeastern Tanzania finds that the current outcomes of Community-Based Forest Management, favouring conservation over exploitation, precariously depend on contested claims to legitimacy embedded in intra-community social and political dynamics. To broaden the bases of legitimacy of community forest governance, and to enhance its long-term sustainability, structures for improved deliberation, representation, and accountability should be supported.