Abstract / Summary:
Community forests are important in developing countries, where they have been expanding considerably. Implementation of the UN program for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in local complex socio-ecological environments is facing serious challenges. The current focus on forest carbon tends to overlook the compatibility of such programs with other livelihood-relevant factors, such as non-timber products, agriculture and livestock. The main focus of the proposed research concerns the question of how the institutional arrangements of local forest stakeholders shape multiple forest outcomes and trade-offs between livelihoods, biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration. The interdisciplinary team will use techniques from the natural and social sciences. Field work will be carried out in two Bolivian forest landscapes (dry savannahs and subtropical forest). The main findings will substantially advance existing theoretical work on the linkage between natural and human systems and identify some livelihood and institutional alternatives to deforestation and forest degradation.
