Hajdu, Flora
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
An urgent need to stop degradation is frequently cited as support for climate mitigation efforts involving forests. However, lessons learnt from social science research on degradation narratives are not taken into consideration. This creates a risk of problematic degradation narratives being used to legitimise forest carbon projects. This study examined a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) forest plantation in Uganda, where incomplete and partly contradictory evidence on land use change was interpreted in a way that overemphasised degradation. This interpretation was in line with the interests of the forestry company proposing the CDM activity and with national interests in Uganda, and was stimulated by CDM guidelines and regulations. Our investigation revealed a more complex picture of land cover change in the area that did not support the narrative of an area undergoing continuous degradation. We therefore recommend that close scrutiny of the degradation narrative presented be included in every type of forest carbon project. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords
Degradation; Narrative; Deforestation; Climate change; CDM; Remote sensing
Published in
Land Use Policy
2016, volume: 59, pages: 412-422
SLU Authors
Penje, Oskar
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Fischer, Klara
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
UKÄ Subject classification
Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.09.016
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/79707