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Choice and power: Resistance to technical domination in Senegal's forest decentralization

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  • Faye, Papa

Abstract

This paper examines the contest for power over forest resources between the Forest Department and elected local government in the context of decentralized forestry in Senegal. Based on ethnographic work with a forestry management intervention purporting to implement decentralization, the paper shows that power struggles center on the formation of local authorities (institutional choice) and the technical framing of forest management. It also illuminates the ways that technical claims and politico-legal counterclaims and their supporting discourses shape these struggles. The project engendered awareness among local governments about the economic and political stakes involved in forest management, which sparked resistance to the project's technically oriented institutional choices. The paper demonstrates the effects of institutional choice legitimated by discourses that privilege technical requirements and outside expertise. Importantly, the research also indicates that power struggles over resources are dynamic. Technical discourses can be countered by arguments that evoke the need for broad-based political participation, lawfulness and democracy.

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  • Faye, Papa, 2015. "Choice and power: Resistance to technical domination in Senegal's forest decentralization," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 19-26.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:60:y:2015:i:c:p:19-26
    DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2014.10.004
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    1. Jesse C. Ribot, 1998. "Theorizing Access: Forest Profits along Senegal's Charcoal Commodity Chain," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 29(2), pages 307-341, April.
    2. Rutt, Rebecca Leigh & Chhetri, Bir Bahadur Khanal & Pokharel, Ridish & Rayamajhi, Santosh & Tiwari, Krishna & Treue, Thorsten, 2015. "The scientific framing of forestry decentralization in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 50-61.
    3. Poteete, Amy R. & Ribot, Jesse C., 2011. "Repertoires of Domination: Decentralization as Process in Botswana and Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 439-449, March.
    4. Jesse C Ribot, 2007. "Representation, Citizenship and the Public Domain in Democratic Decentralization," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 50(1), pages 43-49, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Carla Roncoli & Brian Dowd‐Uribe & Ben Orlove & Colin Thor West & Moussa Sanon, 2016. "Who counts, what counts: representation and accountability in water governance in the Upper Comoé sub‐basin, Burkina Faso," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(1-2), pages 6-20, February.
    2. Scheba, Andreas & Mustalahti, Irmeli, 2015. "Rethinking ‘expert’ knowledge in community forest management in Tanzania," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 7-18.
    3. García-López, Gustavo A., 2019. "Rethinking elite persistence in neoliberalism: Foresters and techno-bureaucratic logics in Mexico’s community forestry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 169-181.
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    5. Basnyat, Bijendra & Treue, Thorsten & Pokharel, Ridish Kumar & Baral, Srijana & Rumba, Yam Bahadur, 2020. "Re-centralisation through fake Scientificness: The case of community forestry in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    6. Yeboah-Assiamah, Emmanuel & Muller, Kobus & Domfeh, Kwame Ameyaw, 2017. "Institutional assessment in natural resource governance: A conceptual overview," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-12.
    7. Tikkanen, Jukka, 2018. "Participatory turn - and down-turn - in Finland's regional forest programme process," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 87-97.
    8. Trejos, Bernardo & Flores, Juan Carlos, 2021. "Influence of property rights on performance of community-based forest devolution policies in Honduras," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
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    10. Papa Faye & Jesse Ribot, 2017. "Causes for Adaptation: Access to Forests, Markets and Representation in Eastern Senegal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-20, February.
    11. Rutt, Rebecca Leigh & Chhetri, Bir Bahadur Khanal & Pokharel, Ridish & Rayamajhi, Santosh & Tiwari, Krishna & Treue, Thorsten, 2015. "The scientific framing of forestry decentralization in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 50-61.
    12. Nicole Gross-Camp & Iokine Rodriguez & Adrian Martin & Mirna Inturias & Glory Massao, 2019. "The Type of Land We Want: Exploring the Limits of Community Forestry in Tanzania and Bolivia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, March.
    13. Basnyat, Bijendra & Treue, Thorsten & Pokharel, Ridish Kumar & Lamsal, Lok Nath & Rayamajhi, Santosh, 2018. "Legal-sounding bureaucratic re-centralisation of community forestry in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 5-18.
    14. Baral, Srijana & Meilby, Henrik & Khanal Chettri, Bir Bahadur & Basnyat, Bijendra & Rayamajhi, Santosh & Awale, Srijana, 2018. "Politics of getting the numbers right: Community forest inventory of Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 19-26.
    15. Mustalahti, Irmeli & Gutiérrez-Zamora, Violeta & Hyle, Maija & Devkota, Bishnu Prasad & Tokola, Nina, 2020. "Responsibilization in natural resources governance: A romantic doxa?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    16. Dobrynin, Denis & Smirennikova, Elena & Mustalahti, Irmeli, 2020. "Non-state forest governance and ‘Responsibilization’: The prospects for FPIC under FSC certification in Northwest Russia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    17. Jusrut, Poonam, 2022. "Localization of elite capture in wood charcoal production and trade: Implications for development outcomes of a forest management program in rural Senegal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).

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