IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v142y2021ics0305750x21000620.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explaining success on community forestry through a lens of environmental justice: Local justice norms and practices in China

Author

Listed:
  • He, Jun
  • Martin, Adrian
  • Lang, Rong
  • Gross-Camp, Nicole

Abstract

It is of global interest to understand under what conditions community forestry can be successful and sustainable in terms of environmental conservation and local livelihood benefits. Existing theories have explained several influential factors, including small groups of people with shared norms, sound institutions, high levels of decentralization, downward accountability, and security of tenure. This paper explores how local conceptions of environmental justice become closely linked to sustainable community forestry. Based on an in-depth case study in a highly populated and culturally heterogeneous village in southwest China, we examine an enduring example of community forestry, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results show that village forest cover has increased significantly over the last 30 years, contributing to improvements in local livelihoods. It is argued that one of the important factors in this success has been villagers’ ability to align forest management with local justice norms and practices. Distributive, procedural, and recognition aspects of justice are considered, and we find that, in combination, these become integral to building effective institutions for collective action. To broaden the focus on successful factors in existing theories, this paper argues that the consideration of justice as an important condition for establishing effective and durable local institutions that will be effective for community forestry. The insights from this study suggest a need to consider justice dimensions in community forestry research to enable improved understanding of its dynamics and outcomes worldwide.

Suggested Citation

  • He, Jun & Martin, Adrian & Lang, Rong & Gross-Camp, Nicole, 2021. "Explaining success on community forestry through a lens of environmental justice: Local justice norms and practices in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:142:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x21000620
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105450
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X21000620
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105450?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yin, Runsheng & Zulu, Leo & Qi, Jiaguo & Freudenberger, Mark & Sommerville, Matthew, 2016. "Empirical linkages between devolved tenure systems and forest conditions: Challenges, findings, and recommendations," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 294-299.
    2. Norman Myers & Russell A. Mittermeier & Cristina G. Mittermeier & Gustavo A. B. da Fonseca & Jennifer Kent, 2000. "Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities," Nature, Nature, vol. 403(6772), pages 853-858, February.
    3. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    4. Arts, Bas & de Koning, Jessica, 2017. "Community Forest Management: An Assessment and Explanation of its Performance Through QCA," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 315-325.
    5. Andersson, Krister P. & Gibson, Clark C. & Lehoucq, Fabrice, 2006. "Municipal politics and forest governance: Comparative analysis of decentralization in Bolivia and Guatemala," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 576-595, March.
    6. Jun He, 2020. "Situated Payments for Ecosystem Services: Local Agencies in the Implementation of the Sloping Land Conversion Programme in Southwest China," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(1), pages 73-93, January.
    7. Agrawal, Arun & Chhatre, Ashwini, 2006. "Explaining success on the commons: Community forest governance in the Indian Himalaya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 149-166, January.
    8. Kahsay, Goytom Abraha & Bulte, Erwin, 2019. "Trust, regulation and participatory forest management: Micro-level evidence on forest governance from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 118-132.
    9. Yin, Runsheng, 2016. "Empirical linkages between devolved tenure systems and forest conditions: An introduction to the literature review," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 271-276.
    10. Yin, Runsheng & Zulu, Leo & Qi, Jiaguo & Freudenberger, Mark & Sommerville, Matthew, 2016. "Empirical linkages between devolved tenure systems and forest conditions: Primary evidence," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 277-285.
    11. Andersson, Krister, 2013. "Local Governance of Forests and the Role of External Organizations: Some Ties Matter More Than Others," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 226-237.
    12. Lund, Jens Friis & Saito-Jensen, Moeko, 2013. "Revisiting the Issue of Elite Capture of Participatory Initiatives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 104-112.
    13. Fisher, J.A. & Cavanagh, C.J. & Sikor, T. & Mwayafu, D.M., 2018. "Linking notions of justice and project outcomes in carbon offset forestry projects: Insights from a comparative study in Uganda," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 259-268.
    14. He, Jun & Kebede, Bereket & Martin, Adrian & Gross-Camp, Nicole, 2020. "Privatization or communalization: A multi-level analysis of changes in forest property regimes in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    15. Ribot, Jesse C. & Agrawal, Arun & Larson, Anne M., 2006. "Recentralizing While Decentralizing: How National Governments Reappropriate Forest Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1864-1886, November.
    16. David Schlosberg & Lisette B. Collins, 2014. "From environmental to climate justice: climate change and the discourse of environmental justice," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(3), pages 359-374, May.
    17. Arun Agrawal & Elinor Ostrom, 2001. "Collective Action, Property Rights, and Decentralization in Resource Use in India and Nepal," Politics & Society, , vol. 29(4), pages 485-514, December.
    18. BenYishay, Ariel & Heuser, Silke & Runfola, Daniel & Trichler, Rachel, 2017. "Indigenous land rights and deforestation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 29-47.
    19. Uchida, Emi & Xu, Jintao & Xu, Zhigang & Rozelle, Scott, 2007. "Are the poor benefiting from China's land conservation program?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 593-620, August.
    20. Promita Mukherjee & Biswajit Ray & Rabindra N. Bhattacharya, 2017. "Status differences in collective action and forest benefits: evidence from joint forest management in India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(5), pages 1831-1854, October.
    21. Shi, Miaoying & Yin, Runsheng & Zulu, Leo & Qi, Jiaguo & Freudenberger, Mark & Sommerville, Matthew, 2016. "Empirical linkages between devolved tenure systems and forest conditions: Selected case studies and country experiences," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 286-293.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kumeh, Eric Mensah & Bieling, Claudia & Birner, Regina, 2022. "Food-security corridors: A crucial but missing link in tackling deforestation in Southwestern Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    2. Bodwitch, Hekia & Song, Andrew M. & Temby, Owen & Reid, John & Bailey, Megan & Hickey, Gordon M., 2022. "Why New Zealand’s Indigenous reconciliation process has failed to empower Māori fishers: Distributional, procedural, and recognition-based injustices," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Shrestha, Krishna K. & Paudel, Govinda & Ojha, Hemant & Paudel, Naya Sharma & Nuberg, Ian & Cedamon, Edwin, 2022. "Community entrepreneurship: Lessons from Nepal's Chaubas community forestry sawmill," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    4. Zhengjie Zhang & Jiahao Song & Caixia Yan & Dingde Xu & Wei Wang, 2022. "Rural Household Differentiation and Poverty Vulnerability: An Empirical Analysis Based on the Field Survey in Hubei, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-15, April.
    5. Matt Johnston & Dan Darkey & Hilde Ibsen, 2023. "Environmental Justice And Dissent For Postcolonial Urban Sustainability Transitions," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 645-664, July.
    6. Kumeh, Eric Mensah & Kyereh, Boateng & Birkenberg, Athena & Birner, Regina, 2021. "Customary power, farmer strategies and the dynamics of access to protected forestlands for farming: Implications for Ghana's forest bioeconomy," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    7. Liang, Wenyuan & Arts, Bas & Zinda, John Aloysius & Dong, Jiayun, 2024. "Justice and injustice under authoritarian environmentalism: Investigating tensions between forestland property rights and environmental conservation in China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Long, Hexing & de Jong, Wil & Yiwen, Zhang & Liu, Jinlong, 2021. "Institutional choices between private management and user group management during forest devolution: A case study of forest allocation in China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Mawutor, Samuel M. & Hajjar, Reem, 2022. "Examining the powers decentralized to community resource management areas in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    3. He, Jun & Kebede, Bereket & Martin, Adrian & Gross-Camp, Nicole, 2020. "Privatization or communalization: A multi-level analysis of changes in forest property regimes in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    4. Yiwen, Zhang & Kant, Shashi & Dong, Jiayun & Liu, Jinlong, 2020. "How communities restructured forest tenure throughout the top-down devolution reform: Using the case of Fujian, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    5. Putraditama, Andika & Kim, Yeon-Su & Sánchez Meador, Andrew Joel, 2019. "Community forest management and forest cover change in Lampung, Indonesia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Huang, Wei, 2019. "Forest condition change, tenure reform, and government-funded eco-environmental programs in Northeast China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 67-74.
    7. Liu, Shilei & Xia, Jun, 2021. "Forest harvesting restriction and forest restoration in China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    8. Ke, Shuifa & Qiao, Dan & Yuan, Wantong & He, Youjun, 2020. "Broadening the scope of forest transition inquiry: What does China's experience suggest?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    9. Caravaggio, Nicola, 2020. "Economic growth and the forest development path: A theoretical re-assessment of the environmental Kuznets curve for deforestation," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    10. Bocci, Corinne & Sohngen, Brent & Finnegan, Bridget & Milian, Bayron, 2022. "An analysis of migrant characteristics in forest-dwelling communities in northern Guatemala," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    11. Krul, Kees & Ho, Peter & Yang, Xiuyun, 2020. "Incentivizing household forest management in China's forest reform: Limitations to rights-based approaches in Southwest China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    12. Feng, Xin & Dai, Yongwu, 2019. "An innovative type of forest insurance in China based on the robust approach," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 23-32.
    13. Cappelli, Federica & Caravaggio, Nicola & Vaquero-Piñeiro, Cristina, 2022. "Buen Vivir and forest conservation in Bolivia: False promises or effective change?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    14. McLain, Rebecca & Lawry, Steven & Ojanen, Maria, 2018. "Fisheries’ Property Regimes and Environmental Outcomes: A Realist Synthesis Review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 213-227.
    15. Jaligot, Rémi & Kemajou, Armel & Chenal, Jérôme, 2018. "Cultural ecosystem services provision in response to urbanization in Cameroon," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 641-649.
    16. Pelletier, Johanne & Hamalambo, Boniface & Trainor, Anne & Barrett, Christopher B., 2021. "How land tenure and labor relations mediate charcoal’s environmental footprint in Zambia: Implications for sustainable energy transitions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    17. Yin, Runsheng & Zulu, Leo & Qi, Jiaguo & Freudenberger, Mark & Sommerville, Matthew, 2016. "Empirical linkages between devolved tenure systems and forest conditions: Primary evidence," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 277-285.
    18. Hyde, William F. & Olmos, Virginia Morales & Robalino, Juan & da Gama e Silva, Zenobio Abel Gouvêa Perelli & Susaeta, Andres & Yin, Runsheng, 2022. "Latin America: A regional perspective on its forest policy and economics," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    19. Shi, Daojin & Chen, Lunsong & Wang, Xiaoli & Xu, Xiuying & Yang, Lixia, 2022. "Rural venture investments with credits mortgaged on farmer's forests—A case study of Zhejiang, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    20. Kuluppuarachchi, Mahesha K. & Sun, Changyou & Gordon, Jason S. & Grebner, Donald L. & Munn, Ian A. & Yang, Jia, 2021. "The length and determinants of forestland ownerships in Mississippi from 1999 to 2019," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:142:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x21000620. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.