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Land
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Trade-offs between Large-Scale and Small-Scale Forest Commercialization
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Trade-offs between Large-Scale and Small-Scale Forest Commercialization

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2014) | Viewed by 55657

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Aaron J.M. Russell

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Guest Editor
Scientist, Forests and Governance Programme, Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia
Interests: adaptive collaborative management; organisational learning; ecosystem-based adaptation; action research; decentralisation; power; gender; impact assessment
Dr. Krystof Obidzinski

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Scientist, Forests and Governance Programme, Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia
Dr. Harpinder Sandhu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of the Environment, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
Interests: theory and practice of ecosystem services; Land use/cover change and impacts on ecosystem services; Poverty and biodiversity interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Decade of 2000 witnessed transactions of 106 million hectares of land (40-50% forested land) in developing countries for large-scale agricultural investment. It is estimated that by 2050, up to 70 million hectares of new land will have to be brought under cultivation to meet the global demand for food, fuel, fiber and other commodities. Various countries in Asia have endeavoured to take advantage of this demand to further national development objectives by opening up their forested areas to domestic and foreign investments. Among all continents, this pressure is expected to be greatest in Asia, where projections middle class growth and associated consumption during the next decade will surpass that in all other regions of the world.

Much of the recent literature is focused on examining the perceived negative impacts of large scale land investments in specific geographical regions or specific commodities. A missing element informing the policy debate has been the comparative assessment of the societal and ecological costs and benefits of: a) large-scale conversion of forest for alternative (and frequently capital intensive) land-use, with b) small-scale land conversion and/or forest product commercialization, and c) the maintenance of customary uses of the forested lands. Additionally, whether land-use change and intensification is large or small in scale, or whether forest resources are privatized or managed under a common property regime, the transformation has an impact on, and interacts with ecosystem services from those forest commons that remain.

This special issue will explore the drivers contributing to the transformation of forests into small and large-scale land-use systems and their impacts on society and the environment. Submissions comparing both local and national/regional case studies are welcome. This special issue will focus on studies from the greater Mekong and Himalayan regions of Asia.

Dr. Aaron J.M. Russell
Dr. Krystof Obidzinski
Dr. Harpinder Sandhu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • land-use change
  • ecosystem services
  • forest conversion
  • land concessions
  • land-use intensification
  • livelihood resilience

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 2750 KiB  
Article
Economic Valuation of Land Uses in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR: Can REDD+ be Effective in Maintaining Forests?
by Grace Y. Wong, Souphith Darachanthara and Thanongsai Soukkhamthat
Land 2014, 3(3), 1059-1074; https://doi.org/10.3390/land3031059 - 1 Sep 2014
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 9556
Abstract
The rapid economic growth in Lao PDR over the last two decades has been driven by the natural resource sectors and commercialization in the agriculture sector. Rural landscapes are being transformed over the past decade from land use mosaics of subsistence and smallholder [...] Read more.
The rapid economic growth in Lao PDR over the last two decades has been driven by the natural resource sectors and commercialization in the agriculture sector. Rural landscapes are being transformed over the past decade from land use mosaics of subsistence and smallholder farms to large-scale plantations dominated by a few commercial crops. The capacity of these commercial agriculture plantations to alleviate rural poverty, part of the Government of Lao PDR’s national development policy, is increasingly weighed against its long-term impacts on ecosystem services and sustainability of land and forest resources. We used an extended cost-benefit approach (CBA) to integrate certain environmental elements to traditional financial analysis for a comparative look at four land use systems in the northern part of the country. The CBA results demonstrate that commercial agriculture (maize and rubber plantations) does have the potential to support poverty alleviation in the short-run. It, however, exposes the land to serious environmental risks. By comparison, the traditional land uses studied (upland rice farming and non-timber forest products collecting) are largely subsistence activities that are still considered as sustainable, though this is increasingly affected by changing market and population dynamics. The results suggest that longer-term environmental costs can potentially cancel out short-term gains from the commercialization to mono-crop agriculture. Incentives for conserving ecosystem services (such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism) may have a potential role in supporting diversification of traditional livelihoods and increasing the competitiveness of maintaining forests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trade-offs between Large-Scale and Small-Scale Forest Commercialization)
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16 pages, 216 KiB  
Article
Land Redistribution and Reutilization in the Context of Migration in Rural Nepal
by Hom Nath Gartaula, Pashupati Chaudhary and Kamal Khadka
Land 2014, 3(3), 541-556; https://doi.org/10.3390/land3030541 - 27 Jun 2014
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 7096
Abstract
Land is an integral part of people’s culture, economy, and livelihoods. Social and temporal mobility of people affect land acquisition, distribution, and utilization, which consequently impacts on food security and human wellbeing. Using the data collected by means of household survey, focus group [...] Read more.
Land is an integral part of people’s culture, economy, and livelihoods. Social and temporal mobility of people affect land acquisition, distribution, and utilization, which consequently impacts on food security and human wellbeing. Using the data collected by means of household survey, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and participant observation, this paper examines the dynamics of land-people relationships, mainly acquisition, redistribution, and reutilization of land, in the context of human migration. The study reveals that food self-sufficiency, household size, age of household head, household asset, total income from non-agricultural sources, and migration status, affect the acquisition or size of landholding in a household. Moreover, land appears to be mobile within and across villages through changes in labour availability, changing access to land, and ethnic interactions caused partly by migration of people. We conclude that mobility of land appears to be an inseparable component of land-people relationships, especially in the context of human migration that offers redistribution and reutilization of land. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trade-offs between Large-Scale and Small-Scale Forest Commercialization)
22 pages, 353 KiB  
Article
Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos
by Jonathan Newby, Rob Cramb and Somphanh Sakanphet
Land 2014, 3(2), 482-503; https://doi.org/10.3390/land3020482 - 10 Jun 2014
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 7863
Abstract
Smallholder teak (Tectona grandis) plantations have been identified as a potentially valuable component of upland farming systems in northern Laos that can contribute to a “livelihood transition” from subsistence-oriented swidden agriculture to a more commercially-oriented farming system, thereby bringing about a [...] Read more.
Smallholder teak (Tectona grandis) plantations have been identified as a potentially valuable component of upland farming systems in northern Laos that can contribute to a “livelihood transition” from subsistence-oriented swidden agriculture to a more commercially-oriented farming system, thereby bringing about a “forest transition” at the landscape scale. In recent years, teak smallholdings have become increasingly prominent in the province of Luang Prabang, especially in villages close to Luang Prabang City. In this paper, we draw on a household survey conducted in five teak-growing villages and case studies of different household types to explore the role that small-scale forestry has played in both livelihood and land-use transitions. Drawing on a classification of forest transitions, we identify three transition pathways that apply in the study villages—the “economic development” pathway, the “smallholder, tree-based, land-use intensification” pathway, and the “state forest policy” pathway. The ability of households to integrate teak into their farming system, manage the woodlots effectively, and maintain ownership until the plantation reaches maturity varies significantly between these pathways. Households with adequate land resources but scarce labor due to the effects of local economic development are better able to establish and hold onto teak woodlots, but less able to adopt beneficial management techniques. Households that are land-constrained are motivated to follow a path of land-used intensification, but need more productive agroforestry systems to sustain incomes over time. Households that are induced to plant teak mainly by land-use policies that threaten to deprive them of their land, struggle to efficiently manage or hold on to their woodlots in the long term. Thus, even when it is smallholders driving the process of forest transition via piecemeal land-use changes, there is potential for resource-poor households to be excluded from the potential livelihood benefits or to be further impoverished by the transition. We argue that interventions to increase smallholder involvement in the forestry sector need to take explicit account of the initial variation in livelihood platforms and in alternative transition pathways at the household scale in order to pursue more inclusive “forest-and-livelihood” transitions in rural areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trade-offs between Large-Scale and Small-Scale Forest Commercialization)
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23 pages, 895 KiB  
Article
Agrosilvopastoral Systems in Northern Thailand and Northern Laos: Minority Peoples’ Knowledge versus Government Policy
by Chalathon Choocharoen, Andreas Neef, Pornchai Preechapanya and Volker Hoffmann
Land 2014, 3(2), 414-436; https://doi.org/10.3390/land3020414 - 20 May 2014
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 13371
Abstract
Traditional agrosilvopastoral systems have been an important component of the farming systems and livelihoods of thousands of ethnic minority people in the uplands of Mainland Southeast Asia. Drawing on a combination of qualitative and participatory inquiries in nine ethnic minority communities, this study [...] Read more.
Traditional agrosilvopastoral systems have been an important component of the farming systems and livelihoods of thousands of ethnic minority people in the uplands of Mainland Southeast Asia. Drawing on a combination of qualitative and participatory inquiries in nine ethnic minority communities, this study emphasizes the complex articulation of local farmers’ knowledge which has been so far excluded from governmental development and conservation policies in the northern uplands of Thailand and Laos. Qualitative analysis of local knowledge systems is performed using the Agroecological Knowledge Toolkit (AKT5) software. Results show that ethnic minorities in the two countries perceive large ruminants to be a highly positive component of local forest agro-ecosystems due to their contribution to nutrient cycling, forest fire control, water retention, and leaf-litter dispersal. The knowledge and perceptions of agrosilvopastoral farmers are then contrasted with the remarkably different forestry policy frameworks of the two countries. We find that the knowledge and diversity of practices exercised by ethnic minority groups contrasts with the current simplified and negative image that government officials tend to construct of agrosilvopastoral systems. We conclude that local knowledge of forest-livestock systems can offer alternative or complementary explanations on ecological cause-and-effect relationships which may need further scientific investigation and validation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trade-offs between Large-Scale and Small-Scale Forest Commercialization)
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Review

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24 pages, 344 KiB  
Review
The Fall and Rise Again of Plantations in Tropical Asia: History Repeated?
by Derek Byerlee
Land 2014, 3(3), 574-597; https://doi.org/10.3390/land3030574 - 30 Jun 2014
Cited by 81 | Viewed by 16670
Abstract
The type of agrarian structure employed to produce tropical commodities affects many dimensions of land use, such as ownership inequality, overlapping land rights and conflicts, and land use changes. I conduct a literature review of historical changes in agrarian structures of commodities grown [...] Read more.
The type of agrarian structure employed to produce tropical commodities affects many dimensions of land use, such as ownership inequality, overlapping land rights and conflicts, and land use changes. I conduct a literature review of historical changes in agrarian structures of commodities grown on the upland frontier of mainland Southeast and South Asia, using a case study approach, of tea, rubber, oil palm and cassava. Although the production of all these commodities was initiated in the colonial period on large plantations, over the course of the 20th century, most transited to smallholder systems. Two groups of factors are posited to explain this evolution. First, economic fundamentals related to processing methods and pioneering costs and risks sometimes favored large-scale plantations. Second, policy biases and development paradigms often strongly favored plantations and discriminated against smallholders in the colonial states, especially provision of cheap land and labor. However, beginning after World War I and accelerating after independence, the factors that propped up plantations changed so that by the end of the 20th century, smallholders overwhelmingly dominated perennial crop exports, except possibly oil palm. Surprisingly, in the 21st century there has been a resurgence of investments in plantation agriculture in the frontier countries of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, driven by very similar factors to a century ago, especially access to cheap land combined with high commodity prices. As in the last century, this may be a temporary aberration from the long-run trend toward smallholders, but much depends on local political economy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Trade-offs between Large-Scale and Small-Scale Forest Commercialization)
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