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

He, Jun, Martin, Adrian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2916-7712, Lang, Rong and Gross-Camp, Nicole (2021) Explaining success on community forestry through a lens of environmental justice: Local justice norms and practices in China. World Development, 142. ISSN 0305-750X

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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.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: collective action,common-pool resources,decentralization,design principles,environmental justice,local institutions,geography, planning and development,development,sociology and political science,economics and econometrics,sdg 16 - peace, justice and strong institutions ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3305
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Global Environmental Justice
University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 19 Apr 2021 23:49
Last Modified: 14 Jun 2023 21:31
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/79813
DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105450

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