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Vol. 8 No. 1 (2024): JUNE

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When Policies Problematize the Local: Social-Environmental Justice and Forest Policies in Burkina Faso and Vietnam

https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v8i1.34276
Grace Yee Wong
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2924-2188
Mawa Karambiri
CIFOR-ICRAF, Burkina Faso
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2352-6895
Pham Thu Thuy
University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0088-7396
Alizée Ville
Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4835-8883
Tuan Long Hoang
CIFOR-ICRAF, Bogor, Indonesia
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8416-5034
Chi Dao Thi Linh
CIFOR-ICRAF, Bogor, Indonesia
Andrea Downing
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5206-9355
Amanda Jiménez-Aceituno
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5950-4751
Maria Brockhaus
Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7348-4921

Corresponding Author(s) : Grace Yee Wong

grace.wong@chikyu.ac.jp

Forest and Society, Vol. 8 No. 1 (2024): JUNE

Abstract

We examine social-environmental justice in forest governance by asking who is problematized as drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. We adapt Bacchi’s “What is the problem represented to be” approach to the community forest (CAF) model in Burkina Faso and the Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) in Vietnam and examine the implementation of these policies in specific sites through disaggregated focus group discussions (men, women, youth, ethnic minorities). We delve into the discursive, lived and subjectification effects of the policies’ problematizations, highlighting tensions and contestations relating to forest access and benefits. For both countries, what is left unproblematized in the implicit policy focus on the local is a “communal fix” of indigeneity tied to idealized and collective governance of fixed areas of land and exclusionary processes for those that do not fit the ideal. We argue that market-oriented approach in policies such as CAF and PFES absent of the wider underpinnings of the political and historical forest will only exacerbate social-environmental injustices.

Keywords

WPR Political forest Social-environmental justice Community forestry Payment for environmental services
Wong, G. Y., Karambiri, M., Thu Thuy, P. ., Ville, A., Hoang, T. L., Linh, C. D. T., Downing, A., Jiménez-Aceituno, A., & Brockhaus, M. (2024). When Policies Problematize the Local: Social-Environmental Justice and Forest Policies in Burkina Faso and Vietnam. Forest and Society, 8(1), 296-313. https://doi.org/10.24259/fs.v8i1.34276
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Author Biography

Grace Yee Wong, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Second affiliation: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan   Scopus Author ID: 56037566300 Expertise Forests and climate change Ecosystem services Equity Forest governance Livelihood assessments  
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