Environmental Justice and Transformations to Sustainability

The forest frontier in the Global South: Climate change policies and the promise of development and equity

“…While we saw differences in the outcomes of these interventions, the overall tendency is that the forest frontiers continue to reproduce inequality, loss of forest, particularly old-growth forests, and maladaptation to the disadvantage of those directly living in or depending on forests-in spite of, and in part because of, climate policy interventions. These findings are corroborated by observations in the wider literature on environmental and climate policy and its outcomes (Dawson et al 2018;Martin et al 2020), which also led to questioning the overall contemporary framing of environmental policy and science with its lack of attention to justice, democracy, and inequality (Biermann 2021). What is missing in all cases is a prioritised and powerful interest in keeping trees and forest standing, to the benefit of local populations as an explicit part of just transitions with the aim to reduce existing inequalities, rather than as an afterthought or a desirable side-effect as part of complex-and often dangerous-net calculations (Delabre 2020;Carton et al 2020).…”

“…Within the literature, there is concern that with the implementation of new forest and climate governance tools, unsustainable exploitation and associated inequalities will simply continue or even be aggravated (Lund et al 2017 ; Dawson et al 2018 ), despite ambitions and commitments to the contrary (see, for example, the New York Declaration of Forests, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Paris Agreement). As scholars argue, political transformational change is required for forest and climate governance to break with a history of deforestation, failed adaptation, and unequal development (Brockhaus and Angelsen 2012 ; Scoones et al 2015 ; Temper et al 2018 ; Martin et al 2020 ). In the context of this paper, we define transformational change as shifts in power relations, discursive practices, and incentive structures that lead away from unsustainable and unjust exploitation in forest frontiers in the Global South (Brockhaus and Angelsen 2012 ).…”

Indigenous and local communities can boost seed supply in the UN decade on ecosystem restoration

“…A transformative restoration economy must recognize and engage deeply with environmental justice values. Environmental justice emphasizes not only the necessity for access and distribution of environmental benefits (Schlosberg and Carruthers 2010 ), but also the challenges of addressing structural inequalities in power dynamics rooted in racial, ethnic, social class, age and gender discrimination (Martin et al 2020 ). Meaningful ecosystem restoration actions should recognize the diversity of local members, equity in the distribution of benefits and risks, while creating multiple instruments that ensure vulnerable groups regain ownership and power in different political processes (Schlosberg 2004 ).…”

“…Community supply systems for restoration will only address the ongoing social and environmental inequalities if its instruments are applied as mechanisms to reshape the power dynamics among stakeholders executed in a respectful, open and informed way. This requires incorporating justice principles at the heart of restoration policies, funding, and actions through the participation of diverse community members to influence and shape multiple decision-making processes (Martin et al 2020 ).…”

“…The Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) is poised to trigger the recovery of degraded ecosystems and create socioeconomic opportunities across the world (UN 2020 ). Following the 2020 bushfire crisis, most notably in Australia, increasing tropical deforestation, and the COVID-19 pandemic, global social movements are emerging to denounce how multiple crises exacerbate ongoing environmental injustices (Martin et al 2020 ). Indigenous and local communities have demanded equitable landscape restoration measures through participation in political decisions and the creation of tangible local benefits (Reyes-García et al 2019 ).…”