Forest plantations and climate change discourses: New powers of ‘green’ grabbing in Cambodia

Scheidel, Arnim; Work, Courtney

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.04.057

Cited by 86 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…We have limited our study to focusing on environmental aspects of land use and land cover change in Cambodia over the past three decades, as many other studies focus on the social impacts. Few casestudies highlight positive social impacts, but rather report increasing challenges related to dispossession of agricultural lands, forests, and loss of livelihoods as well as increased conflicts over natural resources which is spurring resistence against the large-scale agribussinesses (Baird and Fox 2015, Neef and Touch 2015, Drbohlav and Hejkrlik 2018, Scheidel and Work 2018.…”

Section: Limitations and Key Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia

Johansson

Olin

Seaquist

2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Rapid deforestation is a major sustainability challenge, partly as the loss of carbon sinks exacerbates global climate change. In Cambodia, more than 13% of the total land area has been contracted out to foreign and domestic agribusinesses in the form of economic land concessions, causing rapid large-scale land use change and deforestation. Additionally, the distant drivers of local and global environmental change often remain invisible. Here, we identify hotspots of carbon loss between 1987-2017 using the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ-GUESS and by comparing past and present land use and land cover. We also link global consumption and production patterns to their environmental effects in Cambodia by mapping the countries to which land-use embedded carbon are exported. We find that natural forests have decreased from 54%-21% between 1987 and 2017, mainly for the expansion of farmland and orchards, translating into 300 million tons of carbon lost, with loss rates over twice as high within economic land concessions. China is the largest importer of embedded carbon, mainly for rubber and sugarcane from Chinese agribusinesses. Cambodian investors have also negatively affected carbon pools through export-oriented products like rubber. The combined understanding of environmental change and trade flows makes it possible to identify distant drivers of deforestation, which is important for crafting more environmentally and socially responsible policies on national and transnational scales.

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Section: Limitations and Key Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia

Johansson

Olin

Seaquist

2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…International actors and large-scale industry also play a role in forest conflict, for example when agricultural and mining firms compete with local communities for land and resources. At the same time, the rise of international governance aimed at forest conservation and reducing forest emissions (themes of SDG 15 and SDG 13, respectively) involves yet another competing set of interests in the forest frontier, focused on carbon, biodiversity and conservation (Fairhead et al 2012, Kaag and Zoomers 2014, Scheidel and Work 2018.…”

Section: Peace and The Reduction Of Violence And Armed Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions – A Political Ecology Perspective

McDermott¹,

Acheampong²,

Arora‐Jonsson³

et al. 2019

Sustainable Development Goals: Their Impacts on Forests and People

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“…In fact, the project was never submitted for consideration under the CDM according to the company director (interview 1 November 2016). This speaks to the destructive capacities of CCMA discourses under which projects can be only legitimized, but not necessarily pursued on the ground (Scheidel & Work, 2018).…”

Section: Think Biotech Cambodia Co Ltd Reforestation Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Climate change mitigation and adaptation (CCMA) policies often significantly reconfigure who is able to use land and in what ways (Hunsberger et al, 2017). This can give rise to conflicts associated with the implementation of CCMA policies in the global south (Lyons & Westoby, 2014;Scheidel & Work, 2018). Academic research addressing such conflicts often focuses on one type of CCMA project and implementation to reveal the most immediate local dynamics and impacts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maladaptation and development as usual? Investigating climate change mitigation and adaptation projects in Cambodia

Work

Rong

Song³

et al. 2018

Climate Policy

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Based on research into multiple types of climate change mitigation and adaptation (CCMA) projects and policies in Cambodia, this paper documents intersecting social and environmental conflicts that bear striking resemblance to well-documented issues in the history of development projects. Using data from three case studies, we highlight the ways that industrial development and CCMA initiatives are intertwined in both policy and project creation, and how this confluence is creating potentials for maladaptive outcomes. Each case study involves partnerships between international institutions and the national government, each deploys CCMA as either a primary or supporting legitimation, and each failed to adhere to institutional and/or internationally recognized standards of justice. In Cambodia, mismanaged projects are typically blamed on the kleptocratic and patrimonial governance system. We show how such blame obscures the collusion of international partners, who also sidestep their own safeguards, and ignores the potential for maladaptation at the project level and the adverse social and environmental impacts of the policies themselves. Key policy insights. Initiatives to mitigate or adapt to climate change look very much like the development projects that caused climate change: Extreme caution must be exercised to ensure policies and projects do not exacerbate the conditions driving climate change.. Safeguards 'on paper' are insufficient to avoid negative impacts and strict accountability mechanisms must be put in place.. Academic researchers can be part of that accountability mechanism through case study reports, policy briefs, technical facilitation to help ensure community needs are met and safeguards are executed as written.. Impacts beyond the project scale must be assessed to avoid negative consequences for social and ecological systems at the landscape level.

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Forest plantations and climate change discourses: New powers of ‘green’ grabbing in Cambodia

Cited by 86 publications

References 46 publications

Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia

Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions – A Political Ecology Perspective

Maladaptation and development as usual? Investigating climate change mitigation and adaptation projects in Cambodia

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