Sustainable Forest Management from Policy to Landscape, and Back Again: A Case Study in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains

Elbakidze, Marine; Angelstam, Per

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-12725-0_23

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Considered the "Amazon of Europe", this region is one of Europe's last fully undeveloped landscapes, a rich refuge for large carnivores and a principal source of subsistence to 16 million people (Gurung et al, 2009). The Carpathian region in Ukraine covers 3.5% of Ukraine's area and 10.3% of total area of the Carpathian Mountains (Elbakidze and Angelstam, 2013). The flora species composition of the Carpathian alpine forest provides key indicators of ecosystem health in response to climate change (Geyer et al, 2010).…”

Section: Regional Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Maintenance of these alpine grasslands is declining quickly with newer pressures including tourism infrastructure and emigration of younger generations to cities. This decline of grazing on secondary grasslands has led to reforestation of previously cleared areas (Elbakidze and Angelstam, 2013). However, mountain shepherding and other ecological practices, such as gathering of NTFPs, like wild edible plants and mushrooms, although threatened, have survived.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

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Traditional ecological knowledge to traditional foods: The path to maintaining food sovereignty in Hutsulshchyna

Fontana¹,

Pasailiuk²,

Pohribnyi³

2022

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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The various ecosystems of the Carpathian Mountains spanning Europe, are a rich refuge for culturally important, endemic plant species as well as large carnivores. These biologically diverse landscapes are a principal source of subsistence to 16 million people, including various ethnographic groups. This paper focuses on a case study involving Hutsul communities, an ethnographic group of traditional pastoral highlanders, in the Southeastern Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine. Given ecosystem, climatic, and cultural challenges, especially the rise of illegal logging, commercial harvesting, increased frequencies of flooding, and now a war, Hutsul communities face extensive threats to maintaining socio-ecological resilience in the region. A contributing factor to the region's centuries-long resilience is traditional ecological knowledge upholding food sovereignty as seen through traditional foods derived from Carpathian Mountain ecosystems. Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is as a dynamic, generationally-held knowledge base, where language, gathering practices, landscape and culture inform livelihoods. In this article, we seek to answer the following series of questions within Hutsul communities: (1) What does TEK look like in the region? (2) What are the regional environmental challenges? (3) Given these challenges, what are coping mechanisms and adaptive strategies grounded in TEK, ensuring a resilient food sovereign system? Mixed methodologies guided by community-based participatory action research methods (CBPAR) between 2017 and 2019 provide a rich, context-driven perspective on regional TEK. Radiating out from the historical, cultural Hutsul capital, Verkhovyna, 40 experts (including knowledge holders, elders, foresters, and community members) were interviewed in 8 neighboring villages. We, along with Hutsul experts, explore the presence of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in Hutsulshchyna by identifying 108 culturally important species including wild plants (74 species), cultivated plants (23 species), fungi (9 species) and lichens (2 species); these species are gathered in 10 habitats with varying degrees of human interaction. We analyze species' presence in traditional foods in the past and present day, as well as contextualize regional environmental challenges impacting TEK practices, and responses to these challenges (coping mechanisms and adaptive strategies). Despite various regional challenges, we conclude that TEK provides a resilient foundation for supporting food sovereignty as seen through the presence of traditional foods.

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Section: Regional Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Traditional ecological knowledge to traditional foods: The path to maintaining food sovereignty in Hutsulshchyna

Fontana¹,

Pasailiuk²,

Pohribnyi³

2022

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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“…This implies that a restructuring of forest governance is necessary in Ukraine. However, such restructuring will be difficult because the issues associated with 'path dependency' [47,48] are exacerbated by insufficient stakeholder capabilities to implement societal transformation [2,98].…”

Section: Institutional Arrangements Governance and Competenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Institutional Analysis and Reconfiguration Framework for Sustainability Research on Post-Transition Forestry—A Focus on Ukraine

et al. 2021

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In this paper, we elaborate an Institutional Analysis and Reconfiguration Framework centered around the ‘action arena’ theoretical approach. We develop this framework to analyze institutional reconfiguration to enhance sustainability, and operationalize it using research methods which focus on documentation of the institutional contexts through an extensive literature review and interviews of experts in forest policy. We apply the Institutional Analysis and Reconfiguration Framework to examine forestry institutions, address forest governance, and investigate their effect on socio-economic and environmental performances in forestry of Ukraine. The paper draws on the state of affairs in post-transition forestry, its difficulties, and new prospects for economic and institutional reforms. We examine challenges and opportunities in forestry and suggest key remedies and prospective ways forward. Results show that a combination of path dependency with the rigidity of institutions and a slow pace of economic and political reforms is the major obstacle to implementing decisions regarding sustainable forest policy. A reconfiguration of social practices is required, as well as the development of capabilities and awareness raising amongst relevant stakeholders, to realize the problems, envision alternative futures, challenge existing institutions, shift power relations and create new norms, rules, and decision-making arrangements. The way towards sustainability in forestry largely goes through changing institutions, and a human dimension of institutional changes reflected in the uptake of social innovation.

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Maintaining Cultural and Natural Biodiversity in the Carpathian Mountain Ecoregion: Need for an Integrated Landscape Approach

Angelstam

Elbakidze

Axelsson

et al. 2013

The Carpathians: Integrating Nature and Society Towards Sustainability

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Sustainable Forest Management from Policy to Landscape, and Back Again: A Case Study in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains

Cited by 6 publications

References 16 publications

Traditional ecological knowledge to traditional foods: The path to maintaining food sovereignty in Hutsulshchyna

Traditional ecological knowledge to traditional foods: The path to maintaining food sovereignty in Hutsulshchyna

An Institutional Analysis and Reconfiguration Framework for Sustainability Research on Post-Transition Forestry—A Focus on Ukraine

Maintaining Cultural and Natural Biodiversity in the Carpathian Mountain Ecoregion: Need for an Integrated Landscape Approach

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