Blockchain Papers

Fatuma Bwanaheri Abdulrahman, Dudy Heryadi, Siti Aliyuna Pratisti

This paper analyses the World Bank initiatives in promoting its role in decentralizing climate finance through the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) and the Kenya Climate-Smart Agriculture Project (KCSAP) in Lamu County, Kenya. A qualitative case study is used to examine the substantial tension between the Bank's perception of its institutional function, its actual bureaucratic performance, and the pressing demands, through the intersection of Function of Role Theory and Climate Resilience Theory. A significant implementation gap is revealed from the empirical findings, highlighting that the creation of the local ward committees in the projects purportedly regularizes climate governance. However, the strict procurement regulations provided by the Bank, systemic delays in the release of funds, and strict environmental standards have compromised local sovereignty. Misplaced expectations are frequently encounters through these efforts and the occurrence of elite capture, hindering marginalized groups from cultivating genuine and transformative resilience. This paper concludes that the international development finances must abandon rigid technological imposition in favour of adaptable funding models and genuinely integrate local survival knowledge to thrive in extremely fragile socio-ecological zones.

Camilo Molina Bolívar, Carla Celi Medina, Diego Martínez Godoy

This article examines governance and territorial transformation in Lago Agrio, an Amazonian frontier city shaped by processes of forced migration and political decentralization. Through a comparative qualitative methodology, it analyzes how local governance unfolds within a framework of functional centralism, wherein responsibilities are delegated without the transfer of substantive autonomy. Integrating legal, spatial planning, and community perspectives, the study applies a governance matrix to twelve clusters of informal urbanization. The cases of ACER and Nuevo Recinto serve to illustrate contrasting governance outcomes. The findings reveal that in Lago Agrio, institutions depend primarily on negotiation, rather than autonomous municipal authority. ACER has achieved partial formalization as a peri-urban settlement through mechanisms of collective land tenure and cohesive grassroots organization. Conversely, Nuevo Recinto, established on private land, remains marginal to formal planning and redistributive frameworks. These divergences underscore a model of governance rooted in relational proximity and external alliances. The study concludes that hybrid urban–rural forms emerge from such negotiated arrangements, sustaining Lago Agrio’s character as a city of refuge. It calls for policy frameworks that integrate land rights, livelihood strategies, and public investment to strengthen inclusive urban governance in peripheral and borderland contexts.

Sara Gace, Julian Rode

The Vjosa River Basin, located in the heart of the Balkans, is one of Europe's last free-flowing wild rivers comprising a large number of pristine habitat types with a wealth of biodiversity. Widespread degradation of the forest ecosystem and unsustainable land use due to logging and livestock farming have led to an urgent need for effective conservation planning and sustainable management. This study applies the Ecosystem Service Opportunity (ESO) framework to provide a diagnosis of the social-ecological context and the current institutional and legal frameworks governing the Vjosa River in Permet area and its surroundings. Based on 15 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from local government, NGOs, and a national government agency, we identify opportunities for policy and finance instruments to encourage ecosystem conservation and sustainable livelihoods. The results are compared to Integrated Management Plan (IMP) for the Vjosa Wild River National Park. Our results align with the IMP approach in several strategic areas (i.e., stronger law enforcement and patrolling, regulating illegal livestock grazing, improved staff management and collaboration between local agencies, incorporating traditional knowledge in conservation strategies), but further emphasizes the need for action beyond national park boundaries, decentralization with stronger municipal involvement, establishment of a collaborative platform, and the diversification of funding initiatives.

Viju V.S, Dharminder Singh

Climate adaptation policies in the Global South frequently falter due to the concentration of authority and finance at central institutional levels, which marginalizes local resilience planning. While global frameworks advocate for participation, current systems continue to privilege top-down priorities over community realities. This study proposes Climate Swaraj, a decentralized governance framework that re-conceptualizes adaptation as a political-institutional process rather than a technical intervention. Utilizing a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) across India, Kenya, and Bangladesh—validated by a case study of the Meenangadi Panchayat in Kerala—this research demonstrates that devolved governance significantly enhances resilience. Integrating resilience theory with climate justice and alternative development perspectives, the analysis argues that adaptation outcomes are a function of institutional design. The Climate Swaraj model is operationalized through five interlinked pillars: governance sovereignty, resource decentralization, localized finance, participatory planning, and ethical low-carbon development. By shifting the focus to community autonomy and ecological responsibility, this framework provides a scalable pathway for equitable and durable climate resilience in the Global South.

Danae Maniatis, Kathryn J. Jeffery

Abstract The Congo Basin, comprising the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, presents both critical environmental challenges and unique opportunities for sustainable development. This chapter evaluates key pathways for environmentally sustainable development in the region, with an emphasis on extractive industries, renewable energy, agroforestry, biodiversity conservation, ecotourism, and climate and carbon finance. Using regional indicators such as the Fragile States Index (FSI), Human Development Index (HDI), and Environmental Performance Index (EPI), the authors highlight the structural barriers—including weak governance, institutional fragility, and extreme poverty—that constrain the region’s development trajectory. Despite these challenges, the Basin’s ecological wealth offers potential for transformative interventions. Strategies such as Reduced-Impact Logging for Climate (RIL-C), sustainable mining practices, decentralized renewable energy systems, and integrated agroforestry models are analyzed for their capacity to reduce emissions, protect biodiversity, and enhance local livelihoods. The chapter further explores the potential of REDD+ and emerging carbon market frameworks to finance conservation and climate mitigation efforts. Emphasizing the role of participatory governance, indigenous knowledge systems, and scientific innovation, the chapter underscores the necessity of context-specific, cross-sectoral approaches to operationalize sustainability in one of the planet’s most ecologically and geopolitically complex regions.

Wally A. Sowe, Ebrima 伊比;Ceesay

The global REDD+ framework designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions by reducing deforestation and forest degradation has become a central pillar of international climate mitigation efforts, particularly in tropical forest nations such as Indonesia. Despite its significant potential, the implementation of REDD+ in Indonesia continues to encounter systemic barriers that undermine its effectiveness. Key challenges include fragmented and weak governance systems, inconsistent and unpredictable financial support, unresolved land tenure arrangements, and the persistent exclusion of indigenous and local communities from meaningful participation in forest management. These structural limitations diminish the capacity of REDD+ to generate measurable and sustained climate benefits. This study provides an in depth examination of the institutional, socio-political, and economic obstacles that constrain REDD+ performance in Indonesia. It argues that the current project oriented and carbon-accounting–driven model must evolve into a more integrated governance architecture that aligns environmental conservation with livelihood security and equitable resource distribution. To strengthen REDD+ outcomes, the research advances several policy innovations, including the decentralization of forest governance, diversification of long-term financing pathways, recognition and protection of customary land rights, and systematic incorporation of local ecological knowledge. Enhanced monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems are also highlighted as essential for ensuring transparency and accountability. Insights from case studies in Central Kalimantan and West Papua further demonstrate that the durability of REDD+ initiatives hinges on community empowerment, clear land tenure arrangements, and reliable funding mechanisms. Together, these findings emphasize the urgent need to redesign REDD+ governance in Indonesia to ensure it functions not only as a climate mitigation instrument but also as a socially just and economically viable conservation strategy.

Shingirai Mugambiwa

This study interrogates climate governance in the Southern Africa’s socio-ecological peripheries, concentrating on how decentralized adaptation policies shape rural livelihoods confronted with deepening climate hazards. The region’s ecosystems are worsening under climate stress, with smallholder farmers and forest-dependent communities already positioned at the social periphery bearing the brunt of more erratic precipitation and rising temperatures. The study utilized secondary materials, including peer-reviewed articles, official policy documents, and theoretical discussions on governance and adaptive responses. Data analysis was conducted through an interpretive and integrative approach, critically juxtaposing insights from distinct disciplinary repositories and constructing thematically coherent groupings. The study found that while decentralisation can enhance adaptive governance, its overall effectiveness hinges on bolstering cross-scale finance, capacity, and integration. The study further established that marginalized populations particularly women and youth continue to be underrepresented in decisional arenas, which undermines the equity of adaptation initiatives. The study concludes that decentralized climate governance can achieve transformation only when it is inclusive, sufficiently financed, and intricately linked to overarching rural development plans.

Cornelius K. A. Pienaah

Background and Research Aims Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) are Ghana’s decentralized approach to biodiversity conservation and sustainable natural resource governance. Despite their institutional legality and community support, CREMAs face persistent financial instability, largely due to donor dependency and the absence of sustainable internal funding mechanisms. In contrast, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) have emerged as resilient, community-driven financial systems that promote local livelihoods. This study asks: Can communities sustainably finance their own conservation through grassroots mechanisms like VSLAs? Grounded in Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM), collective action theory, and informal rural finance systems, the aim is to explore the feasibility of integrating VSLAs into CREMA governance as a model for localized conservation finance. Methods A qualitative case study was employed across four CREMAs in Ghana’s Black Volta River and Western Wildlife corridors. Sixteen focus group discussions were conducted with CREMA executive members, community leaders, VSLA participants, and women and youth groups. Thematic analysis identified perceptions, challenges, and opportunities for financing CREMA activities through VSLAs. Results Findings indicate strong community acceptance of CREMAs, but significant underfunding limits their conservation impact. Conversely, VSLAs were described as trusted, inclusive, and capable of supporting household and community needs. Participants advocated integrating VSLAs into CREMA governance with transparency safeguards and shared control mechanisms. Women and youth, central to VSLA operations, were identified as key stakeholders for advancing inclusive conservation finance. Conclusion Integrating VSLAs into CREMA structures presents a promising model for bottom-up, sustainable financing of conservation activities in Ghana. It builds on existing community trust systems, enhances participation, and reduces reliance on external donors. Implications for Conservation This study contributes a novel community-based green financing framework that links informal rural finance with decentralized conservation governance. It offers replicable insights for scaling localized conservation finance in other resource-dependent, tropical contexts across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Loso Judijanto, Dila Padila Nurhasanah, Salwa Aulia Novitasari

The accelerating biodiversity crisis has prompted a paradigm shift in the financial sector, where integrating nature into financial risk assessment is becoming increasingly vital. This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to explore the intellectual landscape of biodiversity finance, focusing on how biodiversity is being incorporated into financial theory, investment practices, and sustainability governance. Using the Scopus database and VOSviewer software, the study analyzes co-occurrence networks, temporal trends, density visualizations, and collaboration patterns among authors, institutions, and countries. The findings reveal that “biodiversity,” “finance,” and “sustainable finance” serve as conceptual anchors, while emerging themes such as “decentralized finance,” “green bonds,” and “ESG” indicate growing innovation in the field. The United Kingdom and United States lead global collaborations, with strong linkages to European and Asian institutions. This research contributes theoretically by clarifying the field’s multidimensional evolution and practically by identifying knowledge gaps and strategic entry points for policy, investment, and academic advancement. Limitations include database coverage and lack of qualitative content analysis, suggesting future research directions. Overall, the study underscores the critical role of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing biodiversity-aligned financial systems.

Loso Judijanto

This study investigates the evolving landscape of scholarly research on nature finance and the financialization of biodiversity through a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of literature indexed in Scopus from 2000 to 2025. Using VOSviewer, we mapped co-occurring keywords, author networks, temporal trends, and country collaborations to identify dominant themes, emerging topics, and influential contributors. The findings reveal a conceptual transition from traditional ecosystem service valuation toward market-based conservation instruments, including conservation finance, carbon markets, and blockchain-based solutions. The thematic clusters emphasize the increasing intersection between finance, sustainability, and biodiversity policy, with recent trends showing a surge in decentralized finance applications for environmental assets. Notably, the United Kingdom and United States dominate collaborative networks, while Asia-Pacific regions exhibit growing engagement in the field. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of biodiversity financialization and offers practical insights for policymakers, financial institutions, and environmental stakeholders aiming to design inclusive and effective biodiversity finance strategies. It also identifies gaps for future interdisciplinary research that bridges ecological science with financial innovation.

Anuja Anil Date, Sharachchandra Lélé

No abstract is available for this record.

Zhiyuan Ren

No abstract is available for this record.

Thereza Cristina Cardoso Menezes

This text reflects on Amazonian development based on two ongoing situations involving forest financialization currently underway on rural properties in southern Amazonas (Lábrea, Pauini and Apuí). We examine compensation schemes for reducing emissions from clearing and degradation of forests (known locally as REDD+) and new conservation practices in a region where deforestation is advancing significantly. The first case involves an area in the process of demarcation as an Indigenous territory which was sold to a company that since 2021 has been selling non-fungible tokens (NTFs) backed by real local fauna and flora items as a type of virtual currency to protect Amazonia. The second case involves societies of farmers forming to certify thousands of hectares of preserved areas to sell carbon credits. Our goal is to point out the current dynamics of the land market for the agricultural frontier in southern Amazonia that are resulting from new possibilities for profit arising from the financialization of environmental protection in areas of the Amazon hit hard by deforestation.

Ellie Rennie, Jason Potts

No abstract is available for this record.

Carolina Gueiros, Sébastien Jodoin, Constance L. McDermott

Although the role of subnational governments in multi-level climate governance is recognized by scholars and policymakers, we still know little about whether and why some subnational jurisdictions in the Global South decide to engage in decentralized climate action. This article yields new insights on this question by explaining variations in the decision of Brazilian states to establish legal frameworks for jurisdictional REDD+, enabling them to receive transnational climate finance, in the early stages of the emergence of REDD+ in Brazil between 2007 and 2017. We draw on key informant interviews with policy entrepreneurs and actors to understand the roles played by (1) the transnational pathways of influence associated with the regime complex for REDD+ and (2) the strategies adopted by state-level policy entrepreneurs in subnational REDD+ readiness policy processes in Brazil in five case studies (Amazonas, Acre, Mato Grosso, Pará and Amapá). According to respondents, credible market incentives were the key influence for state governors to adopt a jurisdictional framework to channel REDD+ funds, but transnational norms and material assistance played important mediating roles. The perceived credibility of market incentives was influenced by: (1) the presence of policy entrepreneurs at the state level; (2) the timing of strategies employed by policy entrepreneurs; (3) the policy beliefs held by the governor regarding environmental issues; and (4) evidence regarding availability of REDD+ finance for states.

Carolyn Beans

Agriculture is leaving a profound footprint on the Earth. With field surveys and modeling techniques, researchers are exploring how to make agricultural landscapes less threatening to biodiversity. In Bokito, Cameroon, a forest transitions to farmland. Photograph: Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOR. In Andhra Pradesh, India, Iris Berger removes her shoes before wading into a rice paddy. As water sloshes around her knees, she keeps a wary eye out for the occasional cobra. But mostly, Berger's eyes and ears are fixed on other creatures: birds. Andhra Pradesh, a state in the country's southeast, is in the middle of a major agricultural shift to using locally sourced inputs rather than chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The hope is that the practice, known as zero budget natural farming (ZBNF), will be easier on the farmers' budgets and also on the region's natural resources and wildlife. Berger, a conservation scientist working on her PhD at the University of Cambridge, is surveying birds on farms and natural areas to learn whether ZBNF could prove one solution to a problem researchers and farmers are contending with the world over: how to increase food production without losing biodiversity. The Earth's biodiversity is in steep decline. Between 1970 and 2016, populations of bird, reptile, mammal, fish, and amphibian species fell an average of 68%, according to the World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report 2020. The biggest driver threatening endangered species is often habitat loss, says Christopher Crawford, a PhD candidate in the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy Program in Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs. “Usually, the biggest driver of habitat loss is land-use change. And usually, that is coming from agriculture.” But the need for food grows. Accounting for changes in climate, global food demand could increase between 30% and 62% from 2010 to 2050, according to a meta-analysis by Michiel van Dijk, of Wageningen Economic Research in the Netherlands, and colleagues in a July 2021 Nature Food issue. Faced with this challenge, Crawford, Berger, and others are using on-the-ground surveys and sophisticated models to strategize about where it is best to farm and where it is best to let nature be. The work points to ways forward” for example, focusing on which uncultivated regions are species poor but could yield good crops and which crops, with improved farming strategies, could produce enough on existing farms. But the work also raises questions, from how to engage policymakers to what the definition of biodiversity really is. Agriculture has left a profound imprint. Around 38% of the Earth's land surface is now covered by cropland or livestock grazing areas, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In Brazil, a smallholder farmer harvests oil palm. Photograph: Miguel Pinheiro/CIFOR. In a May 2021 study in Nature Communications, Karina Winkler, of Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, and colleagues estimated that the global agricultural land area increased by around 2 million square kilometers between 1960 and 2019 alone. A January 2022 study in Nature Food by the University of Maryland's Peter Potapov and others found that the annual rate of global cropland expansion has nearly doubled over the past two decades. As farms expand, wilderness retreats. Nearly 90% of global deforestation between 2000 and 2018 occurred because of the expansion of cropland and livestock grazing areas, according to the FAO. In a December 2020 report in Nature Sustainability, David Williams, of the University of Leeds, in the United Kingdom, and colleagues identified 1280 vertebrate species projected to lose a quarter or more of their habitat to agricultural expansion by the year 2050 if policy changes fail to make food production less costly to biodiversity. This biodiversity loss presents an issue, not only for the environment but for farming, because many crops depend on ecosystem services that require biodiversity. Agricultural intensification reduces the abundance and diversity of pollinators and the natural enemies of agricultural pests, explains ecologist Matteo Dainese, of Eurac Research's Institute for Alpine Environment, in Italy. In 2019, Dainese, then at the University of Würzburg in Germany, and colleagues published a study in Science Advances that compiled data on pollinator and pest control species, as well as evidence of pollination and pest control services, from 89 previously published studies covering 1475 agricultural fields across the globe. They found that, as agricultural area around a particular field increased, species richness” the numbers of species providing pollination and pest control services to the field” declined. Successful pollination and pest control depended not only on a species's overall abundance but also on this species's richness. In fact, greater agricultural expansion around a field indirectly resulted in lower yields because of the decrease in the number of species. “It is important to maintain biodiversity,” says Dainese. To protect biodiversity, it helps to know which land is likely to be cleared next” and for what cause. Maybe a new soybean field is an isolated development. Or maybe it is the start of a farming trend that could sweep into neighboring forests. “We wanted to look at the specific crops to identify those crops that pose the most threat in which regions,” says conservation economist Roman Carrasco, of the National University of Singapore. Carrasco and colleagues developed a model based on the von Thünen model, which predicts that land will be allocated to whatever use generates the highest net revenue. The team compiled published data related to potential earnings across the globe for 17 important crops, including wheat, soybean, and coffee. They entered that data into the model to predict which crops were likely to spread where by 2050. “We divide the world into cells,” explains Carrasco. “And then we say, in this cell, what is the potential for production for each crop? What are the [crop] prices? How far away from the cities [is the cell], and how much would it cost to bring [the harvest] to the city?” The team also included data on the distance to the nearest farm growing the same crop. “It's hard to have a completely new crop in a new place,” explains Carrasco, because there is not the know-how for growing it. The model predicted that 260 million hectares of land has high potential to be converted into cropland by 2050. Roughly 80% of this land is forested. In Borneo, natural habitat is being logged to make way for oil palm. Photographs: L. Roman Carrasco/National University of Singapore. By incorporating political stability and governing style into the model, the team also learned that conflict within countries appears to be a major factor limiting agriculture's advance into some of the planet's most biodiverse habitats. Coconut, for example, is poised to expand in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Carrasco and colleagues posit that the main factor holding this and other crops back there is political conflict, which discourages foreign investment. The same is true for other countries facing political instability, such as Venezuela and Angola. Some growers in Andhra Pradesh, India, use conventional farming techniques to raise maize but with patches of natural habitat throughout. Photograph: Iris Berger/University of Cambridge. “What we think is that, when that political instability is resolved, these areas will be under big threat of conversion from crops,” says Carrasco. He hopes that, by identifying this risk now, conservation organizations can engage with governments in these regions to develop careful plans for where to expand agriculture and where to protect wildlife. The study also showed that, if growers could reach the greatest possible yields for their regions, the need for additional farmland by 2050 would drop by 27%. Closing this yield gap, Carrasco estimates, would prevent 20% of species extinctions for birds and 6% for mammals. Encouraging farming practices that raise the productivity of three crops in particular” rice, soybean, and wheat” would be especially impactful, says Carrasco. “The demand is massive for those three, and they are in areas that have a lot of biodiversity.” This potential to save natural landscapes by increasing production on existing farmland is at the heart of many debates about reconciling food demand and biodiversity. Since the early 2000s, conservation scientist Andrew Balmford, of the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, has explored the effects of what he calls land sharing versus land sparing. Land sharing makes agricultural land more hospitable to wildlife through practices such as incorporating hedgerows and ponds and limiting the use of chemicals. But land sharing can produce lower yields, requiring more farmland, explains Balmford. “You make the farm friendlier for wildlife; that's great. But you're reducing your production, and that simply means the problem is going to leak somewhere else.” Alternatively, land sparing aims to increase yield even at a cost to biodiversity within agricultural areas, which can free up space for natural habitats elsewhere. Balmford's team first explored the impact of these two approaches using data on the population densities of bird and tree species sampled across Ghana and India. The sampling sites spanned high-producing monoculture to more low-yielding fields of diverse crops interspersed with forest. For each species in each country, the researchers studied the relationship between the abundance of individual species and crop yield. They then used those relationships to project whether each species would be better off if food demands were met through land sparing, land sharing, or some intermediate. The research, reported in Science in 2011, suggests that most bird and tree species are negatively affected by agriculture, and the majority of these species are sensitive to even low-yield farming. Land sparing, then, would allow for greater population sizes for most bird and tree species across the landscape as a whole. Balmford and colleagues continued this research in other regions with additional species, looking to see if the findings held. “We had people looking at grasses and sedges and daisies and dung beetles, and we were still getting the same broad pattern,” says Balmford, noting that the pattern held for the majority of species in each taxon and in every location. In a 2021 review in the Journal of Zoology, which includes work from his own group and others, Balmford reports that, of over 2500 species studied, over three-quarters survive better without agriculture, and of those, the large majority maintain greater population sizes under land sparing. Balmford says that his findings have been criticized by those who equate higher yields under land sparing with unsustainable farming inputs, including chemical fertilizers and pesticides. “We don't think it needs to be that at all,” says Balmford, noting that the yield could also increase through additional labor or farming knowledge and under certain traditional farming practices. Berger was struck by Balmford's findings and wondered whether” if land sparing really is better for biodiversity” there could be ways to ramp up the yield sustainably. “There's no use in increasing the yield, and then, in 10 years' time, the soil is degraded,” says Berger. She wondered whether the ZBNF movement gaining momentum in Andhra Pradesh could be part of the answer. ZBNF began taking hold in Andhra Pradesh as early as 2016, says agricultural scientist Zakir Hussain, who leads science and research for the Farmer Empowerment Organisation (RySS), the government-supported non profit responsible for helping farmers in Andhra Pradesh transition to ZBNF. In 2018, the government of Andhra Pradesh announced a push to transition all of the state's farms to ZBNF in a bid to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and to restore the region's biodiversity and ecosystem services. Growers began eschewing synthetic pesticides and fertilizers in favor of more cost-effective and sustainable options, such as managing pests with botanical extracts or creating perches for insect-eating birds. Today, Hussain says that about 800,000 farmers in Andhra Pradesh practice ZBNF, which the government now refers to as community managed natural farming. Anecdotal evidence that ZBNF can match or even surpass conventional farm yields is mounting, and the practice is spreading quickly. ZBNF farmers become “ambassadors,” says Hussain. “They spread natural farming practices to other farmers.” Scientific research exploring ZBNF practices is just beginning to emerge. In a February 2022 issue of the journal Sustainability, Hussain and colleagues described a field experiment at study sites across Andhra Pradesh in which they found no difference in yield between plots managed with conventional and those managed with ZBNF practices for a variety of crops. Berger wants to know how ZBNF affects birds. She wonders whether the practice may make farms more habitable for birds while also increasing yields so that more wild habitats can be spared. She surveys the density and diversity of avian species on ZBNF and conventional farms, as well as in forests untouched by agriculture. She also records the proportions of natural habitat nested within the farmland. Ultimately, Berger, who counts Balmford as one of her dissertation advisors, will enter this data into a mathematical model that will optimize the agricultural landscape to meet food production goals while maximizing the density for each bird species. She will learn the ideal amount of spared habitat versus farmed land, the optimum proportion of ZBNF versus conventional farms, and the most effective proportion of natural habitat patches within farmland. The results, she says, could suggest a combination of different approaches in different areas. Maybe in some places, for example, ZBNF produces lower yields, so some proportion of conventional farms are required to spare the natural habitat that specific bird species require. But perhaps these conventional farms need to include some optimum number of habitat patches to maintain pollinators and other ecosystem services critical for their yield. “It's very complex and probably very case specific,” says Berger. Researchers are also using models to pinpoint where, in an ideal world, farming could expand at the least cost to biodiversity. But the work hinges on estimating one variable that is especially difficult to pin down: biodiversity itself. Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth. This variety exists at different scales, such as whole ecosystems, species, or genes within species. Researchers recording biodiversity simply cannot count everything. So they make choices. Some may tally all vertebrate or plant species or give higher weight to endangered species or use only birds or another representative group. Many combine several of these measures into a single biodiversity index. When Crawford began reading land prioritization studies, he recognized that researchers often measure biodiversity in different ways. “All valid and defensible methods,” he says. But he wanted to understand how seemingly small differences between methods ultimately influence land-planning recommendations. Crawford began with a land-use model called agroEcoTradeoff, previously developed by colleagues at Princeton and elsewhere. He used this model to project where to convert land to farmland in Zambia to minimize biodiversity loss while meeting crop production needs in this country with a rapidly growing population and economy. Lilac-breasted roller (Coracias caudatus) at South Luangwa National Park, Zambia (l). Researchers are using models to determine where in Zambia the land could be farmed with minimal biodiversity loss. Photograph: Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 4.0. Two male Phyllomedusa rohdei frogs in the Atlantic Forest in Bahia, Brazil. Some 85% of this forest has been cleared for agriculture, pasture, timber plantations, and cities. It remains home to 2200 species of fauna and 20,000 species of plants. Photograph: Renato Augusto Martins, CC BY-SA 4.0. Crawford ran the model with four previously published biodiversity indices and, each time, received different recommendations for where to expand agriculture. An index focused on vertebrate species richness with additional consideration given to species' range sizes, for example, suggested that agricultural expansion would be best placed in the southwestern portion of the country. Meanwhile, an index focused on how rare, intact, and well-protected different vegetation types are instead suggested that farmland should expand along the eastern portion of the country. Indeed, when comparing recommendations for where to expand agriculture between pairs of indices, the average overlap was only around 2%. The team then developed a series of their own indices so that they could systematically vary different components to understand what exactly causes biodiversity indices to return such divergent recommendations. They found that focusing on different groups of animals could change the recommendations dramatically. Bird diversity in for example, was least by agriculture in the would be better off if agriculture into the and affected the recommendations such as the of the data included and how much weight was given to range when species richness. the of whether to combine different biodiversity measures by taking the versus the could the recommendations in ways. for these of prioritization to be in about land-use and land-use researchers need to be very careful and about how they are biodiversity and about the that they are says As researchers for the best possible between farmland and biodiversity they also the of this ideal landscape into yields the space that farmland says Balmford. “It will to if look at global over for most in most But it The as Balmford explains in his 2021 Journal of is that a in yield could lower and so requiring more yields could also increase which that into more land Land sparing, then, best when increased yields are by policy measures at biodiversity, such as land-use and to the area covered by agriculture. such as this field in biodiversity, including the biodiversity of species to farming. Photograph: Some growers use such as this one on a to and increase biodiversity. Photograph: of Agriculture But these policy changes require to the of biodiversity and the of potential issue is that the research in this field is focused on biodiversity across the but the researchers are often based in and are for research to be by people who the these says this research to have an says Carrasco, should be from the So when are your research, should with the of the country and to understand the they to also need measures of biodiversity and between biodiversity and of the World in Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, and colleagues in a 2021 in Nature that countries need a biodiversity index the is a measure of and colleagues say, the would be a measure of a biodiversity The would be using a that of biodiversity, as well as that biodiversity to from to the of including and The is still in a says scientist and landscape ecologist of the National for and of Biodiversity in a on the is an for while researchers in South and develop their has been biodiversity data to government and organizations for over two now, says But as a single the of biodiversity in the country, it is really difficult to because have to use all of these of says The hope is that an will a for biodiversity over that a policy change will work also “We need evidence for the governments to and bring policy says Hussain. And the same for livelihoods depend on these had farmers that growing crops out of the year could increase production and also protect the So the says Hussain, farmers are the Balmford spreading how to meet needs at least cost to Journal of Crawford of in biodiversity indices used for land-use A global for crop Science Advances Carrasco of conversion risk from crop

Diah Fitri Ekarini, Raldi Hendrotoro Seputro Koestoer

Community-based environmental conservation and protection is one form of decentralization in the management of an area. Community-based initiatives are considered a sustainable collaborative alternative. The implementation of community-based initiatives can be found in various countries, such as the Voluntary Environmental Agents (VEA) in Amazon, Brazil and Social Forestry (SF) in Indonesia. This study aims to review the lessons learned from the CBC successful practice of VEA Program in Amazon, Brazil; determine whether these lessons can be adapted to enhance the positive impact of SF implementation in Indonesia, and; formulate relevant recommendations for SF implementation in Indonesia. A qualitative approach with descriptive-comparative method on references that are relevant to VEA and SF implementation was used in this study. There are several conditions that contribute to the successful VEA implementation: strengthening of local community initiatives, institutions, and capacities; formalization of community-based conservation schemes with supportive regulations; effective control system of the state; continuous support from external institutions, and; continuous and independent financing of activities. These conditions are relevant to be implemented in Indonesia. There is a fundamental difference between the implementation of VEA in Brazil and SF in Indonesia. Community-based initiatives in Brazil prioritized environmental sustainability to be able to “leverage” community’s economic and social sustainability in long term, while practices in Indonesia did not reflect this. This is illustrated by: lack of public awareness and concern for long-term environmental sustainability; negative impacts on the environment from SF implementation, and; vision of SF implementation which tends to be based on short-term targets.

Kelly W. Jones

Payments for watershed services programs (PWS) have become a prominent tool to protect ecosystems and hydrological services but little is known about where these innovative financing tools and governance systems emerge and persist. In 2008, the Mexican government started a program where they match funding from local partners to establish user-financed PWS programs, leading to the creation of 145 programs between 2008 and 2019. We study the factors that led to the emergence and persistence of these local PWS programs across Mexico. We assemble a unique database on these programs, as well as biophysical, economic and socio-cultural, and institutional variables, at the municipality level. We use logistic regression to analyze the variables that led to the emergence and persistence of PWS. We find that PWS programs are more likely to emerge in municipalities with lower opportunity costs; that are wealthier and more populated; that have complementary conservation programs; and that have more collective land tenure and protected areas. PWS programs are more likely to persist in municipalities with poorer water quality and more floods; that have more protected areas; and that have a non-governmental organization or water utility involved as the local counterpart. These results suggest that the emergence and persistence of local, user-financed PWS could be facilitated through better information on the condition of watershed services to signal need for hydrological protection; capacity building and institutional strengthening efforts that provide the social capital needed for collective action; and involvement of decentralized non-state actors that are politically neutral and can provide more sustainable financing.

Daniel Oberhauser

The Global South harbors some of the planet’s most precious natural resources and is hence key in addressing the pressing environmental challenges of the Anthropocene. Here, payments for ecosystem services (PES) have recently gained importance as a means of environmental governance, increasingly complementing conventional command-and-control approaches. For instance, climate change is now mitigated through carbon offset payments and biodiversity loss is addressed through wildlife conservation performance payments. However, such payment schemes in the Global South face numerous challenges as identified by a large body of literature. This paper investigates if blockchain technology can help address some of the challenges by reinforcing PES programs with tamper-proof blockchain smart contracts. To this end, the paper presents a proof-of-concept of a blockchain-based wildlife conservation performance payments scheme in Namibia: the habitat integrity of an elephant corridor is assessed by remote sensing algorithms, which in turn trigger fictitious blockchain smart contract payments to surrounding communities. The application allows to practically discuss the potential of blockchain technology regarding three key aspects of PES: (i) effectiveness (conditionality) of environmental monitoring (ii) efficiency and transaction costs, as well as (iii) equity and benefit distribution. The case presented here is an example for linking the digital Blockchain sphere to practical challenges of natural resource management in the physical world. As such, it illustrates some potentials of the technology, but also shows how Blockchain technology is unlikely to provide transformative solutions in geographies with complex environmental governance.

Ruth Árias, Manuel Pérez, Elisa López, Haideé Marín

This paper evaluates change scenarios in rural communities of the Kichwa Amazonian territory in the Anzu River Valley, Ecuador, in six communities, from Tzawata, at Northeast to Veinticuatro de Mayo at Southwest; at low, medium and high levels of the Anzu river valley. The communities settled since the end of the nineteenth century, came from the Napo province. Study area includes a portion of Kichwa original territory, fragmented by settler possessions, a process that also characterizes the territorial system of which the communities studied are part. The diversity of actors in this territory maintains a growing trend as the colonization process advances, also, the recognition of ancestral rights and community ownership of land, becomes more difficult. The decentralized autonomous local governments don’t have competence in the legalization of lands and territories, but they do have competence in the investment for development. The study detected local governments don’t include all the communities studied in their area of influence. On the other hand, already in this scenario it is detected that the knowledge of the use of local species is weakened in the communities, as well as their use. The irruption of legal and illegal mining and the persistent threat of oil exploitation create constant conflicts in the Kichwa nation. Strategic foresight, as the basis for the development of the territorial system and its application in the communities studied, necessarily recognizes the forms of indigenous and mestizo community social organization, their identity and ancestral values, times and rhythms of life.

Adam Bumpus, Thu-Ba Huynh, Sophie Pascoe

Transparency in climate finance mechanisms, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), relies on the transfer of information within a complex global web of state and nonstate actors. Such information is required under internationally agreed REDD+ safeguards, including measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) processes and free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), and works to establish substantive and normative transparency. However, the sources of, access to, and outcomes from these information flows are still contentious. To address these problems, REDD+ project proponents are increasingly looking to information and communication technologies, such as mobile devices, to improve information gathering, processing, and access. In this article we develop a model and provide tentative examples of how normative and substantive transparency are connected through input and output legitimacy within broader governance contexts. We highlight that even though mobile devices are being used to bring forest communities into the REDD+ process, substantive transparency for emissions reductions through MRV tends to be prioritized over normative dimensions associated with FPIC. We conclude by highlighting the need to further understand the role of decentralized information flows in multilevel carbon governance and opportunities for how mobile technologies may be used to address transparency challenges in the governance of REDD+.

Do-hun Kim, Dong-Hwan Kim, Dong‐Ho Lee, Sunjoo Park · 5 authors

With the institutionalization of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+), the global REDD+ financial network has been formed to support the implementation of REDD+ in developing countries. Although the rapid expansion of the network made it decentralized, it is still a highly centralized network in terms of the distribution of financial resources, revolving around only a few major actors. While the source of financing was diversified due to an increase in influential donors, the majority of financing still came from a few constant major donors, and a few constant major developing countries received most of the financial support. Although increases in donor numbers and the amount of finance received can provide more chances to support developing countries, it may cause inefficiency due to overlaps and duplications. Also, over-centralization of financial resources can be ineffective in terms of achieving maximum greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction, and can broaden gaps between developing countries’ ability to cope with climate change and deforestation. Lack of coordination among donors and the differing capacity of developing countries may have caused centralization of financial resources in the global REDD+ financial network. To minimize this problem, a comprehensive monitoring system and platforms for information sharing are needed.

Kaleab K. Haile, Nyasha Tirivayi, Wondimagegn Tesfaye

No abstract is available for this record.

Peter Howson, Sarah Oakes, Zachary Baynham‐Herd, Jon Swords

No abstract is available for this record.