Community, Carbon, and Livelihoods on Forest Commons

World Wildlife Fund’s
Kathryn Fuller Science for Nature Seminar Series
Dr. Arun Agrawal
Community, Carbon, and Livelihoods on Forest Commons – Win Win vs. Tradeoffs Relationships

It is a cliché that forests produce multiple products and provide many different benefits for their users. Despite an immense literature on forests, particularly forest commons, there is little careful analysis of the relationships among different outcomes from forest commons. Despite the lack of evidence, claims about win-win outcomes and tradeoffs abound in the research on forests, and renewable resources more generally. Using original data for more than 100 forest commons from ten different countries, we examine the relationship between carbon sequestration and livelihoods contributions of forests. We identify some of the more important associations between different causal factors and joint forest outcomes, paying special attention to win-win outcomes vs. tradeoffs. The analysis suggests that larger patch size of community forests, and greater autonomy to communities in rule making are positively associated with win-win carbon and livelihoods outcomes on community forests. State vs. community ownership of land on which community forests are situated is associated with tradeoffs between carbon and livelihoods. The findings of the study provide some guidance for organizations interested in improving carbon sequestration and livelihoods outcomes at the same time in relation to community forests.

Date: Thursday, September 24th, 2009
Time: 4:30-5:30pm (lecture); 5:30-6:30pm (reception)
Admission: FREE!

Registration: http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/fellowships/fuller/item1816.html
Location: World Wildlife Fund Headquarters, 1250 24^th Street, NW

Arun Agrawal’s research and teaching emphases are on the politics of international development, institutional change and environmental conservation. He has written extensively on 1) indigenous knowledge, 2) community-based conservation, 3) common property, 4) population and resources, and 5) environmental identities. Recent interests include the decentralization of environmental policy (especially forestry and wildlife), and the emergence of the environment as a subject of human concern. He geographically focused on South Asia although recent projects include other developing countries in Africa and Latin America

Arun has been awarded the Arthur Greer Memorial Research Prize. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University, a M.A. in Political Science from Duke University, a M.B.A. in Development Administration and Public Policy from Indian Institute of Management, and a B.A. in History from Delhi University.