Forest and Nature Governance A Practice Based Approach

About this book

Problems such as deforestation, biodiversity loss and illegal logging have provoked various policy responses that are often referred to as forest and nature governance. In its broadest interpretation, governance is about the many ways in which public and private actors from the state, market and/or civil society govern public issues at multiple scales. Examples range from the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity to national forest programmes.

In studies of forest and nature governance the dominant approaches are rational choice and neo-institutionalism. Forest and Nature Governance takes another perspective. Departing from ‘practice theory’, and building upon scholars like Giddens, Bourdieu, Reckwitz, Schatzki and Callon, it seeks to move beyond established understandings of institutions, actors, and knowledge. In so doing, Forest and Nature Governance not only presents an innovative conceptual and methodological framework for a practice based approach, but also rich case studies and ethnographies. Examples are participatory forest management in the tropics, REDD policy at global level, European water policy, forest certification and the construction of global biodiversity databases.

Taking social practices as the key unit of analysis, Forest and Nature Governance describes how different practitioners, ranging from local forest managers on the ground to policy makers at the global level, work with trees, forests, biodiversity, wildlife, and so on, and act upon forest policies, environmental discourses, codes of conduct, or scientific insights. It is also about how communities, NGOs, stakeholders, and citizens get involved in forest and nature governance.

Contents

Preface.- The Editors

Introduction
1. Prelude to practice: Introducing a practice based approach to forest and nature governance.- Bas Arts, Jelle Behagel, Severine van Bommel, Jessica de Koning, Esther Turnhout
2. From practical science to a practice based approach: A short history of forest policy studies.- Freerk Wiersum, Bas Arts, Jim van Laar

Rethinking institutions
3. Bricolage practices in local forestry.- Jessica de Koning, Charlotte Benneker
4. What institutions do: Grasping participatory practices in the Water Framework Directive.- Jelle Behagel, Sonja van der Arend
5. Invited spaces and informal practices in participatory community forest management in India.- Sailaja Nandigama

The global-local nexus
6. Global forest governance: Multiple practices of policy performance.- Bas Arts, Innocent Babili
7. The practice of interaction management: enhancing synergies among multilateral REDD+ institutions.- Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers, Patrick Verkooijen
8. How do forest markets work? Exploring a practice perspective.- Marjanke Hoogstra-Klein

Representing nature?
9. Globalising biodiversity: Scientific practices of scaling and databasing.- Susan Boonman-Berson, Esther Turnhout
10. Where management practices and experiential practices meet: Public support and conflict in ecosystem management.- Arjen Buijs, Birgit Elands, Ramona van Marwijk
11. Creating scientific narratives: experiences in constructing and interweaving empirical and theoretical plots.- Severine van Bommel, Mariëlle van der Zouwen

Conclusion
12. The promise of practice: The value of the practice-based approach for forest and nature governance studies.- Jelle Behagel, Bas Arts, Severine van Bommel, Jessica de Koning, Esther Turnhout

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