Enabling and hindering conditions for socially and environmentally just policy change: A comparative analysis of deforestation tackling policy environment in Global South

Application summary

Patterns of inequality and unjust power relations are deeply rooted in the deforestation discourses in Global South. The loss of world´s remaining forests and environmental degradation remains persistently high, driven largely and in favor of economic activities facilitated by global commodity trade networks and financial flows. The complex mosaic of forest and forest-based climate governance tools and policies, despite their promises, has failed to catalyze the expected just transformations. Unsustainable exploitation of forest resources continues while colonial legacies embedded in power relations, institutions and legal frameworks are reinforced, produced, and reproduced. By systematically comparing various Global South countries, this research project aims to unfold and deepen understanding on the diverse pathways that, in different contexts, enable the processes of change towards more socially and environmentally just forest and forest-based climate governance. A comparative analysis builds on three comparative case studies anchored in national policies, that are assumed in different combinations to enable or hinder the efforts to halt deforestation. The comparative analysis is guided through critical political economy and the 4I ́s, (Institutions, Interests, Ideas, and Information) framework, allowing the exploration of how institutional path dependencies and ´stickiness´ are maintained and reinforced by various actors pursuing their interests legitimized by dominant ideas and selective information, or lack of it. Ultimately, this exploration aims to unpack the dynamics of how and for whom power and socially and environmentally unjust business-as-usual approaches in climate and forest governance operate, and are constructed, produced and reproduced. Only by addressing the underlying power relations, environmentally and socially just transformations leading to lasting and equitable results can be achieved within and beyond the realm of global forest governance.