Browsing by Author "Rodriguez Solorzano, Claudia"

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    Data for Decades of tree planting in Northern India had little effect on forest canopy cover and rural livelihoods
    (2021-06-24) Coleman, Eric; Schultz, Bill; Ramprasad, Vijay; Fischer, Harry; Rana, Pushpendra; Filippi, Anthony; Güneralp, Burak; Ma, Angdong; Rodriguez Solorzano, Claudia; Guleria, Vijay; Rana, Rajesh; Fleischman, Forrest; ffleisch@umn.edu; Fleischman, Forrest
    This contains data from three sources: 1. Remote sensing-based analysis of land cover and land use change in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India, with a focus on government run tree plantations we mapped in the region that had occurred between 1980 and 2018, were located in 60 randomly sampled panchayats (local governments), and were at least 5 HA in size. We also have supplemental information on these plantations provided by the local informants who helped map them (e.g. such as the date of establishment and the involvement of local communities in planting them) 2. A survey of Panchayat characteristics across 60 randomly sampled panchayats in Kangra District 3. A random sample survey of 40 households in each of the 60 panchayats, focusing on household livelihood needs and their relationship to forests and tree plantations in terms of both livelihood related uses (e.g. fuelwood, fodder, and grazing) and forest governance. Viewing these data sources together enable us to understand the relationships between land use change as driven by government plantations, local governance, and livelihoods.
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    How politics shapes the outcomes of forest carbon finance
    (Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2021) Fleischman, Forrest; Basant, Shishir; Fischer, Harry; Gupta, Divya; Garcia Lopez, Gustavo; Kashwan, Prakash; Powers, Jennifer S.; Ramprasad, Vijay; Rana, Pushpendra; Rastogi, Archi; Rodriguez Solorzano, Claudia; Schmitz, Marissa
    Interest in forest-based carbon storage has led to growth in financing for carbon forestry. Most financial strategies rest on strong assumptions which are not valid in many parts of the world. We use cases drawn from tribal forestry in the US and government forestry in India to illustrate how carbon finance relies on the presence of enforceable rights, representative and accountable institutions, clear incentives, and symmetrical power relations. In the absence of these conditions, carbon finance provides perverse incentives that undermine biodiversity and human rights without storing carbon. We suggest that for forest-based carbon storage to be successful, more attention needs to be paid to underlying political reforms, as well as to policies that are not reliant on financial exchange.
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    Limited effects of tree planting on forest canopy cover and rural livelihoods in Northern India
    (Nature Sustainability, 2021-09-13) Coleman, Eric A.; Schultz, Bill; Ramprasad, Vijay; Fischer, Harry; Rana, Pushpendra; Filippi, Anthony M.; Güneralp, Burak; Ma, Andong; Rodriguez Solorzano, Claudia; Guleria, Vijay; Rana, Rajesh; Fleischman, Forrest
    Many countries have adopted large-scale tree-planting programs as a climate mitigation strategy and to support local livelihoods. We evaluate a series of large-scale tree planting programs using data collected from historical Landsat imagery in the state of Himachal Pradesh in Northern India. Using this panel dataset, we use an event study design to estimate the socioeconomic and biophysical impacts over decades of these programs. We find that tree plantings have not, on average, increased the proportion of forest canopy cover, and have modestly shifted forest composition away from the broadleaf varieties valued by local people. Further cross-sectional analysis, from a household livelihood survey, shows that tree planting supports little direct use by local people. We conclude that decades of expensive tree planting programs in this region have not proved effective. This result shows that large-scale tree planting may sometimes fail to achieve its climate mitigation and livelihood goals.
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    Restoration prioritization must be informed by marginalized people.
    (Nature, 2022) Fleischman, Forrest; Coleman, Eric; Fischer, Harry; Kashwan, Prakash; Pfeifer, Marion; Ramprasad, Vijay; Rodriguez Solorzano, Claudia; Veldman, Joseph W.