Implementation time: 1/2014 – 12/2017
Funding agency: DANIDA (Kingdom of Denmark)
Implementation units: Center for Agricultural Reseach and Ecological Studies (CARES) and other units
Project coordinator: Ida Theilade
Forests play an important role for the livelihoods of poor people in developing countries. Yet, the poor often lack legal rights to the forest resources that they depend on. This renders them highly vulnerable to loss of access and displacement when valuable forest resources attract the interest of more powerful parties. In recent years forests’ ability to take up and store carbon has emerged as a new forest commodity as the international community attempts to reduce global CO2 emissions through REDD+(Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation).
Although REDD+ operates with social safeguards there is a risk that local communities will lose access and rights to forests, especially because of frequent overlap between legal and customary rights of different stakeholders to the same forest. Furthermore, inequalities within communities may be heightened as some people manage to take advantage of new opportunities while others lose out. The project will investigate how REDD+ influences regulations and access to forest resources, the way compensation for foregone benefits is awarded, and to what degree local monitoring of livelihood impacts of REDD+ can be used as a tool to empower local communities and help secure their rights in the face of REDD+.
Total project cost is 9 million DKK, of which IFRO contributes 3.9 million.
2. Project objectives
The project has proposed 3 themes for 3 PhD applications at Hanoi University of Agriculture (HUA) in Vietnam and other 3 candidates at Agricultural University of Bogor (IPB), Indonesia. Double degrees between University of Copenhagen and HUA, ICS, IPB is an option based on qualifications and performance of successful PhD applicants.
The applicants can download the guideline:
- PhD Theme 1: Livelihood monitoring
- PhD Theme 2: Community monitoring
- PhD Theme 3: Forest rights
3. Implementation units
(1) Department of Food and Resource Economics – University of Copenhagen (IFRO), (2) Center for Agricultural Research and Ecological Studies (CARES), (3) Agricultural University of Bogor (IPB), (4) Institute of Cultural Studies (ICS), (5) Department of Society and Globalisation – Roskilde University (DSG).
4. CARES’s contact
Website: www.cares.vnua.edu.vn
Phone number: 0243.876.5607
Email: cares@vnua.edu.vn
Project manager: Prof.Dr. Tran Duc Vien
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