Doctoral Dissertation Research: Land and Livelihood Implications of Multinational Plantation Investments

这一博士论文研究项目将考察跨国林业种植园投资在发展中国家的土地获取和农村生计影响是如何由于政府机构、种植园公司和农民农业社区之间的政治关系、斗争和谈判而受到治理的。该研究项目是在环境治理的理论框架内进行的，该框架将利用和管理自然资源的体制、管理和非正式程序概念化。最近，发展中世界各地的大规模种植园林业投资造成了有害的生计转变，剥夺了农民的土地和资源，只得到最低限度的补偿，同时提供了不常见和低工资的就业机会。然而，面对这样的投资，一些社区能够保留对村庄领土的自治权，或者他们成功地提出了更高的补偿和工资标准。这一博士论文研究项目试图评估一些社区如何以及为什么声称比其他社区对种植园投资的治理拥有更大的控制权。这位博士生将在老挝对这些动态进行分析。老挝是一个东南亚社会主义国家，经济日益市场化。在过去的十年里，老挝政府向外国种植园投资者开放了经济，他们已经获得了该国20%以上的农业用地。这名学生将在老挝南部进行实地考察，考察六个村庄的两家公司的种植园开发实践。他将收集空间数据(航空照片、种植园地图、土地利用图)，收集档案文件(特许权协议、调查报告)，并对政府官员、种植园经理、村长和村户进行半结构化访谈。该项目将以环境治理框架为基础，研究在国家在土地和资源管理中发挥主导作用的社会主义、后社会主义、威权和/或发展中国家背景下，如何治理大规模种植园投资的土地获取和生计影响。该项目将通过调查社会阻力如何在没有直接社会抗议历史的威权背景下塑造资源投资治理来扩展这一理论方法。该项目将产生有益的影响，使人们更好地了解可制定和执行的政策和项目，以改善老挝和整个发展中世界对大规模种植园投资的管理，使农业社区能够通过保持对村庄领土的控制来获得最大利益。项目成果将对老挝和其他发展中国家处理土地问题的政府部门、发展机构和非政府组织有用。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该项目将为有前途的学生建立独立的研究生涯提供支持。

This doctoral dissertation research project will examine how the land access and rural livelihood impacts of multinational forestry plantation investments in the developing world are governed as a result of political relationships, struggles, and negotiations among government agencies, plantation companies, and peasant farming communities. The research project is situated within the theoretical framework of environmental governance, which conceptualizes the institutional, regulatory and the informal processes through which natural resources are used and managed. Recent, large-scale plantation forestry investments across the developing world have induced detrimental livelihood transformations, dispossessing peasants of their land and resources with minimal compensation while providing infrequent and low-wage employment. Some communities have been able to retain autonomy over village territory in the face of such investments, however, or they have successfully made demands for higher compensation and wage rates. This doctoral dissertation research project seeks to assess how and why some communities assert greater control over the governance of plantation investments than others. The doctoral student will conduct an analysis of these dynamics in Laos, a Southeast Asian socialist country with an increasingly market-oriented economy. Over the past decade, the Lao government has opened the economy to foreign plantation investors, who have acquired more than 20 percent of the country's agricultural land. The student will conduct fieldwork in southern Laos, examining plantation development practices of two firms in six villages. He will collect spatial data (aerial photographs, plantation maps, land use maps), collect archival documents (concession agreements, survey reports), and conduct semi-structured interviews with government officials, plantation managers, village chiefs, and village households.This project will build on the environmental governance framework by examining how the land access and livelihood impacts of large-scale plantation investments are governed in socialist, post-socialist, authoritarian, and/or developing country contexts where the state plays a dominant role in land and resource management. The project will extend this theoretical approach by investigating how social resistance shapes resource investment governance in authoritarian contexts that do not have histories of outright social protest. The project will have beneficial impacts by enhancing understanding of the policies and projects that can be devised and implemented to improve the governance of large-scale plantation investments in Laos and throughout the developing world in ways that enable farming communities to gain maximum benefits by maintaining control over village territory. Project results will be useful for government offices, development agencies, and non-governmental organizations working on land issues in Laos and in other developing nations. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.