Rethinking Environment and Development in an Era of Global Norms: An Exploration of Forests and Water in Nepal, Sudan and Uganda

这项研究是对全球环境规范空前出现的回应，特别是那些旨在以公正的方式协调自然资源管理与减贫的规范。这类规范的突出例子是《联合国气候变化框架公约》下的降排+保障措施和世界水坝委员会提出的建议。这些规范具有改变发展做法的潜力，只要它们有效地支持穷人对自然资源的要求和可持续生计的权利。全球环境规范的重要性日益增加，这对研究提出了挑战，要求开发关于环境与发展动态的新理论，关注地方环境斗争、环境正义的高级别动员和全球规范之间的跨尺度关系。本研究将通过对森林和水资源的探索，考察全球环境规范对全球南方减贫的影响。拟议的研究将采用通过关注环境正义和跨尺度环境政治的概念而扩展的政治生态学方法。正义的概念是许多环境斗争的核心，涉及分配、参与和承认问题。它们影响人们的行为，影响他们对自然资源的主张，影响他们如何看待自己的能力，影响他们如何发展美好生活的愿景。因此，正义是环境政治的一个组成部分，它将地方斗争与国家和国际层面的动员联系起来，并将全球规范的概念联系起来，并造成这些概念之间的摩擦。指导研究的具体目标是：-通过研究地方要求和更高级别的环境正义动员何时以及如何导致改善边缘化人群获得自然资源以减轻贫困的行动，发展关于环境与发展动态的新理论。与“影响顾问”密切互动，深入了解全球环境规范的影响范围和贫困影响。-在第二阶段（ESRC/DFID）准备研究的扩展，以考虑当地环境斗争对全球环境规范的出现的影响。在申请人之前进行的研究的基础上，研究将通过尼泊尔，苏丹和乌干达的四个比较案例研究进行。选择这些案例是为了反映沿着三个关键方面的变化：资源（森林或水）、在更高级别的动员中的吸收和“成功”，“成功”被定义为边缘化人群获得资源的有效增加。前两个案例研究位于尼泊尔的拉姆容区，分析了土著人民成功动员和抵制水电项目以及他们参与降排+试点项目的情况。苏丹的Merowe水电站大坝是第三个案例研究，这是一个尽管得到流亡社区成员和国际活动家的支持，但当地人民仍被剥夺土地的例子。第四个案例来自乌干达，尽管存在严重的不公正现象，而且全球规范与社会公正的碳林业项目直接相关，但树木促进全球利益项目并没有导致任何重大的动员。研究小组将在一篇理论和两篇比较期刊文章中综合他们的研究结果。为了在学术界之外产生影响，他们将与三国有目的地选择的活动家顾问密切互动，组织国家级会议，在UEA伦敦举行公开辩论，与尼泊尔的村民和活动家一起制作“正义的证词”，并在为环境/发展领域工作的国际机构和政策制定者的影响简报中综合关键建议。

The research responds to the unprecedented emergence of global environmental norms, particularly those intended to reconcile natural resource management with poverty alleviation in a just manner. Prominent examples of such norms are the REDD+ safeguards under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the recommendations issued by the World Commission on Dams. The norms possess the potential to transform development practice, so long as they effectively support poor people's claims on natural resources and rights to sustainable livelihoods. The increasing significance of global environmental norms challenges research to develop new theory on the dynamics of environment and development that attends to cross-scale relationships between local environmental struggles, higher-level mobilizations for environmental justice and global norms. This research will examine the effects of global environmental norms on poverty alleviation in the Global South through explorations of forests and water.The proposed research will employ a political ecology approach expanded through attention to notions of environmental justice and cross-scale environmental politics. Notions of justice are at the core of many environmental struggles, relating to issues of distribution, participation and recognition. They affect what people do, what claims they make on natural resources, how they perceive their own capabilities, and how they develop visions of a good life. Thus justice is an integral element of environmental politics across scales, connecting local struggles to mobilizations at national and international levels as well as the conceptions informing global norms - and causing frictions between those.The particular objectives guiding the research are to:- Develop new theory on the dynamics of environment and development by examining when and how local claims and higher-level mobilisations of environmental justice lead to actions which improve marginalized people's access to natural resources for poverty alleviation.- Generate insights on the reach and poverty impacts of global environmental norms in close interactions with 'impact advisors'.- Prepare an extension of the research in the second stage (ESRC/DFID) to consider the influence of local environmental struggles on the emergence of global environmental norms.Building on previous research conducted by the applicants, the research will proceed by way of four comparative case studies from Nepal, Sudan and Uganda. The cases were selected to capture variation along three critical dimensions: resource (forests or water), uptake in higher-level mobilizations and 'success' defined as effected increases in marginalized people's access to resources. The first two case studies are situated in Lamjung district in Nepal, analyzing indigenous people's successful mobilization and resistance to hydropower projects as well as their participation in a REDD+ pilot project. The Merowe hydro-electric dam in Sudan is the third case study, exemplifying a case where local people have been dispossessed from land despite support from exiled community members and international activists. The fourth case comes from Uganda, where the Trees for Global Benefit project has not led to any significant mobilization despite the presence of significant injustices and direct relevance of global norms on socially just carbon forestry projects.The research team will synthesize their findings in a theoretical and two comparative journal articles. To generate impact beyond academia, they will closely interact with purposively chosen activist advisors in the three countries, organize national-level meetings, hold a public debate at UEA London, produce filmed 'testimonies of justice' with villagers and activists in Nepal and synthesize key recommendations in an impact brief for international agencies and policy-makers working within the environment/development spheres.