Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Political Ecology of Large-Scale Logging Initiatives

博士生杰森·罗伯茨将在曾傑瑞·杰卡博士的指导下，对自给性园艺社区大规模采伐的当地过程、影响和反应进行研究。这项研究将在巴布亚新几内亚的新汉诺威岛(PNG)进行，这是探索在亚太地区扩大国际伐木的一个极好的试验场。国际伐木业最近在整个巴布亚新几内亚发展了更多的存在，因为以前东南亚热带地区的木材来源已经逐渐被淘汰。此外，随着巴新制定了以自然资源为导向的发展政策，国际商业条件变得更加有利。这些国家政策与当地改善社会经济效益的愿望不谋而合，自然资源开采仍然是许多巴布亚新几内亚人希望实现这些目标的为数不多的手段之一。研究表明，在发展中国家的热带雨林中大规模砍伐对这些生态系统和依赖它们为生的人类人口是有害的。不清楚的是，当地人和当地景观如何应对伐木的持久影响。本研究采用人种学和生态学的研究方法，比较了新汉诺威岛的砍伐和选择性伐木开发方案的结果。从地方到国家的不同规模的参与者观察和访谈将审查不同伐木和相关农业发展制度下不断变化的生计和发展政策。生态采样技术和遥感数据分析将量化当地森林结构和生长的变化，以及当地自给生产的变化。这项研究结合了发展和全球化、政治生态学和土地变化科学的理论兴趣，有助于我们理解基于自然资源的发展、森林可持续发展和园艺弹性之间的关系。它的目的是通过产生关于社会和环境变化之间相互联系的理论和数据，为未来的政策提供信息，从而促进社会科学和自然科学中的跨学科对话。

Doctoral student Jason Roberts, under the supervision of Dr. Jerry Jacka, will undertake research on the local processes, effects, and responses to large-scale logging in subsistence horticultural communities. The research will take place on New Hanover Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG), an excellent test site for exploring the expansion of international logging in the Asian and Pacific region. The international logging industry has recently developed a much greater presence throughout PNG as previous sources of timber in the Southeast Asian tropics have been progressively logged out. As well, the conditions for international business have become more favorable with the enactment of natural resource driven development policies within PNG. These national policies coincide with local desires for improved socioeconomic benefits, and natural resource extraction remains one of the few means by which many Papua New Guineans can hope to realize these goals. Studies have demonstrated that large-scale logging in the tropical forests of developing countries is detrimental to these ecological systems and the human populations that depend upon them for subsistence. What is not as clear is how local people and local landscapes respond to the enduring effects of logging.Using ethnographic and ecological research methods, this study compares the results of clearcut and selective logging development schemes on New Hanover Island. Participant observation and interviews at various scales, from the local to the national, will examine changing livelihoods and development policies under different logging and related agricultural development regimes. Ecological sampling techniques and remote sensing data analysis will quantify changes in local forest structure and growth, as well as changes in local subsistence production. This study combines theoretical interests in development and globalization, political ecology, and land-change science to inform our understanding of the relationships between natural resource based development, forest sustainability, and horticulturalist resilience. It is designed to promote interdisciplinary conversations in both the social and natural sciences by producing theory and data about the interconnections between social and environmental change that could be used to inform future policy.