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

这项研究回应了前所未有的全球环境规范的出现，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。这种规范的突出例子是《联合国气候变化框架公约》规定的REDD+保障措施和世界大坝委员会提出的建议。只要这些规范有效地支持穷人对自然资源的要求和可持续生计的权利，它们就有可能改变发展做法。全球环境规范的重要性日益增加，这就要求研究开发关于环境与发展动态的新理论，以关注地方环境斗争、更高层次的环境正义动员和全球规范之间的跨尺度关系。这项研究将通过对森林和水的探索来检验全球环境规范对全球南方减贫的影响。拟议的研究将采用政治生态学的方法，通过关注环境正义和跨尺度环境政治的概念来扩展。正义观念是许多环境斗争的核心，涉及分配、参与和承认问题。他们影响人们做什么，他们对自然资源提出什么要求，他们如何看待自己的能力，以及他们如何发展对美好生活的愿景。因此，正义是不同规模的环境政治的一个组成部分，将地方斗争与国家和国际各级的动员以及为全球规范提供信息的概念联系起来--并在这些概念之间造成摩擦。指导这项研究的特殊目标是：-通过研究地方对环境正义的主张和更高级别的动员何时以及如何导致改善被边缘化的人获得自然资源以用于扶贫的行动，发展关于环境和发展动态的新理论。-通过与“影响顾问”的密切互动，对全球环境规范的覆盖范围和贫困影响产生洞察。-准备在第二阶段(ESRC/DFID)扩展研究，以考虑以下因素的影响关于全球环境规范出现的地方环境斗争。在申请者之前进行的研究基础上，这项研究将以尼泊尔、苏丹和乌干达的四个比较案例研究的方式进行。选择这些案例是为了捕捉三个关键方面的差异：资源(森林或水)、在更高级别动员中的吸收以及“成功”，即被边缘化的人获得资源的实际增加。头两个案例研究设在尼泊尔的Lamjung区，分析土著人民成功动员和抵制水电项目以及他们参与REDD+试点项目的情况。苏丹的Merowe水电站大坝是第三个案例研究，例证了尽管得到流亡社区成员和国际活动家的支持，但当地人民被剥夺了土地。第四个案例来自乌干达，尽管存在严重的不公正现象和社会公正碳林业项目的全球规范的直接相关性，但全球造福树木项目并未导致任何重大动员。研究小组将在一篇理论文章和两篇比较期刊文章中综合他们的发现。为了在学术界以外产生影响，他们将与这三个国家有目的地选择的活动人士顾问密切互动，组织国家一级的会议，在伦敦大学伦敦分校举行公开辩论，与尼泊尔的村民和活动人士一起制作拍摄的“正义证明”，并在影响简报中综合关键建议，供在环境/发展领域工作的国际机构和政策制定者使用。

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.