Negotiating the 'paradox of participation' to increase the social equity of participatory ecological monitoring in Nepal

在获取和控制自然资源利益方面的不平等有可能破坏过去30年来在参与性发展方面取得的进展。参与式生态监测被提议作为生态系统服务项目和REDD+等碳交易计划的新支付支柱，并且已经通过尼泊尔的社区林业计划成为可持续森林管理的组成部分。尼泊尔政府认为森林碳交易可能成为尼泊尔未来发展的重要贡献者，但承认所有林业计划都需要更好地促进国家减贫目标。该研究金通过与尼泊尔林业从业者和政策制定者合作，共同创造明确关注社会公平目标的参与式生态监测方法，来应对这一紧迫挑战。我的博士论文揭露了尼泊尔一个这样的项目的社会结果，发现它无意中强化了基于性别、种姓和识字率的现有边缘化进程。它试图理解这种“参与的暴政”是如何转变的，表明只有通过与更深层次的文化、政治和制度背景进行有意义的接触，才能实现这一转变。该研究金将以我的论文为基础，向尼泊尔社区林业项目中那些在实地实施参与式监测项目并为这些项目的实施制定政策空间的人伸出援手。它将使他们围绕参与式项目实际上可能会削弱权力这一悖论进行对话，并在这一批判性反思的基础上共同设计方法和政策，关注对实现社会公平至关重要的基本因素。该奖学金将致力于让尼泊尔及其他地区的从业人员和决策者参与关键对话，以促进参与式森林监测项目的社会公平。通过这些合作，我将寻求以我的博士学位为基础：构建参与式生态监测项目中目前考虑社会公平和利益分享的方式的全球概况，以及在该领域工作的学者如何将其概念化汇集涉及尼泊尔监测的参与式方法的项目（作为可持续森林管理或碳相关评估的一部分），并为他们提供空间；对公平和利益分享的当前框架和评估进行批判性反思，分享这一领域的经验和专业知识，共同设计程序以促进正在进行和未来项目的社会公平，并监测作为迭代设计过程一部分的实施挑战。将尼泊尔的经验带给全球学术和非学术受众，并让他们参与学习。通过他们，我可以为未来在这一领域的研究创造机会，并确保一个成功的学术生涯。GCRF奖学金将对我的学术生涯产生至关重要和持久的影响。自从完成博士学位以来，我已经证明了自己有能力发表高质量的论文，成功地扩展到互补的研究领域，并与学术界和其他领域的同事开展合作。奖学金将使我能够巩固我作为一名学者在社区保护领域的专业知识和影响力，建立我与利益相关者合作共同创造影响的能力，并在未来继续这样做，以应对当前的全球挑战。

Inequalities in access to and control over benefits of natural resources threaten to undermine advances made in participatory development over the past 30 years. Participatory ecological monitoring is proposed as a backbone of new payments for ecosystem services projects and carbon trading schemes like REDD+, and is already integral to sustainable forest management through Nepal's community forestry programme. The Nepalese government believe that forest carbon trading could be a significant contributor to development in Nepal in the future, but acknowledges that all forestry schemes need to better promote national goals of poverty alleviation. This Fellowship responds to this urgent challenge by engaging practitioners and policy makers in Nepalese forestry to co-create approaches to participatory ecological monitoring which focus explicitly on the goal of social equity. My PhD thesis exposed the social outcomes of one such project in Nepal, finding that it served - unintentionally - to reinforce existing processes of marginalisation based on gender, caste and literacy. It sought to understand how this 'tyranny of participation' could be transformed, suggesting that this will only occur through meaningful engagement with deeper cultural, political and institutional contexts. This Fellowship will build on my thesis to reach out to those across Nepal's community forestry programme who deliver participatory monitoring projects on the ground, and who develop the policy space within which they take place. It will engage them in a dialogue around the paradox that participatory projects can in fact be disempowering, and build on that critical reflection to co-design approaches and policies which pay attention to the fundamental factors critical to delivering social equity. This Fellowship will be dedicated to engaging practitioners and policy-makers in Nepal, and beyond, in a critical dialogue aimed at promoting the social equity of participatory forest monitoring projects on the ground. Through these collaborations, I would seek to build on my PhD to: Build a global overview of the ways in which social equity and benefit sharing are currently considered in participatory ecological monitoring projects, and how they are conceptualised by academics working in this sphereBring together projects involving participatory approaches to monitoring in Nepal (either as part of sustainable forest management or carbon-related assessment) and provide them with a space for; critical reflection on the current framing and assessment of equity and benefit-sharing, for sharing experiences and expertise in this area, for co-designing procedures to promote the social equity of on-going and future projects, and for monitoring the challenges to implementation as part of an iterative design processTo take the experiences from Nepal to a global academic and non-academic audience and engage them in the lessons to be learntBuild international networks of academics, practitioners and policy-makers, through which I can create opportunities for future research in this area and secure a successful academic careerA GCRF Fellowship would have a vitally important, lasting impact on my academic career. Since completing my PhD I have proven myself able to produce high quality papers, to successfully branch out into complementary fields of study, and to initiate collaborations with colleagues in academia and beyond. A Fellowship would allow me to cement my expertise and influence as an academic in the field of community-based conservation, to build my capacity to collaborate with stakeholders to co-create impacts, and to continue doing so into the future in order to respond to on-going global challenges.