Human Health and Forests

Human Health and Forests

Author: Carol J. Pierce Colfer

Publisher: Earthscan

Published: 2012-05-04

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 1849771626

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Hundreds of millions of people live and work in forests across the world. One vital aspect of their lives, yet largely unexamined, is the challenge of protecting and enhancing the unique relationship between the health of forests and the health of people. This book, written for a broad audience, is the first comprehensive introduction to the issues surrounding the health of people living in and around forests, particularly in Asia, South America and Africa.Part I is a set of synthesis chapters, addressing policy, public health, environmental conservation and ecological perspectives on health and forests (including women and child health, medicinal plants and viral diseases such as Ebola, SARS and Nipah Encephalitis). Part II takes a multi-lens approach to lead the reader to a more concrete and holistic understanding. It features case studies from around the world that cover important issues such as the links between HIV/AIDS and the forest sector, and between diet and health. Part III looks at the specific challenges to health care delivery in forested areas, including remoteness and the integration of traditional medicine with modern health care. The generous use of boxes with specific examples adds layers of depth to the analyses. The book concludes with a synthesis designed for use by practitioners and policymakers to work with forest dwellers to improve their health and their ecosystems.This book is a vital addition to the knowledge base of all professionals, academics and students working on forests, natural resources management, health and development worldwide.Published with CIFOR and People and Plants International


Masculinities in Forests

Masculinities in Forests

Author: Carol J. Pierce Colfer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-09-20

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1000209822

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Masculinities in Forests: Representations of Diversity demonstrates the wide variability in ideas about, and practice of, masculinity in different forests, and how these relate to forest management. While forestry is widely considered a masculine domain, a significant portion of the literature on gender and development focuses on the role of women, not men. This book addresses this gap and also highlights how there are significant, demonstrable differences in masculinities from forest to forest. The book develops a simple conceptual framework for considering masculinities, one which both acknowledges the stability or enduring quality of masculinities, but also the significant masculinity-related options available to individual men within any given culture. The author draws on her own experiences, building on her long-term experience working globally in the conservation and development worlds, also observing masculinities among such professionals. The core of the book examines masculinities, based on long-term ethnographic research in the rural Pacific Northwest of the US; Long Segar, East Kalimantan; and Sitiung, West Sumatra, both in Indonesia. The author concludes by pulling together the various strands of masculine identities and discussing the implications of these various versions of masculinity for forest management. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of forestry, gender studies and conservation and development, as well as practitioners and NGOs working in these fields. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780367815776, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.


Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change

Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change

Author: Malcolm F. Cairns

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-01-09

Total Pages: 1405

ISBN-13: 1317750187

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Shifting cultivation is one of the oldest forms of subsistence agriculture and is still practised by millions of poor people in the tropics. Typically it involves clearing land (often forest) for the growing of crops for a few years, and then moving on to new sites, leaving the earlier ground fallow to regain its soil fertility. This book brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation, vividly illustrating the enormous diversity of shifting cultivation systems as well as the power of human ingenuity. Some critics have tended to disparage shifting cultivation (sometimes called 'swidden cultivation' or 'slash-and-burn agriculture') as unsustainable due to its supposed role in deforestation and land degradation. However, the book shows that such indigenous practices, as they have evolved over time, can be highly adaptive to land and ecology. In contrast, 'scientific' agricultural solutions imposed from outside can be far more damaging to the environment and local communities. The book focuses on successful agricultural strategies of upland farmers, particularly in south and south-east Asia, and presents over 50 contributions by scholars from around the world and from various disciplines, including agricultural economics, ecology and anthropology. It is a sequel to the much praised "Voices from the Forest: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming" (RFF Press, 2007), but all chapters are completely new and there is a greater emphasis on the contemporary challenges of climate change and biodiversity conservation.


Environmental Resources Use and Challenges in Contemporary Southeast Asia

Environmental Resources Use and Challenges in Contemporary Southeast Asia

Author: Mario Ivan Lopez

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-05-17

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 9811088810

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This edited volume introduces dynamic approaches to the study of Southeast Asia’s environmental diversity from different disciplinary perspectives at the interface between the natural and social sciences. It brings together research on the region’s environmental resource use and shared ecological challenges in the context of present day globalization to offer insights for possible future directions. The book introduces unique approaches to the study of Southeast Asia’s environmental changes and resource management under the influence of intensifying economic change in the region. It also examines the slow erosion of Southeast Asia’s rich environment and addresses serious issues such as the decrease in biodiversity and tropical forests, and the degradation of peat lands. At the same time, it discusses the social issues that are tied to energy-dependent growth and have intensified over the last two decades. It also analyzes the new roadmaps being created to protect, conserve, and manage the environment. By investigating the many ecological issues surrounding us, the volume brings to light the constant struggles we face while trying to develop a more inclusive and equitable approach to natural resources governance. This volume is relevant for students, academics and researchers who have an interest in the Southeast Asian environment and the way in which we use and interact with it.


Work in Tropical Forests

Work in Tropical Forests

Author: Siegfried Lewark

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-01-31

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 3662644444

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book presents a synopsis, with an innovative approach, of abundance, types and conditions of work performed in the tropical plantation and natural forests. It covers work of formally and informally employed, and of own-account small-scale forest users, women and children. Activities in tree harvesting are analyzed, also on-site conversion by pitsawing, planting and pruning. The abilities of the workers and their efforts while fulfilling their tasks, resulting in performance and workload, are described with many examples of published studies. Influencing variables from organizational, technical and managerial sides are considered as much as included in the studies. The detailed descriptions demonstrate the methodical state of ergonomic research. For better understanding of the coverage the background of the development of forest work science is described. The lasting influence of Taylorism and the roles of ILO and FAO as well as NGOs, e.g. in certification, are pointed out.


Gender and Forests

Gender and Forests

Author: Carol J. Pierce Colfer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-14

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 1317355679

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This enlightening book brings together the work of gender and forestry specialists from various backgrounds and fields of research and action to analyse global gender conditions as related to forests. Using a variety of methods and approaches, they build on a spectrum of theoretical perspectives to bring depth and breadth to the relevant issues and address timely and under-studied themes. Focusing particularly on tropical forests, the book presents both local case studies and global comparative studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as the US and Europe. The studies range from personal histories of elderly American women’s attitudes toward conservation, to a combined qualitative / quantitative international comparative study on REDD+, to a longitudinal examination of oil palm and gender roles over time in Kalimantan. Issues are examined across scales, from the household to the nation state and the global arena; and reach back to the past to inform present and future considerations. The collection will be of relevance to academics, researchers, policy makers and advocates with different levels of familiarity with gender issues in the field of forestry.


Forests and Food

Forests and Food

Author: Bhaskar Vira

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2015-11-15

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1783741937

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As population estimates for 2050 reach over 9 billion, issues of food security and nutrition have been dominating academic and policy debates. A total of 805 million people are undernourished worldwide and malnutrition affects nearly every country on the planet. Despite impressive productivity increases, there is growing evidence that conventional agricultural strategies fall short of eliminating global hunger, as well as having long-term ecological consequences. Forests can play an important role in complementing agricultural production to address the Sustainable Development Goals on zero hunger. Forests and trees can be managed to provide better and more nutritionally-balanced diets, greater control over food inputs—particularly during lean seasons and periods of vulnerability (especially for marginalised groups)—and deliver ecosystem services for crop production. However forests are undergoing a rapid process of degradation, a complex process that governments are struggling to reverse. This volume provides important evidence and insights about the potential of forests to reducing global hunger and malnutrition, exploring the different roles of landscapes, and the governance approaches that are required for the equitable delivery of these benefits. Forests and Food is essential reading for researchers, students, NGOs and government departments responsible for agriculture, forestry, food security and poverty alleviation around the globe.


Continuity under Change in Dayak Societies

Continuity under Change in Dayak Societies

Author: Cathrin Arenz

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-04-27

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 3658182954

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume provides a balanced picture of change and continuity within Dayak societies from an anthropological perspective by exploring diverse ways in which certain kinds of knowledge, performances and practices continue within the context of rapid and profound change. The contributions cover a broad variety of topics including political reform, decentralisation, environmental change and related changes in natural resource management, religion and ritual practice, the (re-)formation of ethnic identities as well as conflict transformation in Indonesian Borneo.​


Adaptive Collaborative Management in Forest Landscapes

Adaptive Collaborative Management in Forest Landscapes

Author: Carol J. Pierce Colfer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-12

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1000483037

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book examines the value of Adaptive Collaborative Management for facilitating learning and collaboration with local communities and beyond, utilising detailed studies of forest landscapes and communities. Many forest management proposals are based on top-down strategies, such as the Million Tree Initiatives, Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) and REDD+, often neglecting local communities. In the context of the climate crisis, it is imperative that local peoples and communities are an integral part of all decisions relating to resource management. Rather than being seen as beneficiaries or people to be safeguarded, they should be seen as full partners, and Adaptive Collaborative Management is an approach which priorities the rights and roles of communities alongside the need to address the environmental crisis. The volume presents detailed case studies and real life examples from across the globe, promoting and prioritizing the voices of women and scholars and practitioners from the Global South who are often under-represented. Providing concrete examples of ways that a bottom-up approach can function to enhance development sustainably, via its practitioners and far beyond the locale in which they initially worked, this volume demonstrates the lasting utility of approaches like Adaptive Collaborative Management that emphasize local control, inclusiveness and local creativity in management. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners working in the fields of conservation, forest management, community development and natural resource management and development studies more broadly. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license