PhD thesis summary

People around the world rely on products from nature to sustain their livelihoods but human-induced pressures strongly affect the Earth’s natural resources, causing unprecedented loss of ecosystem services. Charcoal, a biomass-based renewable energy produced from woody biomass, is one of these products from nature which provides an important income and energy source for hundreds of millions of people but simultaneously causes forest degradation and up to 7% of  deforestation globally. To mitigate overexploitation of forests, transitions in charcoal production systems from unregulated charcoal production under limited adherence to existing rules and regulations (i.e., open access) to more regulated production through governance of forest by local communities (i.e., through communal management) or privately by individuals or companies (e.g., through privatization) are necessary. In this thesis, we assess effects of transitions in charcoal production systems from open access systems to private and, in  particular, communal management systems on forest use and livelihoods through stylized modelling (Chapter 3), remote sensing (Chapter 4 and Chapter 5), livelihood analyses (Chapter 6 and Chapter 7), and a global assessment of  governance effects on charcoal production (Chapter 8). Under communal management communities work together to protect the forests and derive resources from it according to rules and regulations. We use the social-ecological systems framework and the eight design principles of Elinor Ostrom for sustainable management of common pool resources as guideline to organize and discuss our findings. In Chapter 3, we find that charcoal production system transitions are unnecessary at low demand but that transitions to communal management (at medium to high forest  biomass availability) and private systems (at low forest biomass availability) are necessary to prevent a collapse of forest resources and subsequently of charcoal production. To empirically test our stylized modelling results, we conducted local field studies in six study villages in Kilosa district, Tanzania, three of which under open access and three of which under communal management. This case study informed Chapter 4 to Chapter 7 of this thesis. A comparison of forest use and livelihoods in the two village types informs us about the potential social-ecological consequences of transitioning from open access to communal management systems and vice versa. We find significant differences in forest use and access of charcoal producers to livelihood resources (i.e., livelihood capitals) between the two village types, indicating that governance has the potential to shape forest use and livelihoods. Yet, we find mismatches between the objectives of the communal management scheme in place and reality – we observe production outside of forest areas designated for charcoal production. This mismatch may result from a trade-off observed between financial capital in the form of income per charcoal bag and other livelihood capitals under communal management, resulting from a revenue-sharing scheme that transforms financial capital into other capitals that benefit both individual charcoal producers and the community they are part of. This trade-off may potentially increase charcoal production in communal management villages, causing charcoal  producers to move outside designated areas for production to obtain enough income to sustain their livelihoods. Besides this, Chapter 8 reveals that  development (i.e., human well-being), rather than forest governance, influences charcoal production on a global scale. Altogether, our results suggest that governance transitions have the potential to foster sustainable forest use and livelihoods in charcoal production systems but that challenges remain in the percolation of governance goals at both local and national scales.

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