Measures against maladaptive coping strategies of local residents for deforestation and forest degradation

Addressing maladaptive coping strategies of local communities to changes in ecosystem service provisions using the DPSIR framework

Makoto Ehara (a), Kimihiko Hyakumura (b), Ren’ya Sato (c), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (b), Kunio Araya (b), Heng Sokh (d), Ryo Kohsaka (e,f)

(a) Center for International Partnerships and Research on Climate Change, FFPRI, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
(b) Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.

(c) Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan.

(d) Forestry Administration, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

(e) Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.

(f) Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Ecological Economics, 149, 226-238, July 2018, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.03.008( External link )

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs), such as natural resins and foods, in the Kingdom of Cambodia are important sources of cash income for residents. The forests that provide the NTFPs, however, are undergoing deforestation and forest degradation mainly owing to plantations and farmland developments by agribusiness companies and residents and timber extraction. Among residents whose livelihoods are dependent on NTFPs, some residents affected by these developments have no choice but to convert the remaining forests into other land uses including farmland as a coping strategy to compensate for their income loss. In this article, we showed that the residents’ coping strategies can create a vicious circle of further conflicts in forest resource uses and affect the livelihoods of the other residents using the Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact, Response (DPSIR) framework ^Note)

From the analysis, we drew the following measures to put an end to this vicious circle: 1) identifying areas where relatively large number of residents rely on NTFPs for their livelihoods, 2) developing a land-use plan considering the identified areas and strengthening the enforcement of related laws and regulations, 3) strengthening the marketing of NTFPs in the areas, and 4) recruiting residents who depend on NTFPs for their livelihoods on priority as forest guards. These findings will contribute to the development of well-grounded and concrete policies and measures for tackling deforestation and forest degradation in the Kingdom of Cambodia.

^Note) The DPSIR framework helps to understand the relationship between human activities and the environment based on the following five components: “Driver (the root cause of the Pressure),” “Pressure (the direct pressure to the ecosystem and society triggered by the Driver),” “State (the state of the ecosystem and society changing under Pressure),” “Impact (impact of the State change),” and “Response (measures taken by the society).” The five strategic goals of the Aichi Target agreed upon at the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity also reflect the DPSIR concepts.

Photograph: Natural resin collected by local residents around the forest for a middleman. The resin is a valuable source of cash income for residents, but it will be lost due to deforestation and forest degradation.