The Politics of Deforestation in Africa

Madagascar, Tanzania, and Uganda

Nadia Rabesahala Horning

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783319768281
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book explores how environmental policies are made and enforced in Africa. Specifically, this project explains the gap between intent and impact of forest policies, focusing on three African societies facing persistent deforestation today: Madagascar, Tanzania, and Uganda. The central claim of the study is that deforestation persists because conservation policies and projects, which are largely underwritten by foreign donors, consistently ignore the fact that conservation is possible only under limited and specific conditions. To make the case, the author examines how decision-making power is negotiated and exercised where communities make environmental decisions daily (local level) and where environmental policies are negotiated and enacted (national level) across three distinct African political systems.

© The Author(s) 2018

Nadia Rabesahala HorningThe Politics of Deforestation in Africahttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76828-1_1

Begin Abstract

1. Why Deforestation Persists in Africa: Actors, Interests, and Interest Alignment

Nadia Rabesahala Horning¹

(1)

Department of Political Science, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, USA

Nadia Rabesahala Horning

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

Since 1990, the government of Madagascar and its development partners have spent an impressive US$700 to preserve the island’s exceptional biodiversity. ¹ This unprecedented investment in the country’s environmental sector put Madagascar on a promising path to sustainable development. But on March 17, 2009, the island experienced something resembling a coup d’état. A group of disgruntled politicians, led by the young neophyte Andry Rajoelina, seized power from twice democratically elected President Marc Ravalomanana. In short order, the African Union and broader international community declared they would not recognize the new government, and the AU threatened to suspend Madagascar’s membership. The international donor community swiftly froze non-humanitarian aid and vowed that only the restoration of democratic rule would normalize relations again. This event, along with similar developments elsewhere on the continent, sent shock waves out of Africa and defied the optimism of those who believed in the possibility of democratic rule in Africa.

Meanwhile, far from the capital region, loggers were busily preparing shipments of timber harvested, in defiance of Malagasy law, to overseas markets. For these entrepreneurs, no news could have been better than the new political disorder. The chaos meant a free-for-all for resource extraction. Within weeks, cargo containers filled with precious hardwoods left the island on French ships headed for Asia. Effectively, this meant that deforestation was back in full swing despite the progress Madagascar had made under the previous administration to stop environmental degradation from devastating the country’s economy and natural heritage.

To many, this tragic turn of events was just more trouble from Africa, a continent that intrigues onlookers in part because its problems seem so many but also because its promise is so great. The current excitement about the continent’s promise is captured in a statement made by US Secretary of State, John Kerry, in the Washington Post on May 2, 2014:

The best untold story of the last decade may be the story of Africa. Real income has increased more than 30 percent, reversing two decades of decline. Seven of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies are in Africa, and GDP is expected to rise 6 percent per year in the next decade. HIV infections are down nearly 40 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and malaria deaths among children have declined 50 percent. Child mortality rates are falling, and life expectancy is increasing. ²

For all the enthusiasm these recent developments have generated, many continue to think of Africa as war-torn, disease-ridden, poverty-stricken, or democratically challenged. ³ As of late, environmental problems have joined the continent’s growing list of crises. Africa’s environmental woes are not a recent phenomenon, but they have garnered more and more attention because they have worsened and taken new forms. Today they include desertification, recurring droughts, air and water pollution, and deforestation. Deforestation is commonly regarded as an issue because of the multiple problems associated with the phenomenon. Prominent among them are habitat loss, soil erosion, carbon emission, loss of biodiversity, decreased agricultural productivity, etc. It bears keeping in mind, however, that deforestation comes with concrete benefits including expansion of agricultural lands for subsistence and commercial farmers, employment and income-generating opportunities for multiple economic operators through timber and other trades, legal and illicit. Additionally, global consumers who gain access to inexpensive commodities that enhance their living standards benefit from deforestation. ⁴ On balance, however, the costs associated with deforestation far exceed the benefits, even if one looks at the number of winners versus losers. As such, deforestation preoccupies more than it excites.

This book explains why deforestation persists in Sub-Saharan Africa despite concerted efforts to conserve the continent’s forests. It analyzes persistent deforestation by examining the workings of three African political systems, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Uganda, with special focus on how decision-making power is negotiated and exercised at two principal levels: the local, where communities make decisions regarding forests on a daily basis, and the national, where environmental policies are negotiated and enacted. Madagascar, Tanzania, and Uganda are good cases to examine the political economy of forest conservation for two important reasons. First, as detailed below, all three countries’ forest policy efforts have benefitted from foreign donors’ support largely due to their exceptional biodiversity. Second, despite strong support for forest conservation, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Uganda have experienced deforestation above the continental average, albeit to variable degrees. Put differently, the three countries have had variable success with forest conservation even though all three have attracted significant foreign assistance to fight deforestation. For these reasons, these countries help understand the politics of deforestation in Africa.

The book’s central claim is that deforestation persists in Africa because conservation policies and projects, which are largely underwritten by foreign donors, consistently ignore the fact that conservation is possible only under limited and specific conditions. These conditions relate to the concurrent alignment of key actors’ interests at two critical levels of decision-making: local and national. At the local level, the rules restricting forest access and uses are negotiated among village communities, public officials, and private businesses. Local actors’ interests vis-à-vis forest resources entail conservation or exploitation for consumptive purposes (clearing for agriculture, logging, mining, food and medicine extraction, etc.) and nonconsumptive ones (worship, recreation, conservation, shelter for cattle, etc.). Consequently, when actors’ interests converge toward forest protection rather than exploitation, the rules devised to restrict forest access raise the prospect of conservation significantly. Conversely, when actors’ interests diverge, e.g., the state opts for conservation while private actors opt for exploitation (or vice versa), continued deforestation is likely regardless of whatever rules are devised. Under these conditions, those who make conservation rules develop the capacity and willingness to make such rules “matter” Thus, at the local level, actors’ interests must align for conservation to happen.

At the national level, the most powerful actors are the executive-dominated African governments and the foreign donors who finance, wholly or in part, these governments’ environmental initiatives. Together, these actors negotiate governments’ approaches to development, deciding whether and to what extent they should favor environmental conservation. When donors’ and governments’ interests align, and conservation-friendly development policies are agreed upon, governments officially commit to conservation, and aid monies flow into African countries to create and expand environmental institutions. Under these conditions, the prospect of protecting Africa’s forests is high. By contrast, when interests do not align, African governments refuse to prioritize environmental conservation, and it becomes nearly impossible to control deforestation regardless of institutional investments in the environmental sector. In short, and as is the case at the local level, controlling deforestation is contingent upon the successful alignment of government and donor interests at the national level. Figure 1.1 shows how conservation outcomes are possible under limited and specific conditions relating to the simultaneous alignment of actors’ interests at both levels of environmental decision-making.

Fig. 1.1

Theoretical framework for analyzing forest conservation outcomes

In arguing that the two levels of environmental decision-making work in tandem rather than interdependently, I do not mean to convey that no interactions exist between them. In fact, as detailed in Chapter 2, the conservation rules that apply at the local level frequently combine formal legislation and community-devised rules. Likewise, as discussed in Chapter 3, deforestation happening at the local level informs interactions between foreign donors and African governments at the national level. Beyond those two domestic levels, deforestation rates deemed “alarming” by conservationists intensify environmental politics on the international scene. Summits on climate change, sustainable development, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and subsequent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and international conventions on various environmental issues, etc. attest to the impact of local-level forest processes on international politics. In turn, international negotiations infiltrate national politics, which percolates to locales where resources targeted for conservation are found. Thus, connections exist between levels of environmental politics. What rarely happens, and I suggest must happen, is the simultaneous alignment of interests at the various levels of environmental decision-making to incre...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Why Deforestation Persists in Africa: Actors, Interests, and Interest Alignment
• 2. Seeing Like a Farmer: Resource Politics at the Community Level
• 3. Executive Branches and Trees: Environmental Politics at the National Level
• 4. Across the Great Divide: Collaborative Forest Management
• 5. Epilogue
• Back Matter