The endemic Uapaca bojeri tree forms patchy savanna woodlands in widely dispersed parts of Madagascar’s central highlands. As a rare wooded landscape in a grassland region in a country otherwise famous for tree loss, tapia has attracted a fair bit of fetishised attention (it also helps that two tapia regions are easy to get to from the capital).
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Conservation, Environmental History, Introduced and Invasive Plants, Madagascar, Research | Tagged: deforestation, environment, fire, invasive species, Madagascar, pine, tree planting, Uapaca bojeri | 
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Posted by christiankull
Why is resource tenure important for forest restoration and tree planting? Tenure security has been correlated with successful restoration. But what does this mean, how does one analyse it, and how does it play out in different contexts? How do questions around resource tenure impact global, national and sub-national restoration initiatives? The Interdisciplinary Expert Panel of our Velux-Stiftung funded project on the governance of tree planting and forest restoration has prepared a Policy Brief to answer these questions.
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Leave a Comment » | Conservation, Development, Research, Sustainability | Tagged: FLR, forest restoration, tenure, tree planting | Permalink
Posted by christiankull
Seems like everybody is planting trees or restoring forestlands these days. The emphasis is often on carbon capture to attenuate climate change. But this emphasis on carbon offsets (and the money behind it) draws in powerful global actors and carbon market intermediaries. Meanwhile, the costs of forest restoration are all too often unjustly borne by less powerful, local people living in places where trees are planted or restored. How forest restoration efforts be governed so that benefits can accrue at all spatial scales, from global to local?
1 Comment | Interdisciplinarity, Madagascar, Research, Sustainability | Tagged: environmental governance, forest landscape restoration, forestry, multi-scale governance, tree planting | Permalink
Posted by christiankull
We are offering a funded PhD scholarship for research on the governance of tree planting and forest restoration in Madagascar, focused on land and tree tenure, building on Ribot and Peluso’s (2003) theory of access. Come join us in an exciting University of Lausanne – University of Antananarivo collaboration funded by the Velux Stiftung. Students will be based in the doctoral school GRND at the University of Antananarivo, with co-supervision by Prof. Bruno Ramamonjisoa, me and Stephanie Mansourian. Deadline October 1.
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1 Comment | Madagascar, Research | Tagged: forest restoration, governance, land tenure, PhD scholarship, tree planting | Permalink
Posted by christiankull
Two new funded PhD scholarships for research on the governance of tree planting and forest restoration in Madagascar (one focused on land and tree tenure and resource access; the other focused on the dynamics, networks, and power relations of involved actors and institutions). Come join us in an exciting University of Lausanne – University of Antananarivo collaboration funded by the Velux Stiftung. Students will be based in the doctoral school GRND at the University of Antananarivo, with co-supervision by Prof. Bruno Ramamonjisoa, me and Stephanie Mansourian. Deadline August 20.
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Leave a Comment » | Madagascar, Research | Tagged: forest restoration, governance, land tenure, PhD scholarship, tree planting | Permalink
Posted by christiankull
Malagasy grasslands are often ignored, or worse, deplored. Biological research concentrates in the forests, many still shrinking despite conservation efforts. Yet research by plant ecologist Cédrique Solofondranohatra adds another layer of argument to the case that Malagasy grasslands have an ancient history and are important reservoirs of biodiversity themselves. Despite this, recent tree-planting efforts for climate change mitigation (of the ‘trillion trees‘ mode) often seem to take the easy path formed by a century of habit: planting exotic pines, acacias, and eucalypts in the grasslands, perceived as open, available, fire-damaged, and worthless. A much more laudable goal would be to restore trees to areas recently deforested.
1 Comment | Fire, Madagascar, Research, Sustainability, Uncategorized | Tagged: forest restoration, Madagascar, tree planting, tropical grasslands | Permalink
Posted by christiankull
