Democracy in the Woods: Environmental Conservation and Social Justice in India, Tanzania, and Mexico (Studies Comparative Energy and Environ)

How do societies negotiate the apparently competing agendas of environmental protection and social justice? Why do some countries perform much better than others on this front?__Democracy in the Wood__s addresses these question by examining land rights conflicts-and the fate of forest-dependent peasants-in the context of the different forest property regimes in India, Tanzania, and Mexico. These three countries are prominent in the scholarship and policy debates about national forest policies and land conflicts associated with international support for nature conservation. This unique comparative study of national forestland regimes challenges the received wisdom that redistributive policies necessarily undermine the goals of environmental protection. It shows instead that the form that national environmental protection efforts take - either inclusive (as in Mexico) or exclusive (as in Tanzania and, for the most part, in India) - depends on whether dominant political parties are compelled to create structures of political intermediation that channel peasant demands for forest and land rights into the policy process. This book offers three different tests of this theory of political origins of forestland regimes. First, it explains why it took the Indian political elites nearly sixty years to introduce meaningful reforms of the colonial-era forestland regimes. Second, it successfully explains the rather counterintuitive local outcomes of the programs for formalization of land rights in India, Tanzania, and Mexico. Third, it provides a coherent explanation of why each of these three countries proposes a significantly different distribution of the benefits of forest-based climate change mitigation programs being developed under the auspices of the United Nations.In its political analysis of the control over and the use of nature, this book opens up new avenues for reflecting on how legacies of the past and international interventions interject into domestic political processes to produce specific configurations of environmental protection and social justice. Democracy in the Woods offers a theoretically rigorous argument about why and in what specific ways politics determine the prospects of a socially just and environmentally secure world.__\*Included in the Studies in Comparative Energy and Environmental Politics Series__ How do societies negotiate the apparently competing agendas of environmental protection and social justice? Why do some countries perform much better than others on this front? Democracy in the Wood s addresses these question by examining land rights conflicts-and the fate of forest-dependent peasants-in the context of the different forest property regimes in India, Tanzania, and Mexico. These three countries are prominent in the scholarship and policy debates about national forest policies and land conflicts associated with international support for nature conservation. This unique comparative study of national forestland regimes challenges the received wisdom that redistributive policies necessarily undermine the goals of environmental protection. It shows instead that the form that national environmental protection efforts take - either inclusive (as in Mexico) or exclusive (as in Tanzania and, for the most part, in India) - depends on whether dominant political parties are compelled to create structures of political intermediation that channel peasant demands for forest and land rights into the policy process. This book offers three different tests of this theory of political origins of forestland regimes. First, it explains why it took the Indian political elites nearly sixty years to introduce meaningful reforms of the colonial-era forestland regimes. Second, it successfully explains the rather counterintuitive local outcomes of the programs for formalization of land rights in India, Tanzania, and Mexico. Third, it provides a coherent explanation of why each of these three countries proposes a significantly different distribution of the benefits of forest-based climate change mitigation programs being developed under the auspices of the United Nations. In its political analysis of the control over and the use of nature, this book opens up new avenues for reflecting on how legacies of the past and international interventions interject into domestic political processes to produce specific configurations of environmental protection and social justice. Democracy in the Woods offers a theoretically rigorous argument about why and in what specific ways politics determine the prospects of a socially just and environmentally secure world. *Included in the Studies in Comparative Energy and Environmental Politics Series "How do societies negotiate the apparently competing agendas of environmental protection and social justice? Why do some countries perform much better than others? Democracy in the Woods answers these questions by explaining the trajectories of forest and land rights--and the fate of forest-dependent peasants--in the forested regions of India, Tanzania, and Mexico. To organize a comparative inquiry that straddles the fields of comparative politics, historical institutionalism, and policy studies, this book develops a political economy of institutions framework. It shows that differences in structures of political intermediation--venues that help peasant groups and social movements engage in political and policy processes--explain the varying levels of success in combining the pursuits of social justice and environmental conservation. The book challenges the age-old notion that populist policies produce uniformly deleterious environmental consequences that must be mitigated via centralized systems of environmental regulation. It shows instead that the national leaders and dominant political parties that must compete for popular support in the political arena are more likely to fashion interventions that pursue conservation of forested landscapes without violating the rights of forest-dependent people. Mexico demonstrates the potential for win-win outcomes, India continues to stumble on both environmental and social questions despite longstanding traditions of popular mobilization for forestland rights, and Tanzania's government has failed its forest-dependent people despite a lucrative wildlife tourism sector. This book's political analysis of the control over and use of nature opens up new avenues for reflecting on nature in the Anthropocene" Cover 1 Democracy in the Woods 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 12 List of Acronyms 14 Preface and Acknowledgments 18 1. The Politics and Political Economy of Forestland Regimes 24 Part I: The Origins and Divergences of National Forestland Regimes 54 2. Colonialism and the Transformation of Hinterlands 56 3. Politics of “Development” and National Forestland Regimes 80 4. Political Mediation of Land Conflicts in the Hinterlands 109 Part II: Politics of Institutional Change 132 5. Politics of Institutional Change in India’s Forestland Regimes 140 6. Politics of Institutional Change in Tanzania and Mexico 169 Part III: Policy Differences and Key Lessons 196 7. Public Accountability in Policy-​making: Forest-​Based Climate Change Mitigation in India, Tanzania, and Mexico 198 8. Conclusion: Toward Social Justice and Enduring Nature Conservation 230 Appendix I: Number of People Affected by Forestland Conflicts 252 Appendix II: A Sample of Specific Events Related to Forestland Conflicts 254 Appendix III: Major Socioeconomic and Political Indicators in Case Study Countries 256 Appendix IV: Inequality-​Adjusted Human Development Index for Selected Regions 258 Appendix V: Statistical Analysis of Forestland Claims in Gujarat, India 260 References 268 Index 312 'Democracy in the Woods' examines the trajectories of forest and land rights in India, Tanzania, and Mexico to explain how societies negotiate the tensions between environmental protection and social justice. It shows that the social consequences of environmental protection depend, almost entirely, on political intermediation of competing claims to environmental resources Prakash Kashwan. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.