School of Earth and Environment

Sustainability Research (SRI) PhD Projects

Assessing lessons from Community-Based Natural Resource Management for the implementation of carbon sequestration schemes in Dryland Africa

Supervisors:

Dr Lindsay Stringer, Prof Andy Dougill, and Dr Deborah Sporton (University of Sheffield, Department of Geography)

Project Overview

Policy-driven efforts such as Reducing Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD) and REDD+ play a key role in framing global efforts to both mitigate climate change and harness sustainable livelihood benefits for local communities engaged in carbon sequestration activities. However, many carbon sequestration projects are initiated by developed countries, companies and consumers seeking to offset their emissions and are implemented through intermediaries in developing countries. An appropriate institutional infrastructure to support community-driven carbon storage initiatives is often lacking.

Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) approaches have been popular across the African continent in recent decades, particularly in relation to wildlife conservation. Experiences from CBNRM projects can provide important lessons for the implementation of carbon sequestration projects and the refinement of project systems such as Plan Vivo and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) standards. These standards are increasingly sympathetic to the need for community cooperation and involvement if multiple benefits across livelihood and carbon dimensions are to be harnessed for long-term sustainability and partnership between different stakeholders. If developing countries in Africa are to take advantage of the increasing climate finance opportunities facilitated by international policy frameworks, it is paramount these lessons are identified, evaluated and transferred more widely from CBNRM to carbon sequestration contexts.

Objectives

The aim of this project is to identify the key lessons from CBNRM initiatives at national and regional scales with a view to assessing their potential to help develop appropriate institutional, governance and partnership structures for the sustainable implementation of carbon sequestration initiatives at local community scales, in the framework of international policy, standards and guidelines.

The project will bridge multiple scales, analysing policy frameworks at international level, CBNRM initiatives at regional and national scales in southern Africa, and in-depth case studies at community scales in one case study country (Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe provides an interesting case study context as it has newly emerging governance structures, yet also boasts a strong history of CBNRM projects, most notably, the CAMPFIRE programme (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources). CAMPFIRE was designed in the 1980s to work with rural people who live in communal areas in order to support their sustainable use of wildlife and resources, initially in a limited number of villages but spread to cover more than 25 districts.

Objectives are to:

  1. Analyse current international policy frameworks, guidelines and standards to identify the ways in which community-based approaches are conceptualised therein;
  2. Review and analyse a selection of CBNRM projects across southern Africa as a meta- analysis, focusing in particular on the ways in which local institutions and participatory processes have been enacted to address challenges relating to benefit-sharing, power relations and livelihoods;  
  3. Using the results from objective 2), identify the socio-economic and environmental characteristics of selected “model communities” in Zimbabwe (including those that were involved in CAMPFIRE and those that were not involved in CAMPFIRE), in which institutional and governance structures appear well-suited to manage future emerging climate finance opportunities for carbon sequestration;
  4. Identify suitable partnership structures and stakeholders and sectors for involvement in future carbon sequestration initiatives to help foster the sustainability of climate finance investments in these areas.

Methods to be used include policy and discourse analysis (objective 1 and 2), literature review and interviews with CBNRM project representatives (objectives 1 and 2); livelihood surveys and institutional analysis in selected sites in Zimbabwe (objective 3), and interviews with private-sector partners, government officials and NGOs in Zimbabwe and other relevant countries emerging from the meta-analysis (all objectives). 

Resources and facilities available

The successful student will be provided with a desk and computer in the Leeds School of Earth and Environment Building.  Two phases of empirical field data collection will be needed; the first in which interviews will be carried out and in-depth case studies will be selected (6 weeks); the second in which the bulk of data collection will take place (4 months). In-country field support will be provided by collaborative partners at the University of Zimbabwe’s Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS) and through NGO partners and the private sector company Eco-Livelihoods. PhD Associate status will be provided to the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy.

Nature of Award & Person Specification

As a +3 award applicants must be able to start study on October 2011 and have completed an ESRC-recognised Master’s Degree or appropriate research training programme.

UK students will be eligible for a full award and other European Union applicants will be eligible for an award paying academic fees only, except in cases where residency in the UK has been established for more than 3 years prior to the start of the programme of study.

METHOD OF APPLICATION

Applicants MUST first submit the relevant study application form(s) and be in receipt of a University BANNER ID Number to be eligible for an ESRC Studentship.

Applicants applying on a +3 basis should apply for an academic place for PhD research study commencing 1 October 2011 - please visit: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/students/apply_research.htm.  Please provide supporting documents: CV, covering letter, transcripts and degree certificates of all degrees todate.

Applicants must complete all sections of the White Rose Doctoral Centre ESRC Studentship Application Form, using the space provided on the form and with strict observation of any word limits.
Attachments are not permitted and all will be disregarded.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interviews scheduled for April 27th 2011.

For more information on the project, please contact Dr Lindsay Stringer (l.stringer(at)leeds.ac.uk), or any of the supervisors involved in the project.

 For further information on the application process, Michelle Lesnianski (M.Lesnianski(at)leeds.ac.uk).