aea presentation: perceptions of environmental change

Solutions for Health, Housing and Land ● www.cloudburstgroup.com

Perceptions of Environmental Change: Using Qualitative Methods to Ground Culture in the Evaluation of Environmental ProgramsCynthia Caron, Clark University and The Cloudburst GroupStephanie Fenner, The Cloudburst Group November 13, 2015

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Outline• Background: Community-Based Forest Management

Program (CFP) • Impact Evaluation of CFP: Objectives and methodology• Illustrative Findings: Perceptions of deforestation and

climate change• Conclusions and Lessons Learned


Background

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The USAID-funded Community-based Forest Management Program (CFP)• CFP aims to establish the largest REDD+ program in

Zambia. Four primary objectives: 1. Empower and equip communities to lessen the drivers of

deforestation;2. Establish and improve forest and natural resource

management plans;3. Promote alternative livelihoods to unsustainable charcoal

and timber production; 4. Implement pay-for-performance and/or revenue-sharing

programs for forest conservation and carbon sequestration.

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Project Area: Eastern Province and Program Districts in Zambia

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Community-Based Forest Management Program: InterventionCFP initiates local livelihood and community development projects to promote the adoption of alternative livelihoods and energy sources. Projects designed to: • Provide tangible benefits that replace the income

and/or livelihood benefits received from deforestation or forest degradation activities, such as charcoaling and timber harvesting

• Promote business minded approach to support development of sustainable enterprises.

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Community-Based Forest Management Program: InterventionPotential livelihood initiatives to promote forest conservation include:• Eco-charcoaling • Conservation farming (maize)• Eco-tourism• Non-timber forest product (NTFP) extraction / small

business development


CFP Impact Evaluation

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CFP Impact Evaluation (IE): Purpose

USAID’s primary learning objectives for the CFP IE:1. Understand how REDD+ programs impact land tenure and

property rights (LTPR) and related livelihoods, either positively or negatively.

2. Learn what aspects of REDD+ programming are most effective in incentivizing long-term carbon sequestration and reduced GHG emissions from forests and landscapes.

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CFP Impact Evaluation: Research Questions

Example research questions include:• Has CFP resulted in increased knowledge and awareness of

deforestation and climate change?• Which CFP benefits do stakeholders cite as effective

incentives for the adoption of behaviors that reduce deforestation, degradation and GHG emissions?

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CFP IE: Mixed Methods Design• Quasi-experimental Difference-in-Differences (DD)

approach, complemented with qualitative component.• Survey data collected at baseline (Spring 2015), midline,

and end line.• This presentation draws on baseline data from 4395

household surveys; 80 focus group discussions (FGDs) with local stakeholders, including women and youth; 40 participatory mapping exercises with separate groups of men and women.

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Culture and the Evaluation of Environmental Programs:Drawing from the literature:• Krause et al. (2015) propose using an “assessment

framework that focuses on subjective perspectives on adaptation (i.e., perceptions and judgments of individual decision-makers) and links them with objective perspectives” (38).

• Samuels et al. (2011) “evaluations characterized by Western culture and ways of thinking overlook indigenous knowledge(s), threatening the cultural relevance and validity of evaluation results”(184).

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Grounding Culture: Participatory Mapping Excercises• Kawakami et al. (2008) note that participatory maps

spatially reflect the cultural views of the participant mapmakers’ forest environment, allowing stakeholders to participate in an evaluation through a practice that is driven by and with them.

• Sletto (2009) proposes participatory mapping can highlight contests surrounding rights, identities, and authenticities, while simultaneously facilitating the unveiling of the multiple, complex relations of power that shape landscapes in the Global South.


CFP IE Illustrative Findings: Perceptions of Deforestation and Climate Change

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Observed changes in environment: Deforestation• HH survey respondents state that the majority of forests in

project area are in ‘good’ or ‘very good’ condition (62%, 2482).

• Despite generally good rating, the overall condition of most forests (42%, 1688) was noted to have worsened in the past 3 years; the overall condition of 33% (1305) of forests was noted to have remained the same.

• Respondents also reported that 35% (1405) of forests have decreased slightly in area, and 38% (1540) of forests have decreased in thickness and forest cover.

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Observed changes in environment: Rainfall and seasonal patterns• 82% of HHs noted a reduction in rainfall in the past 3

years; 28% noted changes in the intensity/concentration of rain

• 44% of HHs noted changes in seasonal patterns• “In the past it used to rain and the rains used to start early but that

has changed. Now you plant in November and just after 2 months the rains go. That’s changing of the world.”

• “The rains are not starting in their usual month...Sometimes it will only rain twice and stops until December. So the seeds you planted will not grow well. We see that there is change in the distribution of the rain.”

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Perceptions of environmental change: Is it a problem?HH survey respondents asked to rank top 5 development

problems faced by their community (from list of 10 potential problems)• Forest degradation: 41% of HHs ranked forest degradation

among top five problems; Ranked as #1 problem by 11% of HHs.

• Changes in rainfall and temperature: 50% (2229) of HHs ranked either changes in rainfall patterns or changes in temperature as #1 problem.

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Perceptions of environmental change: Is it a problem?HHs asked to rate severity of problems on the development

of the community (on a scale from 1 to 10):• Changes in rainfall patterns or changes in temperature:

Average rating was 8/10• Deforestation or forest degradation: Average rating was

5.6/10

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Perceptions of environmental change: Is it a problem?• “It is a big problem because it has brought poverty, food is

not enough, fruit trees are no longer so fruitful and the grass we use for our houses is not growing well.”

• “It is a problem, it will be a problem because the next generation will not be able to find forest products nearby. There will be challenges in the villages. Instead of acquiring forest products they need they will be failing because of distances.”

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What’s causing environmental change?• Deforestation contributes to climate change: “(M):

You said that you haven’t had good rains in the last three years, what do you think has caused that? (R):That time there were still a lot of trees in the forest but this time they are all cleared so you find that there is poor rainfall in this area now.”

• Conflicting views: “Sometime back some people came and told us lies that the oxygen from the trees has finished so we need to stop cutting down the trees carelessly.”

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What’s causing environmental change?• Biblical explanations: “Like these days our thinking, the

world has changed, we are in the end times now… Like us who read the bible, it says in that in the last days there will be drought, rain will not come in its season. Now when we see them like this, we say ah, this is what is written in the bible, it has been fulfilled.”

• More conflicting views: “We can say it is God yes, but when we look carefully again, we hear that trees help to have rainfall, but with this modernization, modernization is too much, we can be seated here, your friend would just pass with a motor bike, it is just problems, because they leave the smoke behind.”

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What’s causing environmental change?

More reasons:• Changes in population: “Tress have reduced…Trees

have reduced due to Chewa migrants who are given settlements and fertile land for agriculture.”

• Poverty and Hunger: “What makes us go into the forest is not our fault, it is because of poverty... Here there is nothing to do and there are no sources of income, that’s why people don’t follow the rules”

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Environmental change: What can be done?• “(M): You said rain pattern has reduced, what have done

about it? (R1): We have done nothing. That’s God’s plan. (R2): Mumm… it’s God’s power. (R3): Mumm….its God’s plan. That’s a difficult question to answer (laughed).”

• “There is nothing that can be done about this climate change. We will continue experiencing hard times.”

• “It is the government that comes to stop us from doing these activities, but there is nothing they give us so, now like this, there is nothing to do and in the end we go in the forest to collect whatever we want”

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Participatory Mapping Excercises

Women in Nyimba District

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Unique Findings: Participatory Mapping Data

Spatialization of resource use:• Agricultural fields are “outside the village”• Charcoaling is done “in the mountains”• Overlaps in resource use without neighboring villages and

“outsiders”“(M): Are there charcoal burners nearby? (R): Yes they are there, those from the mountains (M): Oh, but these are your mountains? (R): Yes, they burn charcoal, destroying our trees. (M): But it is your land? (R): It is our land but then it was sold. How can we protect it if the chief sold it?”

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Unique Findings: Participatory Mapping Data

The research agenda, power relations and politics of control:• “(R): What is the purpose for asking us all these questions?

(F): we are looking at how people live and use the forest (R): The research is about those living in the forest how they are destroying the forest? This is just about restricting charcoal burning, not that. But we have already drawn the map! If they stop us from burning charcoal how are we going to survive? The thing is you can not reveal to us the truth [laughter]. So now this forest is going to have rules.”


Conclusions & Lessons Learned

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Does the CFP IE design integrate culture?• Documents local understandings of causes of climate

change (understandings that are not grounded in Western science)

• Reveals tensions with migrants are also ethnic tensions, exacerbated by resource competition

• Illuminates power relations controlling access to forests and forest resources

• Highlights mistrust of outside agencies as doing working for those who wish to restrict access (local politics)

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Moving forward, Lessons Learned:

Conceptual:• Acknowledge that more than basic economic logics frame behavior• Use baseline study findings to inform CFP design and

implementationMethodological:• Method Triangulation• Training (Probing needs to improve, avoid leading questions)• Sample size versus quality of data, important implications for

qualitative component• Mapping needs to document the entire debate and process of

creating of the map

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Questions and Acknowledgements

Thank you. • Questions?• [email protected]• [email protected]

Acknowledgements:The Cloudburst Group wishes to acknowledge

USAID’s funding of CFP and the CFP IE.

aea presentation: perceptions of environmental change

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