Supplemental readings from the Reader

Lebel, L., A. Contreras, S. Pasong, and P. Garden. 2004. Nobody knows best: Alternative perspectives on forest management and governance in Southeast Asia. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 4:111-127.

2.3.3.5 ANALYSIS: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, PROCESSES - Governance, Power and Equity - Governance, power, and equity For many analysts, the institutions of governance, the interventions they employ, and the knowledge systems that support these choices reflect sources and differences in power and equity. This is in contrast to prevailing assumptions of efficiency, improved technology, and rational decision-making guiding sustainability actions. The Reading illustrates these different degrees of power and equity as the contrasting perspectives of state, markets, international environmental groups, and local resource users, in the governance of tropical forest management.

Young, O. R., E. F. Lambin, F. Alcock, H. Haberl, S. I. Karlsson, W. J. McConnell, T. Myint, C. Pahl-Wostl, C. Polsky, P. S. Ramakrishnan, H. Schroeder, M. Scouvart, and P. H. Verburg. 2006. A portfolio approach to analyzing complex human-environment inte

2.4.3.1 INTEGRATIVE METHODS AND MODELS: Analytic Methods – Portfolios Major problems arise in analyzing causes and consequences in human-environment systems. These include defining what process is to be explained in the system, whether to use proximate or ultimate causes, and how these are to be defined. There are also issues of observations, data, or case studies: how many to use and can these be compared. Because of all these problems and the complexity of such systems, the likelihood of drawing the wrong conclusions is an ever-present problem. Thus unlike much specific disciplinary research, there may be no specific preferred analytic method as in, for example, econometrics. The Reading argues a portfolio of approaches may be more helpful in analyzing causes and consequences in human-environment systems. Techniques include standard statistical analyses, pattern comparisons and meta-analyses of case studies, counterfactuals, narratives, and systems analysis and simulations.

Ostrom, E., and H. Nagendra. 2006. Insights on linking forests, trees, and people from the air, on the ground, and in the laboratory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(51):19224-19231.

2.4.3.4.2 INTEGRATIVE METHODS AND MODELS: Analytic methods - Assessments - Integrated assessments An assessment is seen as integrated when it incorporates methods and data from many disciplines and practitioners. The term was first made popular to describe models addressing climate change with physical, biological, and socio-economic dimensions, but subsequently has been applied to a variety of human-environment problems and systems. The Reading effectively integrates data and understanding from remote sensing, field studies, laboratory experiments, and from the natural and social sciences, to examine forest management under different tenure arrangements.