Podcast

The TreesForDev project is excited to a present a 10-podcast series that will be released once a month from February to November 2024 on several podcasting platforms in conjunction with the Global Extractivisms and Alternatives podcast.

In response to accelerating, concurrent socio-ecological crises, ecological restoration (ER) has come to the forefront as a strategy to repair damaged/degraded landscapes. International pledges, like the UN’s Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) have set specific targets to restore vast areas of degraded land across the world. ER encompasses a wide continuum of practices that seek to repair degraded land, natural ecosystems, urban landscapes, and farmlands. One of the foremost strategy of ER is to plant trees, often in the geographical contexts of the global South. ER involves many different forms of tree planting, with a mixed variety of species planted with an aim to improve wildlife habitat, local livelihoods, and climate change resilience. These tree planting initiatives are often supported by national political agendas seeking to address global and regional development priorities (e.g., UN’s SDGs) and by a variety of public-private partnerships and market-based funding (i.e., philanthropic donations & carbon markets) designed to scale up ER efforts in the global South. 

Initial research suggests that while some tree-planting projects show promising potential, some efforts may worsen climate change-induced vulnerabilities, social precarities, and ecological conditions. Thus, a more detailed global and local analysis is needed of the dynamics involved in ER. This podcast series will bring to light stories & experiences of those who are working on the front lines of practical tree planting and academic research related to tree planting and ER. 

The TreesForDev project is honored to collaborate with the Global Extractivisms and Alternatives Initiative (EXALT) podcast. Each of our episode will be released through their platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We will post links to each episode on this page and announce them on our social media and in our newsletter (please use this link to subscribe to the newsletter). If you would like the episodes to show up directly in your podcast feed, please subscribe to the EXALT podcast on the podcatcher of your choice. 

We are extremely grateful to the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) at the University of Helsinki for their support of this podcast series. Without the support of the HELSUS societal impact grant we would be unable to bring this series to life. 

 

 

This month we are delighted to be joined by Prof. Bruno Ramamonjisoa from the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar. Bruno is the Director of the PhD School on Natural Resources Management and Development and coordinator of the Applied Research Laboratory at the School of Agronomy. Bruno is one of our key collaborators in Madagascar and an expert on sustainable management of natural resources. In this interesting and wide-ranging conversation, Bruno gave us insight into some of the issues on the ground facing tree planting initiatives.

Interested to learn more about Bruno’s research? https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bruno-Ramamonjisoa

his month we are happy to be joined by Markus Kröger and Peter Dewees. Markus is a professor of Global Development Studies at University of Helsinki and one of the co-PIs of the TreesForDev Project. Peter is retired from a 30 plus year career with the World Bank. During his time with the World Bank Peter worked on many different projects, with a focus on why rural people cultivate and plant trees, wood fuel use, and the management of the Miombo woodlands. While his focus was on Eastern Africa, he also has done work in Eastern Europe and Asia. He shares with us his insights into the role of rural peoples’ agency in tree planting and how historical factors have influenced the land use practices. Top-down processes are not always the best path to get trees into the rural landscape; if a farmer needs a tree, they will figure out how to grow it. He shares with us some of the innovations that have been brought to the field that have been successful. We also discuss the question of ecological restoration and whether it is possible through tree planting schemes. We talk about some of the mismatches between the goals of funding agencies and the on-the-ground realities of the people living in place. And while he worked at the Bank for a long time, the views he expressed in this podcast are his own, and should not be ascribed to the World Bank.

Want to revisit the TreesForDev episodes about carbon?

In this episode we are joined by Marketta Vuola and Matthieu Pierre. Marketta is a project researcher from the TreesForDev project leading the work package on Madagascar. Matthieu Pierre is starting his PhD at the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar, focusing on protected areas and restoration in Madagascar. In this conversation we talk about the general context of Madagascar, including its high biodiversity, and the role that conservation and ecological restoration play in Madagascar. Marketta and Mattieu have been in collaboration for several years, even predating the start of the TreesForDev project. 

We talk about the two areas where fieldwork is being undertaken in the TreesForDev project, Mahajanga and Andapa. Mahajanga is on the West Coast while Andapa is in the northern part of the country. At the time of recording, Matthieu had just returned from doing fieldwork and gives us some of his impressions from these on the ground experiences. 

In this episode we are joined by Professor Steffen Böhm from University of Exeter School of Business and project PI and Associate Professor Maria Ehrnström-Fuentes from Hanken School of Economics. In this conversation we explore carbon markets and how they work (or do not work) and what their connection is to so-called green development. We talk about compliance markets and voluntary markets. In the voluntary carbon markets, anyone can develop a project that plants trees in exchange for carbon credits. There are mechanisms and logics that are not well understood by the general populace that allow highly polluting companies to make themselves look carbon neutral or green through their participation in carbon offsetting. This myopic focus on carbon has developed into a more or less fetishist relationship with carbon and overly simplified measurements that obfuscate the wider social environmental impacts of companies. 

Interested to learn more about Steffen’s work? Check out his research profile here. 

Interested to learn more about the TreesForDev Project? www.treesfordev.fi 

Resources mentioned in the episode: 

Böhm, S., Misoczky, M. C., & Moog, S. (2012). Greening capitalism? A Marxist critique of carbon markets. Organization Studies, 33(11), 1617-1638. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840612463326

Ehrnström-Fuentes, M., & Kröger, M. (2018). Birthing extractivism: The role of the state in forestry politics and development in Uruguay. Journal of Rural Studies, 57, 197-208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.12.022 

Ramirez, J., & Böhm, S. (2021). Transactional colonialism in wind energy investments: Energy injustices against vulnerable people in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Energy Research & Social Science, 78, 102135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102135 

In this episode we are joined by Forrest Fleischman from the University of Minnesota and the project principal investigator, Maria Ehrnstöm-Fuentes from Hanken School of Economics.

Forrest gives us insight into the work he has done in the Indian context in relation to tree planting and the long-term outcomes of tree planting schemes. India has had a long history of tree planting programs, but are they always successful? In the western Himalaya, where Forrest is working about half the planting takes place in areas where trees are already growing and about half takes place in areas where trees are not currently growing and most probably will not successfully grow due to environmental or land use reasons. There is sometimes a disconnect between what the government programs want to accomplish (or what looks good on paper) and the experience on the ground of the best land use—both geographically and for the community living in place. One key in indicator of success is the inclusion of the community and getting their buy-in and participation in the tree planting program. However, more research is needed to figure out how to generate that local participation and where it roots from.

Forrest gives us insight into the mythology of the modern concept that trees everywhere are a good thing. As more people are divorced from earning their living from the land this concept become more and more common. However, this lionization of the forest landscapes devalues the natural and vital landscapes that naturally do not have trees or have only scattered trees. These landscapes are currently being destroyed in support of tree planting to match this prominent environmental narrative.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

  • Veldman, J.W. et al., Tyranny of trees in grassy biomes. Science 347,484-485(2015). DOI:10.1126/science.347.6221.484-c

  • Bai, Y., & Cotrufo, M. F. (2022). Grassland soil carbon sequestration: Current understanding, challenges, and solutions. Science, 377(6606), 603-608.

  • Forget Tree Planting, Start Tree Growing a Q & A with Lalisa Duguma https://forestsnews.cifor.org/61174/forget-tree-planting-start-tree-gro…

In this episode we are joined by Linda Annala Tesfaye and Bikila Warkineh. Linda is a project researcher from the TreesForDev project leading the work package that is looking at Ethiopia. Bikila is the Head of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management at Addis Ababa University and works as Associate Professor of Ecology. His research centers on the broad area of the ecological sciences and ecosystems ecology. He is strongly interested in the science, politics, and policies of natural resource management, climate change, sustainable development, and how these are linked with socio-economic development.

Bikila and Linda give us insight into the history and current developments in tree planting in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has a long history with tree planting and more generally greening initiatives. Through the Green Legacy Initiative, Ethiopia has become a forerunner in ecological restoration in the African context. The activities in Ethiopia go beyond just tree planting, but really working toward developing a resilient and green culture in the face of climate change. One key facet of the work being done in Ethiopia is the widespread use of native species in the planting projects. This model has had many positive regional impacts and has strongly influenced the approach to tree planting in its neighboring countries.


 

In this episode we are joined by Ossi Ollinaho and Natacha Bruna. Ossi is a project researcher from the TreesForDev project leading the work package that is looking at Mozambique. Natacha is scholar activist and researcher who is doing a post-doctoral project at Cornell University in the Global Development Department, previously she worked at our project partner at Observatório do Meio Rural (OMR), in Mozambique. Natacha coordinated the research line on models of rural development and her research has focused on the impacts of large-scale investment.

Natacha gives us an insight on her take into Green Extractivism and how this plays out in the Mozambican context. She sees green extractivism as a variation of extractivism where what is being extracted is emission rights. Emission rights are extracted from the rural poor and then sold to entities like multinational firms who then have the right to continue to pollute. The privilege of pollution is given to the main actors who are perpetrating the pollution. We explore this dynamic from multiple perspectives.


 

In this episode we are joined by Marketta Vuola and Zo Randriamaro. Marketta is a project researcher from the TreesForDev project leading the work package on Madagascar. Zo works for the Research and Support Center for Development Alternatives-Indian Ocean (RSCDA-IO) / Centre de Recherches et d’Appui pour les Alternatives de Développement-Océan Indien (CRAAD-OI). The RSCDA-IO / CRAAD-OI, which is a pan-African, non-profit organization. “Its mission is to promote sustainable development alternatives that are centered on the realization of human rights and based on the principles of gender equality, social, economic and ecological justice.”

Marketta and Zo give us insight into the overarching context in Madagascar and share why it is one of the case study countries in the TreesForDev project. We discuss some of the disconnects between ecological restoration and conservation and also some of the ways that organizations tasked to help, do not always improve livelihood prospects on the ground.

In this episode we are joined by Ossi Ollinaho and Máriam Abbas. Ossi is a project researcher from the TreesForDev project leading the work package that is looking at Mozambique. Máriam is a researcher from Observatório do Meio Rural (OMR), in Mozambique, who is coordinating the research line “Environment and Rural Areas”, which explores, among other topics, the impacts of climate change on agriculture, the causes of deforestation and mainstreaming biodiversity in the agricultural sector.

Ossi and Máriam give us insight into why Mozambique is one of the case study countries in the TreesForDev project. Agriculture accounts for approximately 25 percent of the GDP of the country. Thus, there is a large rural population, and the forest has a very important role in the rural populations’ livelihood prospects. They reflect on the economic system and the underlying extractivist logics that are often incompatible with improving local conditions.

Welcome to the debut episode of the limited series TreesForDev project podcast. In this episode we are honored to be joined by the project principal investigators, Maria Ehrnstöm-Fuentes and Markus Kröger, from Hanken School of Economics and University of Helsinki respectively. In this conversation, they introduce us to who they are and what types of questions are being investigated in the TreesForDev project. This project examines the dynamics of ecological restoration involving tree planting schemes. Planting trees is a popular and “easy” way to try to restore ecosystems and mitigate climate change. Our project examines the socio-ecological/economic impacts of tree planting in the global South. The project is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs through the Develop2 funding instrument, which is managed in conjunction with the Research Council of Finland. The TreesForDev will run until the end of 2026 and includes research in Finland, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Brazil.