Search

Grassroots organizations have increasingly contributed to pathways towards more sustainable energy systems by shedding light to the human cost of unsustainable resource uses. In light of a global boom of 3700 major dams underway in predominantly developing and emergent countries due to growing renewable energy demand, this research set out to examine how social actors rationalize and interact with the social impacts of hydroelectric dam projects in Colombia, specifically the Quimbo and HidroItuango. The data was collected through observational research and in-depth interviews with affected communities, a social movement and government-led entities including a dam operator. The analysis of collected data contributes to the literature by providing a bottom-up understanding on the social impacts caused by hydroelectric dams in rural Colombia, across Upstream, Reservoir and Downstream areas. The study furthermore identified how social mobilization has taken shape in Colombia, its achievements in pursuit of social change and the constraints that have prevailed to the communities’ aspired sovereignty over natural and cultural assets. It argues that the voices of the Quimbo and HidroItuango communities have been overwritten and repressed by a notion of ‘development’ as part of an extractivist and neoliberal model that aimed at ‘integration of the territories’.

The Afro-Colombians communities of Los Riscales have a collective land title in the Nuquí municipality, on the Pacific Coast of the Choco Colombian department, one of the regions with lowest levels of well-being and a weak State presence. These communities face challenges implementing their first REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) project. Concerns arise about potential conflicts and the administrational capacity of the communities to manage a project that will generate their first monetary boom. Indeed, critiques arised around the ability of the REDD+ mechanism to reach its goals of reducing deforestation rates while increasing community well-being. Besides, ethical concerns are raised about the implications of REDD+ as a neoliberal tool aimed at tackling climate change by transferring the responsibility of the climate crisis to actors outside the State, such as rural communities and other intermediary actors. This shift in responsibility puts the community well-being outcomes in the hands of their supporting organizations, who can take advantage of the communities, also referred to as ‘carbon cowboys’. Taking a pluriverse perspective on the REDD+ application in rural communities with a collective land title, risks are identified due to a clash between different cosmologies that create unequal power dynamics. Considering the relevance of this issue, this research investigated ‘How does the REDD+ project in the Nuquí municipality impact the well-being of the Los Riscales communities?’. A qualitative study was conducted, which included two field trips in Nuquí of a total of six weeks and semi-structured interviews (32 with local residents and two with experts in international cooperation), analysed in NVivo with deductive and inductive codes. The field trips were possible thanks to the internship with Tropenbos Colombia, one of the supporting organisations of the communities. The results show that, in order to ensure a positive impac

All around the world peatlands are degrading which has worse effects on the climate, biodiversity, and farmers due to forest fires and weather extremes. Therefore, restoration practices are needed to restore these peatlands. One restoration method is paludiculture which is the ‘sustainable production of biomass on wet and rewetted peatlands' (Wichtmann and Joosten, 2007, p. 12). However, this means these farmers need to switch to a completely different way of farming which may impact livelihoods, including social and economic consequences. Therefore, it is important to examine the impact of paludiculture on farmers’ livelihoods. This research addresses the question: What is the impact of paludiculture on farmers’ livelihoods? This question is answered through the lens of two case studies in Indonesia and Sweden. First, both the Peatland Restoration Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy were examined to examine how paludiculture is represented in the agricultural policies of Indonesia and Sweden. Then, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with farmers and experts in Indonesia and Sweden. For Indonesia, farmers were interviewed from Tanjung Putri in Central Kalimantan, where they are currently conducting a paludiculture project in collaboration with BRGM. For Sweden, farmers who were not conducting paludiculture were interviewed from North and Central Sweden. Findings show that paludiculture has several positive impacts such as improved food security, the presence of fishing, a decrease in floods and forest fires, an increase in education, and possibilities for cattle and hunting. Negative impacts include no inclusivity of other farmers in paludiculture, economic inequality, more dependency, and more rules. These impacts have different effects on different groups of farmers. For instance, the men of households with high economic status have more opportunities in terms of livelihoods and paludiculture. Young female farmers often do not own land, and i

Waste generation has significantly increased over the past few decades, leading to negative impacts on both humans and the environment. Developing countries struggle to effectively manage waste due to inadequate protection and collection services. To address this issue, international aid has started investing in waste management systems. However, initial efforts focused solely on technical assistance were proven to be ineffective as they lacked a full understanding of the factors affecting waste management. Nowadays, the focus has shifted to understanding what enables SWM interventions and analysing the enabling environment. To improve its waste management efforts, WASTE NL created the SQUAT tool, a rapid assessment framework toolkit to assess the enabling environment and increase the success of SWM interventions by focusing resources The purpose of this study is to examine both informal and formal factors that enable waste management interventions in Kohalpur, Nepal, which are the actors involved in this scenario and assess their representation in the SQUAT tool. The study is based on the Integrated Sustainable Waste Management theory, which identifies six enabling components. This research focuses on the institutional, policy, and socio-cultural aspects of these components. This study results reveal that in formal practices, a major factor enabling SWM interventions in Kohalpur, Nepal is the presence of an institutional body responsible for the SWM system and a national policy framework. In terms of socio-cultural factors, the enabling behaviour is influenced by various factors including the right to receive waste services, the perception of waste workers, and the social perception of generated waste. Most of the formal factors mentioned are captured by the tool, capturing partially the Kohalpur’s enabling environment. However, the informal practices were not considered by the tool. In Kohalpur, the citizens, due to a lack of waste collection services, must person

This thesis investigates the transport component of mega-event driven development through the case studies of four former Olympic host cities: Athens (2004), Beijing (2008), London (2012) and Rio de Janeiro (2016). By comparing each city’s baseline scenario with the transport changes that were promised in its bid to the IOC and those then implemented in the lead-up to the Games, the catalytic effect of Olympics-hosting on improving a city’s transport - particularly public transport - infrastructure will be outlined. The impact of these Olympics-driven changes will then be investigated, through an analysis of the effect this had on the longer-term trajectory of each city’s transit system and the behaviours and perceptions of those that interact with it. This is uncovered through an analysis of transport-related media reports published before, during and after the Games (to gain an understanding of reported public opinion); academic and grey literature on the Olympics’ transport legacy (including policies that were introduced during the Games and maintained or tightened afterwards, or transport lines that were built for the event and extended after it was over); and available public opinion surveys on their perception of these transport changes. Through comparison across the four case studies, this thesis concludes that Olympics-hosting does spur the rapid development of a city’s transit system, especially the coverage and capacity of its public transport network. However, this comes at a cost - in terms of public finance (especially for small or lower/middle income countries); opportunity (with money spent on, e.g., new airport-to-city centre connections or venue-to-venue lines that might better serve the local community if used on other projects); and equity (with new lines not affordable for, or useful to, all residents). This impact is correlated with each city’s baseline scenario, with those that have more limited infrastructure at the time of bidding experiencin

Over 40% of the world’s land surface is covered by semi-arid and arid environments, which are home to over one billion people. These semi-arid and arid environments are subject to desertification. Africa is a heavily degraded continent, with desertification affecting over 46% of the continent’s surface. In the case of Morocco, approximately 90% of the land is classified as desert. The documentary ‘Oasis in de Orient’ is what started the interest in desertification for this thesis. M’hamid el Ghizlane is an example of a town that is threatened by desertification, causing land degradation, a change in livelihood and the displacement of people. Here, migration is seen as the best adaptation strategy to the change in environment and livelihood. Internationally as well as in Morocco there are initiatives that focus on fighting desertification using projects and plans to protect heavily degraded areas. However, the environment keeps deteriorating and the threat by desertification has gotten worse over the years. Education is seen as a good tool to shape behaviour and attitude into an environmentally positive way and to provide people with technical knowledge to prevent disasters from happening. Therefore, this research focusses on the role of education in the fight against desertification. Document analysis and a case study using interviews and observations have been used to gather data on this subject and to add to the literature on the relationship between education and desertification.