@article{Nuesiri2017, author = {Nuesiri, Emmanuel O.}, title = {Feigning Democracy}, series = {Conservation \& society}, volume = {15}, journal = {Conservation \& society}, number = {4}, publisher = {Medknow publications \& media Pvt LTD}, address = {Mumbai}, issn = {0972-4923}, doi = {10.4103/cs.cs_16_106}, pages = {384 -- 399}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus the sustainable management of forest and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+) is a global climate change mitigation initiative. The United Nations REDD Programme (UN-REDD) is training governments in developing countries, including Nigeria, to implement REDD+. To protect local people, UN-REDD has developed social safeguards including a commitment to strengthen local democracy to prevent an elite capture of REDD+ benefits. This study examines local participation and representation in the UN-REDD international policy board and in the national-level design process for the Nigeria-REDD proposal, to see if practices are congruent with the UN-REDD commitment to local democracy. It is based on research in Nigeria in 2012 and 2013, and finds that local representation in the UN-REDD policy board and in Nigeria-REDD is not substantive. Participation is merely symbolic. For example, elected local government authorities, who ostensibly represent rural people, are neither present in the UN-REDD board nor were they invited to the participatory forums that vetted the Nigeria-REDD. They were excluded because they were politically weak. However, UN-REDD approved the Nigeria-REDD proposal without a strategy to include or strengthen elected local governments. The study concludes with recommendations to help the UN-REDD strengthen elected local government authority in Nigeria in support of democratic local representation.}, language = {en} } @article{Nuesiri2018, author = {Nuesiri, Emmanuel O.}, title = {Strengths and Limitations of Conservation NGOs in Meeting Local Needs}, series = {the Anthropology of Conservation NGOS}, journal = {the Anthropology of Conservation NGOS}, publisher = {Palgrave}, address = {Basingstoke}, isbn = {978-3-319-60579-1}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-60579-1_8}, pages = {203 -- 225}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Conservation nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) are often involved in the design and implementation of global forest management initiatives such as the REDD+, which currently is being rolled out by the UNFCCC, the UN-REDD Programme and the World Bank as part of efforts to mitigate climate change. Nigeria joined the UN-REDD in 2010 and submitted its REDD+ readiness proposal in 2011. The proposal has a national component and subnational forestry activities in the Cross River State (CRS) as the pilot site. This chapter examines the involvement of local NGOs in the CRS consultative participatory meetings to validate the Nigeria-REDD proposal. It shows that political representation of local communities in the validation exercise was through customary authorities and NGOs who claim to speak for and are recognised as advocates for the communities. Local government authorities, the substantive political representatives of local communities were left out of the process. The chapter also shows how the CRS Forestry Commission, which organised the validation exercise, used NGOs as pawns to legitimise it, and how these NGOs were powerless to challenge the Forestry Commission. In contrast, local governments, the third tier of government and political authority routinely disrespected by state-level administrators, regularly challenge such higher level government actors in the courts and the national legislature. Thus, local NGOs may speak and work for local social development but compared to the substantive political representatives at the local level (e.g., local government authorities), local NGOs have limited resources to challenge the political shenanigans of the state.}, language = {en} } @incollection{Nuesiri2018, author = {Nuesiri, Emmanuel O.}, title = {Global forest governance and climate change}, series = {Global forest governance and climate change}, booktitle = {Global forest governance and climate change}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-319-71945-0}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-71946-7_1}, pages = {1 -- 16}, year = {2018}, language = {en} } @incollection{Nuesiri2018, author = {Nuesiri, Emmanuel O.}, title = {Godfather politics and exclusionary local representation in REDD+}, series = {Global forest governance and climate change}, booktitle = {Global forest governance and climate change}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-319-71945-0}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-71946-7_2}, pages = {17 -- 49}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Nuesiri assesses the UN-REDD (United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) commitment to strengthen local democracy as a safeguard protecting local interests in REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation with the added goals of Conserving and Enhancing Forest Carbon Stocks, and Sustainably Managing Forests). The chapter examines local representation during the consultative process associated with the Nigeria-REDD proposal. Local representation was through selected individuals (descriptive representatives), customary authority, and NGOs (symbolic representatives). Elected local government authorities (substantive representatives) were excluded from the consultative process. Exclusion of elected local governments is linked to godfather politics in Nigeria, which enables state governors to subordinate local government authority and constrain their responsiveness to local needs. In approving the Nigeria-REDD proposal, the UN-REDD reinforced the subversion of local democracy in Nigeria. The UN-REDD would be fulfilling its democracy objectives in Nigeria by engaging substantively all local governance actors, including elected local government authorities.}, language = {en} }