Ingrid L. Nelson, Department of Geography, "Fighting for Forests: Gendered Conflicts in Mozambique’s Forest Landscapes"
My research combines the issues of forest resource rights, land rights, and gender. I am studying how rural families are negotiating new inheritance rights for women (due to recent feminist legislation) within their communities, particularly where communities have mapped their land rights according to the country’s progressive land and forest laws. My research also provides a portrait of how deforestation of native species—largely due to illegal logging—and “reforestation” of nonnative species such as eucalyptus, together are transforming forest ecology and men’s and women’s livelihoods.
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Fighting for Forests: Gendered Conflicts in Mozambique’s Forest Landscapes
by Ingrid L. Nelson, Department of Geography
Slow-growing miombo woodlands, which have supported rural Mozambicans with fuel, food, and fodder for centuries, are being decimated by two recently emerging global forces: China’s illegal timber extraction, and the indirect impacts of large-scale land acquisition by transnational corporations, especially for biofuel and fast-growing monoculture eucalyptus plantations. This is altering the sustainability of and ownership rights over thousands of hectares of forest and farmland.
Slow-growing miombo woodlands, which have supported rural Mozambicans with fuel, food, and fodder for centuries, are being decimated by two recently emerging global forces: China’s illegal timber extraction, and the indirect impacts of large-scale land acquisition by transnational corporations, especially for biofuel and fast-growing monoculture eucalyptus plantations. This is altering the sustainability of and ownership rights over thousands of hectares of forest and farmland.