Land competition under telecoupling: Distant actors' environmental versus economic claims on land in North-Eastern Madagascar


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Date

2019-02-01

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

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Data

Abstract

In north-eastern Madagascar, maintenance of biodiversity competes with expansion of land for agriculture and mining. The concept of “telecoupling” provides a framework for analysis of distant actors and institutions that influence local land use decisions. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the extent of telecoupling of land governance in north-eastern Madagascar and a lack of evidence regarding its role in driving land use change and land competition. Using a descriptive Social Network Analysis, we disentangled distant interactions between actors in terms of flows and institutions. Our findings show that the domains of economic and environmental interactions are dominated by actors from different sectors that have claims on the same land but generally do not interact. Distant influences occurring via remote flows of goods, money, and institutions serve to reinforce local land competition. Balancing economic and environmental land claims for more sustainable regional development in north-eastern Madagascar requires collaboration between actors across sectors, scales, and domains.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Volume

11 (3)

Pages / Article No.

851

Publisher

MDPI

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Land system science; land governance; Land competition; telecoupling; Social network analysis; Madagascar

Organisational unit

Notes

Funding

152167 - SNF R4D (SNF)

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