Conserving Carbon in the Extractive Frontiers of Insular Southeast Asia: Risks or Opportunities? Increasingly global climate change governance uses market-based mechanisms to offer forest users financial incentives to maintain forest carbon in the frontiers of Southeast Asia. At the same time, these forest landscapes are rapidly being converted for ‘boom crop’ production such as oil palm and rubber. However, little is known about how carbon governance intersects with such monocropping to affect ....Conserving Carbon in the Extractive Frontiers of Insular Southeast Asia: Risks or Opportunities? Increasingly global climate change governance uses market-based mechanisms to offer forest users financial incentives to maintain forest carbon in the frontiers of Southeast Asia. At the same time, these forest landscapes are rapidly being converted for ‘boom crop’ production such as oil palm and rubber. However, little is known about how carbon governance intersects with such monocropping to affect local livelihoods, property rights and social relations. This project examines how the global market-driven approach, REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Environmental Degradation and Deforestation+), governs forest carbon vis-à-vis commodity production, how this impacts rural livelihoods, and influences the viability of climate change governance. Read moreRead less
Reconnecting with water: Lessons from a diverse economy. In 2008, the Australian government identified as one of its major development themes water and sanitation services in the Asia Pacific region. Focusing on the complex socio-cultural circumstances impacting on the implementation of water and sanitation policies in Timor Leste, this research will provide an in-depth account of the current barriers and potential opportunities for moving forward and successfully achieving positive outcomes in ....Reconnecting with water: Lessons from a diverse economy. In 2008, the Australian government identified as one of its major development themes water and sanitation services in the Asia Pacific region. Focusing on the complex socio-cultural circumstances impacting on the implementation of water and sanitation policies in Timor Leste, this research will provide an in-depth account of the current barriers and potential opportunities for moving forward and successfully achieving positive outcomes in this area. It will identify effective conceptual and methodological approaches for advancing community engagement and the development of adaptive management strategies which could be applied to achieve greater understandings, sustainability and aid effectiveness elsewhere.Read moreRead less
The political ecology of forest carbon: mainland Southeast Asia's new commodity frontier? Spurred by international climate change policies, forest carbon markets are being promoted in mainland Southeast Asia to protect its forests against persisting rates of deforestation. This research examines the implications of this new commodity market for local livelihoods and cross-border forest product trade in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Mapping the Political Ecology of the Edible Birds’ Nests Trade in Indonesia. This study examines the origins and impacts of the rapidly emerging edible birds’ nests (EBN) trade for rural livelihoods and ecologies in Southeast Asia. A high-value Chinese delicacy, the EBN trade has surged across rural Indonesia and beyond. In partnership with the WWF and Tropenbos, our pioneering study investigates how rural producers negotiate the uneven social, economic and environmental influences of the EBN co ....Mapping the Political Ecology of the Edible Birds’ Nests Trade in Indonesia. This study examines the origins and impacts of the rapidly emerging edible birds’ nests (EBN) trade for rural livelihoods and ecologies in Southeast Asia. A high-value Chinese delicacy, the EBN trade has surged across rural Indonesia and beyond. In partnership with the WWF and Tropenbos, our pioneering study investigates how rural producers negotiate the uneven social, economic and environmental influences of the EBN commodity chain in the threatened Heart of Borneo, Indonesia, and the major urban trading centres of Jakarta, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The project offers novel insights into the trade’s sustainability across rural and urban regions of Asia and informs policy for poverty reduction and environmental management in the region.Read moreRead less
Rupture: nature-society transformations in mainland Southeast Asia. This project aims to understand the nexus between intense, cumulative processes of socio-ecological change and emerging forms of social agency. Three case studies of Cambodian and Vietnamese dams, and a review of Thai-Lao cases, will reveal local and civil society responses to nature-society rupture and how these responses affect the region, inform advances in environmental change management, and be relevant to Australia's secur ....Rupture: nature-society transformations in mainland Southeast Asia. This project aims to understand the nexus between intense, cumulative processes of socio-ecological change and emerging forms of social agency. Three case studies of Cambodian and Vietnamese dams, and a review of Thai-Lao cases, will reveal local and civil society responses to nature-society rupture and how these responses affect the region, inform advances in environmental change management, and be relevant to Australia's security policies.Read moreRead less
Going for gold: safe livelihoods for informal gold miners in South and Southeast Asia. Informal gold mining by the rural poor is transforming contemporary rural Asian economies. This project will focus on the community level, and on mineral-rich tracts in South and Southeast Asia, to explore how the livelihoods of the rural poor are changing in response to high gold prices.
Beyond the resource curse: charting a path to sustainable livelihoods for mineral-dependent communities. Over 20 million people in developing countries depend on informal mining for their livelihoods, producing large amounts of mineral commodities. This project challenges the current paradigm on informal mining and aims to improve the livelihoods of these people while enhancing environmental sustainability.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100501
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$342,119.00
Summary
Where is the justice? Theorising the legacy of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. This project seeks to advance theories that explain the social and political effects of international criminal tribunals. It is widely claimed that international tribunals, in addition to providing legal justice, work to enhance the rule of law, respect for human rights and national reconciliation in post-conflict contexts. Taking the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as its case, this project aims to critically analyse such claims by i ....Where is the justice? Theorising the legacy of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. This project seeks to advance theories that explain the social and political effects of international criminal tribunals. It is widely claimed that international tribunals, in addition to providing legal justice, work to enhance the rule of law, respect for human rights and national reconciliation in post-conflict contexts. Taking the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as its case, this project aims to critically analyse such claims by interrogating the non-judicial legacies of documentation, memorialisation and the provision of collective reparations. Knowing more about these key non-judicial legacies and how tribunals enhance the rule of law, human rights and national reconciliation, may help inform the design of tribunals worldwide.Read moreRead less
Reconceptualising industry sector development within the contemporary Australian city: The case of the information technology sector. This project will aim to uncover the reasons why Australia's Information Technology industry is ranked low among OECD countries by evaluating the impact of global and urban geography of the sector on the sector's performance. It will show how policies to achieve more advanced IT sector development need to consider Australia's distinctive position in the global eco ....Reconceptualising industry sector development within the contemporary Australian city: The case of the information technology sector. This project will aim to uncover the reasons why Australia's Information Technology industry is ranked low among OECD countries by evaluating the impact of global and urban geography of the sector on the sector's performance. It will show how policies to achieve more advanced IT sector development need to consider Australia's distinctive position in the global economy and particular factors in the Sydney and Melbourne IT clusters that both help, and hinder, development in ways not considered in present policy models.Read moreRead less
Improving the health and wellbeing of poorly housed Australians: understanding and responding to multiple housing deficit. Australia is currently in a housing crisis, with many escalating problems, including poor affordability, chronic undersupply, homelessness, insecurity in the private rental market and a shrinking public housing sector. While some Australians are unaffected, increasing numbers of already vulnerable people experience multiple housing problems. This project aims to develop a ne ....Improving the health and wellbeing of poorly housed Australians: understanding and responding to multiple housing deficit. Australia is currently in a housing crisis, with many escalating problems, including poor affordability, chronic undersupply, homelessness, insecurity in the private rental market and a shrinking public housing sector. While some Australians are unaffected, increasing numbers of already vulnerable people experience multiple housing problems. This project aims to develop a new theoretical framework for focusing on Australians who experience multiple housing problems. It aims to identify who will be affected, how this will play out on individual health and wellbeing, and how governments can best respond. It will provide essential evidence and intervention tools for understanding and improving the lives of the most vulnerable.Read moreRead less