FairFrontiers is an inter- and transdisciplinary research project
examining transformations of tropical forest-agriculture frontiers
in Cameroon, DR Congo, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, and Myanmar;
with a focus on issues of politics, power, precarity, and equity.
A frontier is an edge of space and time: a zone of not yet – not yet mapped, ‘not yet’ regulated…
Frontiers are not just discovered at the edge;
they are projects in making geographical and temporal experiences.
TSING (2003), Natural Resources and Capitalist Frontiers
Today’s frontiers of capitalism are not remote or ‘‘newly discovered’’ spaces. Instead, these frontiers are new commodity forms within the confines of already formalized state lands.
Some of these lands were set aside in reaction to the most rapacious forms of capital, and some were a product of capital’s working through the state to dispossess competing land claimants.
KELLY & PELUSO (2015), Frontiers of Commodification: State Lands and Their Formalization
Reflections from the field
Some observations and thoughts by our project members
- Industrial Tree Plantations in Sabah: A Journey Towards Prosperity?Are industrial tree plantations the answer for development in Sabah? PhD Researcher Niina Pietarinen from University of Helsinki writes about the issues indigenous communities in Pitas, Sabah are facing in the midst of government plans to expand industrial tree plantations.
- Embarking on a Wild Adventure in Search of ZebrasFairFrontiers researcher Alimata Sidibe writes her thoughts and observations from her field trip to Upemba National Park in DR Congo.
- Pantu: ‘On a Journey through the Past’Sarawak, to many Malaysians from the Peninsular, occupied most peoples’ mental and discursive spaces as ‘the frontier’, less developed, containing wild and exotic flora and fauna, resources to be exploited for the economic growth and development of the nation…
- Blog post about land grabbing in CameroonResearcher Niina Pietarinen, who was with FairFrontiers researchers during their first trip to Cameroon, explains some of the implications of land grabbing for local communities in West Cameroon in a blog post published by the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation.
- Blog post from SRC about paper on scientific narrativesA blog post at the Stockholm Resilience Centre talks about the paper “Scientific narratives risk reinforcing colonial structures in tropical forests.”
Recent publications and resources
- Paper: The political economy of deforestation in the Colombian Amazon
- The performance of global forest governance: Three contrasting perspectives
- Seminar: Methods for Examining Local Voices and Discourses Around Forest and Land Change in Sabah
- Paper: What is the Problem of Gender Inequality Represented to be in Inter-National Development Policy in Burkina Faso?
- Paper: Environmental Justice and Human Well-being Bundles in Protected Areas: An Assessment in Campo Ma’an Landscape, Cameroon
- Book chapter: Crises, Complexities and Claims in Protected Areas – Landscape of (In) Coherent Biodiversity Governance and Social-Environmental Injustice in Southwest Cameroon
Latest news / Upcoming events
Forest and Society Special Section/Issue
Navigating change in forest-agriculture frontiers: Centering equity and justice in land use transformation in the Global South
The journal Forest and Society is currently calling for submissions for the Special Section/Issue, in collaboration with FairFrontiers. The aim of this special section is to highlight existing research and practices that can contribute to advance our understanding of equity and justice during the processes of land-use change in the Global South. This can be in the form of original research articles, methodological engagement, notes from the field, and policy forum. Submissions are until August 2024. For more information, check the Forest & Society website.
FairFrontiers Research Brief Series:
The series will highlight and share new/emerging research findings from the project worth sharing publicly. Briefs are available to read in the Publications section.