Delivering Climate-Development Co-Benefits through Multi-Stakeholder Forestry Projects in Madagascar: Opportunities and Challenges

Stakeholder Perceptions of Sustainable Infrastructure Project Delivery: A Comparative Analysis between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao

China is experiencing the rapid development of infrastructure projects throughout the country, especially in the Guangdong-Hong Kong SAR-Macao SAR Greater Bay Area. This is placing the Chinese construction industry under tremendous pressure to transition to a sustainability orientation due to the various economic, social, and environmental challenges involved. The transition to more sustainable infrastructure projects requires the involvement of more stakeholders, while the multistakeholder context is of less importance when making project decisions, and this may create an adverse effect on the sustainability level of infrastructure projects. Based on the questionnaire data collected, this study addresses this issue by comparatively analysing stakeholder perceptions of sustainable infrastructure delivery between Guangdong province, Hong Kong SAR, and Macao SAR. Through independent sample $t$ -tests, the disparity in perceptions between paired stakeholder groups in the Greater Bay Area (as a whole) is revealed. Three pairs, i.e., government department and supervising engineers, owners and designers, and supervising engineers and operators, are found to be the most conflicting, while contractors and supervising engineers are the least. Of the 18 sustainability items analysed, shaped local identity and international reputation (SOC, social factor 8) is the most controversial, while value-for-money of the proposed project during its lifecycle (EOC, economic factor 5) and green design and construction (ENV, environmental factor 2) have the greatest consensus towards their roles in achieving project sustainability. Significantly, different stakeholder perceptions between the three are also identified, and the contractor group is found to share the least consensus geographically, while the operators have the least conflict rating of the relevant importance of various sustainability factors. The thorough analysis of sustainability-related items of economy, society, and environment contributes to understanding the attitudes of the various stakeholder groups involved, which then helps reduce their conflicts during sustainable infrastructure delivery.

Improving Governance of Tenure in Policy and Practice: Monitoring in a Space for Multiple Views

The dynamics of current global challenges—like food and nutrition security, environmental degradation, climate change, and emergencies—reduce the availability of and/or access to natural resources, and thereby underline the urgency of achieving transformational changes in the governance of tenure. This is increasingly required to bring the greatest good to the most people, in line with human rights. The globally applicable “Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security” (VGGT) were developed to promote responsible tenure governance. The importance of instituting effective monitoring for the implementation of the VGGT at the country level in order to ensure that they have an impact on the ground is well accepted. However, little progress has been made to date. This paper explores plural perspectives on monitoring by the different stakeholders involved because of the multi-dimensional nature of the VGGT implementation, and because tenure governance is a complex system. Allowing space for multiple views means leaving no one’s view behind. It is proposed to map the multiple pathways of change to achieve responsible tenure governance in a causal framework using the concept of theories of change. A pluralistic approach will entail different theories of change operating simultaneously, which will provide an inclusive and comprehensive tool for monitoring by showing the preferred pathways of progress on the ground, and by contributing to future trajectories.

Partnerships and Stakeholder Participation in the Management of National Parks: Experiences of the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe

National parks play an important role in maintaining natural ecosystems which are important sources of income and livelihood sustenance. Most national parks in Southern Africa are managed by their states. Before 2007, Gonarezhou National Park was managed by the Zimbabwe Parks Management and Wildlife Authority, which faced challenges in maintaining its biodiversity, community relations and infrastructure. However, in 2017 the Frankfurt Zoological Society and the Zimbabwe Parks Management and Wildlife Authority formed an innovative partnership under the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust (GCT). This study examines the relationship between GCT management, Gonarezhou National Park stakeholders and communities as well as the impact of the relationship on biodiversity and ecosystems. The study also highlights challenges faced and lessons learned in managing Gonarezhou as a protected area. To obtain the information, key informant interviews, Landsat satellite imagery, secondary data from previous studies and government sources were utilized. The results indicate that the concerted efforts of the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust to manage the park are starting to bear fruit in improving biodiversity conservation, ecosystem management and engaging communities. However, challenges such as governance obstacles, problematic stakeholder management, maintaining trust in community relations, ensuring sustainability, managing the adverse impacts of climate change and human-wildlife conflicts must still be navigated to ensure the park’s sustainable management. Notwithstanding challenges, we argue that a partnership arrangement such as the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust is a desirable model that can be applied in national parks in Zimbabwe and Africa for better biodiversity management and tourism.