Paper specific analyses

The data used for Papers I and II were analysed in the early phases of the project, in 2012 and 2013, with new information added in 2013. For Paper I, in which Professor Mariel Aguilar-Støen and Associate professor at the University of Brasilia, Fabiano Toni and I explore the different strategies of Latin American countries in response to REDD, we worked in a dialectical fashion among the three researchers involved. Each researcher gathered information about the processes in the corresponding countries, focusing on 1) actors involved; 2) rationalities used for responding to REDD; 3) the policy outcomes and actual responses; 4) possible diverging interests among actors; and 5) possible exclusions of actors and knowledge in the processes. Specifically, my findings contributed to the paper’s empirical section on Bolivia, and in general I contributed substantially to the discussion the findings and to writing the introduction, analysis and conclusion. The different strategies for advancing different interests and demands were identified and categorised. After identifying and describing each country’s strategies, the strategies were categorised according to their main features which we conceptualised as asserting, accommodating, and resisting.

Paper II was developed together with Professor Aguilar-Støen in the context of exploring the role of elites in environmental governance processes in Latin America, in relation to the parallel project of environmental governance in Latin America (ENGOV). In this paper information from Latin American countries studied by both Aguilar-Støen and myself were included, in addition to information about actors operating on the regional level in Latin America. I contributed with insights from my fieldwork and my own empirical material from Bolivia and readings about REDD, while Aguilar-Støen used her empirical material from other countries as well as secondary sources. I contributed substantially to framing the analysis and to writing all sections of the paper. The article is a further development of the argument of different strategies to shape and control REDD knowledge and early phase projects. We focused on actors with specific REDD resources and what we term science-policy networks. Information regarding a range of non-governmental actors (NGOs, research institutions and consultants) identified as involved in the countries studied was gathered and analysed, as was information regarding projects and consultancy that emerged in Latin America and is internationally related to REDD. Part of this information was gathered from secondary sources including a range of documents, websites and donor information. We then proceeded to analyse the networks of actors that were dominating the discussions and arenas about REDD in Latin America. We also looked into the funding of REDD initiatives. During this process we also focused on “counter-networks” or alternative networks that have become important arenas for discussions and attempts to influence the REDD debate, especially those involving indigenous organisations.

Paper III, which I co-authored with Professor Aguilar-Støen, focuses on Bolivia’s response to REDD. The paper was developed through various cycles of analysis and reflection. In the early phase of the study (2011-2012) I mapped the planning of the UN-REDD process in Bolivia, the actors involved and the background to Bolivia’s response to REDD. I also mapped the positions of the indigenous organisations and the relevant NGOs based on data collected in interviews, workshops and observations in terms of how they viewed and understood REDD and their perceived possibilities and threats. The process, which was the initial object of analysis, did not, however, advance any further. In the second phase (2012-2014) of the analysis I mapped the process of the development of an alternative mechanism for REDD and undertook new interviews as well as a dialogue with the team that developed the Joint Mechanism. In addition, I analysed relevant documents and compared them with what transpired in the international REDD negotiations. Interactions with other REDD

researchers in a seminar we organised on REDD (2012), in one of the PhD courses I attended (2013) and in various conference panels about REDD in which I participated, as well as close collaborations with Aguilar-Støen, affected further insights about REDD in Latin America and Bolivia. Finally, the analysis was framed with a scalar perspective and argument.

In Paper IV, in which I focus on the development of a new forest law in Bolivia, I analysed data from interviews, workshops, observations and conversations in local communities. Many of the participants had been involved in discussions about the weakness of the current forest law and had developed inputs for what they thought needed to be changed. In addition, I gathered information from local communities in different locations on practical challenges regarding the current forest management system. I organised the data collected according to the critique of the current forest regime, as expressed in both workshops and interviews, and according to the type of critique I also mapped the different actors involved in the discussions about the new forest legislation. The analysis then focused on the demands for a new law presented by forest community organisations and peasant migrant organisations and how they attempted to influence the forest law-making process. In this analysis I conducted new interviews as well as entered into communication by mail with key informants to augment the data. Further, I analysed documents and news from the media regarding the forest law. I then organised the information chronologically and mapped the different policies and regulations.

In the process of analysing the material I identified recurring framings and narratives. Lastly, in order to gain a deeper understanding I analysed information about the new proposed legislation and economic interests affecting forest areas, as well as major relevant events. I also expanded the analysis of economic interests affecting forest areas, based on input from one of the reviewers from the Journal of Rural Studies where the paper was published.

Paper V, which concerns the TIPNIS conflict in Bolivia, was also developed in a number of cycles. In the first cycle after the TIPNIS march in 2011 I mapped the different actors and interests involved in the march according to arguments for and against the road construction based on interviews with the different actors involved in the conflict. My first analysis was presented at a conference in 2011 (Hirsch, 2011). In the second cycle I mapped the various strategies of the indigenous organisations including the negotiations and interactions with the government after the 2011 march. This mapping was informed by data collected from new interviews, my participation in the march in 2012 and by analysing a range of documents about the conflict. The second analysis was presented at a conference in 2012, after which I

refined the analysis based on input from the audience. In a third cycle, following the submission of the paper to the Journal of Peasant Studies, I reframed the analysis using a

"strategic relational approach” (see Jessop, 2007). The third analysis focused on the relation between state actors and the indigenous organisations as well as interests across the local and national scales. I conducted a critical discursive analysis which entailed revealing power relations in the way narratives and concepts operated and were strategically used by different actors.