The book examines the rapid transformation of landscapes in indigenous territories driven by global industrial demand, highlighting the effects of deforestation and urbanization. It emphasizes how these changes have disconnected Indigenous Peoples from their traditional ways of life, shedding light on the cultural and environmental implications of such disruptions.
This volume offers new insights into the human and gender aspects of vulnerability linked to tenure reforms in the dryland forests of Asia and Africa. It examines the interplay between biophysical factors, like climate variability (e.g., droughts), and socio-political processes, including new institutions and authority, across various temporal and spatial scales. The book features case studies derived from empirical research on forest tenure reform and its impacts on forest-dependent communities. It emphasizes the relationship between legal, policy, and institutional reforms and the inclusion or exclusion of local populations in accessing forest resources in drylands. Key questions addressed include how land tenure reform and natural resource governance affect marginalized groups in terms of individual, collective, and gender dimensions; how forest-dependent communities prepare for and respond to vulnerabilities; and the implications of forest tenure policy reform on human rights, gender, and citizenship issues regarding forest resource management and conflicts in forest areas. These topics are explored through the lens of marginalized groups, including indigenous peoples and herders, who inhabit vulnerable dryland forests at high risk of climate variability.