This paper investigates the factors that influence the adoption of RSPO and Thai-GAP certificatio... more This paper investigates the factors that influence the adoption of RSPO and Thai-GAP certification by oil palm smallholder farmers in Thailand. A random sample of 77 RSPO certified, 108 non-certified RSPO, 87 Thai-GAP certified, and 67 non-certified Thai-GAP smallholder farmers were interviewed to investigate the factors explaining the RSPO and Thai-GAP scheme adoption, respectively. The logit model was used to analyse the relationships between the adoption and the decision-making factors of the farmers. The results show that membership of farmer groups, the goal of the scheme, and trust in the scheme are the most significant factors affecting the adoption of RSPO certification. Scheme payments have a negative influence on adoption. In case of Thai-GAP, the results show the scheme payment, the image, concerns about the quality of land and water, and trust in the scheme are the most significant factors affecting the adoption. Finally, these findings suggest new factors may be attribu...
Co-management has been introduced into Special Use Forests (SUFs) of Vietnam for more than 10 yea... more Co-management has been introduced into Special Use Forests (SUFs) of Vietnam for more than 10 years. However, the extent to which Vietnamese laws and policies support co-management remains unclear. This paper reviews existing policies and laws from the national to commune levels and assesses their facilitation of co-management in SUFs. The review demonstrates there is support for co-management, albeit scattered and uncoordinated across a range of policies and laws. Modifications to policy on ownership and use rights would support the development of SUF co-management. Additionally, clearer legislative underpinning for benefit sharing in SUFs could better incentivize the participation of local people and private sector actors to engage in more effective co-management arrangements.
This article is made publically available in the institutional repository of Wageningen Universit... more This article is made publically available in the institutional repository of Wageningen University and Research, under article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, also known as the Amendment Taverne. Article 25fa states that the author of a short scientific work funded either wholly or partially by Dutch public funds is entitled to make that work publicly available for no consideration following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work.
Pesticide use is a common practice to control pests and diseases in vegetable cultivation, but of... more Pesticide use is a common practice to control pests and diseases in vegetable cultivation, but often at the expense of the environment and human health. This article studies pesticide-buying and use practices among smallholder vegetable farmers in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia, using a practice perspective. Through in-depth interviews and observations, data were collected from a sample of farmers, suppliers and key governmental actors. The results reveal that farmers apply pesticides in violation of the recommendations: they use unsafe storage facilities, ignore risks and safety instructions, do not use protective devices when applying pesticides, and dispose containers unsafely. By applying a social practice approach, we show that these pesticide-handling practices are steered by the combination of the system of provision, the farmers' lifestyle and the everyday context in which pesticides are being bought and used. Bringing in new actors such as environmental authorities, suppliers, NGOs and private actors, as well as social and technological innovations, may contribute to changes in the actual performance of these pesticides buying and using practices. This article argues that a practice approach represents a promising perspective to analyse pesticide handling and use and to systematically identify ways to change these.
This article is made publically available in the institutional repository of Wageningen Universit... more This article is made publically available in the institutional repository of Wageningen University and Research, under article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, also known as the Amendment Taverne. Article 25fa states that the author of a short scientific work funded either wholly or partially by Dutch public funds is entitled to make that work publicly available for no consideration following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work.
A current debate on environmental sociology involves how the subdiscipline should conceptualise a... more A current debate on environmental sociology involves how the subdiscipline should conceptualise and investigate the environment and whether it should be prescriptive and deliver policy recommendations. Taking this debate as a point of departure this article discusses the current and future role of sociology in a globalised world. It discusses how environmental sociology in the US and Europe differ in their understandings of sociology’s contribution to the study of the environment. Particular stress is placed on how these two regions differ with respect to their use of the tradition of sociological thought, views on what constitutes the environment and ways of institutionalising environmental sociology as a sociological field. In conclusion, the question is raised of whether current versions of environmental sociology are appropriate for analysing a globalised world environment; or whether environmental sociology’s strong roots in European and US cultures make it less relevant when f...
In the absence of adequate extension services, retailers have become the major information source... more In the absence of adequate extension services, retailers have become the major information source for farmers' pesticide use in rural China. Pesticide application for smallholders is rather complex, and mistakes can lead to significant crop losses. Farmers, therefore, seek sources of information regarding pesticide use. This paper first explores how different kinds of retailers may employ different strategies of providing information to farmers. We find that for village, town, and county retailers, the more familiar they are with farmers, the more likely they are to amplify the recommended dosage of pesticide use. In cooperatives, who buy pesticides from an extension station, the information is directly transferred to member farmers without information distortion. Apart from examining retailers' different strategies of information provision, this paper also asks in how far farmers' trust in retailers may affect pesticide use. It finds that trust in different kinds of retailers indeed varies and plays a critical role in converting information into farming behavior. Members of the cooperative show rather high levels of trust in their retailer, while farmers who are not members of a cooperative show low levels of trust in retailers. Pesticide use is a joint result of retailers' information provision strategies and farmers' trust. The lowest pesticide use occurs when accurate information is provided and when farmers highly trust the information provider. Overuse occurs with either information distortion or low levels of trust. Cooperatives have advantages both in terms of information provision and trust, thereby leading to the lowest use of pesticides.
Most environmental sociologists have been heavily influenced by what can be labeled neo-Marxist a... more Most environmental sociologists have been heavily influenced by what can be labeled neo-Marxist analyses of environmental disruptions and decay. More than any of the other classical traditions in sociological thought (cf. Humprey & Buttel, 1982; Buttel, 2000a), it is ...
"Climate change continues to dominate academic work within green/environmental p... more "Climate change continues to dominate academic work within green/environmental politics. Indeed, there appears to be almost an inverse relationship between the lack of political leadership on tackling climate change and the growth in ever more sophisticated academic analyses of this complex and 10 multifaceted problem. There is an increasing disjunction between the growth in our knowledge and understanding of the ethical, political, economic, sociological, cultural, and psychological aspects of climate change and the lack of political achievement in putting in place clear and binding targets, an agreed decarbonisation roadmap, and associated regulatory and policy instruments with enforcement. This gap might be taken as evidence that we do not need more reports on climate change. To quote that most unlikely of green politicians, Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governor of California: ‘The debate is over. We know the science. We see the threat. And we know that the time for action is now’ (California Energy Commission 2007, p. 1). This 20 special issue focuses on a variety of ways in which climate change is conceptualised in normative political and ethical theory, and addressed in policy and regulations. "
This paper introduces the Special Volume on sustainable and responsible supply chain governance. ... more This paper introduces the Special Volume on sustainable and responsible supply chain governance. As globalized supply chains cross multiple regulatory borders, the firms involved in these chains come under increasing pressure from consumers, NGOs and governments to accept responsibility for social and environmental matters beyond their immediate organizational boundaries. Governance arrangements for global supply chains are therefore increasingly faced with sustainability requirements of production and consumption. Our primary objectives for this introductory paper are to explore the governance challenges that globalized supply chains and networks face in becoming sustainable and responsible, and thence to identify opportunities for promoting sustainable and responsible governance. In doing so, we draw on 16 articles published in this Special Volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production as well as upon the broader sustainable supply chain governance literature. We argue that the border-crossing nature of global supply chains comes with six major challenges (or gaps) in sustainability governance and that firms and others attempt to address these using a range of tools including eco-labels, codes of conduct, auditing procedures, product information systems, procurement guidelines, and ecobranding. However, these tools are not sufficient, by themselves, to bridge the geographical, informational, communication, compliance, power and legitimacy gaps that challenge sustainable global chains. What else is required? The articles in this Special Volume suggest that coalition and institution building on a broader scale is essential through, for example, the development of inclusive multi-stakeholder coalitions; flexibility to adapt global governance arrangements to local social and ecological contexts of production and consumption; supplementing effective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms with education and other programs to build compliance capacity; and integration of reflexive learning to improve governance arrangements over time. 2 This includes the environmental sociology of flows (e.g. Spaargaren et al., 2006), commodity or value chain and network approaches (e.g.
Is the concept of a green economy a useful way of framing policy discussions and policymaking to ... more Is the concept of a green economy a useful way of framing policy discussions and policymaking to promote sustainable development?" Sustainable development has three pillars: economic, environmental and social. Economic sustainability is growth without undermining an economy's capital base. Environmental sustainability includes a stable climate and biodiversity, among others. Social sustainability is a world free from poverty and inequity. The debates on sustainability are about the relationships-often contradictory-among these pillars. Growth is seen as inequitable and a threat to the environment, environmental protection as a burden on development and poverty eradication, and poverty reduction as having been achieved at significant environmental costs. There is a need to integrate the three dimensions. Various assessment tools exist to facilitate this integration. In practice, however, it is more about reconciliation than integration when it comes to addressing these relationships. This is where the concept of a green economy may help. Definitions of a green economy may vary, but if we agree on one attribute of a green economy, i.e. seeking growth from pro-poor environmental investment, the concept can help change the focus of the debate from reconciling to synergizing the relationships. A stylized example of such a green economy is where poor farmers in Africa are enabled to improve soil and produce organic food that they can consume and export.
China's Sloping Land Conversion Program has been implemented since 2002. It aims to achieve goals... more China's Sloping Land Conversion Program has been implemented since 2002. It aims to achieve goals of ecological recovery and poverty alleviation, by retiring steeply sloping land from crop production and freeing surplus agricultural labor for off-farm activities. Given the huge investment that has been poured into it, and its ecological and social impacts, this government-initiated program has attracted significant academic attention and triggered a flood of debate. Since 2004, the debate has concentrated on the sustainability of the program. Although targets have been overachieved in some provinces, concern has still emerged regarding the livelihood of farmers after subsidies stop. The present paper analyzes the implementation of the Sloping Land Conversion Program in Ningxia Autonomous Region, with a focus on the required social capital for sustained participation of farmers and the development of off-farm economic activities.
The aim of the COOL project was to develop strategic notions how drastic reductions of GHG emissi... more The aim of the COOL project was to develop strategic notions how drastic reductions of GHG emissions in the Netherlands can be achieved in the long term, in an European and global context, using a method of participatory integrated assessment. The project brought together in a dialogue setting scientists, policy makers and stakeholders representing different groups and different interests in society. Experiences and insights from different groups were thus available for the process. In the dialogue, which was set up as a series of workshops, long term policy options for significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions and their feasibility have been analysed. As Dutch climate policy is dependent on international policy developments, the COOL-project incorporated next to the national Dutch level, also a dialogue on the European and on the global level.
The city of Curitiba, Brazil, is considered an exceptional model of sustainable urban planning. I... more The city of Curitiba, Brazil, is considered an exceptional model of sustainable urban planning. It has received praise for its invention of the Bus Rapid Transit System and numerous awards identify Curitiba as one of the world's greenest cities. Controversial elements have, however, been left out of this hegemonic city discourse, along with inevitable new challenges. The aim of this article is twofold. First, we assess whether Curitiba is living up to its reputation as a leading sustainable city by analyzing three areas of urban sustainable development: green spaces, water bodies and public transportation. We show how Curitiba experiences problems ranging from social exclusion resulting from green space policies, to polluted water bodies and hampered planning in the area of public transportation. Second, we examine how the Curitiba discourse as a leading sustainable city is able to endure in this changed material context. We demonstrate how this hegemonic discourse prevents institutional transformations: the discourse becomes reproduced by powerful networks and propaganda, masking new unsustainable realities and by the same token preventing fast and successful institutional renewal.
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2015
Given its past as a so-called information-poor and authoritarian country, China has recently made... more Given its past as a so-called information-poor and authoritarian country, China has recently made remarkable progress in information disclosure and environmental transparency. Since enacting the Open Government Information Regulations and the Environmental Information Disclosure Measures in 2008, China has advanced the actual amount of environmental information disclosed to civil society actors, the diversification and pluralism of environmental information suppliers and users, and the diversification in the methods of transparency and disclosure. This has significantly changed environmental governance in China. In practice, however, practical and more fundamental problems and limitations in environmental information disclosure continue to exist in China. Moreover, it is not yet clear what the actual effect of information disclosure is on environmental pollution reduction and environmental quality.
This paper investigates the factors that influence the adoption of RSPO and Thai-GAP certificatio... more This paper investigates the factors that influence the adoption of RSPO and Thai-GAP certification by oil palm smallholder farmers in Thailand. A random sample of 77 RSPO certified, 108 non-certified RSPO, 87 Thai-GAP certified, and 67 non-certified Thai-GAP smallholder farmers were interviewed to investigate the factors explaining the RSPO and Thai-GAP scheme adoption, respectively. The logit model was used to analyse the relationships between the adoption and the decision-making factors of the farmers. The results show that membership of farmer groups, the goal of the scheme, and trust in the scheme are the most significant factors affecting the adoption of RSPO certification. Scheme payments have a negative influence on adoption. In case of Thai-GAP, the results show the scheme payment, the image, concerns about the quality of land and water, and trust in the scheme are the most significant factors affecting the adoption. Finally, these findings suggest new factors may be attribu...
Co-management has been introduced into Special Use Forests (SUFs) of Vietnam for more than 10 yea... more Co-management has been introduced into Special Use Forests (SUFs) of Vietnam for more than 10 years. However, the extent to which Vietnamese laws and policies support co-management remains unclear. This paper reviews existing policies and laws from the national to commune levels and assesses their facilitation of co-management in SUFs. The review demonstrates there is support for co-management, albeit scattered and uncoordinated across a range of policies and laws. Modifications to policy on ownership and use rights would support the development of SUF co-management. Additionally, clearer legislative underpinning for benefit sharing in SUFs could better incentivize the participation of local people and private sector actors to engage in more effective co-management arrangements.
This article is made publically available in the institutional repository of Wageningen Universit... more This article is made publically available in the institutional repository of Wageningen University and Research, under article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, also known as the Amendment Taverne. Article 25fa states that the author of a short scientific work funded either wholly or partially by Dutch public funds is entitled to make that work publicly available for no consideration following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work.
Pesticide use is a common practice to control pests and diseases in vegetable cultivation, but of... more Pesticide use is a common practice to control pests and diseases in vegetable cultivation, but often at the expense of the environment and human health. This article studies pesticide-buying and use practices among smallholder vegetable farmers in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia, using a practice perspective. Through in-depth interviews and observations, data were collected from a sample of farmers, suppliers and key governmental actors. The results reveal that farmers apply pesticides in violation of the recommendations: they use unsafe storage facilities, ignore risks and safety instructions, do not use protective devices when applying pesticides, and dispose containers unsafely. By applying a social practice approach, we show that these pesticide-handling practices are steered by the combination of the system of provision, the farmers' lifestyle and the everyday context in which pesticides are being bought and used. Bringing in new actors such as environmental authorities, suppliers, NGOs and private actors, as well as social and technological innovations, may contribute to changes in the actual performance of these pesticides buying and using practices. This article argues that a practice approach represents a promising perspective to analyse pesticide handling and use and to systematically identify ways to change these.
This article is made publically available in the institutional repository of Wageningen Universit... more This article is made publically available in the institutional repository of Wageningen University and Research, under article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, also known as the Amendment Taverne. Article 25fa states that the author of a short scientific work funded either wholly or partially by Dutch public funds is entitled to make that work publicly available for no consideration following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work.
A current debate on environmental sociology involves how the subdiscipline should conceptualise a... more A current debate on environmental sociology involves how the subdiscipline should conceptualise and investigate the environment and whether it should be prescriptive and deliver policy recommendations. Taking this debate as a point of departure this article discusses the current and future role of sociology in a globalised world. It discusses how environmental sociology in the US and Europe differ in their understandings of sociology’s contribution to the study of the environment. Particular stress is placed on how these two regions differ with respect to their use of the tradition of sociological thought, views on what constitutes the environment and ways of institutionalising environmental sociology as a sociological field. In conclusion, the question is raised of whether current versions of environmental sociology are appropriate for analysing a globalised world environment; or whether environmental sociology’s strong roots in European and US cultures make it less relevant when f...
In the absence of adequate extension services, retailers have become the major information source... more In the absence of adequate extension services, retailers have become the major information source for farmers' pesticide use in rural China. Pesticide application for smallholders is rather complex, and mistakes can lead to significant crop losses. Farmers, therefore, seek sources of information regarding pesticide use. This paper first explores how different kinds of retailers may employ different strategies of providing information to farmers. We find that for village, town, and county retailers, the more familiar they are with farmers, the more likely they are to amplify the recommended dosage of pesticide use. In cooperatives, who buy pesticides from an extension station, the information is directly transferred to member farmers without information distortion. Apart from examining retailers' different strategies of information provision, this paper also asks in how far farmers' trust in retailers may affect pesticide use. It finds that trust in different kinds of retailers indeed varies and plays a critical role in converting information into farming behavior. Members of the cooperative show rather high levels of trust in their retailer, while farmers who are not members of a cooperative show low levels of trust in retailers. Pesticide use is a joint result of retailers' information provision strategies and farmers' trust. The lowest pesticide use occurs when accurate information is provided and when farmers highly trust the information provider. Overuse occurs with either information distortion or low levels of trust. Cooperatives have advantages both in terms of information provision and trust, thereby leading to the lowest use of pesticides.
Most environmental sociologists have been heavily influenced by what can be labeled neo-Marxist a... more Most environmental sociologists have been heavily influenced by what can be labeled neo-Marxist analyses of environmental disruptions and decay. More than any of the other classical traditions in sociological thought (cf. Humprey & Buttel, 1982; Buttel, 2000a), it is ...
"Climate change continues to dominate academic work within green/environmental p... more "Climate change continues to dominate academic work within green/environmental politics. Indeed, there appears to be almost an inverse relationship between the lack of political leadership on tackling climate change and the growth in ever more sophisticated academic analyses of this complex and 10 multifaceted problem. There is an increasing disjunction between the growth in our knowledge and understanding of the ethical, political, economic, sociological, cultural, and psychological aspects of climate change and the lack of political achievement in putting in place clear and binding targets, an agreed decarbonisation roadmap, and associated regulatory and policy instruments with enforcement. This gap might be taken as evidence that we do not need more reports on climate change. To quote that most unlikely of green politicians, Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governor of California: ‘The debate is over. We know the science. We see the threat. And we know that the time for action is now’ (California Energy Commission 2007, p. 1). This 20 special issue focuses on a variety of ways in which climate change is conceptualised in normative political and ethical theory, and addressed in policy and regulations. "
This paper introduces the Special Volume on sustainable and responsible supply chain governance. ... more This paper introduces the Special Volume on sustainable and responsible supply chain governance. As globalized supply chains cross multiple regulatory borders, the firms involved in these chains come under increasing pressure from consumers, NGOs and governments to accept responsibility for social and environmental matters beyond their immediate organizational boundaries. Governance arrangements for global supply chains are therefore increasingly faced with sustainability requirements of production and consumption. Our primary objectives for this introductory paper are to explore the governance challenges that globalized supply chains and networks face in becoming sustainable and responsible, and thence to identify opportunities for promoting sustainable and responsible governance. In doing so, we draw on 16 articles published in this Special Volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production as well as upon the broader sustainable supply chain governance literature. We argue that the border-crossing nature of global supply chains comes with six major challenges (or gaps) in sustainability governance and that firms and others attempt to address these using a range of tools including eco-labels, codes of conduct, auditing procedures, product information systems, procurement guidelines, and ecobranding. However, these tools are not sufficient, by themselves, to bridge the geographical, informational, communication, compliance, power and legitimacy gaps that challenge sustainable global chains. What else is required? The articles in this Special Volume suggest that coalition and institution building on a broader scale is essential through, for example, the development of inclusive multi-stakeholder coalitions; flexibility to adapt global governance arrangements to local social and ecological contexts of production and consumption; supplementing effective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms with education and other programs to build compliance capacity; and integration of reflexive learning to improve governance arrangements over time. 2 This includes the environmental sociology of flows (e.g. Spaargaren et al., 2006), commodity or value chain and network approaches (e.g.
Is the concept of a green economy a useful way of framing policy discussions and policymaking to ... more Is the concept of a green economy a useful way of framing policy discussions and policymaking to promote sustainable development?" Sustainable development has three pillars: economic, environmental and social. Economic sustainability is growth without undermining an economy's capital base. Environmental sustainability includes a stable climate and biodiversity, among others. Social sustainability is a world free from poverty and inequity. The debates on sustainability are about the relationships-often contradictory-among these pillars. Growth is seen as inequitable and a threat to the environment, environmental protection as a burden on development and poverty eradication, and poverty reduction as having been achieved at significant environmental costs. There is a need to integrate the three dimensions. Various assessment tools exist to facilitate this integration. In practice, however, it is more about reconciliation than integration when it comes to addressing these relationships. This is where the concept of a green economy may help. Definitions of a green economy may vary, but if we agree on one attribute of a green economy, i.e. seeking growth from pro-poor environmental investment, the concept can help change the focus of the debate from reconciling to synergizing the relationships. A stylized example of such a green economy is where poor farmers in Africa are enabled to improve soil and produce organic food that they can consume and export.
China's Sloping Land Conversion Program has been implemented since 2002. It aims to achieve goals... more China's Sloping Land Conversion Program has been implemented since 2002. It aims to achieve goals of ecological recovery and poverty alleviation, by retiring steeply sloping land from crop production and freeing surplus agricultural labor for off-farm activities. Given the huge investment that has been poured into it, and its ecological and social impacts, this government-initiated program has attracted significant academic attention and triggered a flood of debate. Since 2004, the debate has concentrated on the sustainability of the program. Although targets have been overachieved in some provinces, concern has still emerged regarding the livelihood of farmers after subsidies stop. The present paper analyzes the implementation of the Sloping Land Conversion Program in Ningxia Autonomous Region, with a focus on the required social capital for sustained participation of farmers and the development of off-farm economic activities.
The aim of the COOL project was to develop strategic notions how drastic reductions of GHG emissi... more The aim of the COOL project was to develop strategic notions how drastic reductions of GHG emissions in the Netherlands can be achieved in the long term, in an European and global context, using a method of participatory integrated assessment. The project brought together in a dialogue setting scientists, policy makers and stakeholders representing different groups and different interests in society. Experiences and insights from different groups were thus available for the process. In the dialogue, which was set up as a series of workshops, long term policy options for significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions and their feasibility have been analysed. As Dutch climate policy is dependent on international policy developments, the COOL-project incorporated next to the national Dutch level, also a dialogue on the European and on the global level.
The city of Curitiba, Brazil, is considered an exceptional model of sustainable urban planning. I... more The city of Curitiba, Brazil, is considered an exceptional model of sustainable urban planning. It has received praise for its invention of the Bus Rapid Transit System and numerous awards identify Curitiba as one of the world's greenest cities. Controversial elements have, however, been left out of this hegemonic city discourse, along with inevitable new challenges. The aim of this article is twofold. First, we assess whether Curitiba is living up to its reputation as a leading sustainable city by analyzing three areas of urban sustainable development: green spaces, water bodies and public transportation. We show how Curitiba experiences problems ranging from social exclusion resulting from green space policies, to polluted water bodies and hampered planning in the area of public transportation. Second, we examine how the Curitiba discourse as a leading sustainable city is able to endure in this changed material context. We demonstrate how this hegemonic discourse prevents institutional transformations: the discourse becomes reproduced by powerful networks and propaganda, masking new unsustainable realities and by the same token preventing fast and successful institutional renewal.
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2015
Given its past as a so-called information-poor and authoritarian country, China has recently made... more Given its past as a so-called information-poor and authoritarian country, China has recently made remarkable progress in information disclosure and environmental transparency. Since enacting the Open Government Information Regulations and the Environmental Information Disclosure Measures in 2008, China has advanced the actual amount of environmental information disclosed to civil society actors, the diversification and pluralism of environmental information suppliers and users, and the diversification in the methods of transparency and disclosure. This has significantly changed environmental governance in China. In practice, however, practical and more fundamental problems and limitations in environmental information disclosure continue to exist in China. Moreover, it is not yet clear what the actual effect of information disclosure is on environmental pollution reduction and environmental quality.
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Papers by Arthur Mol