Repository logo
 

Digitalizing forest landscape restoration: a social and political analysis of emerging technological practices.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

No Thumbnail Available

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Abstract

Digital technologies are increasingly influencing forest landscape restoration practices worldwide. We investigate how digital platforms specifically reconfigure restoration practices, resources, and policy across scales. By analyzing digital restoration platforms, we identify four drivers of technological developments, including: scientific expertise to optimize decisions; capacity building through digital networks; digital tree-planting markets to operate supply chains; and community participation to foster co-creation. Our analysis shows how digital developments transform restoration practices by producing techniques, remaking networks, creating markets, and reorganizing participation. These transformations often involve power imbalances regarding expertise, finance, and politics across the Global North and Global South. However, the distributed qualities of digital systems can also create alternative ways of undertaking restoration actions. We propose that digital developments for restoration should not be understood as neutral tools but rather as power-laden processes that can create, perpetuate, or counteract social and environmental inequalities.

Description

Keywords

Forest landscape restoration, digital technologies, forests, participation, social inequality

Journal Title

Env Polit

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0964-4016
1743-8934

Volume Title

Publisher

Informa UK Limited
Sponsorship
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) ERC (866006)
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No.866006).