141
6
Third, structural frames tend to prevent interventions for development or conservation purposes to be subjected to evaluations and research that are independent and comprehensive enough to uncover actual impacts. Consultants who have
evaluated the pilot projects in Tanzania, for instance, have had very limited time
frames and resources. Like the embassy personnel, they have either not visited the
project areas at all, or they have been there a day or two under the guidance of
AWF, and been taken around to local people and villages selected by AWF. Jansen
(2014) mentions that during his long career in development aid, he observed how
consultants who have provided critical observations are omitted when new consultancy work has been announced. He also observed that embassies and aid administrations sometimes shape mandates to prevent critical consultants and researchers
from being formally qualified.
Fourth, we should also look at the role of the media. In Norway, the media has
hardly investigated what happens in practice when the country has taken the international lead in REDD. There have been remarkably few examples of journalists
taking a critical look at this leading climate mitigation programme.
Could the reason for the lack of critical and independent media attention be
that its social consequences represent what Rob Nixon (2011) calls ‘slow violence’,
which implies ‘violence’ on livelihoods that takes place over time and which is
therefore not recognized as news?
We argue instead that a major reason for the Norwegian media neglecting
REDD has been that the REDD events take place in remote places and far away
from donor countries such as Norway. For journalists it would be time-consuming
and difficult to understand how REDD in a particular area influences the situation
of villagers. Hence, since the social consequences of REDD are largely invisible to
the citizens in the donor countries, these impacts can be an example of commodity
fetishism (explained in 7 Chap. 2).
Fifth, the win-win discourse on REDD is produced by a group of actors who
have interests in the discourse and related practices becoming a new fad with
promises of positive changes. This might, in different ways, be the case for organizations, consultants, government employees, journalists and politicians.
REDD may be seen as one of the last in a row of such environment and development fads (Lund et al. 2017). In the case of REDD, the core concern is climate mitigation based on forest conservation, but we think the same phenomenon
also occurs in other fields of development assistance. Each fad tends to start
with the introduction at an international event, before programmes and projects
are planned, carried out and eventually replaced with new fads. After each fad,
their modes of management tend to fall apart (as we observed in the REDD
case in Kondoa), while some management elements may also become more permanent.
Sixth and finally, there is a reason to ask why politicians, in cases of big spending on international climate strategies, have not requested independent studies of
impacts of this enormous funding in the many countries and localities around the
world. Political parties in the Norwegian parliament have not shown any interest in
knowing how this climate mitigation programme is carried out in practice.
6.5 · How Can a Success Narrative About a Failed Project Succeed?
6
Third, structural frames tend to prevent interventions for development or conservation purposes to be subjected to evaluations and research that are independent and comprehensive enough to uncover actual impacts. Consultants who have
evaluated the pilot projects in Tanzania, for instance, have had very limited time
frames and resources. Like the embassy personnel, they have either not visited the
project areas at all, or they have been there a day or two under the guidance of
AWF, and been taken around to local people and villages selected by AWF. Jansen
(2014) mentions that during his long career in development aid, he observed how
consultants who have provided critical observations are omitted when new consultancy work has been announced. He also observed that embassies and aid administrations sometimes shape mandates to prevent critical consultants and researchers
from being formally qualified.
Fourth, we should also look at the role of the media. In Norway, the media has
hardly investigated what happens in practice when the country has taken the international lead in REDD. There have been remarkably few examples of journalists
taking a critical look at this leading climate mitigation programme.
Could the reason for the lack of critical and independent media attention be
that its social consequences represent what Rob Nixon (2011) calls ‘slow violence’,
which implies ‘violence’ on livelihoods that takes place over time and which is
therefore not recognized as news?
We argue instead that a major reason for the Norwegian media neglecting
REDD has been that the REDD events take place in remote places and far away
from donor countries such as Norway. For journalists it would be time-consuming
and difficult to understand how REDD in a particular area influences the situation
of villagers. Hence, since the social consequences of REDD are largely invisible to
the citizens in the donor countries, these impacts can be an example of commodity
fetishism (explained in 7 Chap. 2).
Fifth, the win-win discourse on REDD is produced by a group of actors who
have interests in the discourse and related practices becoming a new fad with
promises of positive changes. This might, in different ways, be the case for organizations, consultants, government employees, journalists and politicians.
REDD may be seen as one of the last in a row of such environment and development fads (Lund et al. 2017). In the case of REDD, the core concern is climate mitigation based on forest conservation, but we think the same phenomenon
also occurs in other fields of development assistance. Each fad tends to start
with the introduction at an international event, before programmes and projects
are planned, carried out and eventually replaced with new fads. After each fad,
their modes of management tend to fall apart (as we observed in the REDD
case in Kondoa), while some management elements may also become more permanent.
Sixth and finally, there is a reason to ask why politicians, in cases of big spending on international climate strategies, have not requested independent studies of
impacts of this enormous funding in the many countries and localities around the
world. Political parties in the Norwegian parliament have not shown any interest in
knowing how this climate mitigation programme is carried out in practice.
6.5 · How Can a Success Narrative About a Failed Project Succeed?