Rawls In The Mangrove: Perceptions Of Justice In Nature-based Solutions Projects (Dataset)

1. Adapting to and mitigating against climate change requires the protection and expansion of natural carbon sinks, especially ecosystems with exceptional carbon density such as mangrove forests (an example of ‘blue carbon’). Projects that do this are called ‘nature-based solutions’ (NbS).
2. International norms regulating NbS stipulate the importance of justice, in contrast with some of the history and practice in wider conservation. However, what justice means and how it manifests in practice remain contentious.
3. Selling carbon credits on the voluntary market is a growing source of funding for NbS. A large literature examines the ethics, economics, science and politics of such payments for ecosystem services (PES), including for blue carbon. The interpretations of justice in this context are particularly contentious, but operational blue carbon projects have not been examined from a justice perspective.
4. Here we report on a case study involving the first blue carbon project, Mikoko Pamoja, and its sister project Vanga Blue Forest, both based in Kenya. We consider how justice is conceived by local participants and beneficiaries, using interviews, focus groups and participant observation to collect data, as well as by international stakeholders and in relevant governing documents and policy. We compare these perceptions with expectations and critiques derived a priori from the literature, including a classic thought experiment that influential justice philosopher John Rawls called the ‘original position’.
5. In contrast to high level policy and much of the literature, but in common with Rawls, local stakeholders emphasised distributional aspects of justice. Locally situated interpretations of contentious issues such as elite capture and commodification differed markedly from common interpretations in the literature.
6. Our work emphasises the importance of situating abstract concepts in their local contexts when evaluating justice in NbS projects. It shows how narratives advocating technical precision and economic efficiency in NbS can militate against transparency and agency at a local level and emphasises the critical importance of benefit sharing that is perceived to be fair.

1. 适应气候变化并减缓其影响，需保护并拓展自然碳汇，尤其是碳密度极高的生态系统，例如红树林——蓝碳（blue carbon）的典型代表。此类项目被称为基于自然的解决方案（nature-based solutions，以下简称NbS）。
2. 规范NbS的国际准则强调正义的重要性，这与更广范围保护工作的部分历史与实践存在差异。然而，“正义”的内涵及其在实践中的具体体现仍存在争议。
3. 在自愿碳市场出售碳信用额度，是NbS日益重要的资金来源。现有大量文献探讨了此类生态系统服务付费（payments for ecosystem services，以下简称PES）模式的伦理、经济、科学与政治维度，蓝碳项目亦在研究范围内。但该语境下对正义的解读仍颇具争议，而已落地运营的蓝碳项目尚未有从正义视角展开的相关研究。
4. 本研究针对两处位于肯尼亚的蓝碳项目开展案例研究：首个蓝碳项目Mikoko Pamoja及其姊妹项目Vanga Blue Forest。研究通过访谈、焦点小组访谈与参与式观察收集数据，同时梳理国际利益相关方的观点及相关治理文件与政策文本，以此分析本地参与者与受益群体对正义的认知，并将这些认知与现有文献中先验推导的预期及批判进行对比，其中包括正义领域极具影响力的哲学家约翰·罗尔斯（John Rawls）提出的“原初状态（original position）”经典思想实验。
5. 与高层政策及多数现有文献的观点相悖，但与罗尔斯的主张一致，本地利益相关方更强调正义的分配维度。对于精英俘获、商品化等争议议题的本地化解读，与文献中的主流解读存在显著差异。
6. 本研究强调，在评估NbS项目中的正义问题时，需将抽象概念锚定至具体的本地语境。研究表明，在NbS中倡导技术精准性与经济效率的叙事，可能会削弱本地层面的透明度与主体能动性，同时凸显了被感知为公平的利益共享的关键重要性。