The forestry sector as an inequality machine agents, agreements and global politics of trade and investment in the Congo Basin

Project Period: 2020-2025


Funding Source/Donor Organization: University of Helsinki, Finland


Executing Agency: Research Institute of Forestry Policy and Information, Chinese Academy of Forestry


Contact: Xiao Jianmin: xiaojm@caf.ac.cn


Brief Introduction:


The main objectives of the project include:

  • Defining and understanding inequality in forest and land sector: national income, trade and investment patterns of Azobe/Bongossi, Iroko, and Sapelli, and oil palm Investigating the inequality machine: discursive practices, incentive structures and power relations through 4I lens in DRC and Cameroon;

  • Exploring inequality reproduction: contrasting objectives and realities in international policy instruments, and underlying politics and power relations.

Synthesis comparing across countries and regions, and across time, identifying patterns of production and reproduction of inequality, possible pathways to halt the inequality machine.