Belcher, Brian

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https://hdl.handle.net/10170/715

Brian Belcher’s research has focused on understanding and improving the role and potential of natural resources to sustainably contribute to rural development and on research effectiveness. Belcher served as director of the Centre for Livelihoods and Ecology at RRU from 2007 to 2013, when he became the university's first Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. As a CRC, he is leading a program in sustainability research effectiveness that aims to develop theory and methodology for evaluating sustainability research in complex transdisciplinary contexts and to conduct comparative analyses and evaluations of a series of sustainability research projects. Belcher teaches in the Doctor of Social Sciences program and supervises master's and doctoral students. He is also a senior associate scientist with the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Consortium Research Program of Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, where he is a member of the monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment team. He is a founding member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Evaluation Community of Practice. Belcher is an avid cyclist and president of the Greater Victoria Velodrome Association.

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The relationship between forest research and forest management in China: an analysis of four leading Chinese forestry journals
(Commonwealth Forestry Association, 2004) Ruiz Pérez, M.; Fu, M.; Xie, J.; Yang, X.; Belcher, Brian
We analyse the collaboration between forestry research institutions and forestry departments in China based on a bibliometric study of four leading Chinese forestry journals. Multiple-authored papers are frequent, and there is a significant collaboration between research and implementing agencies. This collaboration centres on applied research, being less common on fundamental research and almost non-existent on policy research. Universities, National research institutes and National and Provincial level forest departments act as the key organisers of research, with specialised domains and types of collaboration. This helps explain the success of Chinese forestry experiences in recent years.
Looking through the bamboo curtain: an analysis of the changing role of forest and farm income in rural livelihoods in China
(Commonwealth Forestry Association, 2004) Ruiz Pérez, M.; Belcher, Brian; Fu, Maoyi; Yang, Xiaosheng
Forestry and poverty analyses in China show an ambiguous relationship. While the co-occurrence of forest rich areas and poor counties has been noted by some authors, others have stressed the role played by forestry in these areas where it is frequently one of the few options available. Our study indicates that the expansion of off-farm income is the fundamental development process taking place in many areas of rural China. Forestry can offer good income generating options to farmers, but as the local economy develops forestry tends to be displaced by more attractive alternatives. There are niche specialisation opportunities even for rich farmers, normally linked to a certain degree of vertical integration, enhanced by specific features of some forestry uses like bamboo.
Markets Drive the Specialization Strategies of Forest Peoples
(Resilience Alliance, 2004) Ruiz-Pérez, Manuel; Belcher, Brian; Achdiawan, Ramadhani; Alexiades, Miguel; Aubertin, Catherine; Caballero, Javier; Campbell, Bruce; Clement, Charles; Cunningham, Tony; Fantini, Alfredo; de Foresta, Hubert; Fernández, Carmen García; Gautam, Krishna H.; Martínez, Paul Hersch; de Jong, Wil; Kusters, Koen; Kutty, M. Govindan; López, Citlalli; Fu, Maoyi; Alfaro, Miguel Angel Martínez; Raghavan Nair, T.K.; Ndoye, Ousseynou; Ocampo, Rafael; Rai, Nitin; Ricker, Martin; Schreckenberg, Kate; Shackleton, Sheona; Shanley, Patricia; Sunderland, Terry; Youn, Yeo-Chang
Engagement in the market changes the opportunities and strategies of forest-related peoples. Efforts to support rural development need to better understand the potential importance of markets and way people respond to them. To this end, we compared 61 case studies of the commercial production and trade of nontimber forest products from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The results show that product use is shaped by local markets and institutions, resource abundance, and the relative level of development. Larger regional patterns are also important. High-value products tend to be managed intensively by specialized producers and yield substantially higher incomes than those generated by the less specialized producers of less managed, low-value products. We conclude that commercial trade drives a process of intensified production and household specialization among forest peoples.
Forest product markets, forests and poverty reduction
(Commonwealth Forestry Association, 2005) Belcher, Brian
There is a new and increasing emphasis on poverty alleviation and livelihoods improvement in forestry, representing both a challenge and an opportunity. This paper briefly reviews the evolution of the ‘livelihoods’ issue, analyzes the concept of ‘poverty alleviation’ and discusses means by which forestry can contribute to livelihoods improvement. It focuses on the contributions of forest products and markets, questioning the typical timber vs non-timber dichotomy. The role and the potential of a forest product is determined more by the socio-economic and environmental context of the production, processing and marketing system than by the physical characteristics of the product itself. This is important as new opportunities arise through increased control of resources by local people and new markets for forest products. Helping achieve poverty alleviation through forestry requires protecting poverty mitigation functions, enhancing income and employment options, and taking advantage of opportunities to build and strengthen local institutions through policies and project-level interventions.
Balancing Development and Conservation? An Assessment of Livelihood and Environmental Outcomes of Nontimber Forest Product Trade in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
(Resilience Alliance, 2006) Kusters, Koen; Achdiawan, Ramadhani; Belcher, Brian; Ruiz Pérez, Manuel
This article addresses the question, to what extent and under which conditions nontimber forest product (NTFP) trade leads to both livelihood improvement and forest conservation. We based the analysis on a standardized expert-judgment assessment of the livelihood and environmental outcomes of 55 cases of NTFP trade from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The results show that NTFP trade benefits several components of peoples' livelihoods, but may increase inequality between households. Involvement of women in the production-to-consumption system (PCS) tends to have a positive impact on intrahousehold equity. In 80% of the cases, the commercial production of NTFPs does not enable people to make financial investments to increase quality and quantity of production, limiting the potential for development. In our set of cases, commercial extraction from the wild, without further management, tends to lead to resource depletion. NTFP production systems are generally considered to have lower environmental values than natural forest, but do contribute positively to the environmental values in the landscape. We found that higher livelihood outcomes are associated with lower environmental outcomes and conclude that NTFP trade is not likely to reconcile development and conservation of natural forest.

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