Forests and water: A synthesis of the contemporary science and its relevance for community forestry in the Asia–Pacific region
RECOFTC, March 2014
There is now a solid body of scientific information for understanding and interpreting the relationships between forests and water in both temperate and tropical regions. However, there is also a parallel and deeply entrenched “popular narrative” that often runs counter to the consensus views of the forest hydrology scientific community.
|
|
Mediating forest conflicts in Southeast Asia: Getting the positives out of conflicts over forests and land
RECOFTC, March 2014
This issues paper is based on analysis of six conflict mediation cases in three countries in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand). The study aimed to increase the understanding of how mediation has been applied in transforming forest conflicts, including what factors led to the success and the challenges encountered. The paper also provides suggestions on how mediation, as an approach for conflict transformation, can be strengthened in Southeast Asia.
|
|
The knowledge and skills needed to engage in REDD+: A competencies framework
RECOFTC, Conservation International, IUCN, CATIE, FCMC, March 2014
From forest-dependent communities to government staff, many stakeholders are in need of comprehensive information to effectively engage in the design and implementation of REDD+ activities. Recognizing this need, members of the Alliance for Global REDD+ Capacity (AGRC) have created “The Knowledge and Skills Needed to Engage in REDD+: A Competencies Framework,” a single reference that enables readers to quickly understand key concepts, policy benchmarks, technical elements, skills, tools and resources for 10 specific REDD+ themes. In addition to covering these 10 REDD+ themes, the Framework also provides guidance on designing REDD+ capacity building programs for a variety of stakeholders, with case studies on existing REDD+ capacity building programs.
|
|
Community based forest biomass monitoring: A Manual for training local level facilitators
IGES, March 2014
Community Based Forest Biomass Monitoring (CBFBM) is the monitoring of forest biomass by communities. It is a form of monitoring that ultimately aims to be “driven” and “owned” by the local communities and “guided” and “facilitated” by outside experts. The information that is generated from the monitoring aids the communities in making wise decisions about their forest management. This manual guides the training-of-trainers to build the capacity of local-level facilitators on selecting, testing and adapting technical parameters and measurement methods for forest monitoring, and how to design effective field trainings and practice effective facilitation skills that are essential for any participatory methodology with local communities.
|
|
Breaking the Vicious Circle of Illegal Logging in Indonesia
Conservation Biology, March 2014
The government of Indonesia, which presides over 10% of the world's tropical forests, has set ambitious targets to cut its high deforestation rates through a REDD+ scheme. This will require strong law enforcement to succeed. Yet, strategies that have accomplished this are rare and, along with past failures, tend not to be documented. We evaluated a multistakeholder approach that seeks to tackle illegal logging in the carbon-rich province of Aceh, Sumatra. The multistakeholder results were promising, but illegal logging still persisted at apparently similar levels at the project's end, indicating that efforts need to be further strengthened.
|
|
Challenging perceptions about men, women, and forest product use: A global comparative study
World Development, 2014
Some of the commonly held ideas on how men and women access, manage, and use different forest products are tested. Overall, they found significant gender differentiation in the collection of forest products, which seems to support the claim that there are distinctive “male” and “female” roles associated with the collection of forest products. However, the study also found that men play a much more important and diverse role in the contribution of forest products to rural livelihoods than previously reported, with strong differences across tropical Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
|
|
Social networks of corruption in Vietnamese and Lao cross-border timber trade
Anthropological Forum, March 2014
Although corruption is a core issue in discourses on Southeast Asian states and the region's illegal timber trade, its specific meanings, characteristics, and role are poorly understood. This ethnographic study of corruption and timber trade in the lower Mekong uncovers the relationships, dealings, and networks that enable illegal timber flows. They follow the disputed case of a shipment of high-value timber that originated in Laos and was seized by Vietnamese seaport customs officials in 2011. The analysis challenges the current international and national emphasis on law enforcement as a means to tackle illegal logging.
|
|
What future for reform? Progress and slowdown in forest tenure reform since 2002
RRI, March 2014
The report -- the third in a series of analyses tracking the transition in statutory forest tenure since 2002 -- finds that not only has the recognition of local land rights slowed considerably since 2008, but the few land tenure laws that have been passed in the last six years are weaker and recognize fewer rights.
|
|
Forest land acquisition by Stora Enso in South China: Status, issues, and recommendations
RRI, March 2014
This report reveals that Stora Enso Oyj (Stora Enso), one of the world’s largest pulp and paper companies, has made substantial progress in reviewing the legality of its land acquisitions in China, but has not yet fully ensured respect for local land rights in their operations. These challenges continue despite important steps by the company since 2009 to improve its land acquisition practices against the backdrop of China’s ongoing nationwide forest tenure reform.
|
|
Safety nets, gap filling and forests: A global-comparative perspective
World Development, March 2014
In the forest–livelihoods literature, forests are widely perceived to provide both common safety nets to shocks and resources for seasonal gap-filling. The publication finds households rank forest-extraction responses to shocks lower than most common alternatives. For seasonal gap-filling, forest extraction also has limited importance. The minority of households using forests for coping is asset-poor and lives in villages specialized on forests, in particular timber extraction. Overall, forest resources may be less important as a buffer between agricultural harvests and in times of unforeseen hardship than has been found in many case studies.
|
|
|