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Final%20Report%20Traffic%20Peru%20Phase%20II%20Julio%202010_0.pdf
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TRAFFIC South Africa
Strengthening Forest Governance in Peru - Phase II
CHALLENGE
Many issues plague the forest sector in Peru -- from ill-conceived forest policy, to limited institutional capacity to prevent and control illegal logging, as well as a lack of transparency and corruption, limited cooperation between stakeholders from producer and consumer countries, and limited indigenous/local community and civil society participation.
As a result of the social unrest related to forest legislation in 2009, the country is revising its forest policy. Civil society could play a particularly critical role in ensuring public administration transparency and accountability.
APPROACH
Building on a previous FLEG program implemented by IUCN/TRAFFIC/VERIFOR ( the Forest Governance and Transparency in the Amazon Region project in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru), PROFOR supported efforts to promote national forest stakeholder networks and boost their participation in policy dialogue and good governance in Peru.
RESULTS
This activity, completed in August 2010, resulted in:
- dialogue and advocacy work strengthening the participation of local and national forest stakeholders in CONAFOR (National Consultative Council for Forest Policy) as mandated by the forestry law.
- support for forest policy development and legislative changes through participatory development of a national forest policy proposal and amendments of the forestry law and its regulations.
- two training workshops for 40 OSINFOR supervisors aimed at improving capacity for the verification of the legality of forest products based on approved forest management plans, annual operation plans and forest permits and logging authorizations. Workshops also included training in the enforcement of the CITES convention.
Traffic South America is continuing this work with funding from the European Union.
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Author : TRAFFIC South Africa
Last Updated : 06-16-2024
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Strategic Community Engagement and Forestry Value Chains in Peru
CHALLENGE
Deforestation, accompanied by GHG emissions, continues in Peruâs 65 million ha of tropical forest largely because bare land is worth more than forests. Most non-forest activities generate revenues more quickly and with less capital than forestry. Two market failures preventing forestry from being more competitive:
1. The historic inability of Peruvian manufacturers to engage with communities in "win-win" arrangements that yield a stable supply of raw materials, and development impacts to under-serviced forest communities in the Amazon; and
2. The lack of a system that allows both community suppliers and log buyers to monitor volume, species and cost of wood production at each step, thus providing information critical to making smart management decisions.
In most natural resource industries, stable raw material flow from loyal suppliers is considered of vital importance. This priority is new for most of the Peruvian wood industry: loggers traditionally high-grade forests of commercial species with little respect for legal harvest levels, minimum diameters, or "no-cut" zones. Indigenous leaders are often not aware of legal requirements and just follow the wood buyerâs lead. Once harvested, the forest has little economic value.
APPROACH
This activity aims to strengthen forest management in the Peruvian Amazon by improving the capacity of local governments and indigenous groups to monitor wood production on a transactional (community) and regional (indigenous federation) level. This will be achieved by adapting and applying IFC's wood production tracking program (C.O.C.A) to the Peruvian context in community-company value chains and indigenous federations to document volume of round wood harvested and transported by species (the program does not include on-site processing by communities but could be modified to do so).
In addition, it will improve the ability of companies to invest in communities with optimum development impacts by providing in-service training, company-specific analyses, and workshops to communities and companies that lead to the development and implementation of strategies for long-term community engagement monitored annually by involved parties.
RESULTS
The wood-tracking program (SimproFOR) is now available for use by companies and communities in Peru. Costing functions (but not manufacturing functions) have been added to the program and a userâs manual is complete and ready for use by OSINFOR and GIZ. Both the public and non-profit entities are ready to apply the program in the upcoming harvest season (June-Oct 2015). Comments from government officials and support organizations indicate that widespread use of SimproFOR will allow the country to improve the transparency of wood flow and help companies/communities increase their efficiency.
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Last Updated : 06-16-2024
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Attachments
Annex 3. CCAH, Peru SIA Case Study 2011_small_0.pdf
Annex 2. GuateCarbon, Guatemala SIA Case Study 2011 Edited_small_0.pdf
Annex 1 Surui Carbon Project SIA Case Study 2011_small_0.pdf
Report on SIA Case Studies for PROFOR_0.pdf
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Authors/Partners
Authors: Forest Trends'Ă Michael Richards and Steve Panfil with key inputs by Nigel Pitman, Steven Price, Natasha Calderwood and Julie Fischer.Partners: Forest Trends and CCBA, with Rainforest Alliance and Fauna & Flora International (FFI).Sponsors: PROFOR, Morgan Stanley, USAID-TransLinks, GEF-UNDP, Rockfeller Foundation and NORAD provided financial support.
Social Impact Assessment of Forest Carbon Projects (toolkit)
CHALLENGE
Are land-based carbon projects good for local people?
Many rural communities are keen to embark on carbon projects as a way of generating income, jobs, and other social benefits. Offset buyers are also attracted to the idea of reducing emissions and simultaneously helping local people. Others are wary that these projects may do more harm than good. However, until recently, there was no clear methodological guidance for carbon project developers to track social and biodiversity impacts. The combination of robust standards for assessing the social performance of projects, and the use of credible methods of social impact assessment could help ensure positive outcomes for local people.
The emphasis in the early years of the carbon markets has been mainly on assuring the integrity of project emission reductions; co-benefits have received much less attention. But the balance is changing, and there are justifiable concerns that co-benefits must, like carbon, be real, âadditionalâ and, as far as possible, measurable. This is partly necessary for market confidence as offset buyers increasingly seek evidence that they are getting what they pay for, including co-benefits. On ethical or equity grounds, carbon projects must at the very least âdo no harmâ (See related IIED conclusions on REDD+ in the miombo drylands.)
A cost-effective and credible impact assessment toolbox would help carbon project developers meet the verification requirements of the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards and contribute to building more robust, sustainable projects.
APPROACH
In response to such issues, Forest Trends has formed an alliance with three other NGOs â the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), Rainforest Alliance, and Fauna & Flora International (FFI) â to produce a user-friendly Manual for project proponents on how to conduct cost-effective and credible social impact assessment. Support for this project comes from PROFOR, Morgan Stanley, NORAD, GEF-UNDP, and USAID-Translinks.
The manual is intended for carbon offset project designers and implementers who are not specialists in monitoring and evaluation (M&E).
The Manual was field-tested in 2010 in Brazil, Guatemala and Peru.
RESULTS
Forest Trends released a first version of its manual in June 2010, proceeded to test it in the field (see case studies listed on this page) and solicited feedback. A second version, which integrated biodiversity concerns as well, was released in the fall of 2011 in three parts: a core guidance document and two toolkits (for social and bioversity impact assessments).
Guidance to project developers has been provided by regional training workshops held in Peru (June 2010), Tanzania (October 2010), Kenya (August 2011 with GEF-UNDP funding) and DRC (September 2011 with USAID-Translinks funding). This has resulted in training of approximately 80 terrestrial carbon project developers and other REDD+ stakeholders from about 10 countries. These workshops involved hands-on training using ârealâ REDD+ projects as case studies over a period of 3-4 days.
In Tanzania, the Tropical Forest Conservation Group (TFCG) REDD project in Lindi District has undertaken a large scale SIA exercise in 2011 following their participation in the SIA Training workshop in Zanzibar in October 2010.
FINDINGS
Experience during field testing and further training in social impact assessment shows that the benefits of using the âtheory of changeâ approach to impact assessment go well beyond the generation of a credible social monitoring plan which can meet the CCB or other multiple benefit standards. These wider benefits include: strategic project design necessary for achieving social and biodiversity objectives (clear objectives are essential for identifying monitoring indicators); participation of project stakeholders; promotion of adaptive project management; and the ease of understanding and explaining the results to a range of stakeholders.
Keys to better participation of local stakeholders include the quality of the âfocal issue working groupâ facilitators (so the latter need to be more carefully selected and trained); some prior training or exposure for community participants; the use of a âpractice activityâ to develop good practice consultation skills; and various issues around the more effective participation of local stakeholders, especially women.
Based partly on the costs in the three case studies, the authors estimate that the cost of generating a credible social monitoring plan using their approach will be in the range $25,000-35,000 depending on various factors.
For stories and updates on related activities, follow us on twitter and facebook , or subscribe to our mailing list for regular updates.
Author : Authors: Forest Trends'Ă Michael Richards and Steve Panfil with key inputs by Nigel Pitman, Steven Price, Natasha Calderwood and Julie Fischer.Partners: Forest Trends and CCBA, with Rainforest Alliance and Fauna & Flora International (FFI).Sponsors: PROFOR, Morgan Stanley, USAID-TransLinks, GEF-UNDP, Rockfeller Foundation and NORAD provided financial support.
Last Updated : 06-16-2024
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Photos from the March 2013 workshops
Toolkit for Forest Control and Supervision
Attachments
PROFOR_WrkingPaper_ToolkitForestControlSupervision%20_0.pdf
Keywords
Toolkit for Forest Control and Supervision
CHALLENGE
Recent developments in trade policies of key timber consumer countries, such as the amended US Lacey Act, EU Timber Regulation, and the Australian Governmentâs Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill, as well as the ongoing implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), have increased the need for producer countries to ensure verification of the legal origin of timber.
However, for the most part, tropical timber producer countries are not adequately prepared to meet such requirements. Compliance with responsible economic, social and environmental practices by forest operators is often limited to a few showcase areas. This is even more evident in indigenous community forestlands with high commercial value timber species, where loggers and traders often engage in unfair commercial practices, illegal logging, over-harvesting and timber theft with severe negative impact on the economy of indigenous and local community households.
Monitoring the origin and volumes of round wood and processed timber in forests, lumber yards, sawmills and timber warehouses is often limited. This is primarily due to weak institutions, poor governance and corruption in the forest sector. In many cases, poor implementation of policies is explained by âlack of capacity, limited operational budgets, high cost of needed technologyâ and âremotenessâ of the forests./p>
APPROACH
PROFOR and the EU and DFID funded Forest Law Enforcement and Governance trust fund (FLEG-TF) have financed several innovative activities in Central American and Amazonian countries to improve forest governance and prevent forest crimes. In addition to facilitating policy dialogue, conflict resolution, capacity building and analytical work on governance, this technical assistance has also focused on designing low-cost tools for forest control and supervision.
These tools were primarily designed for government officers from forest control and supervision agencies in tropical countries seeking to implement timber legality verification systems. Bundling them into a single toolkit is likely to make their application easier, more efficient and more widespread throughout the timber supply chain and across a number of high-value timber species.
The Toolkit will include:
- A field manual for the verification of the legal origin of timber based on timber volume yield tables;
- Guidance for monitoring economic benefit sharing and environmental practices in logging contracts between forest industry and Indigenous Peoples communities;
- A handbook for inspections of sawmills and other processing facilities.
RESULTS
This activity is ongoing. Inputs from forest technical staff and indigenous peoples' leaders from Central and Latin America were gathered during two workshops held at CATIE in Costa Rica in March 2013. Their suggestions and contributions are feeding into the design of the forthcoming Forest Control and Supervision Toolkit. Short video interviews with some of the workshop participants are available in this album and on this page.
Further findings will be shared on this page when they become available. Follow us on twitter or join our mailing list for regular updates.
For stories and updates on related activities, follow us on twitter and facebook , or subscribe to our mailing list for regular updates.
Last Updated : 06-16-2024
