Workshop on Sustainable Productive Forest Landscapes in Mexico

CHALLENGE

The Government of Mexico has recently approved an ambitious Plan (PRONAFOR 2014-2018) with a vision to transform the forest sector into a competitive and socially-inclusive sector that would boost rural economy in Mexico. To achieve its objectives the PRONAFOR is based on a transversal approach, which contemplates the collaboration and coordination of its activities with a number of other government entities, including the Ministry of Agriculture. However, the multiplicity of government actors operating in the rural sector in Mexico under a set of dispersed and fragmented functions makes the necessary inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms difficult to materialize at the operational level, since experience with such mechanisms is scarce. Disseminating information and learning from the experience of successful models that have achieved territorial integration both within Mexico and abroad, will be important in order to promote the landscape approach envisioned by PRONAFOR.

APPROACH

The main objective of this activity is to equip stakeholders with information and good practices for handling challenges and opportunities to implementing a multi-sectoral and inter-institutional landscape approach. This will be done by creating a space for multi-stakeholder dialogue and analysis around the challenges and opportunities for the implementation of PRONAFOR’s landscape approach. In particular, a workshop will be coordinated and focus on the multi-sectoral and inter-institutional coordination mechanisms that are required in order to allow for the implementation of the different sectoral programs in an integrated manner at the territorial level.

RESULTS

The forum, held April 7-8, 2015, in Mexico City, gathered decision makers from the various sector administrations (agriculture, forest, finance) and levels of government (federal, state, local), as well as representatives from the civil society and the private sector. Three international experts were invited to present different experiences related to sustainable productive landscapes and to share successful experiences and knowledge focusing mainly on how different sectors interact in the territory and how different activities may be aligned in order to promote sustainable and integrated rural development. In total, 50 people attended the forum.

The report “Modelo de Intervención en las Áreas de Acción Temprana REDD+” was distributed by the National Commission on Forests (CONAFOR) in advance of the forum, guided the discussions during the two-day forum.

As a result of the forum, CONAFOR and the Ministry of Agriculture (SAGARPA) agreed on a road map (ruta crítica) to enhance collaboration both at the federal and local levels. Minutes of the forum (including the road map) were published on CONAFOR’s website. Further dissemination was done (by CONAFOR and the Bank – see the blog “Many challenges – Many rewards: working together to strengthen forest sector in Mexico”.

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Last Updated : 06-16-2024

Supporting Forest Stakeholders' Participation in Forest Consultative Councils

CHALLENGE

Lack of community participation in forest control and supervision often hold back efforts to improve forest law enforcement and solve issues affecting indigenous people and local community's livelihoods and access to forest resources.

APPROACH

The aim of this activity was to support grassroots organizations targeting forest stakeholders at communal, municipal and departmental (sub national) levels in Honduras to establish Forest Consultative Councils as mandated by the new forestry law (Ley Forestal Decreto 98-2007).

RESULTS

This activity implemented by Comisionado Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (CONADEH) promoted the organization of 88 Forestry Communal Councils and 24 Municipal Councils in four departments of Honduras with important forest areas (Olancho, Yoro, Francisco Morazán and El Paraiso), specifically in the area of influence of the Forests and Rural Productivity Project (PBPR) financed by the World Bank.

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Author : CONADEH
Last Updated : 06-16-2024

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

Strategy to Combat Illegal Forest Activities in Guatemala

APPROACH
Since 2008 in Guatemala the World Bank's FLEG program has supported the national forest authority (Instituto Nacional de Bosques INAB) by providing assistance in the implementation of the Strategy to Combat Illegal Forest Activities. In its initial phase this assistance aimed to develop the necessary analytical work to understand the institutional, socio-economic and environmental causes of illegal activities.

RESULTS
Outputs included :

• a proposal for policy and legislative changes and adjustments  resulting from analytical work and a technical proposal for institutional changes to improve the implementation of the Strategy to Combat Illegal Forest Activities;
• a technical proposal to improve current forest control and supervision procedures (forest licenses, timber mobilization permits, logging volume control, complaints, etc) and a manual for forest control and supervision;
• a financial and cost effectiveness analysis of forest fees, royalties, other revenues and taxes, and a proposal for consideration of  new forest fees;
• an information system containing baseline data and information related to illegal activities in the forest sector;
• a training program targeting staff from INAB and other government agencies and groups involved in the implementation of the Strategy to Combat Illegal Forest Activities;
• and a national communications and awareness program targeting the general public related to illegal practices in the forest sector.

Available here in Spanish is a cost-benefit analysis of illegal activities in the forests sector and a proposal to strengthen INAB's control of the forests sector. 

NEXT STEPS
In February 2010, INAB’s Board of Directors approved an Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Illegal Logging. The Action plan includes legislation and regulatory changes to reduce illegal activities, review current forest fees, design forest control and supervision plans and campaigns, develop forest audit protocols and plan and initiate capacity building activities.

The implementation of this plan, developed on the basis of analytical work and technical proposals previously sponsored by the FLEG Program, demands the cooperation of various public administration and law enforcement agencies and stakeholders. PROFOR-FLEG is helping strengthen forest control and supervision through its activity Auditing timber supply to the Guatemala forest industry.

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Author : INAB, CATIE
Last Updated : 06-16-2024

State Forest Enterprise Reform Dialogue in Vietnam

CHALLENGE

Over the past two decades, several countries have reformed their state forest institutions to improve the management, administration and governance of forest resources, and the delivery of products and services from forests in response to changing market and public demand. Reforms have focused on strengthening economically and environmentally sustainable forest management.

In Vietnam, a series of restructuring steps have taken place over the past 15 years. However, progress towards transforming state forest enterprises (SFEs) into commercially viable businesses based on sustainable forest management principles has been slow, incomplete and often stalled. The most recent reform effort included the stipulation of Decree 200 in 2004, which aimed to develop and implement reform plans for SFEs, including specific plans for forest classification, forestland allocation, asset valuation, equitization, business planning, commercial timber processing sector development, and improving social and economic opportunities. Despite this, the reallocation of forestland from SFEs to communities, which was viewed as a core element of reform, has been particularly slow.

SFEs in Vietnam control about 40% of all forestland and are believed to still hold substantial forest estates, including some of the most valuable natural forests. Significant uncertainty exists, however, regarding the extent and quality of these remaining forests. Illegal logging, poor governance and vested interests are complicating the overall picture. Vietnam’s natural forest resources are important for rural development, poverty reduction and upland livelihood security since most of the remaining natural forests are located in upland areas where the poorest ethnic minority populations are concentrated.

APPROACH

This PROFOR-financed activity proposes to develop and support a deeper forest sector policy dialogue in Vietnam. A second objective is to complement the World Bank’s overall dialogue and program on state-owned enterprise reform in Vietnam by adding a specific perspective on forest resources management.

Expected outcomes include increased capacity of key stakeholders, particularly the policy research institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, to carry out performance assessments and scoring of SFEs and to formulate reform needs.

More specifically, the activity is expected to produce:

• Review of the policy framework for SFE reform and the legal aspects of equitization.
• Review of business prospects of two SFEs, concerning forest assets, land use rights certificates, and other data required for good management.
• Methodology and application of forest valuation techniques for two SFEs: The valuation of property uses three basic approaches: (1) the comparable sales approach; (2) the replacement cost approach; and (3) the income approach. Investors will mainly use the income valuation approach. To anticipate what buyers/investors will bid, the government should use the same approach with some sensitivity analyses to bracket the likely valuations of foreign investors. 
• Business plan development, one for each of the pilot SFEs demonstrating how the SFEs can improve their operations over time to become more efficient and profitable.
• Synthesis report, providing key information for understanding the situation relative to SFEs, their commercial value, and the policy environment relative to proposed sector reforms that is summarized in the main report.

In short, implementation activities include: stocktaking; a literature review of legal requirements; development of a scoring methodology and audits; review of land use, livelihoods and social issues; determining commercial prospects of SFEs; and a final synthesis report.

RESULTS

This activity is ongoing, and technical work is underway. Local experts have reviewed the regulatory framework for SFE reform and a stakeholder workshop was conducted in July. The pilot SFEs have been engaged and two technical missions were conducted to ensure readiness and participation. A preliminary analysis of each SFE was conducted, information was collected concerning assets and holdings, and draft commitment letters were drafted to formally engage the SFEs. The final synthesis report is expected by the end of June 2015.

The activity has concluded and all the outputs are being finalized for publication. Findings from the study show that:

There are 139 SFEs with 1.95 million hectares of forest, however, only 30 have commercial potential from plantation. These SFEs will have to be studied further to scale up their success in terms of their location, size, structure, financial structure, land tenure.

Additional measures to speed up reform might include (i) improving forestry and business practices to enhance efficiency and increase profits; (ii) providing incentives for and facilitating the merger of smaller SFEs to produce economies of scale; (iii) securitizing SFEs Land Use Rights Certificates; (iv) allowing for the sale and transfer of SFE Redbooks; (v) streamlining the policy framework and developing outreach programs to investors; (vi) developing practical and realistic approaches for mitigating potential employee layoffs that are expected as a result of the reform; (vii) certifying assets and holdings; and (viii) providing high-quality information to the public and potential investors. Technical assistance will be needed to guide SFEs through the financial reviews and asset valuations, develop business plans, sort through land tenure issues, improve forest and business management, and help resolve employee and labor situations, among others.

The study also finds high foreign investor risk due to shortcomings in individual SFEs and the complexity of the policy framework, posing a challenge for equitization. On the other hand, Vietnam is a favorable market in terms of environmental conditions for rapid tree growth, high prices for wood products, and close proximity and access to Asian markets. Capitalizing on assets in the sector while overcoming weaknesses in individual SFEs and simplifying the regulatory environment will be key to moving forward on reform and ensuring economic growth in the forest sector.

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Author : World Bank
Last Updated : 06-16-2024

South-South Learning: From Payments for Environmental Services to REDD+ in Latin America

CHALLENGE
Governments are increasingly aware that REDD+ frameworks will need to include benefit sharing mechanisms that promote social and environmental safeguards while seeking full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities (as stated in UNFCCC Decision 1/CP.16 adopted at COP16 in Cancun in December 2010). How to design and establish REDD+ frameworks and policies in countries while guaranteeing equitable benefit sharing mechanisms and adequate incentives for REDD+ purposes, however, is less clear and a significant challenge for countries trying to get ready for REDD.

APPROACH
The experience of payments for environmental services (PES) systems set up in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Ecuador in the last decade provide valuable inputs for shaping REDD+ strategies in participating countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Costa Rica has implemented a nationwide PES program since 1997; Mexico since 2003; Ecuador since 2008. Between them, these programs are currently helping to conserve over 3 million hectares of forests. Their experience shows how to make PES work, but also -- problems to avoid.

This activity supported by PROFOR will help share technical lessons from PES for REDD+ within the context of a South-South learning exchange initially limited to the REDD+ countries in the region. 

Although the challenges related to the appropriate design and implementation of REDD+ go beyond those of PES schemes, the PES experience in these three countries could provide insights on many of the core elements of a future REDD+ strategy. The lessons fall into five areas: 

1. Participation agreements

2. Equity or social objectives

3. Trade-offs and synergies between multiple (ecosystem) benefits

4. Measuring, reporting and verification (MRV)

5. Sustainable finance and administrative costs

RESULTS

The lessons of payments for environmental services systems set up in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Ecuador were identified and discussed in a participatory fashion, that has gradually created a regional and global community of experts around PES/REDD+ issues.  

In the process, participants identified and captured twenty-nine lessons, now available in reports in English, Spanish and French on this page.

Some of the lessons gathered under the header "Sustainable Finance in PES and REDD+" include for example:

• Diversify funding sources and duration of contracts to reduce risks.
• Enable legislative framework to engage the private sector: Use public funding during formulation, preparation and during first phases of implementation, then a combination of incentives/market funds to attract the private sector.
• Clearly define objectives and baselines, and use adaptive management techniques to improve targeting: Avoid if you can “post-modeling” baselines. Try “ex-ante” baselines if you can. Most PES schemes are now “post-modeling” which is costly and not the best choice.
• Explore options to control administration costs: Strengthen current institutions and technical teams instead of setting new ones or depending exclusively on external consultants 

The sharing of lessons across borders has helped attract interest from other partners such as FCPF and the World Bank Institute and extended the reach and longevity of these lessons. For example, six webinar sessions co-organized by the World Bank Institute and “Finanzas Carbono” attracted about 1,200 participants.

Through outreach and back to back presentations to the participants committee of the FCPF, the policy board countries of UN REDD, the Partners of the REDD+ Partnership, countries of Forest Eleven and Finanzas Carbono, the activity has reached approximately 54 countries including many countries preparing national REDD+ strategies.  Time will tell if countries will make use of PES lessons in the design of their respective REDD+ strategies when they submit their REDD+ preparation plans for evaluation in 2014-16.

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Author : Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, the World Bank (Latin America Caribbean Region, Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, World Bank Institute), Forest Trends, with support from PROFOR.
Last Updated : 06-16-2024

Reform of State Forest Management in Northeast China

CHALLENGE
The reform of state forest management has become a priority issue in Northeast China. Unlike the collective forest areas of Southern China, Northeast China's state forest enterprises (SFEs) have not been successfully transformed. A decline in timber productivity (due to overexploitation and degradation of forests) has been acompanied by economic stagnation and heavy fiscal obligations toward state forest enterprise workers, leaving SFEs highly dependent on subsidies and transfers.

APPROACH
Although the World Bank has been an important partner of the Chinese government in the forestry sector over the past 20 years (supporting over 3 million hectares of plantation establishment and over 1 million hectares of protected areas), its engagement on forestry policy reforms has been limited. With PROFOR support, the World Bank's East Asia and Pacific staff sought to inform policy and institutional reforms in key state forest management areas in Northeast China, to promote the transformation of practices toward economic viability, sustainable forest resource management, and local livelihood security.

The resulting study, State Forest Reform in Northeast China: Issues and options, was published as a Working Paper by PROFOR in October 2013.

Research for this study coincided with the Government's internal evaluation of the first phase of the Natural Forests Protection Program (1998-2010) and the formulation of the program's second phase.

The study drew on several background reports including: a historical review of forest management in the Northeast China by the State Forest Administration; an analysis of extensive data on forest resources and socio-economic conditions from two surveys conducted in 2005 and 2009 surveys by Jintao Xu and Xuemei Jiang; and a critical review of performance and lessons at existing pilot reform sites and state forest enterprises, by Yuehua Wang and Zhenbin Gu. The background papers were originally written in Chinese and shared at a workshop held in Beijing in May 2012. Several of the background papers are available in translation in the annexes of the document

MAIN FINDINGS
The study considers three options for institutional reform:

• the centralization of state forest management;
• the decentralization of local management responsibilities to the province;
• and a combination of the two, with clearly delineated functions and responsibilities.

Ultimately, whichever option is pursued requires current functions and control to be reallocated, and this issue remains divisive and politically sensitive.

The paper concludes by stressing the importance of consolidating stakeholders’ interests to create a common vision for the reform. The assessment of the ongoing pilot reforms will provide a solid foundation to evaluate options for moving forward, though the reforms will need to be set in the context of the wider challenges of social service provision, infrastructure development, and achieving an appropriate balance between resource extraction and protection.  There is considerable scope for the northeastern forests to support the local and national economies, through timber extraction as well as diversified uses including tourism and nontimber forest products.  Achieving this requires central government leadership to reform the current system and put in place the necessary institutional framework and incentive structures.

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Author : Professor Jinato Xu, leading expert on Chinese forestry at Peking University
Last Updated : 06-16-2024

Redesigning the Mexican Forest Fund to support sustainable forest management

BACKGROUND
The Government of Mexico recognizes the critical importance of forests as a natural asset for domestic socio-economic development as well as for the environmental services they provide. The Government’s commitment to this agenda is evidenced by its participation in relevant international fora, such as President Calderon’s statements on REDD+ at COP 16 in Cancun, Mexico’s leading role in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and a new partnership with Costa Rica and Ecuador to learn lessons about how Payment for Environmental Services programs in those countries can create conditions for future REDD+ implementation.

CONAFOR (Comisión Nacional Forestal) was created as a decentralized agency by decree in 2001 with the objective of developing, supporting, and encouraging productive activities related to conservation and forest restoration, and of applying the policy of sustainable forest development. To that end, CONAFOR’s main financial instrument is the Forest Fund which:

• facilitates access to financial services
• promotes projects to integrate and increase the competitiveness of production chains
• develops mechanisms for payment of environmental services
• promotes bonds associated with the conservation of forest resources
• and also channels direct subsidy payments to communities to support activities such as reforestation, soil conservation, community forest management, and payments for environmental services.

CHALLENGE
The size of the Forest Fund and the scale of its operations have grown tremendously since its inception in 2001. The number of transactions has increased from about 200 per year to about 12,000 and the size of the fund has grown from about 20 to 600 million dollars. Also, some additional financial mechanisms have been created linked to the Forest Fund, such as a guarantee fund for forest plantations. In addition, it is expected that the Forest Fund will play an enabling role as part of the financial architecture that will be used to manage new financing associated with REDD+.

APPROACH
In light of Mexico’s changing circumstances and needs, CONAFOR and the World Bank proposed in 2011 to collaborate to redesign the Forest Fund so that it becomes a state-of-the art, best-practice financial mechanism, by:

• identifying key desirable features in the Forest Fund emerging from the current climate discussions and current and future needs,
• identifying international good practices relevant to Mexico’s needs (this desk review would build on previous work supported by the UNFF and its Ad-Hoc Expert Group on Forest Finance, and work on national forest financing strategies supported by Tropenbos, the NFP Facility, as well as others)
• providing summary recommendations and options for the redesign of the Fund that are feasible in the Mexican legal context.

RESULTS
This activity was closed in April 2012 because of lack of progress with the proposed analytical and policy support.  However the redesign of the Mexican Forest Fund is underway.

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Author : World Bank Latin America and Caribbean Region, CONAFOR
Last Updated : 06-16-2024

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 Government’s 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 “lack of capacity, limited operational budgets, high cost of needed technology” and “remoteness” 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.

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Last Updated : 06-16-2024

The Role of CITES in Controlling Illegal Logging

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has some limited ability to assist range states (countries where species occur) to tackle illegal trade.

The Role of CITES in Combating Illegal Logging, published in 2006, reviews the relevant provisions of the Convention and examines experiences of how CITES has been used to address the problem of illegal logging for several CITES-listed tree species. The study authored by TRAFFIC, a joint program run by WWF and IUCN, benefited from PROFOR and World Bank financial support.

It provides examples of species from each of the Convention's three appendices:

• Alerce Fitzroya cupressoides (Appendix I—species imminently threatened with biological extinction),
• Agarwood Aquilaria malaccensis (Appendix II—species not currently threatened but may become so if trade is not regulated),
• Big-leaf Mahogany Swietenia macrophylla (listed in Appendix III from November 1995; included in Appendix II effective 15 November 2003), and Ramin Gonystylus spp. (Appendix III—species listed by an individual State in an effort to enlist international cooperation to control trade from their country). 
   

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Author : Chen Hin Keong, TRAFFIC
Last Updated : 06-16-2024