Tropical Forestry

An overview of the forestry sector in Costa Rica was undertaken to determine whether the existing management practices of timber resources hold the potential to meet the country's demands for timber in the immediate decades to come, and to identify changes that might be needed in the management of forested lands. To meet these goals, we examined the present status and potential future contribution of the two newest forest sectors: the management of natural forest and plantation forestry. Rcsults indicate that the present management of Costa Rica's timber resources does not hold the potential to meet the country's demands for timber for more than the next ten years without severe loss of its forests. Substantial progress is occurring, but at an insufficient rate. Moreover, despite the considerable headway made in conservation in recent years, the rate of deforestation remains high. A number of factors limit advancement in natural forest management and plantation forestry, both of which have the potential to deaccelerate deforestation. In natural forest management, constraints are the rate at which forests are being brought under management, lack of budgetary provisions for fiscal incentives to private owners who alone cannot be expected to bear the cost of benefits of natural forest management that are national or even global in their distribution, and the weak infrastructure, extension services and research support to meet management goals. In the case of plantation forestry, the capability of this sector to produce commercial timber is not known. Moreover, inadequate management and extension services together with the misuse of the incentive system by private owners is likely to limit the potential of plantations. Institutional constraints include outdated legal and bureaucratic framework, market interventions, absence of clear policy toward natural forest management and plantation forestry, poor investment in infrastructure, extension and research support, and inadequate interaction among various agencies responsible for the development of the forestry sector. Such institutional constraints have allowed the proliferation of disincentives against the development of a sustainable timber sector. If the Costa Rican government's objective is to encourage sustainable forestry, it must first clearly articulate the policy and then create the appropriate legal, economic and institutional framework for implementation of the policy. Costa Rica, with its enlightened public administration system, vast technical and scientific knowledge about its forest ecosystem and extensive assistance from international organizations, must succeed, otherwise prospects for sustainable forestry in thc less fortunate tropical countries would be bleak.     

Indonesia's Forest Management Units: Effective intermediaries in REDD + implementation?

Previous literature encouraged a hybrid institutional approach for REDD + implementation, where clear government policies help reconcile the rules, regulations and interests of external institutions with those of the communities involved. However, it is unclear how such an approach can be designed in the scale necessary to match local, national and international interests in protecting forests. For this reason, the functions of intermediaries deserve explicit recognition by key actors in shaping REDD + policy nationally and internationally. Indonesia is promoting the more localized Forest Management Unit (Kesatuan Pengelolaan Hutan or KPH) as a key element of forest governance reform for embracing REDD + and related initiatives. Using a case study from eastern Indonesia, we analyzed local factors driving deforestation and forest degradation. We then reviewed the work of the local KPH to examine the necessary roles of a potential REDD + intermediary. We argue that progress made by the local KPH in improving forest governance, including partnerships with local communities, is made possible by the KPH fulfilling the role of policy intermediary while taking on transformative roles reshaping internal and external relations. However, for the KPHs to fulfill their mandate as effective REDD + intermediaries, more concerted efforts from the central and provincial governments, as well as from international donors, are still needed. These include greater consistency in government policies and regulations, improved policy communications, and the commitment to strengthening the capacity of individual KPHs.     

International influence on forest governance in Tanzania: Analysing the role of aid experts in the REDD+ process

Forest governance in many African countries is characterised by a blatant gap between policy and implementation. Contrary to studies that explain this discrepancy mainly with deficient budgets and capacity shortfalls, this paper highlights aid as a cause of implementation failure: Analysing the REDD+ process in Tanzania, it reveals how donor experts employ their material and discursive power to convey ‘conservation fads’ to the country's policy domain, and to shape the latter in terms of substance and organisation. At the same time, it shows how local actors from government, civil society and academia utilise their international ‘partners’ for pursuing their own interests.The empirical findings presented in this paper are based on expert interviews and document analysis. Drawing on democracy theory and development studies, the paper points out the implications of aid and related expert advice for young democracies. In the Tanzanian forest sector, a far-reaching effect can be observed: Decision-makers routinely adjust their agenda to donor priorities without necessarily intending to put new policies into practice. While the uptake of ‘conservation fads’ promoted by the aid industry provides them direct and indirect access to resources, it prevents the emergence of responsive politics able to transform forest management on the ground.     

Governing the design of national REDD +: An analysis of the power of agency

This paper investigates how three aspects of governance systems, namely the policy context, the influence of key agents and their discursive practices, are affecting national-level processes of policy design aimed at REDD +, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries. We conducted analysis in six REDD + countries (Brazil, Cameroon, Indonesia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam). The paper combines three methods: policy analysis, media-based discourse analysis and policy network analysis. The paper shows that policies both within and outside the forestry sector that support deforestation and forest degradation create path dependencies and entrenched interests that hamper policy change. In addition, most dominant policy coalitions do not challenge business-as-usual trajectories, reinforcing existing policy and political structures. No minority policy coalitions are directly tackling the root causes of deforestation and forest degradation, that is, the politico-economic conditions driving them. Instead they focus on environmental justice issues, such as calls for increased participation of indigenous people in decision-making. Only in two of the six countries are these transformational change coalitions vocal enough to be heard, yet to exercise their agency effectively and to support more substantial reforms, these coalitions would need the participation of more influential policy actors, particularly state agencies that have the authority to make binding decisions about policy. Furthermore, discourses supporting transformational change would need to be reflected in institutional practices and policy decisions.     

The use of knowledge in evidence-informed voluntary conservation of Finnish forests

Despite calls for evidence-based policies, the process of using evidence in forest conservation policy implementation has remained unclear. In this paper, we focus on voluntary conservation and investigate complex ways to use evidence in implementation of the Forest Biodiversity Programme METSO in Finland. Data were collected via nine focus group discussions involving a total of 59 forest conservation stakeholders. Through interpretative qualitative analysis, we found that forest owners' and forest advisers' awareness of the voluntary instrument and the smooth interplay of knowledge types are important factors in implementing voluntary conservation. Knowledge use should be locally bound for policy implementation to be effective. Social relationships enable integrating local knowledge. Forest owners, advisers, authorities and other actors interpret scientific and other knowledges (and simultaneously co-produce new knowledge) in practical action. We conclude that educating forest advisers, informing forest owners, and increasing collaboration can enhance evidence flows from research to practice.     

云南省生态护林员政策实践及启示

文中以云南省为研究对象,对当前生态护林员政策进行归纳,并基于政策执行过程中存在的问题提出针对性政策建议。研究认为,在云南省生态护林员政策执行过程中,通过规范选聘流程、整合并加大资金投入力度、健全管理制度、强化管理和监督等措施,实现了云南省森林资源保护能力和农村居民收入的双重提高,并巩固了边境国土安全,优化了森林管护体系;但是,也存在着生态护林员政策与易地扶贫搬迁政策协调性不足、部分地区政策执行有偏差、部分生态护林员履职不到位、森林管护体系建设有待完善、生态护林员劳动协议存在法律性争议等问题。因此,提出了如下针对性建议:探索建立集中安置点生态护林员腾退机制、强化易地搬迁生态护林员日常管理、不断提升基层单位规范管理能力、推进各类生态管护员精细化管理、继续加强宣传培训工作。     

Reforestation policy integration by the multiple sectors toward forest transition in the Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea (ROK) started to experience forest transition in the 1960s in spite of severe deforestation and forest degradation by the mid 1950s. This ROK case followed the state policy pathway to forest transition. This study interpreted the reforestation policy of the multiple sectors in ROK with the theory of environmental policy integration. ROK has attempted an integrated policy program for reforestation, land management and social development as an innovative approach to solving the problem of flood and erosion due to deforestation while pursuing economic growth. This integrated approach to reforestation of ROK was implemented in three pillars of action: 1) coordinated national plans, 2) collaboration among the governmental branches, and 3) organizational reformation. The integrative approach helped the reforestation policy to be implemented successfully. The case of policy integration for reforestation in ROK is a good example demonstrating that policy integration should be a principle of forest policy design and implementation. The Korean experience could be informative to developing countries experiencing deforestation for design and implementation of forest policy to avoid deforestation and achieve forest transition.     

Development narratives,notions of forest crisis,and boom of oil palm plantations in Indonesia

Indonesia experienced massive deforestation in the last decades where rapid oil palm expansion has been considered as one of the main drivers. This article shows that the process of deforestation and the rapid oil palm expansion cannot be viewed in isolation from broader development contexts. Various actors at local, national, and global levels have used development narratives and poverty alleviation through various policies and institutional setting to create spaces and opportunities for oil palm development. These actors also deliberately created the notion of forest crisis by omitting the values of forest environmental services to justify forest conversion into oil palm plantations. These multiple factors shaped the speed and the direction of oil palm expansion in Indonesia. This rapid oil palm expansion in Indonesia has resulted in massive LUCC and serious environmental problems. Given these complexities, a single policy will not be sufficient when it comes to managing the consequences of rapid oil palm expansion in Indonesia.     

Towards a donut regime? Domestic actors,climatization, and the hollowing-out of the international forests regime in the Anthropocene

Political responses to global deforestation, as a defining characteristic of the so-called Anthropocene, are a key field for scholarship and policy analysis. In the past decade, research has proliferated on global forest governance and the international forest regime (IFR), yet the academic literature on the IFR is just as dispersed and fragmented as the IFR itself. An emerging body of literature now suggests the key role of domestic actors in international forest governance, questioning an implicit top-down logic of global arrangements. In spite of all the resources at its disposal, the IFR is characterised by complexity, fragmentation and ineffectiveness regarding its main objective of reducing global deforestation.Based on an extensive literature review, the authors’ long-standing observations and selected own empirical findings, this review article aims to provide an updated historical account of the IFR and proposes a from-below approach for analysing the IFR from the viewpoint of domestic actors. In this bottom-up perspective the IFR is conceptualised as a set of resources that key domestic actors can pick and choose from according to their interests and in the light of domestic politics.Using illustrative empirical examples from recent research and own observations, the article finds that the IFR is being hollowed-out by (i) the growing policy links between forests and climate change - a process referred to as “climatization”- and (ii) domestic influences. We conclude that our from-below approach is instrumental in further explaining why deforestation has largely continued, despite the emergence of the IFR some three decades ago. Our findings about the importance of domestic actors illustrate that global governance arrangements cannot operate effectively, relative to their ambitious mandate and for tackling policy issues relating to the Anthropocene, unless they are granted adequate resources and support by key domestic actors.     

Zero Deforestation Zones: The Case for Linking Deforestation-Free Supply Chain Initiatives and Jurisdictional REDD+

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) presents the idea of Zero Deforestation Zones (ZDZs) as a solution to implement private sector deforestation-free supply chain commitments by leveraging synergies between Jurisdictional REDD+, private sector initiatives, and governmental laws and regulations. Companies would source commodities that meet their deforestation commitments from jurisdictions implementing REDD+ programs, government monitoring systems, and functioning private sector initiatives. A definition of “zero deforestation” would be created through a multistakeholder process considering a number of different elements. ZDZs would align incentives between actors, generating multiple benefits for companies, governments, and local communities—including reduced costs of monitoring deforestation, low-risk areas for long-term investment, increased legal compliance, and conflict resolution between companies and local communities. Environmental integrity would also be improved because a larger area of forest would be protected, reducing risks of leakage and nonpermanence.     

Conversion of forests into oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan,Indonesia: Insights from actors' power and its dynamics

Oil palm plantations have been touted as one of the main drivers of deforestation in Indonesia. This paper aims to explain how oil palm companies accumulate power that enables them to control forestland and convert it into oil palm. Specifically, this paper identifies empirical evidence pointing to why oil palm companies emerge as powerful actors in land use conflicts. This paper uses the case of forest lands claimed by different actors – i.e. a timber plantation company, an oil palm company, and local communities – in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Before the decentralisation policy, the interests of timber plantations were principally safeguarded by coercion from the forest ministry. The timber company was also supported by local communities by promising financial incentives to them. Following the decentralisation policy, additional actors get involved in the land use conflicts leading to more complex power interplays. In fact, some forestlands licensed for timber plantations are used by the oil palm company. Oil palm interests resonate with the economic interests of local governments, who use their legal mandates on land use allocation to facilitate the establishment of oil palm. The power of the oil palm company is also enhanced by the support from local communities, to which it handed more financial incentives than those of the timber plantation. It also used dominant information of customary claims and land appropriation by the ministry of forestry, with which it persuades local communities to pressurize government institutions to support oil palm operations.     

Climate Aid Will Neither Support Forests nor the Poor: No Hope for Saving the World's Forests

Political themes undergo specific political careers. They enter and leave political agendas. Themes in development policy are, for example, biodiversity, climate change, or deforestation. While political themes change, underlying principles of aid disbursement do not. Currently the discussion on Climate Aid, in particular the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, puts again the emphasis to deforestation. Deforestation is a prominent theme, often defined as a “forest problem,” by foreign aid policies on forestry. Foresters are once again dubbed as being able to “save the World” all on their own. In fact, it is not them who on decide the priorities of foreign (aid) policy. The decisions made about cooperating countries and thematic areas do not stem from problem pressure. Political factors dominate the program formulation and financing. Analyses of European donors' forest aid reveal that, contrary to what is defined in policies, disbursements to countries, relevant to deforestation, are not prioritized. Also the goal of poverty alleviation is not served. Most of the funds are spent in countries of already relatively high human development. Countries with “rampant” corruption are given handouts as well as small island developing countries. On the basis of these results we can draw conclusions on the ability and efficiency of (future) Climate Aid that is hoped to serve forests and the poor.     

The legally allowable versus the informally practicable in Bolivia’s domestic timber market

We analyze legality in the forest sector in Bolivia, focusing particularly on the domestic timber value chain in the northern Bolivian Amazon. Bolivia adopted wide-reaching forest, land and democratic regulatory changes since the mid-1990s that were partly intended to reduce illegal logging and related practices. The new forest regulations, in turn, led to new illegal practices because implementation and sanctioning were poor, but also because new forest and land regulations were inadequate and often contradictory. In response, the government and various forest agencies adopted new measures to address the new illegal practices. These forest regulatory and forest policy renovations and modifications of the last two decades are, for instance, reflected in the domestic timber market of the northern Bolivian Amazon, a region that relies heavily on the forest sector. The paper analyzes Bolivia’s regulatory changes that were relevant for legality in the forest sector and the multiple modifications that were made to address shortcomings of these reforms. It also analyses legality in the domestic timber value chain in northern Bolivia. The new actors involved in especially the domestic timber value chain have moved away from formal and legal mechanisms to benefit from timber that grows on their land and forests to practices that were not considered or actually shunned in the law and that appear difficult to regulate. Unless these new practices are recognized adequately in a new forestry law, some of the production and trade of the timber value chain will likely continue to operate at the margin of legality.     

Monitoring Sustainable Forest Management in the Pacific Rim Region

Summary

The Pacific Rim is rich in forest resources. It contains the world's largest contiguous forest areas, high levels of biodiversity, millions of forest-dependent people, and the world's leading wood-product exporting and importing nations. However, because of a range of issues, the Pacific Rim region is also experiencing high rates of deforestation and forest degradation. An important step in addressing these issues and moving toward sustainable forest management is improved monitoring and information reporting at the local, national, and international levels. A number of criteria and indicators initiatives have been developed throughout the countries of the Pacific Rim. These have ranged from international processes to local initiatives such as forest certification. Although there is considerable variability in the issues facing forest policy makers in the countries of the Pacific Rim, it is often expected that criteria and indicators will reflect a level of comparability. This paper presents the results of a comparative analysis designed to identify similarities and differences in sustainable forest management criteria and indicators initiatives in the Pacific Rim region. When considered in the context of globalization, the research findings support international efforts to encourage comparability in sustainable forest management-related monitoring and information reporting.     

What rights and benefits? The implementation of participatory forest management in Kenya: The case of Eastern Mau Forest Reserve

The study espoused the access analytical framework to investigate how introduction of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) in Kenya has changed the various actors’ ability to benefit from the forest resources of Eastern Mau Forest Reserve. Data collected through key informant interviews, and a household survey showed that implementation of PFM has triggered new income opportunities for forest adjacent communities in seedling production and beekeeping. However, PFM bestowed no real decision-making powers to the established Community Forest Associations (CFAs) over important forest resources such as timber and firewood. Members of the local communities and other actors have continued to access these resources through various structural and relational means, in the same way as before the introduction of PFM. Further, it is documented that PFM has introduced additional burdens on the local communities, especially the poorest households, as a result of increased enforcement of rules. Based on these findings, it is suggested that the PFM policy in Kenya, in its current form, is unlikely to realize its dual objectives of forest conservation and livelihood enhancement. To attain them would require a further devolution of rights to the CFAs.     

Why did the 1980s' reform of collective forestland tenure in southern China fail?

Both the reform of forestland tenure and timber market liberalization are important for forest resources management worldwide. This paper employs a unique provincial level panel dataset of 8 National Forest Resource Inventories and related price and investment data to estimate the effects on the forest of China's reforms of collective forestland tenure and timber prices in the 1980s. The system Generalized Method of Moments with robustness (controlling for endogeneity) and fixed effects models were used to identify the determinants of these reforms for the collective forest region of southern China. Our empirical results indicate that these two reforms jointly caused deforestation and forest degradation. As much as 13.5% of the total forest area was lost, and 14.9% of the forest volume was removed. Deforestation in the 1980s was followed with widespread negative long-term impacts on forest growth and afforested area. These policy failures suggest the important lesson that a well-conceived framework for monitoring and regulation needs to be in place for successfully implemented reforms.     

Consequences of an Improved Road Network in Rural Iran: Does it Lead to Better Livelihoods and Forest Protection?

Construction of new roads in rural areas is closely linked to market accessibility and economic growth. It also leads to exploitation of natural resources that may accelerate deforestation. These conflicting effects of an improved road network on rural development and depletion of forest resources present a serious challenge to policy makers interested in sustainable development. This paper investigates the effects of road networks on biological and socio-economic behaviour. The analysis was conducted by using a non-linear bio-economic model for a community in southern Zagros, Iran where they manage the adjoining forest according to traditional rules. Data for the model were obtained through village surveys and published resources. The model followed a holistic approach by incorporating a number of livelihood activities, such as, crop cultivation, goat husbandry, charcoal production and hiring out of community labour, along with several logical resource constraints. It was run over a period of 45 years. The results showed that new roads can either fuel forest degradation or contribute to forest protection depending on the choice of policy options. The study concludes that construction of new roads should be accompanied by policies aimed at higher state controls over newly accessible forest areas through regulatory measures, creation of new non-farm employment opportunities and strengthening of traditional institutions through providing extension services for local communities and facilitating NGO involvement so as to minimize the adverse effects on forest resources.     

Prospects and challenges of tenure and forest governance reform in the context of REDD + initiatives in Nepal

This paper argues that the Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD +) initiatives in Nepal have not adequately understood and considered institutional and political issues around forest tenure and governance challenges. The paper is developed based on reviews of polices, assessments of project activities, interviews with key informants, and observation of ongoing REDD + related public discussions. We found that the REDD + initiatives so far appear to have prioritized technical issues such as carbon assessment, reference scenario, and measurement, reporting and verification of emissions. However, a major policy challenge in Nepal is the substantial deforestation and degradation going on, which leads to substantial challenges of leakage and threatens Nepal's National REDD + policy ambition. The key drivers of deforestation and degradation in Nepal are still poorly identified, analyzed and understood. Inadequate focus of Nepal's present REDD + readiness on the core issues of contested forest tenure and frail governance entails that an unrealistic policy and institutional measures would be developed in addressing these issues of deforestation and degradation. Consequently, it would seriously undermine the prospect of achieving emission reduction — the very goal of REDD +. It is suggested that a robust analysis, collective understanding and broadly agreed policy measures for curbing deforestation must be at the core of REDD + readiness process.     

蒙古国林业发展现状和中蒙林业合作展望

蒙古森林资源匮乏, 但却在防止土地退化、保持水土、提供野生动物栖息地等方面发挥着重要作用。蒙古制定了森林法规、政策和规划体系,但林业政策优先领域主要集中在防治森林火灾和病虫害及鼓励木材加工等方面。林业发展战略则偏重技术,缺乏对林业根本问题的关键性分析。林业立法将大部分森林管理职责下放至地方政府,但因其缺乏资金和技术人员,各项林业政策和规划难以得到有效执行,森林资源被迅速开发。文中介绍了蒙古林业资源和管理现状、林业政策规划及林业发展面临的问题,提出了我国与蒙古开展林业合作的领域和方式,以期为两国林业合作提供重要信息支撑。     

Dissimilar framings of forest biodiversity preservation: Uncertainty and legal ambiguity as contributing factors

Controversies over forestry and environmental issues, including biodiversity, are common. Theory suggests that uncertainty may play a major role in framing biodiversity and its preservation. This paper examines written statements on biodiversity preservation published by two major Swedish organizations, i.e., the Swedish Forest Industries Federation and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, with different interests in forest use. Frame analysis suggests that when the actors pursue a certain policy course, both biodiversity-related uncertainty and lack of regulatory clarity are important factors contributing to dissimilar framings. This case study supports the general understanding that biodiversity-related uncertainty can have important implications for biodiversity preservation, in this case, via forest policy and legislation. Scientific uncertainty may allow actors with dissimilar interests in an issue to justify their standpoints. To successfully manage forest biodiversity in the future, legal frameworks must increasingly find ways to accommodate scientific uncertainty, and models must be developed in which stakeholders' diverging interests and values address uncertainties via dialogue.