April 26, 2012

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FOCUS: Making It Work for Communities

REDD+ funding is supposed to motivate and reward tropical countries that act to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. But how will the funding reach forest-dependent communities to translate this idea into practice?      

 

This is where well-designed benefit sharing mechanisms could make a difference. A country's benefit sharing mechanism will determine who is involved in REDD+ activities and the ways in which benefits are shared. Existing evidence indicates that the establishment of a suitable benefit sharing mechanism is achievable, provided realities on the ground and key implementation challenges are anticipated and addressed effectively.    

 

PROFOR's recently published volume Making Benefit Sharing Arrangements Work For Forest-Dependent Communities provides insights for REDD+ initiatives gathered from experts and nine in-depth benefit sharing case studies drawn from Nicaragua, Tanzania and Uganda.

  • The first part of this work provides guidance on how to implement benefit sharing when there are multiple systems of rights and discusses the role of contracts in benefit sharing arrangements when rights to resources are unclear.  
  • A second part presents the four fundamental building blocks of a benefit sharing mechanism and provides guidance on how to select the right mechanism in a given country context. An interactive tool (based on Excel) guides users through the decision making process.  
  • The last part shows that well-thought benefit sharing mechanisms can change people's behavior. The most effective systems evolve over time to deliver greater benefits to local partners.  
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HEADS UP

 

Forest Governance: For the past two years, PROFOR has been working closely with a number of partners from developing countries, development agencies and civil society organizations, to define a common understanding of forest governance and a set of common diagnostic principles and tools. That work has been progressing steadily. Next month, PROFOR will finalize a user's guide to a forest governance diagnostics tool which was first tested in Burkina Faso.  

 

That approach has already inspired a forest governance assessment in four regions of Russia which concluded with a successful seminar in Moscow and an interest in renewing the exercise on a regular basis. Benchmarking governance will provide the background for a presentation by PROFOR's Nalin Kishor at a IUFRO International Seminar in Sarajevo, May 9-1, 2012 ("Improving Forest Governance: Creating the Right Conditions for Change.") Also on the near horizon is an Expert Group meeting on guidance for forest governance data collection, at FAO headquarters in Rome, on June 7-8, 2012.  

 

Other events: PROFOR will present recently completed work at the 2012 World Conservation Congress in Jeju, South Korea. Look out for PROFOR's participation at the 21st session of the FAO Committee on Forestry in Rome on 24-28 September 2012.   

 

Using Forests to Enhance Resilience to Climate ChangeIn the pipeline: Analysis looking at how to use forest ecosystems for adaptation to climate change is under way. We have published a working paper, submitted by CIFOR, on the "state of knowledge" in this area. Field work will be looking at adaptation uses in Burkina Faso, Honduras and Lao PDR.

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AROUND PROFOR

 

PROFOR is celebrating its 10th year in Washington DC. When PROFOR moved from UNDP to the World Bank in 2002, it gained privileged access to the largest source of multilateral financing for forests and a deeper understanding of the forest sector in a wide range of developing countries. We've added a page to our website tracking our impact over the years.

PROFOR's facebook pageDoes Facebook work for you? We're giving it a try. Like us -- or better yet, write to us -- so we don't feel so lonely! 

Photos: Header by Jeremy Horner/Panos; beach with mangroves in Vietnam; screen shot of PROFOR's Facebook page; cover of Benefit Sharing report.

 

Inside this Update

 

FOCUS

Making It Work
for Communities

 

HEADS UP 

 

AROUND PROFOR 

Topics
 

Livelihoods

Governance

Financing SFM

Cross-sectoral

Landscape Restoration

REDD+

Agriculture
More...
Newly Published
  
Cover

Making Benefit Sharing Arrangements Work for Forest-Dependent Communities

 

PDF
Abstract

 

Recent Field Notes
 

Testing a forest governance diagnostic tool in Russia

Free lunch in the shade of a Marula tree

Simple and effective, VERITAS calculator could complement FLEG-Trade work

A perennial perspective

Wrapping your brain around the global "forest sink"

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