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. In 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. |