Carbon forestry: Who will benefit?
Proceedings of Workshop on Carbon Sequestration and Sustainable Livelihoods, held in Bogor, February 2005
Murdiyarso, D. and Herawati, H. (eds)

Carbon sequestration projects that combine land use, land-use change and forestry activities can play a leading role in promoting sustainable economic development and reducing climate change.

Under the current rules of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol, carbon sequestration activities are limited to afforestation and reforestation.

Properly designed, these projects conserve and increase carbon stock while enhancing rural livelihoods. Although such projects have been implemented in a number of countries with different ecosystems and social settings, they do not necessarily comply with current CDM requirements.

Nevertheless, they demonstrate how the participation of low-income rural communities in sustainable forestry, agroforestry and other natural resource management activities can play an important role in reducing climate change while also providing for local livelihood needs.

This publication is a collection of the lessons learned from a number of case studies, ranging from small to large scale projects, community to corporate activities, and development to conservation initiatives. The studies also address a range of strategies and issues for influencing future rounds of climate negotiation.

Fresh tracks in the forest: assessing incipient payments for environmental services initiatives in Bolivia (Available in English and Spanish)
Robertson, N. and Wunder, S.

Proposals to create agreements where beneficiaries of environmental services directly pay landowners to provide and protect these services are generating worldwide interest. But much of the discussion is still at the drawing board stage.

As yet, little is known about how current Payments for Environmental Services (PES) actually operate in the real world.

This work assesses a range of PES and related activities in one country, Bolivia, with particular focus on carbon sequestration, protection of watershed services, biodiversity and aesthetic landscape values.

The report concludes that while none of the generally new PES initiatives fully conform to text-book PES theories, many of them experiment with some of the relevant PES mechanisms.

Protection of watersheds and landscape values are the most common, though the implementing agencies often have an eye towards safeguarding biodiversity.

Obstacles to successfully implementing PES include ideological resistance against the PES concept, difficulty in building trust between buyers and sellers, and service users’ reluctance to pay.

During their short lifetime, basically all initiatives have provided economic benefits to those who provide or protect the environment. On the other hand, the effectiveness in achieving environmental objectives and securing positive social impacts are more variable.

In some cases, redesigning them so they better adhere to text-book PES principles could achieve better environmental and livelihood outcomes.

Payments for environmental services: Some nuts and bolts
CIFOR Occasional Paper 42.
Wunder, S.

This paper aims to demystify PES for non-economists, starting with a simple and coherent definition of the term. It then provides practical ‘how-to’ hints for PES design. It considers the likely niche for PES in the portfolio of conservation approaches. This assessment is based on a literature review, combined with field observations from research in Latin America and Asia. It concludes that service users will continue to drive PES, but their willingness to pay will only increase if schemes demonstrate clear additionality in relation to carefully established baselines, if trust-building processes with service providers are sustained, and PES recipients’ livelihood dynamics is better understood. PES best suits intermediate and/or projected threat scenarios, often in marginal lands with moderate conservation opportunity costs. People facing credible but medium-sized environmental degradation are more likely to become PES recipients than those living in relative harmony with nature. The choice between PES cash and in-kind payments is highly context-dependent. Poor PES recipients are likely to gain from participation, though their access might be constrained and non-participating landless poor could lose out. PES is a highly promising conservation approach that can benefit both buyers and sellers and improve the resource base, but is unlikely to completely replace other conservation instruments.

Recent experience in collaborative forest management: A review paper
CIFOR Occasional Paper 43.
Carter, J. and Gronow, J.

Collaborative forest management (CFM) is loosely defined as a working partnership between key stakeholders in the management of a given forest.

This paper reviews worldwide experience in CFM to date, considering the forms it takes in different tenure situations. Overall, CFM mechanisms are diversifying, reflecting a greater recognition of the need for partnerships in forest management.

Entrenched power structures within government institutions and communities often hinder efforts to promote social justice and sustainable livelihoods through CFM. Nevertheless, examples exist of local people gaining a strong, legally backed voice in forest management.

Worldwide, CFM is proceeding in differing degrees. Some of the most rapid CFM developments have occurred in developed countries, where government institutions are well funded and accountable, and civil society well organized.

But the most significant gains made to date are probably happening in the developing world, where local people are beginning to enjoy real partnerships in forest management, based on recognised rights of use and access.

Fighting forest crime and promoting prudent banking for sustainable forest management: The anti-money laundering approach.
CIFOR Occasional Paper 44.
Setiono, B. and Husein, Y.

Stopping illegal logging would be a lot easier if the only culprits were poor villagers, truck drivers and forest rangers.

But with the involvement of financiers, legal timber companies and government officers, illegal logging is a complex problem not only for Indonesia, but for the international forestry community.

Traditional law enforcement approaches fail to capture the masterminds behind illegal logging. A new and perhaps more effective method is to use anti-money laundering laws that track the illicit money made by the 'Mr. Bigs' of the illegal timber trade. This approach requires banks and other financial service providers to be more active and prudent in dealing with the financial transactions of their customers - customers who may include financiers, legal timber companies and government officers.

Proper implementation of anti-money laundering laws can promote prudent banking practices, encourage sustainable forest management and curtail forest crimes.

The Politics of Decentralization - Forests, Power and People.
Colfer, C.J.P. and Capistrano, D. (eds)
Earthscan Forestry Library

“Around the world, people are struggling to find ways to get local governments and communities more involved in managing their own forests, while still protecting national and global interests. It is not easy. Some of the sharpest thinkers concerned with this issue share their own experiences and understanding in this volume, which is right at the cutting edge.” David Kaimowitz, Director General, CIFOR

The Politics of Decentralization examines the huge, global and local impacts of decentralization on forests, biodiversity, conservation and the livelihoods of people. It includes case studies from Europe/UK, North and South America, Asia, Australia and Africa. The research underpinning The Politics of Decentralization came from a range of international forestry and conservation organizations including CIFOR, IUCN, WWF, UNFF, ITTO, FAO, USFS, World Bank and ProForest

Logging in the Congo Basin: a multi-country characterization of timber companies
Forest Ecology and Management 214(1-3): 221-236. 2005.
Ruiz Perez, M.; De Blas, D.E.; Nasi, R.; Sayer J.A.; Sassen, M.; Angoue, C.; Gami, N.; Ndoye, O.; Ngono, G.; Nguinguiri, J.C.; Nzala, D.; Toirambe, B.; Yalibanda, Y.

Industrial logging has always been the subject of strong debate, especially in the Cogo Basin. This study covers 31 logging concessions in the five International Tropical Timber Organization member countries of the Congo Basin.

Based on a detailed questionnaire and published statistics, the concessions are categorized by their country of operation, legal status, age, size, origin of capital and market focus. Each of these factors and their relationship with each other in the different concessions influence the type of logging methods concession-holders use.

The study’s results lend partial support to some common generalisations about logging companies of different size and location, such as national concessions tending to have higher processing rates that create more jobs.

On the other hand, nuances in the findings contradict some conventional views. Thus, some large concessions may use better management tools than smaller ones, while some national concessions may exert a higher pressure on their allocated forests.

For details about these and other CIFOR publications contact: n.sabarniati@cgiar.org