In recent years CIFOR’s research has placed considerable emphasis on ensuring National Agricultural Research Institutes, policy makers and the development community have access to advanced analyses and techniques in theareas of policy making and public management. One example of this is in Brazil.
According to CIFOR’s Patricia Shanley, Brazil’s Government showed great foresight in 2006 by holding a multistakeholder seminar to formulate transportation policies for non-timber forest products (NTFPs).The Brazilian Environmental Protection Agency in collaboration with the Environment Ministry invited select community leaders, NTFP traders, industry representatives and academics to contribute to a policy discussion onNTFP regulation and trade.
CIFOR contributed various findings to the debate,including research data on NTFP certification in Asia,Africa and Latin America. The Center’s work identified over regulation as a serious impediment to NTFP accessand trade, and highlighted the difficulties communities often face in attaining certification.
The one bright exception in CIFOR’s generally gloomy report was Brazil. According to the study, Brazil is now a world-leader inNTFP certification. This is due mainly to its pro-poor stanceon policy development and its active support in facilitating industry-community partnerships.
CIFOR’s involvement in the debate included its workwith scores of Brazilian researchers to synthesize findings regarding the marketing and management of some 20major NTFPs. Collectors, traders and policy makers also contributed their perspectives on forest products.
According to Shanley, one key finding was that,“the value of forest goods mean very different things to different people. Therefore, multi-stakeholder processes are needed to adequately formulate policies and practicesfor NTFPs.”
Given CIFOR’s reputation in NTFP research, copies of its findings were sought by some of Brazil’s leading forestrydecision makers, including Dr. Antonio Carlos Hummel, Director of National Forests for Brazil’s Environmental Protection Agency (IBAMA).Dr. Hummel was familiar with CIFOR’s work from anearlier request in 2006 for the Center’s help in an NTFP policy discussion with senior officials in the nation’s capital, Brasilia.
CIFOR was asked to present its findings on therole of NTFPs in livelihood support and its analysis of how legislation and certification might impact on managing and marketing NTFPs. At the same meeting, the Directorof Brazil’s National Forestry Program (PNF), Joberto Velozode Freitas, presented a vision of the future of Brazil’s NTFPsthat included examples from CIFOR’s recently published, Beyond Timber: certification of non-timber forest products.
At the more recent multistakeholder seminar,participants discussed NTFP legislation in small groups.Dr. Hummel touched briefly on the difficulty in developing NTFP transportation regulations. To illustrate his point tothe groups, he said “Whenever I think of legislating NTFPs,I think of Ver-o-Peso”, a chaotic open-air market in Belems warming with hundreds of traders selling tons of barks,fruits, fibers, roots and tree resins.
Recommendations from the majority of participants supported Dr. Hummel’s analysis, agreeing NTFP transport authorizations were overly bureaucratic and should be removed,except in the case of threatened and CITES-listed species. Often, the documented suggestions from “participatory”meetings are left to collect dust in a hidden corner of the host agency. Fortunately, IBAMA proved different.
Only one month later, on August 21st, a representative for the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency said, that largely as a result of the meeting, “transportation authorizations will no longer be needed for ornamental, medicinal, and aromatic plants – bulbs, fibres and leaves of native or planted plants” and that the Forest Origin Document would replace the Authorization of Transportof Forest Products. Further confirmation of how multi-stakeholder policy processes benefit decision making arrived in November2006 in an email from IBAMA’s General Coordinator ofForest Resource Management, Dr. José Humberto Chaves.
Dr. Chaves wrote, “The (Brasilia) workshop also paved the way for the formation of other norms, such as the recently published Decree no 5.975/20061 . I believe the conclusions of the workshop were the result of the input of all of the participants… Clearly the experience of CIFOR contributed significantly to the consensus of ideas surrounding this decision.”
This experience confirms the value of multistakeholder policy processes. IBAMA deserves high praise for showing the rest of the world that a positive attitude towards inclusive policy making can produce significant and beneficial change. For the hard workers toiling in the field collecting NTFPs, life is a bit easier now Brazil’s new policies allow them to trade more freely in forest goods.
________________________________________
1 Decree 5.975/2006 refers to the exploration of primary vegetation orvegetation in the advanced stages of regeneration in the Atlantic Forest,and the Sustainable Forest Management Plan pertaining to this region.