Forests and Livelihoods (LIV) Programme Strategy

Transcription

1 Overall goal Forests and Livelihoods (LIV) Programme Strategy The overall goal of the Forests and Livelihoods Programme is to enhance livelihoods by contributing to improved policies and practices related to the management and use of forests and forested landscapes. Introduction The Forests and Livelihoods programme is concerned with how policies and practices related to the management and use of forested landscapes affect poor forest-dependent people. Since non-sectoral factors are an important element of this, the programme gives them particular consideration. The programme also pays attention to the links between livelihoods and sustainability, in coordination with CIFOR s programme on Environmental Services and Sustainable use of Forests. More than 240 million people live in forested regions. Many are poor and depend on forests for income. Forest-based activities in developing countries provide an equivalent of 17 million full-time jobs in the formal sector and another 30 million in the informal sector, as well as 13-35% of all rural non-farm employment. Developing countries produce $30-40 billion dollars worth of timber and processed wood products each year, though only a small portion of this currently benefits poor households. About two billion people depend primarily on fuelwood, charcoal, and other biomass fuels for their energy. The World Health Organization estimates that two billion people rely on traditional medicines for their health, most of which come from forests. Hunting and fishing provide over 20% of household protein requirements in 62 developing countries, and much of this takes place in forests. Global attention is focused on poverty as articulated in the MDGs. Even conservation agencies are bringing poverty into their work. Forests are often places with great poverty, but they also represent an important resource which could help people get out of poverty. If the MDGs are to be achieved, Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSPs) and similar policies will need to include forested regions and forest-based activities. That, in turn, will require targeted research on the current and potential contribution of forests to alleviating poverty. Natural forests are under severe threat in many developing countries. The poor stand to suffer in some cases, but to gain in others. This poses difficult issues about how to reconcile poverty alleviation and conservation. Previous efforts to achieve this have had modest success. That has led to a growing consensus about the need for new approaches, as reflected in recent statements by the World Bank, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Challenges and opportunities There are many challenges to improving the well-being of people dependent on forests. These include: 1) expanding forest-based employment and income opportunities; 2) finding ways to keep forest resource depletion from negatively affecting livelihoods; 3) changing property rights and regulatory regimes to increase households access to forests and forest-based incomes; 4) identifying conservation strategies that favour livelihoods, while achieving conservation; 5) making smallholders more competitive in global markets by helping them overcome market, capital, technical, and management 1

2 constraints; and 6) addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS on local peoples use of forests. Focus of the Forests and Livelihoods Programme The programme will focus on five topics: 1) Improving household incomes from forest-based activities through better access to markets, credit, and technology. Rapid urban population growth and increasingly global markets are creating new opportunities for smallholders to produce, process, and market forest products. The program will do research designed to help low income households to take advantage of those opportunities. 2) Encouraging a more equitable distribution of forest resources and benefits. Forests are a valuable resource and will remain so. Poor rural households have been largely excluded from receiving the benefits of this wealth. Livelihoods research will identify what changes are needed to change that. 3) Equitable and efficient partnerships between forestry companies and smallholders and communities. Forest industries increasingly look to small producers and communities to secure raw materials. They also want to manage their resources more sustainably, establish good relations with communities, and reduce conflicts. Livelihoods research will provide tools and information to make these partnerships a success. 4) Adaptive approaches to integrating conservation and development. These approaches are emerging in response to the critical evaluations of previous Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs). Livelihoods research will extend and refine their use. 5) Using payments for environmental services (PES) to reduce trade-offs between livelihoods and conservation. There is increasing interesting in paying forest owners and managers for providing environmental services. Governments have established compensation schemes and encouraged the creation of markets for environmental services. Consumers are demanding more fair trade and green products. Livelihoods research will identify under what conditions these approaches are likely to be viable and how to increase the livelihood benefits they provide. This will be closely coordinated with research on PES within the Environmental Services and Sustainable Use of Forests Programme. To manage this research agenda, the Forests and Livelihoods Programme is structured around two themes, Improving Human Well-being through Forests and Managing Landscapes for Sustainable Livelihoods. The first theme focuses on the household level. The second theme gives more emphasis to the landscape level. 2

3 Theme One: Improving Human Well-being through Forests Goal To improve human well-being through enhancing local forest-based practices, promoting small-holder involvement in industrial forestry, and increasing the forestry content of poverty alleviation policies, strategies and programmes. Sub-Theme Objectives 1) Forest Biodiversity, Local Practices, Human Livelihoods and Health To provide community based organizations, educational and extension authorities, health providers, private companies, traders, and local NGOs with market, technical, and management information needed to improve the practices of rural people. 2) Forest Industry and Local Livelihoods To identify strategies and practices for improving the involvement of small-holders and communities in the forest industry. 3) Poverty Alleviation Policies, Strategies and Programmes To ensure that poverty alleviation policies, strategies and programmes take into account forests and forestry in a way that promotes rural livelihoods. Geographic Focus Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Nepal, South Africa, Tanzania, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Key issues and opportunities The rapid growth of domestic markets for forest products has created opportunities for low-income households. These include markets for fuelwood and charcoal, poles, lowgrade construction timber, low-cost furniture, medicinal plants, and other non-timber forest products. In countries where companies find it difficult to find large areas for pulp wood plantations, small farmers may become suppliers of pulpwood. Research under this theme will enhance local practices by making management, market and technical information on how rural people can benefit more from forests available to service providers and others. It will also work with forest industries to improve their partnerships with small-holders. Successful involvement of smallholders and communities in forest industries depend on suitable corporate strategies, appropriate institutional and legal frameworks, and supportive national policies. Research under this theme will focus on identifying best practices in this regard, in particular the conditions under which pro-poor outcomes emerge. The theme s activities also aim to get poverty alleviation strategies, programmes and policies to take into account forests and forestry in a way that promotes rural livelihoods. The role of forest products in helping people meet subsistence and safetynet needs has been documented but rarely well quantified. Much more work is needed to move from generalities about forests being important to having the data required to get forest-related issues incorporated into mainstream poverty reduction strategies and policies. Research under this theme will generate some of that data. The Programme is establishing a PhD network through which the students will undertake detailed, comparative, household economic analyses. 3

4 CIFOR is well placed to work on this theme since it builds on previous research on forest product use and marketing, the relations between forest and poverty, and the impacts of extra-sectoral factors. CIFOR is widely recognised as an authority in this arena. Environmental NGOs who are seeking to integrate concerns about poverty into their work have welcomed CIFOR s efforts and multilateral agencies have called on CIFOR to contribute to their policies and dialogues. In some countries CIFOR is training extension workers and educators and encouraging them to develop innovative extension materials and activities. Given the importance that development and conservation agencies attach to pro-poor approaches, well-targeted research with clear products for specific users will have major impact. Expected Results International processes, organisations, and donors The researchers working on this theme will disseminate their results to intergovernmental agencies and processes, donors, and international NGOs. They will work directly with the international organizations involved, as well as prepare guidelines and policy briefs and present results at meetings these groups attend. As a result of this research, international environmental conventions will incorporate new concepts into their agreements, inter-governmental agencies and donors will modify their positions and funding patterns, and international NGOs will change their policies and projects. This, in turn, will influence national government policies, especially those concerning poverty reduction. In particular, these actors will give greater attention to the importance of forests for poverty alleviation and specific forest-related policies for reducing poverty will be incorporated into national poverty reduction strategies. The World Bank, regional development banks, bilateral aid agencies, and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) will be key audiences when it comes to poverty reduction strategies. The CBD, bilateral aid agencies, and international environmental NGOs will invest more in forest resources that research has identified as being vital to livelihoods, but vulnerable to loss. They will also incorporate lessons about local use of biodiversity into measures designed to promote sustainable management. The FAO, ITTO, and UNFF will promote the best practices identified by research for partnerships between private sector forestry companies and small-holders and communities. Global thinking The work on forest biodiversity, livelihoods and local practices should influence the research agendas of other researchers and their institutions, as well as academic debates about how appropriate management, use and marketing can enhance the roles of biodiversity in livelihoods. This will be achieved by disseminating the results of this research through papers in top scientific journals, presenting findings at selected scientific meetings, and fostering public interest in the issues through articles in publications such as National Geographic. Lessons from research on company community partnerships and their contribution to poverty alleviation will be made available through FAO, IIED and CIFOR publications and face-to-face meetings with key stakeholders. To change perspectives on forestbased poverty alleviation at least one article per year will be submitted to journals such as World Development, the World Bank Research Observer, or Development Policy Review. A book on poverty-forest linkages will be produced for publication by an international publisher. 4

5 Regional and national policies and processes At the request of Brazil s National Forest Programme (PNF), CIFOR s research and recommendations promoting a pro-poor concept of forestry are being integrated into that country s national forestry training programmes. The PNF specifically requested material about non-timber forest products and cultural and social values. To help create a new generation of forest managers and decision makers to operationalise this pro-poor vision, CIFOR is working with DFID to transform the Federal Agricultural University (UFRA) in Para. It is also working with health, agricultural and forestry training programmes to reform curriculum and training. The Secretary of Education, universities and national botanical gardens will design forest-related health and educational materials based on CIFOR s research and disseminate them to municipal schools. Indonesia s Minister of Forestry wants timber plantations to achieve positive social as well as economic and environmental outcomes. Projects under this theme will inform on-going discussion at various levels of government about how to make that operational. NGOs, companies, and communities will be key participants in that. CIFOR will conduct research to help Zambia develop a beekeeping policy, in response to a request by Zambia s Department of Forestry. CIFOR will also provide the Department with guidelines on how to structure Zambia s important tree-oil industry. Guidelines on how to take forest resources into account in PRSPs will be prepared jointly with national partners involved in PRSP development. The programme will focus on Vietnam and the broader Mekong region, and dryland Africa, particularly Burkina Faso, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. International agencies assisting these efforts include ADB, IBRD, SIDA and DFID in the Mekong region, and AfDB, IBRD, EC, the Nordic countries, and the secretariats of Southern African Development Community (SADC) and East African Community (EAC) in Africa. The World Bank and the Indian government have spent over a billion dollars on forestry projects designed to restore the degraded forests and improve rural livelihoods in that country. The programme is helping to develop methods for monitoring the impact of such investments on livelihoods in Jharkhand, India, which may have wider applicability. Results at specific locations Understanding the socioeconomic, ecological and cultural factors that enhance or inhibit successful management of critical forest resources can directly assist forest communitie. Making research results about market structure and prices available to vendors of forest products in Cameroon and the dry forests of Africa has strengthened their bargaining power and that will increase in the future. Research findings on the links between diet and disease among forest-dependent communities in Malinau, Indonesia, will be used to design educational materials for the district s health providers. Other such initiatives are being investigated, including community-based management of locally important planted trees such as iron wood and eagle wood. Project outputs will help improve existing policies, institutional arrangements, and the functioning of out-grower schemes of private companies, government agencies, and NGOs operating in case-study areas. Tools developed for economic assessment of partnership arrangements will enable both the companies and smallholders to be better informed and to negotiate more equitable contractual agreements. In the case of the study communities in India, China and Nepal, CIFOR s activities will strengthen the understanding of both forestry staff and civil society about the contribution of forests to 5

6 poverty alleviation, and how this can be built into project design. In this regard, project personnel will also interact with people involved in other IFAD projects. Capacity building The students involved in the PhD Network will participate in training workshops on people-forestry issues, research methods and data analysis. At least one training course on action research and capacity building methodologies will be held. To engage more students and educational institutions in the discussion, a web site will be established on forest-poverty relationships. In Latin America, one goal of the projects on Biodiversity and Local Livelihoods is to build capacity to conduct multi-disciplinary research, particularly among women scientists and forest extension workers. A number of postgraduate students in South Africa, Burkina Faso, India, Indonesia and the Mekong countries focusing on livelihoods and forest-based poverty alleviation will be supervised by CIFOR personnel or associates. This will channel new ideas into each country involved. Guidelines on achieving mutually beneficial partnerships and related training material will be produced and used to train extension workers in government, NGOs and private companies. Special attention will be paid to developing materials that can be used in post-graduate teaching. Major Projects Sub-theme: Forest Biodiversity, Local Practices, Human Livelihoods and Health A network of PhD students is being established to investigate the contributions of forests and forest products to livelihoods and the local economies of people dependent on forests in a number of locations, as well as how these functions can be protected and enhanced. Household-level studies in Malinau (Indonesia) and that form part of the dry forest project in Africa (Burkina, Zambia, Tanzania), will provide complementary data. Studies are underway on the use and marketing of different species. These are mainly in Brazil, South Africa and Cameroon, but also in the numerous countries covered by CIFOR s global comparison of forest products. The programme s research on markets for forest products in the moist forests of Central Africa aims at improving the marketing strategies and income of local communities. A project on strengthening the capacity of civil society to improve poor people s access to forest-based benefits is being implemented in India, China and Nepal. The programme also has a working group on forests and human health involving CIFOR researchers and partners. It is examining the impact of the depletion of forest resources on health care and research on the links between forests and health can contribute to better public health policies. This group will host an international workshop of experts and produce a book on the topic to encourage cooperation between those involved in public health and those concerned with forestry. Sub-theme: Forest Industry and Local Livelihoods CIFOR, FAO, IIED, ANU and partners in government, the private sector and among NGOs have identified ways forest industries can address poverty alleviation while meeting industry objectives for secure wood supplies. The programme hopes to continue in this direction through a global project on enhancing company-smallholder forestry partnerships. A similar project with more limited geographic scope is being implemented in eastern Indonesia and the benefits the logging industry provides local people is being investigated in a range of humid tropic sites. 6

7 Sub-theme: Poverty Alleviation Policies, Strategies and Programmes Work under this sub-theme will focus on areas where the forest-dependent poor are concentrated: South Asia, China, the Mekong basin, and dryland Africa. This includes research on using improved industrial and community forestry to alleviate poverty in the upland communities of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lao PDR. There is also work to develop research and monitoring tools for understanding the contribution of forest resources to poverty alleviation in forest fringe areas in India. CIFOR is engaged with the NEPAD secretariat in South Africa and with the PRSP process in selected sub- Sahara African countries to identify pathways to poverty alleviation within the region. This sub-theme will also serve to coordinate and integrate research on different aspects of poverty and poverty alleviation across CIFOR s three programmes. 7

8 Theme Two: Managing Landscapes for Sustainable Livelihoods Goal To improve governmental and non-governmental conservation and development policies and projects by helping policy makers and project managers understand how their actions affect livelihoods and land use and how to take advantage of synergies between livelihoods and conservation and reduce trade-offs. Sub-Theme Objectives 1. Conservation and Development To help agencies design and implement better landscape-level conservation and development projects by learning from the successes and failures of past initiatives and understanding the trade-offs and synergies between livelihoods and conservation. 2. Landscape Dynamics and Livelihoods To assist development agencies and national governments to design and implement more effective projects by taking into account economic, demographic, technological and social changes, forest policies, land-use dynamics and livelihoods. Geographic Focus Bolivia, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Indonesia, South Africa, Tanzania, Vietnam, Zambia. Key issues and opportunities Forests are still being destroyed at unprecedented rates, causing biodiversity loss and ruining some livelihoods. However, since others benefit, this destruction continues. Initial optimism about using Integrated Conservation and Development Programmes (ICDPs) to achieve both objectives has given way to growing recognition of tradeoffs between the two. One way to achieve both objectives within a landscape might be to find a mix of land uses that satisfies livelihood and development needs while maintaining forest cover in certain areas. Another would be to pay individuals or communities to provide environmental services (PES). This would provide income, while inducing people to forego destructive land-use practices. Research under this theme helps those involved in such initiatives discover new knowledge and learn from past experiences. It focuses on tools to analyze and reconcile landscape level land use changes and their impact on livelihood and determine when it is appropriate to use compensation payments. CIFOR is well placed to work on this theme due to its previous studies on the causes of deforestation, links between poverty and the environment, integrated natural resource management (INRM), and adaptive collaborative management (ACM). It also has substantial experience working with other agencies at a landscape scale. Expected Results International processes, organizations, and donors CIFOR will support major international conservation and development agencies and processes by helping to improve the approaches they use and the policies that guide them. CIFOR has already helped to refine the ecosystem approach of the CBD, and will help the CBD and UNCCD to put the approach into operation. 8

9 Through partnerships with key international NGOs such as CARE, IUCN, and WWF, CIFOR will attempt to change the way they implement their activities. By working with these agencies in specific landscapes, CIFOR has an opportunity to disseminate its findings widely, as the agencies are likely to apply them at other sites where they operate. Inputs to the CGIAR challenge programmes will provide further opportunities to apply the approaches and tools CIFOR advocates to major applied research initiatives. Given the international scope of these initiatives, impacts at numerous sites can be expected. Work under this theme will target key decision makers in donor organisations to provide information about when investing in INRM is likely to be advantageous for both forests and livelihoods. CIFOR is an active participant in the Katoomba Group, an international forum of key individuals from donor agencies, NGOs, universities, and private companies involved in promoting and designing PES. This provides a good opportunity to share lessons about what types of PES are most likely to contribute to livelihood and environmental goals. Bilateral and multilateral donors can be important buyers of environmental services, and CIFOR will continue to build their knowledge, understanding and confidence in this new tool. CIFOR will continue to identify general principles about the impact of economic, demographic, technological and social changes on landscapes and their implications for livelihoods. Such changes are likely to affect families access to farm land and forest resources, their health and nutrition, and their migration patterns, among other things. These principles will be used to inform the Land Use and Cover Changes project (LUCC) of the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the Largescale Biosphere Atmosphere experiment (LBA) in the Brazilian Amazon, in which CIFOR participates actively. The programme also aims to expand existing associations and discussions with international NGOs, such as Conservation International in Indonesia and the Global Forest Watch initiative of the World Resource Institute in Latin America and Central Africa. Global thinking Through publications, presentations at key international meetings and opportunities for joint research CIFOR will engage educational institutions involved in training students in conservation and development. This includes contributing to programmes of the proposed CGIAR Open University. The aim is to produce a new generation of theorists, planners and implementers of conservation and development programmes, including those involved in PES. Regional and national policies and processes A better understanding of the drivers and results of land-use change will allow national governments and regional bodies throughout the tropics to consider what policies and programmes they should implement to ensure such changes benefit people and forests. CIFOR s work in Bolivia and Vietnam is aimed at heightening national awareness of the opportunities for, and constraints on, PES. The programme will engage with Proambiente, an expanding rural credit and development programme in Brazil, which aims to reward farmers who produce environmental services. Results at specific locations Through the Rainforest Challenge Partnership, a global set of sites will be established at which INRM will be implemented, evaluated and refined. A conservation strategy for the Sub-Tropical Thicket Biome in South Africa is being instituted. In 9

10 Malinau, CIFOR s main INRM site in Indonesia, CIFOR will try to influence key stakeholders there to change the development trajectory, using insights and information derived from studies in the district and elsewhere. In the village of Setulang programme scientists continue to negotiate a biodiversity-based PES. Improved monitoring procedures for Joint Forest Management (JFM) / Community Forestry (CF) will be put into practice and tested in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. Capacity building The capacity of people in Malinau to manage landscapes will be enhanced and Setulang Village will learn to implement a PES scheme successfully. The Forestry Department in Jharkhand will be better able to monitor livelihood outcomes in JFM. Partners from the district governments of West Kutai and Malinau in Indonesia, as well as the local university, will be trained and mentored in GIS applications. By arranging exchange visits and joint activities with various European institutions as part of the ALFA project, which looks at agricultural frontier dynamics in the Amazon, CIFOR will help provide advanced training to Latin American research centres and universities. Major Projects Sub-theme: Conservation and Development Research on integrated management of natural resources will be implemented at a number of tropical rainforest sites in the context of the Rainforest Challenge Partnership, including Malinau in Indonesia. In Setulang village in Malinau, CIFOR is working to facilitate payments from a global biodiversity donor to a local community, from which lessons can be learnt on the feasibility of conservation concessions at the community scale. CIFOR is also participating in the ICRAF project, Rewarding the Asian Upland Poor for the Environmental Services They Provide (RUPES). Elsewhere, CIFOR is initiating work on PES in Bolivia, Ecuador and Vietnam. Sub-theme: Landscape Dynamics and Livelihoods Work on landscape dynamics and the impacts on local livelihoods will be conducted primarily in Indonesia (Kutai and Malinau Districts), Central Africa (Cameroon, Gabon and potentially the Democratic Republic of Congo), and Brazil. Some of the Brazilian work will be conducted within the ALFA project. Investigating the drivers of land-use and land-cover change will be a component of the Dry Forests project in African (Burkina Faso, Zambia and Tanzania), bamboo sector studies in China, and potential work on agricultural frontier development in Bolivia. 10