This insights brief begins by outlining the global challenges of land degradation and the corresponding international commitments. It highlights the central role of nature-based solutions (NbS), particularly FLR, as a pivotal strategy for combating land degradation and mitigating climate change. It then outlines Kenya’s FLR priorities, describes the monitoring of FOLAREP outcomes at national and county levels, and underscores the importance of robust land-health indicators. It highlights the use of the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry’s (CIFOR-ICRAF’s) Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) for the systematic landscape-level assessment of soil and ecosystem health and its integration with the Regreening App, emphasising the importance of citizen science for effective NbS monitoring. Initial LDSF results for Makueni and Taita Taveta sites are presented and the co-created UK PACT NbS Dashboard is introduced, illustrating how clear, accessible evidence can enhance transparency, support adaptive management, and strengthen policy coherence and decision-making. The brief concludes with key insights for effective NbS monitoring drawn from the UK PACT experience.
Tag: assessment
Assessing people’s perceptions of forests in Danau Sentarum Wildlife reserve
Previous research identified three important issues of relevance to forest people’s roles in sustain- able forest management which we address here: the presence of a Conservation ethics, a feeling of closeness to the forest, and a significant forest-culture link. In this paper we examine a method (the Galileo), recently pre-tested for this purpose in West Kalimantan, which we hope can help us to assess such issues quickly, reliably and in a quantitative manner amenable to use by would-be assessors of various educational and experiential levels. We describe the method, suggest improvements for future tests, and present some of our findings from West Kalimantan. We conclude with questions that emerged during our pre-test, and others that remain for subsequent research.
Initiatives on assessing sustainability: status and future directions. Summary of the Open Session of the Third International Project Advisory Panel (IPAP) meeting on Testing Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Management of Forests, Turrialba, Costa Rica, February 29 – March 1, 1996. CIFOR/ CATIE Special Publication
In a year marked by several formal expert-level meetings on certification of forest management and criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management (C&I), most of which were related to the mandate of the Inter-governmental Panel on Forests (IPF), CIFOR and CATIE decided to lead off by hosting an informal meeting of experts from a cross-section of important certification and C&I initiatives. Our desire was to facilitate an effective exchange of information between these initiatives, providing feedback to CIFOR, CATIE and other research institutions involved in the development of sustainability assessment methods and with a view to preparing the ground for subsequent IPF-related meetings in Kuala Lumpur, Brisbane, Bonn and Helsinki. The meeting was conducted under the umbrella of the International Project Advisory Panel (IPAP) of CIFOR’s project on “Testing criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management”. This CIFOR/CATIE special publication is a report of the meeting. It contains an essay-type summary of the major points raised at the meeting and short summaries of twelve presentations made during panel discussions. The conclusions of this meeting will hopefully be an aid to other groups working on sustainability assessment and C&I.
Capacity Needs and Technical Barriers to Achieving Our Global Restoration Ambitions (Target 2): Insights from five pilot countries Burkina Faso, Kenya, Peru, Viet Nam and Brazil, and global-level reflection meetings
To successfully implement Target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) and achieve restoration at scale, it is essential to address key knowledge and capacity gaps, as well as technical barriers. Insights from five national dialogues held in Brazil, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Peru, and Viet Nam, along with reflections from two capacity assessments, one from the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration Best Practices Task Force and one from the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Subsidiary Body Early Actions Support.
Combining multicriteria decision making and geographic information system for assessing forest sustainability
This paper describes an integrated framework for assessing the sustainability og managed forests. The framework builds on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). Sustainability of forests is assessed in terms of Criteria and Indicators (C & I) as proporsed by a number of national and international inititatives. MCDM procedures are used to help: 1) identify appropriate C & I; 2) prioritize and select a set of C & I to be used for sustainability assessment; and 3) develop a technique that can be used to estimate a “sustainability index”. GIS on the other hand, will be used for: 1) generating and displaying needed information for the C & I assessment; 2) serving as the platform for doing spatial analysis; and 3) acting as the modeling environment for the estimation of a geographically-specific “sustainability index value”. The integrated GIS-MCDM approach is participative, transparent, systematic, and objective. Mixed data (i.e, qualitative and quantitative) can be accomodated. Various methodologies dealing with multiple criteria, multiple decision makers, and the hierarchical structure of C & I will be described. Formal models will be described; each model designed to address different issues in the C & I hierarchy. The integrated approach will be applied and tested using actual forests managed and operated by a timber company in Indonesia.
Measuring the holistic performance of food and agricultural systems: a systematic review
Assessing the performance of food and agricultural systems is crucial for their transformation toward sustainability, health, and resilience. To ensure agrifood systems serve multiple functions effectively, a holistic systems perspective is essential. Previous reviews of assessment methods have focused mainly on farm-level evaluations, often lacking a comprehensive framework for holistic analysis. This study evaluates 206 assessment approaches based on four key principles of holistic systems assessment: (1) measuring multiple dimensions of performance, (2) integrating diverse stakeholder perspectives, (3) evaluating emergent system properties, and (4) collecting and presenting data to reveal interactions, synergies, and trade-offs for informed decision-making. While recognition of holistic assessment is growing, most evaluations remain narrowly focused on performance metrics, with only 14% of assessments addressing synergies and trade-offs and 26% considering emergent system properties. A shift toward systemic framings, such as agroecology, is observed, highlighting the importance of broader contextual approaches. The study concludes that no single assessment framework can universally apply across all agrifood systems due to their inherent diversity. Instead, it emphasizes the need for clear guidance to help practitioners navigate existing methods and develop tailored assessments that address specific needs. The meta-framework proposed in this review offers structured guidance for designing effective holistic systems assessments, ensuring more comprehensive evaluations.
From “participation” to “rights and responsibilities” in forest management: workable methods and unworkable assumptions in West Kalimantan, Indonesia
This chapter reports the results of research in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, originally designed to assess quickly and easily the level and nature of participation by local people in forest management. The authors briefly describe pertinent results from their assessment methods. Although the functions initially anticipated for participation are not wrong, they reflect a way of looking at forest management that were concluded needs rethinking. In the discussion of the change needed, Jordan’s concept of “authoritative knowledge” and “social” or “cultural capital” was used. The authors also suggest substituting “rights and responsibilities to manage the forest cooperatively” for “participation” in places like Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve (DSWR). Important remaining policy-related issues include the variations in quality of local management systems, values held by the different stakeholders, and potential productivity of individual systems. Finally it concludes that, given the dynamism and complexity that characterise natural forests and their inhabitants, cooperation among all stakeholders in an ongoing dialogue is most likely the only way that sustainable forest management can in fact occur.
Biodiversity and Invasive species assessment information dissemination workshop Report
Evaluating and selecting criteria and indicators of forest sustainability: a case study on participatory assessment under CBFM in the Philippines
This paper describes an application of multi-criteria analysis (MCA) in evaluating and selecting criteria and indicators (C&I) of forest sustainability. The method was applied on a case study involving a forest area managed under the Community-Based Forest Management System of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Experience gained from the study indicates that MCA is a suitable tool for the systematic evaluation of C&I including validation of previously developed national set of C&I, modification of the validated set by incorporating other externally generated C&I, and ultimately, prioritization of the C&I according to their perceived importance.
Multiple criteria decision making approaches to assessing forest sustainability using criteria and indicators: a case study
This paper describe the use of multiple criteria decision tools for assessing criteria and indicators designed to evaluate sustainable forest management. Three techniques called ranking, rating, and pairwise comparisons are described and used within the framework of a generic set of criteria and indicators applied in a case study involving a forest concession in Kalimantan, Indonesia. For the case study, an assessment team consisting of national and international experts representing various disciplines was chosen to conduct an assessment of the forest concession. The criteria and indicators (C&I) developed by the Center for International Forestry Research were used as a reference. From this generic set of C&I, the assessment team made revisions to make the set more relevant to the prevailing conditions in the forest concession. This modified set was used in the assessment of the concession. Results from the study indicate that these techniques are effective tools both for selecting sets of criteria and indicators and eventually for prioritising them. The methods are highly transparent, easy to understand, and offer a convenient environment for participatory decision-making. These are desirable features of any evaluation but most especially for a complex assessment problem such as forest sustainability.