Multi-stakeholder forums (MSFs) are coordination spaces that enable discussions, negotiations, and joint planning between different kinds of actors. Proponents of MSFs claim that bringing different actors to the same table may help solve complex problems. Nevertheless, an MSF’s process and outcomes are affected by its leadership and whether participants are able to trust each other. This paper examines the influence of trust and leadership in three MSFs addressing land and resource use in three subnational jurisdictions in Indonesia. The comparative analysis of semi-structured and Q-methodology interviews carried out with MSF participants and non-participants demonstrates the following. First, that the presence of conflicting interests of different stakeholders can hinder trust-building and cooperation. Understanding the historical relationships between stakeholders, including any positive informal relationships, is necessary to build a better strategy to handle antagonism and improve collaboration. Second, different challenges within MSFs require different kinds of leadership. A shared leadership may work in an MSF with participants with a history of positive relationships. A charismatic leader is preferable in MSFs with conflicts of interest or where participants are yet to trust each other.
Tag: governance
COVID-19, Indigenous peoples, local communities and natural resource governance
We report on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), especially those who govern, manage and conserve their lands and waters. We explore the themes of access and use of natural resources, solidarity, decision-making, the role of governments and IPLCs in managing COVID-19, and the uptake of traditional medicine. These themes are explored through a global online survey in English, Spanish and French. We collected and analysed 133 surveys from 40 countries, using SenseMaker®, a software that enables analysis of micronarratives based on how respondents classify their own stories. We explore the themes further through case studies from Benin, Fiji, France, Gabon, Guyana, Guatemala, India and Madagascar, highlighting challenges and opportunities in how IPLCs responded to COVID-19. Our study underscores the importance of selfempowerment and recognition of IPLC rights, which allows them to use traditional medicines, meet subsistence requirements during lockdowns, help community members and neighbours to sustain livelihoods, and to govern, defend and conserve their territories. We propose key actions to support IPLCs navigate future pandemics while protecting their lands and waters.
Forest governance in DRC
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has implemented Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+), a process that requires inclusive decision making and accountability. Our research analyses the participation of policy actors in DRC by asking: (1) Who is involved in national REDD+ policy making and what is their interest in participating in core policy events? (2) What level of participation do the different political actors have in core policy events? (3) To what extent do the outcomes, of REDD+ policy events incorporate different preferences of policy actors? We found that although actors’ interest in REDD+ policy events have increased over time, their concerns have rarely been taken into account in decision-making processes. The presence of local civil society and indigenous group organizations is weak while international organizations play a major role in the REDD+ arena. REDD+ is treated as a project rather than being embedded in national politics.
Preliminary results of assessments on the impacts of Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) on forest networks and governance, household income and forest loss in Vietnam
Key messages
- PFES and the large number of workshops have helped catalyze or strengthen cooperation between participants, which in turn can help organizations contribute more effectively to forest governance initiatives. However, when organizations work in the same provinces, they are less likely to collaborate.
- The impact of PFES on household income depends on the levels of payments, livelihood options available in the area, the area of forest managed by households, and PFES contract types (between individual households and the fund or between village administrations and PFES agencies). There were substantial differences between study sites.
- PFES appears to have been successful in lowering rates of deforestation for forest plots that were standing in 2000. The longer PFES programs have been active in a province, the greater the expected reductions in deforestation.
- Estimated PFES impacts can vary significantly depending on the assessment method used. While this infobrief discusses the impacts of PFES on forest governance, local livelihoods and forest loss separately, their interaction could offer a more complex picture of PFES impacts.
Getting it right, a guide to improve inclusion in multi-stakeholder forums
This guide explains how to operationalize inclusion of women, Indigenous Peoples and other under-represented groups in multi-stakeholder forums (MSFs).
Around the world, MSFs have been promoted and adopted as decision making, consultation and dialogue platforms to bring together diverse constituencies to share ideas and formulate decisions in a more open and equitable. Research finds that MSFs organizers believed that their forums foster equity simply by inviting more under-represented actors to the table; however, they spend less effort in addressing the power inequalities among participants and the quality of the participation and representation of historically under-represented groups.
Getting it right focuses on the inclusion of women and Indigenous Peoples in natural resource management and governance contexts. In particular, we analyzed how these actors participate and/or are represented in spaces such as forest user group committees, co-management groups or forest commodity roundtable meetings. Our hope is that presenting cases of women and Indigenous Peoples provides insights into how different dimensions of social differentiation intersect in practice, pushing us to look at these different scales and inform us about other under-represented groups.
Getting it right provides several tools that are designed to operationalize inclusion at specific trigger points where we believe action is most effective. Our goal with this guide is to present ideas, not solutions; the challenges to inclusion are complex, and unique to every MSF.
Participation and influence of REDD+ actors in Vietnam, 2011–2019
Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) is an important component of the Paris Agreement. Inclusive decision making is essential to ensure REDD outcomes, but there is limited anecdotal and empirical evidence demonstrating that stakeholder participation in REDD+ decision making has improved over time. This paper presents an analysis of the Vietnamese government’s claim that stakeholder participation in REDD+ had been improved over the course of 2011–2019, specifically focusing on various actors’ perceptions of their level of interest, engagement and influence in REDD+ policy events. Findings show that the country’s legal framework on REDD+ demonstrated Vietnam’s political commitment to improve inclusive decision making, and initial effort was made to provide political space for actors to engage in REDD+ decision making. However, momentum has been lost over time. This suggests that understanding the political context, addressing underlying power dynamics in the existing government regime, building up coalitions for change among political elites and civil society, and fostering sustainable political will and commitment are all essential to ensuring inclusive REDD+ decision making in Vietnam.
The Potentials and Challenges of Achieving Sustainability through Charcoal Producer Associations in Kenya: A Missed Opportunity?
The charcoal industry, specifically charcoal production, is tremendously valuable to Kenya for its contribution to economic, social and environmental nexus. Considering the degradation of ecosystems and charcoal production’s critical role, the government established the Forest (charcoal) rules of 2009, assigning commercial charcoal production under Charcoal Producer Associations (CPAs). Identifying numerous bans in the recent past, this paper sets out to understand CPAs’ potentials and challenges in attaining sustainability within the sector. Using focus group discussions with CPA members from Tana River and Kitui counties, the paper outlines analysed data within the functionality, governance and policy implications parameters of operation. The findings show high economic value for the members and an in-depth environmental significance to the communities within which these CPAs exist. Thus, we propose a schematic to enhance charcoal production processes to achieve sustainable ecosystems and livelihoods. There is high potential within the CPAs for the sector’s sustainability through monitoring platforms, restoration plans, adopting sustainable practices, knowledge dissemination and societal advancement. To advance this untapped potential of these associations, we recommend building their technical, business and governance skills, exploring various restoration schemes, financial and regulatory support in implementation, and policy support.
Illegal logging, governance effectiveness and carbon dioxide emission in the timber-producing countries of Congo Basin and Asia
The empirical link between governance and illegal logging is widely accepted amongst scientist, although a minority still purports that illegal logging does not necessarily prevail because of poor governance. However, the nexus linking governance, illegal logging and carbon emission is not well enshrined in scientific literature. This paper seeks to review the literature on illegal logging and governance and empirically investigate the effect of illegal logging and governance effectiveness on carbon emission. Using panel dynamic ordinary least square method on data covering three Congo Basin timber-producing countries and three Asian timber-producing countries, this paper further investigates disaggregated effects between these two groups of countries. The empirical evidence underscores that Congo Basin timber-producing countries are characterised by increasing trend of illegal logging, poor governance effectiveness and corruption. Panel regression reveals a positive and significant impact of illegal logging, governance effectiveness and corruption on carbon emission. Asian producing countries depict a reducing trend in illegal logging and improvements in governance and corruption. There is a positive but not significant impact of illegal logging on carbon emission, and governance effectiveness reduces carbon emission. Thus, the dynamics of governance, illegal logging and carbon emission is not the same between timber-producing countries in Asia and Congo producing counties, thus suggesting the ability of institutions to curb illegal logging and enforce laws to reduce the effects of carbon emission. Multi-stakeholder consultations, government engagement, partnerships and training of control staff can help curb corruption. Legality checks should go beyond having legal documents to effectively check and control of timber concessions and small-scale logging.
Organizing farmers for effective training and capacitation for tree-based enterprises
Since the adoption of a nationwide community-based forest management strategy 25 years ago, people’s organizations (POs) have been the Philippine Government’s key partners in programs and projects in upland communities, including the Natural Resources Management Program (NRMP), the Environment and Natural Resources Sectoral Adjustment Loan Program (ENR-SECAL), and the Community-Based Resource Management Program (CBRMP). These programs have provided important lessons that have served as the foundation for recent Government initiatives. In 2018, a PO accreditation system was pioneered through the Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management Project (INREMP). This innovative mechanism to improve disbursement and increase POs’ capacity to facilitate high-quality sub-projects has, however, been confronted with implementation challenges. This brief suggests concrete actions to increase the capacity of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and POs and to simplify the complex process for POs to support their transformation into small, community-based enterprises.
The challenge of reconciling conservation and development in the tropics: Lessons from Brazil’s oil palm governance model
Due to its controversies, oil palm cultivation has been targeted by regulatory innovations. Among these, transnational efforts—such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and corporate commitments to zero deforestation have been highly influential but often tend to overvalue environmental over socio-economic outcomes. This article discusses to what extent domestic governance models of palm oil producing countries can be better equipped to reconcile domestic demands such as economic development and poverty alleviation, and transnational concerns about forest conservation. We do so by looking into the Brazilian case, where the government intended to drive oil palm expansion in the Amazon through a program launched in 2010 that simultaneously only allowed expansion into already deforested areas and offered companies incentives to engage smallholder farmers in their supply chains. Our findings, drawn from primary research activities and existing literature, indicate that Brazil has managed to avoid deforestation typically associated with oil palm expansion elsewhere. Oil palm establishment involved the conversion of 0.8% and 1.3% of primary forests for corporate and smallholder plantations, respectively. However, the Brazilian government did not manage to optimally enhance smallholder participation in the sector, as significant differences in performance were observed between farmers, ranging from very successful (17%) to highly unsuccessful (12%); and failed to achieve sectoral development and competitiveness targets. While some failings can be attributed to external factors such as context, broader domestic governance frameworks and alignments, and private supply chain initiatives, the program itself did not manage to reconcile social, environmental and economic objectives into a single coherent sectoral governance model. Yet, this case study suggests that domestic governance strategies can enable commodity production in a way that is more coherent with national priorities, at the same time as preventing deforestation and minimizing social risks more effectively.