WRI Publications Feed: Forest Landscapes Initiative

Tuning In: Tracking Wood from Honduran Forests to U.S. Guitars

Sarah Parsons — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:30:14 -0500

Executive Summary

This study focuses on two supply chains for mahogany that originate in remote biodiversity-rich forests in Honduras. These supply chains were selected because they involve small forest community cooperatives that, compared with industrial operations, have a lower capacity to respond to market requirements for legal wood, including the U.S. Lacey Act.

The study describes two approaches used to minimize the risk of sourcing illegal wood. The first approach was to establish strong relationships with the suppliers and the second was to prefer certified wood. The main lessons from this study are:

The Lacey Act requirements had little or no impact on the way the buyers managed risk for these specific supply chains, because the buyers established supply chain control systems prior to 2008 to (a) secure a long-term supply of the product, and (b) implement corporate environmental/ social responsibility policies.
Supply-chain control systems, such as barcode tracking and chain-of-custody certification, are useful tools for enhancing assurances of legality. Long-term relationships with suppliers and commitments from buyers have been important for the successful implementation of these approaches, and critical to minimizing the risk of illegal wood.
Intermediaries and facilitators play a key role in building and strengthening the technical and administrative capacity of the cooperatives to harvest and process timber.
The community cooperatives in these supply chains face various challenges: inadequate law enforcement, competing land-use pressures, drug trafficking, and competition with illegal logging. Yet the sustained demand for high-value species such as mahogany provides a powerful incentive to maintain and strengthen forest community operations.
The supply-chain control approaches highlighted in this study work, in part, because of the high value of the end product, and, because of the financial assistance of external donors that have invested in building the technical capacity and social development of the community cooperatives. In-depth analysis to understand the financial viability of the operations without such support is needed.
Although the long-term financial sustainability of the community cooperatives is unclear, the perceived community and biodiversity benefits, along with the buyers’ interest in securing a long-term supply of legal wood, are strong incentives for all stakeholders to ensure their continued viability.

This issue brief is based on a review of relevant documents, visits to the field sites and processing facilities, and a series of interviews with stakeholders. A complementary video is available at the Forest Legality Alliance website.

Case Study: IKEA's Response to the Lacey Act--Due Care Systems for Composite Materials in China

Sarah Parsons — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:05:57 -0500

Executive Summary

This study focuses on IKEA and the company’s production of composite products (board materials such as particleboard, Medium Density Fiber Board (MDF), etc.) in China. The study describes the internal systems of IKEA and how they work to ensure that the material sourced can be shown to have been purchased with an adequate level of due care to help ensure legality. Specifically, the study looks at how composite products made up of a large percentage of waste material supplied by diverse small producers within a weak governance context can be imported into the USA while showing that a high level of due care was attained.

The study shows how IKEA is adapting its operations to meet the requirements of a challenging procurement situation and the company’s understanding of how they can show adequate levels of due care.

Four main lessons have been identified and are explored in this paper:

Lesson 1: The implementation of the Lacey Act means that responsible procurement is no longer voluntary but is now mandatory.
Lesson 2: Each company must understand the supplying country’s laws and associated risks so that it can define its own level of appropriate traceability.
Lesson 3: A risk assessment can help determine the level of traceability required to ensure confidence in any forest product supply and ensure that a reasonable level of due care can be shown.
Lesson 4: To be able to complete the declaration form, a company needs to understand its supply chain fully. Good information management is key, and a proactive approach to the management of the supply chains is required. It is no longer enough to just rely on trust: a company must now ask questions and back this up with on-the-ground audits.

Sustainable Procurement of Wood and Paper-Based Products: Version 3

Sarah Parsons — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 21:03:53 -0500

Find out more at http://www.SustainableForestProducts.org.

Version 3 of this guide incorporates the most up-to-date developments on the legality of forest products, new technological developments to control wood and paper supply chains and increase their transparency, and an expanded chapter on the social implications of forest products.

Decisions regarding the purchase and use of wood and paper-based products can have far-reaching, long-term impacts on the forests where they are harvested and the people and industries that depend on those forests for their livelihoods and raw materials.

This joint WRI/WBCSD publication provides information about 10 key issues procurement managers might address as they develop and implement their procurement policies:

Origin: Where do the products come from?
Information accuracy: Is information about the products credible?
Legality: Have the products been legally produced?
Sustainability: Have forests been sustainably managed?
Special forests: Have special forests been protected?
Climate change: Have climate issues been addressed?
Environmental protection: Have appropriate environmental controls been applied?
Recycled fiber: Has recycled fiber been used appropriately?
Other resources: Have other resources been used appropriately?
Local communities and indigenous peoples: Have the needs of local communities or indigenous peoples been addressed?

The guide also characterizes a selection of helpful tools and explains the maze of terminology around sustainable forest products.

How to Identify Degraded Land for Sustainable Palm Oil in Indonesia

Maggie Barron — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:57:57 -0400

Summary

Palm oil production in Indonesia has the potential to generate local benefits if oil palm cultivation expansion follows sustainable planning and management practices, including respect for local interests and rights. Potential benefits include increased incomes, profits, and government revenues, reduced poverty, and improved natural resource management. Whether this potential is achieved will depend on how new areas for oil palm cultivation are identified.

This working paper demonstrates how to implement a quick and cost-effective method for identifying potentially suitable areas for oil palm cultivation. The method is designed in accordance with established standards for sustainable palm oil production, such as those of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO); incorporates relevant Indonesian laws and policies; and is consistent with proposed national REDD+ strategies to support palm oil production on low carbon degraded land. The method consists of a desktop analysis using readily available data and rapid field assessments. It is based on a set of indicators related to selected environmental, economic, social, and legal considerations.

This method can be used by companies as a first step in a site selection process for a certified sustainable plantation and can inform government officials and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in assessing land use policy options to support the expansion of sustainable palm oil production on degraded land. However, since it is designed primarily to rapidly identify the highest priority areas for further investigation, it should not be used to predetermine where oil palm cultivation expansion should occur.

Using this method as a first step in a site selection process can reduce the costs of implementing the additional due diligence activities required to confirm the suitability of a potential site for oil palm cultivation. These activities, which are outside the scope of this paper, include community mapping to document community claims and rights, conducting high conservation value (HCV) and social impact assessments, implementing a comprehensive free prior and informed consent (FPIC) process, and fulfilling legal requirements.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and Sekala applied this method to identify nine potentially suitable areas in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan for a pilot sustainable palm oil project under Project POTICO. These nine sites were identified through targeted field assessments of high priority sites identified through the desktop analysis using project-specific criteria and do not represent all potentially suitable areas in the province.

The desktop analysis, the first step in this method, classified a total of approximately seven million hectares of land in the provinces of West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan as potentially suitable, using the best publicly available data at the time of publication.

This desktop analysis, associated data, and other supplemental materials will be made easily accessible on a “Suitability Mapper” application to be available on this website in mid-2012. The application will allow users to replicate the desktop portion of this analysis or generate their own suitability maps—using parameters of their choice—to guide their own targeted field assessments.

Produksi kelapa sawit di Indonesia berpotensi menghasilkan manfaat-manfaat lokal jika pengembangannya mengikuti praktek-praktek perencanaan dan pengelolaan yang berkelanjutan, termasuk menghormati kepentingan dan hak-hak lokal. Manfaat-manfaat potensial tersebut antara lain peningkatan penghasilan bagi masyarakat sekitar, peningkatan pendapatan pemerintah, pengurangan kemiskinan dan perbaikan pengelolaan sumber daya alam. Tercapainya potensi ini akan bergantung dari bagaimana perusahaan dan pemerintah mengidentifikasi kawasan-kawasan baru untuk penanaman kelapa sawit.

Laporan ini memuat sebuah metode cepat dan murah untuk mengidentifikasi kawasan-kawasan berpotensi cocok untuk budidaya kelapa sawit. Metode ini dirancang untuk mendorong produksi kelapa sawit pada lahan terdegradasi berkarbon rendah sesuai standar yang sudah ada untuk produksi kelapa sawit berkelanjutan, seperti Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO); sesuai dengan hukum dan kebijakan yang ada di Indonesia; dan juga konsisten dengan rancangan strategi nasional Pengurangan Emisi dari Deforestasi dan Degradasi Hutan (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation - REDD+). Metode ini terdiri dari analisis desktop menggunakan data yang telah tersedia dan juga peninjauan lapangan. Metode ini terdiri dari sejumlah indikator yang mempertimbangkan faktor lingkungan, ekonomi, sosial dan hukum.

Metode ini dapat digunakan oleh perusahaan kelapa sawit sebagai langkah pertama dalam proses pemilihan lokasi untuk perkebunan bersertifikat ramah lingkungan. Metode ini juga dapat menginformasikan pihak pemerintah dan organisasi non pemerintah (NGO) dalam membuat kebijakan yang mendukung ekspansi produksi kelapa sawit pada lahan terdegradasi. Namun, karena metode ini dirancang hanya untuk mengidentifikasi kawasan prioritas tertinggi untuk diselidiki lebih lanjut, seharusnya bukan menjadi satu-satunya penentu lokasi ekspansi perkebunan kelapa sawit.

Dengan menggunakan metode ini sebagai langkah pertama dalam proses pemilihan lokasi, perusahaan kelapa sawit dapat mengurangi biaya kegiatan-kegiatan tambahan yang dibutuhkan untuk memastikan kecocokan sebuah kawasan yang berpotensi dijadikan perkebunan kelapa sawit. Kegiatan-kegiatan tersebut, yang berada di luar lingkup pembahasan laporan ini, terdiri dari pemetaan partisipatif untuk mendokumentasikan klaim-klaim dan hak-hak masyarakat, melakukan penilaian Kawasan Bernilai Konservasi Tinggi (HCV) dan dampak sosial, menerapkan proses persetujuan atas dasar informasi awal tanpa paksaan (PADIATAPA/FPIC) yang menyeluruh dan memenuhi persyaratan hukum.

World Resources Institute (WRI) dan Sekala menerapkan metode ini untuk mengidentifikasi sembilan kawasan berpotensi di Provinsi Kalimantan Barat sebagai proyek percontohan kelapa sawit berkelanjutan di bawah Proyek POTICO (http://www.wri.org/project/potico). Kesembilan kawasan tersebut didapat melalui peninjauan lapangan yang berfokus pada kawasan prioritas tertinggi hasil dari analisis desktop, menggunakan kriteria khusus untuk konteks proyek tersebut dan tidak bermaksud untuk mewakili seluruh kawasan berpotensi di provinsi tersebut.

Langkah pertama dalam metode ini adalah analisis desktop yang mengklasifikasikan sekitar 7 juta hektar lahan yang berpotensi cocok di Provinsi Kalimantan Barat dan Kalimantan Tengah. Analisa ini menggunakan data-data yang tersedia untuk umum pada saat laporan ini ditulis. Analisis desktop, data terkait, dan materi-materi pendukung lainnya bisa diakses di situs web (http://wri.org/ publication/identifying-degraded-land-sustainable-palmoil- indonesia). Situs ini juga memungkinkan para pengguna untuk membuat sendiri sebuah peta kecocokan – menggunakan parameter pilihan mereka – untuk memulai penilaian lapangan sesuai dengan kebutuhan.

Insights from the Field: Forests for Water

Kevin Lustig — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:56:29 -0500

Summary

In the Neuse River Basin in North Carolina, WRI is working with partners to identify beneficiaries and their water-related dependencies. We learned that clear documentation of the risks that beneficiaries face from water pollution, drought, and watershed degradation will help jump-start their participation in emerging PWS programs.
In the Sebago Lake Watershed in Maine, WRI is finalizing a methodology for “green-gray” analysis that will provide beneficiaries a way to identify cost-effective green infrastructure solutions to water infrastructure demands of the 21st century. Green infrastructure comprises all natural, seminatural and artificial networks of multifunctional ecological systems within, around, and between urban areas at all spatial scales. We learned that, to convince public investment managers to invest in green rather than gray, it is important to make the financial and business case using the same basic methodologies that are used for calculating the costs and benefits of conventional gray approaches.
WRI is also working to develop PWS programs that help the city of Raleigh meet streetscape, conservation development, tree conservation, storm water management, and water quality goals contained in its Unified Development Ordinance in a least cost manner. We learned that market-based solutions like PWS can play a large role in land-use planning processes and that these processes may represent a large untapped demand driver for PWS programs throughout the South.

Indonesia's Moratorium on New Forest Concessions: Key Findings and Next Steps

Maggie Barron — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:50:39 -0500

The Indonesian moratorium on the award of new licenses in primary natural forests and peat lands, announced in May 2011, is an important step for improving management of forest resources by “pausing” business-as-usual and allowing time to implement reforms.

To quantify the moratorium’s coverage, exemptions, encroachments, and additionality (i.e., whether the moratorium extends protection to land not already protected), the World Resources Institute (WRI) analyzed the indicative moratorium map released by the Ministry of Forestry in July 2011. The objective of the analysis was to better characterize the moratorium’s potential impacts and identify opportunities for improvement.

The analysis concluded that the moratorium in its current state will not contribute to Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goal of 26 percent by 2020. Although there are 43.3 million hectares (ha) of primary forests and peat lands and significant carbon stocks within the boundaries of the indicative moratorium map (IMM), the questionable status of secondary forests, the exemption of existing concessions, and the limited enforcement of the moratorium boundaries may result in gains being negated by other land-use emissions. Nonetheless, long-term positive impacts can still be achieved if significant governance reforms are accomplished during the moratorium period.

Sustainable Procurement of Wood and Paper-Based Products: Version 2

Ruth Nogueron — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:52:22 -0400

Find out more at http://www.sustainableforestprods.org

Version 2 contains updates to the sections on legality and useful resources, known as the "guide to the guides." The guide now describes 47 tools and resources (13 more than in the previous version) that aid sustainable procurement of forest products.

Decisions regarding the purchase and use of wood and paper-based products can have far-reaching, long-term impacts for the forests where they are harvested, the communities supported by wood-using industries, and the places where those products are purchased and used.

The information in this joint WRI/WBCSD publication is organized around ten key issues, posed as "essential questions" that procurement managers might address related to the sustainable procurement of wood and paper-based products:

Origin: Where do the products come from?
Information accuracy: Is information about the products credible?
Legality: Have the products been legally produced?
Sustainability: Have forests been sustainably managed?
Special places: Have special places, including sensitive ecosystems, been protected?
Climate change: Have climate issues been addressed?
Environmental protection: Have appropriate environmental controls been applied?
Recycled fiber: Has recycled fiber been used appropriately?
Other resources: Have other resources been used appropriately?
Local communities and indigenous peoples: Have the needs of local communities or indigenous peoples been addressed?

The publication is designed as an information tool to help customers develop their own sustainable procurement policies for wood and paper-based products. It is also a decision support tool providing simple and clear information on twenty-two existing approaches to the procurement of wood and paper-based products from legal and sustainable sources, as well as providing additional references and resource materials.

Interactive Forest Atlas for Democratic Republic of Congo (Atlas Forestier Interactif de la République Démocratique du Congo)

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:10:01 -0500

Résumé exécutif

(Read in English)

Carte interactive/Interactive Map

Explorez notre carte interactive pour observer en détail les concessions forestières, les aires protégées et l’évolution du couvert forestier en République Démocratique du Congo (en Français et Anglais).

Explore our interactive map viewer to examine in detail logging concessions, protected areas, and forest change in the Democratic Republic of Congo (in both English and French).

Consciente du rôle essentiel des écosystèmes forestiers, le gouvernement de la RDC s’est engagé, en partenariat avec la communauté internationale, à améliorer la gouvernance du secteur forestier afin d’en assurer une gestion durable.

Pour ce faire, la RDC a ratifié plusieurs conventions et accords internationaux et régionaux, et lancé des initiatives nationales visant la gestion durable des forêts, dont (par ordre chronologique) :

l’organisation du Forum sur la Politique Forestière en 2000;
la promulgation du Code forestier par la loi no 011/ 2002 du 29 août 2002;
l’élaboration et la mise en route de l’Agenda Prioritaire pour la relance du secteur forestier en 2003;
la tenue de deux tables rondes sur la forêt en 2004 et 2006;
la rédaction et constante amélioration du Programme National Forêts et Conservation de la Nature (PNFoCo) d’une durée de 10 ans, débuté en 2004;
la rédaction du plan de préparation pour le processus Réduction des Émissions liées à la Déforestation et à la Dégradation (REDD);
la ratification du traité de la Commission des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC) en janvier 2010.

Afin de respecter son engagement de garantir une gestion durable et responsable des ressources forestières, le Ministère de l’Environnement, Conservation de la Nature et Tourisme (MECNT) a entrepris de se doter d’outils lui permettant d’acquérir une meilleure connaissance du patrimoine forestier congolais et de suivre son évolution. Cet dans cet état d’esprit qu’en 2006 le MECNT signait avec le World Resources Institute (WRI) un accord de collaboration visant le développement d’un Atlas forestier interactif, comme outil moderne associant l’usage de la télédétection, des bases de données et des Systèmes d’Informations Géographiques (SIG). Cet outil devrait permettre aux acteurs impliqués dans la gestion forestière de pallier aux difficultés d’accès à des données fiables, et d’aider à une utilisation de ces données. L’Atlas forestier interactif répond aux besoins tant de l’administration congolaise que des acteurs non-étatiques (secteur industriel et société civile) en apportant une solution à : (1) la dispersion des informations à travers les différents organismes (secteur privé, société civile et autres parties prenantes du secteur forestier), ministères, directions et services, (2) la faible qualité de l’information disponible (information disparate, parfois désuète, sources de données fragmentaires, absence de standards) et (3) la faiblesse ou l’absence de communication et de coordination dans la gestion et la diffusion de l’information entre les différents acteurs, tels les producteurs de données et les utilisateurs de l’information. Cet Atlas forestier interactif a été produit de façon conjointe par le MECNT et le WRI dans le cadre la convention de collaboration sus-mentionnée, permettant une appropriation de l’outil par les services administratifs congolais. Les informations fournies par l’Atlas sont publiques et rendues activement disponibles aux parties prenantes, confirmant l’engagement du gouvernement pour une gestion transparente du secteur forestier.

Cette première version de l’Atlas forestier interactif de la RDC se présente sous format informatique et papier, le tout comprenant 5 produits distincts, à savoir : un rapport synthèse, un manuel d’utilisation, une application SIG, des données vectorielles et enfin une affiche présentant la situation actuelle de l’affectation du Domaine Forestier de l’État (DFE), et enfin une carte interactive en ligne.

Comme le prévoit la convention MECNTWRI, cet Atlas comprend toutes les informations actualisées relatives aux limites géographiques et aux attributs descriptifs des zones forestières vouées à la production ou la conservation fournies par le MECNT. Pour cette première version, les efforts ont été concentrés plus particulièrement sur les données liées aux titres forestiers admissibles aux processus de conversion suivant l’application de l’article 155 du Code forestier de 2002 et des dispositions du décret 05/116 de 2005. En outre, ont aussi été considérées toutes les informations connexes et pertinentes disponibles au moment de la publication, comme par exemple les routes nationales, les chemins forestiers et les aires protégées. L’Atlas est cependant un outil en constante évolution afin de prendre en considération les modifications d’éléments existants ou l’intégration de nouvelles couches d’information. Ainsi, l’acquisition d’images satellites plus récentes permettra d’actualiser les pistes forestières ; les plans d’aménagement, les données d’inventaire et les limites d’autorisation de coupe industrielle de bois sont autant de nouveaux éléments qui pourront s’intégrer aux prochaines versions de l’Atlas.

À ces efforts doivent s’ajouter d’autres actions pour assurer la qualité, la fiabilité, l’exhaustivité et la cohérence des données et des informations produites. Soulignons entre autres:

l’institutionnalisation d’une base de données géographiques (SIG) unique pour la gestion des informations forestières ;
la mise en place et l’institutionnalisation de standards de cartographie forestière numérique ;
l’élaboration de procédures d’échanges d’information entre les acteurs au sein du MECNT, mais aussi avec d’autres ministères, la société civile et le secteur privé, pour une actualisation complète de la base de données géoréférencées de l’Atlas ;
le renforcement de la fiabilité des données grâce à la formation continue des acteurs responsables des opérations de récolte, d’archivage et de traitement des données au sein des institutions nationales techniques mandatées, des opérateurs privés et de la société civile.

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Executive Summary

Recognizing the essential role of forest ecosystems, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has partnered with the international community to improve forest sector governance and ensure sustainable management of the country’s vast forest resources.

To achieve this goal, the DRC’s Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism (MECNT) sought to develop tools that would present an accurate snapshot of the nation’s forests and their evolution. In 2006, MECNT signed an agreement with WRI to develop a first-ever Interactive Forest Atlas for the DRC – a tool which would combine the use of remote sensing, geodatabases, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to monitor and manage forests.

The Interactive Forest Atlas meets the needs of both the Congolese administration and non-governmental actors by providing a solution to:

The dispersion of information across different government departments and organizations (private sector, civil society and other stakeholders in the forestry sector);
Low quality, incomplete, and often publicly inaccessible forest information;
Weak or absent communication, coordination, and information sharing between forest sector stakeholders.

Produced jointly by MECNT and WRI, the Interactive Forest Atlas is freely and publicly available to any party working or interested in the DRC’s forest sector – affirming the governmnet’s commitment to transparent resource management.

This preliminary version of the Interactive Forest Atlas contains 5 products:

Overview report
Atlas user manual
GIS applications
Vector data
Poster showing current forest allocations in the DRC
Interactive map viewer

As required under the MECNT-WRI agreement, this Atlas includes all updated information provided by MECNT on geographic boundaries and the descriptive attributes of forest areas slated for production or conservation. For this first version, MECNT and WRI focused specifically on data related to titles submitted to the DRC Forest Title Conversion Process, following the application of section 155 of the 2002 Forest Code. This Atlas also includes other information available at the date of publication, such as national roads, logging roads, and protected areas.

The Atlas, however, is a tool that is constantly evolving, in order to take into account changes to existing data and the integration of new information layers. Thus, the ongoing acquisition of new satellite images will allow MECNT and WRI to update information on logging roads, management plans, inventory data and industrial cutting limits for the next version of the Atlas.

To accomplish these goals, and ensure the quality, reliability, and coherence of forest information, MECNT and WRI aim to undertake the following actions during the next phase of the partnership:

The institutionalization of a single, centralized GIS database to manage forest information;
The establishment and institutionalization of numerical forest mapping standards;
The development of procedures for information sharing between actors within MECNT and other departments, the private sector, and civil society to ensure an up-to-date, accurate geodatabse;
Strengthening the reliability of data through the training of those actors responsible for the gathering, storing, and processing of forest data in national technical institutions, companies, and civil society.

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Southern Forests for the Future

Maggie Barron — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:15:07 -0500

Additional information and resources are available at www.SeeSouthernForests.org, an online interactive information portal developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI).

Executive Summary

Stretching from Texas across to Virginia and from Kentucky down to Florida, the forests of the southern United States are a vast global, national, and local natural treasure. They provide a variety of benefits or “ecosystem services.”

For instance, southern forests yield 18 percent of the world’s pulpwood for paper while comprising just two percent of the world’s forest area. They protect water quality, prevent erosion, and help regulate climate by storing carbon dioxide—the leading greenhouse gas. In addition, they provide opportunities for millions of people to hike, hunt, and experience natural beauty.

Southern forests are dynamic and have a long history of change. Prior to European colonization, these forests were shaped by natural disturbances such as climatic warming after the last ice age, hurricanes, and lightning-induced fires, as well as by fires set by Native Americans. Beginning in the 1600s, agriculture, timber extraction, and settlements built by Europeans and their descendants gradually spread across the region, affecting the extent, distribution, and composition of southern forests. Over four centuries, more than 99 percent of southern forest acreage was cut or cleared at one time or another as the region was developed. Much of the land regenerated over time as secondary forest, demonstrating the resiliency of forests. Yet the net extent of southern forests has declined by an estimated 40 percent since the dawn of European settlement.

A number of factors or “drivers of change” are projected to affect the quantity (extent and distribution) and quality (composition and health) of southern forests over the coming 2–3 decades, with some increasing and others decreasing forest quantity or quality. For example:

Suburban residential and commercial development is projected to convert 19 million acres of forest between 2020 and 2040 and increase forest fragmentation.
In some areas of the South, forest extent may expand as agricultural land reverts back into forest, but this trend will not sufficiently offset forest loss due to development.
Climate change may have a number of impacts, including shifting the distribution of some plant and animal species, increasing invasive species threats, inundating low-lying coastal forests, intensifying droughts, and exacerbating wildfire dangers.
Wildfires remain a risk as a consequence of decades of suppressing natural, low-intensity fires.
Outbreaks of pests and pathogens—such as the gypsy moth, hemlock woolly adelgid, sirex wood wasp, butternut canker, emerald ash borer, laurel wilt of redbay, and many more—will affect numerous types of trees—such as oak, hemlock, pine, butternut, and ash—and may alter forest species composition.
Invasive species—such as cogon grass and Japanese stiltgrass— threaten to crowd out native species, alter natural ecosystem processes, and increase wildfire risk.

Going forward, these drivers of change will likely impact the ability of southern forests to continue to provide a full range of ecosystem services. How landowners, businesses, conservation organizations, governments, and citizens respond and adapt to these and other drivers ultimately will shape southern forests for the future.

Approximately 87 percent of southern forest acreage is privately owned. Of this amount, about two-thirds is held by individuals and families. The future of southern forests thus rests largely in the hands of private landowners. Given the entailed forgone revenue, creating protected areas out of their forests may not be a viable option for many of these landowners. However, a number of measures exist or are beginning to emerge that could create incentives for private forest owners to conserve and sustainably manage their forests. These measures include:

Land use instruments such as conservation easements, development offsets, and transferable development rights;
Fiscal measures such as forest management-related and conservation-related cost-share programs and incentives;
Liability limitations such as legal assurances and the “right to prescribed burns”;
Market incentives such as markets for sustainably harvested timber and paper, payments for carbon sequestration, payments for watershed protection, and recreational user fees; and
Increased education and capacity building.

However, so far the performance of many of these measures has been mixed. For instance:

Despite being already available, some of these measures are currently undersubscribed in the region; Awareness of some measures is low;
Some of the market incentives, especially payments for ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and watershed protection, are just emerging and therefore are relatively novel for most forest owners;
The region lacks a sufficient number of pilot projects utilizing these incentives to raise awareness, stimulate adoption, and facilitate continuous improvement of incentive design; and
Some measures, such as voluntary development offsets or transferable development rights, have been piloted in a few locations but have yet to be scaled up.

These observations lead to a number of questions, including:

Which of these incentives and measures show the greatest promise for sustaining southern forests and their ecosystem services?
What are the barriers southern forest owners face that limit utilization of these measures? How can these barriers be addressed?
How can emerging incentives be piloted in the region to demonstrate effectiveness and refine incentive design?
How can incentives that have successfully been piloted in a few instances in the region be scaled up?
What other innovative incentives for sustaining forest ecosystem services are being pioneered elsewhere that could be replicated in the South?
How can awareness of these incentives and outreach be improved?

Southern Forests for the Future sets the stage for addressing these and related questions by introducing readers to the forests of the southern United States. It provides data, maps, and other forms of information about southern forests, their condition, and trends. In particular, this publication:

Maps many of the natural features of southern forests, including extent and species composition;
Describes and, where possible, quantifies a range of ecosystem services that these forests provide to people, communities, and businesses at the local, regional, and global levels;
Provides a brief history of southern forests and the forces that shaped them;
Profiles the factors that will likely affect southern forest extent, distribution, composition, and health over the coming decades; and
Outlines a number of markets, incentives, and practices that might help ensure southern forests continue to provide a full range of ecosystem services into the future. Although public policies have an important role to play in sustaining southern forests, this publication focuses on non-policy measures.

Southern Forests for the Future is designed to serve as a resource for conservation organizations, concerned citizens, landowners, academic institutions, the private sector, government agencies, and others involved with forest stewardship. Additional information and resources are available at www.SeeSouthernForests.org, an online interactive information portal developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI).

The site includes satellite imagery of southern forests, detailed interactive maps on forest features and drivers of change, case studies, historical photos, and other data. With this information publicly available, WRI aspires to raise awareness of the importance of these forests and help empower stakeholders to implement innovative measures that will ensure southern forests for the future.

Forest Taxation in Post-1994 Cameroon: Distributional Mechanisms and Emerging Links with Poverty Alleviation and Equity

Maggie Barron — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:42:43 -0500

Executive Summary

This report documents a study carried out on the Cameroonian forest taxation system, particularly covering: (i) the distribution practices of the government, as demonstrated through transfers from the central government to the local authorities and from the latter to the local communities; and (ii) the interrelations of these transfers with equality and livelihoods. The study was conducted in the forested zone of Cameroon in 2006. It covers three Rural Councils in the East and Center provinces, with the inclusion of a “non-forested” council in the North-West province. In total, 22 villages and 525 households were targeted by the exploratory work and evaluation.

Numerous villages have yet to benefit from any projects while their forests are exploited, mostly because of lack of responsible management practices and safeguards.

The emphasis on forests in the Millennium Development Goals as well as in the National Strategies for the Reduction of Poverty is an illustration of how political discourse is translated into the economic planning of human well-being. With significant forest resources—the third or the fourth largest by area in the Congo Basin, according to estimates—Cameroon has placed a key emphasis on sustainable use of them to meet national development objectives. Revenues generated by forest taxes constitute one of the options that could help Cameroonian forests contribute to the fight against poverty.

The forest tax system in Cameroon aims at a series of objectives, including: (i) the creation of revenues and of national prosperity; (ii) distributional equity and the reduction of poverty; (iii) fiscal decentralization; and (iv) the inclusion of local communities in access to forest benefits. The Cameroonian forest tax system also brings together a number of mechanisms. One of these, the Annual Forestry Fee, is representative of the political desire of the central government to use part of the revenues generated by logging activities to improve local development and livelihoods. Since 1999, however, the Annual Forestry Fee does not appear to have led to a significant improvement in the conditions of life at the village or household level in the forested zone. This fee is the primary focus of this report.

The Annual Forestry Fee is an area-based forestry tax and stems from Article 68 of the 1994 Forestry Law and subsequent modifying and accompanying texts. The Annual Forestry Fee is presented as an annual “governmental transfer” towards the Rural Councils and villages—one of the many forest taxes applied in Cameroon. In the logic of the transfer, 50 percent of the annual tax goes to the central government and the other 50 percent is allocated to relevant sub-national parties. The 50 percent allocated to local entities is further divided between the Rural Council with jurisdiction over the forest titles and the village communities surrounding these titles, with a 40:10 ratio, for the execution of socio-economic projects in the villages.

Data shows that from 1999 to 2005 the Annual Forestry Fee generated approximately 70 billion CFA francs (FCFA). The three Rural Councils considered for this study regularly received their share of the Annual Forestry Fee. However, discrepancies were found between the distributed amounts as published at the central level through the Forest Revenue Enhancement Program and the amounts declared as received by the municipal authorities. For instance, in one of these councils, the Rural Council of Mindourou (Eastern province), data from the central level indicates a transfer of 578 million FCFA as the 40 percent allocated to the council in 2004, while the municipal authorities acknowledged a transfer reported at 544 million FCFA. In the Rural Council of Gari-Gombo, figures from the central level indicate a transfer of 321 million FCFA as the 40 percent allocated to the community in 2004, while the municipal authorities acknowledge receipt of approximately 230 million FCFA.

Discrepancies were even greater when the 10 percent of Annual Forestry Fee allocated to the village communities was considered. For example, in 2005, in the Rural Council of Gari- Gombo (Eastern province), the amount registered by the municipal authorities as the village communities’ AFF allotment was only 55 percent of the amount registered by the Forest Revenues Enhancement Program (PSRF ). These discrepancies are indicative of an overall lack of transparency that surrounds the management and redistribution of the Annual Forestry Fee.

Differences also exist in the way the 10 percent actually committed to village communities is disbursed by the Council. In the Rural Council of Mindourou, for instance, each of the 16 villages received 8.5 million FCFA for the implementation of socio-economic projects in 2005, while other councils decided to allocate money according to different and not clearly defined rules.

As far as the impact of the 10 percent is concerned, results show that when data could be gathered the actual money spent on planned activities in a number of villages was found to be less than the amount supposedly allocated. Results show that several of the village-level projects carried out had been over-budgeted and recorded inflated costs, as already found by previous audits done on the Annual Forestry Fee distribution and disbursement.

The distribution and transfer of the Annual Forestry Fee on paper, therefore, does not necessarily reflect the actual execution of socio-economic projects at either the village or Council levels. Numerous villages have yet to benefit from any projects while their forests are exploited, mostly because of lack of responsible management practices and safeguards. As for the councils, this study found—in concordance with previous studies—that the 40 percent was allocated to diverse uses (such as overall administrative costs) and that the first objective of the transfers (local development) has not been an absolute priority. Though exceptions do exist, a swift evaluation of the undertakings in key places of the targeted communities, when data could be found, shows wide discrepancies between the amount allocated under the 40 percent and the actual value of implemented projects or activities.

For the purpose of analysis and comparison, the study calculated the theoretical amount of Annual Forestry Fee allocated per household annually in the three Rural Councils for 2005, based on the amount of the 10 percent actually received by the Rural Council. The resulting figures (18,000 FCFA/household in Mindourdou, 12,500 FCFA/household in Bibey, and 800 FCFA/ household in Gari Gombo) show that there exists asymmetry in the horizontal distribution of the Annual Forestry Fee (i.e., amongst forested Rural Councils) and that overall, the amounts of Annual Forestry Fee allocated per household are often extremely small in relation to median annual household income in Cameroon (340,000 FCFA). Thus, the amounts collected and redistributed annually do not guarantee by themselves that measurable impacts on the incidence of poverty or well-being are occurring.

This study found that the households interviewed perceived themselves as being poorer nowadays than a decade ago (i.e., comparison 1995–2005) in the study area. The perceptions of the local communities were put in context by data collected on basic social services and infrastructure. Results show that close to 96 percent of the villages visited are lacking electricity, 82 percent did not have health centers, 70 percent did not have wells installed and 30 percent did not have a primary school for all grades. In addition, the access that minority pygmy enclaves have to benefits of the Annual Forestry Fee remains marginal.

Furthermore, it is important to note that over the period of time considered by this study (2000-2005), the annual amount of the Annual Forestry Fee grew approximately by 25 percent, while other sources of governmental budget allocation (central government to regional) aimed at poverty reduction declined nationally by 17 percent. Though this inverse relationship would need a deeper analysis to be fully understood, it nonetheless shows that the Annual Forestry Fee not only boosted the budgets of many concerned councils, but it also replaced the money normally disbursed by other state agencies (i.e., the fee acted in part as a substitute and not wholly as additional funds).

The various actors involved in this process have different perceptions of the Annual Forestry Fee, according to interviews conducted across the study sites:

Policy-makers believe the actual system for decentralization of forest tax revenue is an effective tool for local development and poverty reduction;
Mayors generally see the distribution of the Annual Forestry Fee as justice more properly served to local communities who consider the surrounding forest resources to be their own. However, they criticize the many problems with the current Annual Forestry Fee distribution system, including: the delays in delivering the Annual Forestry Fee checks, the discrepancies between the amounts received and those published at the central level, and the inadequacy of the sums received at the Council level from the Annual Forestry Fee, given that all local development concerns fall henceforth to the Rural Councils;
Local administrative authorities have mixed perceptions. When limited to the approbation of council budgets (the 40 percent), their appraisal of the poor results of the forest revenue distribution process remains objective, and they have a negative opinion of the mayors; but when they are involved with the execution of the actual projects conceived, their opinion of the mayors switches to positive;
Local communities believe the distribution and utilization of the Annual Forestry Fee to be unfair and only contribute to increasing the wealth of the State, the mayors and the souspréfets;
Municipal authorities in the non-forested zones focus on equity issues at the national level. Since wood is a national resource, these authorities contend that all Cameroonians should be able to benefit, thus supporting a national realignment of the Annual Forestry Fee redistribution.

In order to address shortcomings in the Annual Forestry Fee distribution process, we propose the following structures and mechanisms:

Increase public information on the amount of Annual Forestry Fee distributed and its impacts;
Monitor the entire process of Annual Forestry Fee distribution and promote transparency in its management;
Improve the Annual Forestry Fee management process and focus on building capacity of those actors responsible for its execution (e.g., mayors, Rural Council members, Village Development Committee representatives);
Develop and implement structures for downward and upward accountability, including enforcement of sanctions, when necessary.