Strengthening Forest Governance Monitoring Practice Country Perspectives and Experiences (Zambia, Vietnam)

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1 Strengthening Forest Governance Monitoring Practice Country Perspectives and Experiences (Zambia, Vietnam) Herman Savenije - Tropenbos International Arend Jan van Bodegom Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen University

2 Purpose and outline Purpose: Share lessons about strengthening Forest Governance Monitoring (FGM) practice at the country level Based on initial experiences in Zambia and Vietnam under the FAO project Integrating FGM practice in national monitoring systems Outline: 1. What is FGM? 2. Drivers of strengthening FGM practice 3. FAO/WB common reference framework for FGM 4. The FAO-Project on FGM 5. Initial experiences... and what they could mean for FGM of FLEGT and REDD+

3 What is FGM? Purpose: Provide regular, timely and reliable information on forest governance performance Informed decision making for improving FG Traditionally, forest monitoring focuses on the forest resource, less on socio-economic and governance aspects. Governance must become an essential part of overall forest monitoring

4 Drivers of reviewing and strengthening FGM practices Good governance is important for achieving SFM, it supports: Strategic and operational management for impact Credibility and accountability Improved coordination Enabling conditions for sustainable investment and enterprise development International demands: FLEGT/VPA, REDD+, etc. Changing visions on roles and responsibilities of forest actors in FG from government governance to multi-stakeholder governance

5 Elements of FGM practice What to monitor? Articulating the priorities Key governance issues and priorities: strategic indicators Who has a role to play? Government, private sector, civil society groups How: Information collection, measurement and reporting Effective monitoring routines, tools, protocols Challenge: how to articulate FGM indicators and how to institutionalize these feasibly into regular practice FGM: a technical process with political dimensions (or: a political process with technical dimensions )

6 The FAO project Integrating FGM practice in national monitoring systems Objective: To develop and pilot a conceptual design and operational strategy to assess, strengthen and institutionalize country level FGM practice. To strengthen country capacities on FGM Design features: Country driven-process Start from country realities, needs, priorities and feasibilities Serving national and international requirements Review what is already in place and incrementally build on it Open, multi-stakeholder process (public, private; national, regional and local actors)

7 Key steps 1. Development of draft guidance for FGM assessment and strengthening at the country level 2. Pilot testing in Zambia and Vietnam (started in 2011) Assessment of current status and perspectives in country background documents Identify existing FGM-related initiatives, articulate stakeholder needs, identify priorities Identify the demand for strengthened FGM. Inputs from government and other national, provincial and district stakeholders (GO and NGO) A multi-stakeholder inception/validation workshop A follow-up action plan, incl. implementation of pilot activities 3. A FAO Guidance document on Strengthening FGM practice (lessons learnt, second half 2012)

8 FAO/PROFOR common framework for FGM A systematic approach and common reference framework for FGM (description, diagnosis, prioritizing, monitoring, assessment and reporting) 3 pillars, 6 principles, 13 components and 78 sub-components Comprehensive framework, based on best current insights on what governance is about Pillars and Principles for Assessing and Monitoring Forest Governance (Source: FAO/PROFOR, 2011)

9 Initial lessons from Zambia and Vietnam... and what they could mean for FGM of FLEGT and REDD+ Stakeholders did not always understand the concepts FG and FGM and how these relate to existing monitoring practices Need to discuss and define them within the cultural and political country contexts at various levels Need for awareness raising and capacity building among FGM designers and stakeholders from the initial stages. FGM is undoubtedly on-going in both countries but not labeled and seen as FGM.

10 Initial lessons from Zambia and Vietnam... and what they could mean for FGM of FLEGT and REDD+ Existing country legal and policy frameworks and their implementation are the most logical and feasible starting points for developing FGM. The FAO/PROFOR framework for FGM is a very useful reference, but is not a ready-to-fill-out and adaptable matrix for country-level FGM.

11 Initial lessons from Zambia and Vietnam... and what they could mean for FGM of FLEGT and REDD+ Important to get key stakeholders at the table Make the active engagement of district and local stakeholders in the FGM discussions a priority Ownership creation Have their perspectives and needs in the discussion Reinforces issues relevant for FLEGT and REDD+ Need to have a lead organization that champions the follow-up process

12 Initial lessons from Zambia and Vietnam... and what they could mean for FGM of FLEGT and REDD+ Priority issues identified for FGM development (Vietnam) Policy and regulatory frameworks and their implementation (also Zambia) How these affect communities, including benefit and revenue sharing (also Zambia) Decision-making: More rigorous monitoring frameworks and verification systems are necessary Land tenure (rights, land allocation and demarcation; illegal land conversion, etc.) Quality of timber harvesting plans and their implementation Staff capacity: performance, needs for training

13 Initial lessons from Zambia and Vietnam... and what they could mean for FGM of FLEGT and REDD+ Go for good-enough FGM development: be realistic. Information demands are high, but feasibilities to incorporate these in the regular systems are limited Need for prioritizing and selecting the strategic issues and indicators: know what you really need to know Agree on realistic expectations of what the process can deliver in the short and long term. The political and power dimensions: stakeholders may have different priorities and interests in the process.

14 Conclusions The process and outcome of the current FGM process are also relevant for FLEGT/VPA and REDD+. To be explored: To what extent can the same indicators be used? Not all actors are involved in all processes: stakes and interests are different in the different processes Building on existing country frameworks for monitoring is a promising way for building FGM capacity and stakeholder engagement Active engagement of district and local stakeholders in the FGM discussions is critical to the success

15 Challenges How to go from preparing the ground and initial discussions on priorities to anchoring (institutionalizing) these into regular monitoring practice and routines of actors Organization of capacity building and keeping the process alive Common understanding on FG and FGM Cultural gap between (technical) forest resource monitoring and governance monitoring Going to the details will make diverging views and interests, and real capacities visible; how to manage that?

16 Thanks for your attention For further information on the FAO project: /en/ Tropenbos International Centre for Development Innovation