Assessing the Impact of CIFOR's Influence on Policy and Practice in the Indonesian Pulp and Paper Sector


Book Description

Methodological approach. The overall context. Chronology of events. Attribution of CIFOR's contributions. Counterfactual scenarios. Estimating effects on natural forest clearance. Valuation framework. Benefits attributable to CIFOR. Discussion of results.




Financing Pulp Mills: An Appraisal of Risk Assessment and Safeguard Procedures


Book Description

This study analyses the risk assessment and socio-environmental safeguard procedures associated with the financing of pulp mill projects. The type and cost of the fibre source is clearly key to the economic competitiveness of any pulp mill. Nevertheless, investment institutions often carry out only limited assessment of the fibre source of the proposed mill. Although a growing number of financial institutions have adopted policies to employ social and environmental safeguard screening for investments in developing countries and transitioning economies, the scope of such screenings is in fact quite limited and they are often implemented ineffectively. [Provided by publisher]




Realising REDD+


Book Description

REDD+ must be transformational. REDD+ requires broad institutional and governance reforms, such as tenure, decentralisation, and corruption control. These reforms will enable departures from business as usual, and involve communities and forest users in making and implementing policies that a ect them. Policies must go beyond forestry. REDD+ strategies must include policies outside the forestry sector narrowly de ned, such as agriculture and energy, and better coordinate across sectors to deal with non-forest drivers of deforestation and degradation. Performance-based payments are key, yet limited. Payments based on performance directly incentivise and compensate forest owners and users. But schemes such as payments for environmental services (PES) depend on conditions, such as secure tenure, solid carbon data and transparent governance, that are often lacking and take time to change. This constraint reinforces the need for broad institutional and policy reforms. We must learn from the past. Many approaches to REDD+ now being considered are similar to previous e orts to conserve and better manage forests, often with limited success. Taking on board lessons learned from past experience will improve the prospects of REDD+ e ectiveness. National circumstances and uncertainty must be factored in. Di erent country contexts will create a variety of REDD+ models with di erent institutional and policy mixes. Uncertainties about the shape of the future global REDD+ system, national readiness and political consensus require  exibility and a phased approach to REDD+ implementation.




Workshop on best practice methods for assessing the impact of policy-oriented research


Book Description

Methods and practice for the impact evaluation of policy-oriented research (POR) lag behind many other research sectors, such as agricultural technology research, making it difficult to prioritize investments in POR and retarding institutional learning about how to make POR more effective. To address these issues within the context of the CGIAR, a workshop on “Best Practice Methods for Assessing the Impact of Policy-Oriented Research” was cosponsored by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), and the Standing Panel for Impact Assessment (SPIA) of the CGIAR’s Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC), and held at IFPRI headquarters in Washington, DC, November 11–12, 2014. This paper provides a summary of the workshop discussions and draws on this, together with findings from the literature, to derive guidelines for assessing policy-oriented research in the CGIAR.




Timber legality verification system and the Voluntary Partnership Agreement in Indonesia


Book Description

In September 2013, Indonesia officially signed a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to guarantee the legality of all timber products exported to the EU. Under the Indonesian VPA, a timber legality assurance system known as SVLK (Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu) has already been developed and has been in effect since 1 January 2013 for woodworking, wood panels, and pulp and paper. When the VPA is fully implemented, SVLK will become FLEGT legality license and will meet European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) requirements for legal timber. The objective of this paper is to analyze the challenges of implementing SVLK in the small-scale forestry sector of Indonesia. The paper also assesses whether a mandatory approach to legality verification will be more effective in terms of assuring legality than voluntary approaches, such as certification. The analysis involved desk-based analysis of government statistics, policy documents, key stakeholder interviews, and field surveys in three major timber-producing provinces of Indonesia — Central Java, East Kalimantan and Papua. The paper discusses a number of challenges facing the implementation of SVLK, among others the cost of timber legality verification, limited societal awareness of SVLK, business legality issues among small-scale enterprises, and high levels of illegality in their timber supply chains. The paper closes by presenting a detailed set of policy options to address the observed challenges.




Towards a sustainable, participatory and inclusive wild meat sector


Book Description

The meat of wild species, referred to in this report as ‘wild meat’, is an essential source of protein and a generator of income for millions of forest-living communities in tropical and subtropical regions. However, unsustainable harvest rates currently




Decentralization of Forest Administration in Indonesia


Book Description

Since the collapse of Soeharto’s New Order regime in May 1998, Indonesia’s national, provincial, and district governments have engaged in an intense struggle over how authority and the power embedded in it, should be shared. How this ongoing struggle over authority in the forestry sector will ultimately play out is of considerable significance due to the important role that Indonesia’s forests play in supporting rural livelihoods, generating economic revenues, and providing environmental services. This book examines the process of forestry sector decentralization that has occurred in post-Soeharto Indonesia, and assesses the implications of more recent efforts by the national government to recentralize administrative authority over forest resources. It aims to describe the dynamics of decentralization in the forestry sector, to document major changes that occurred as district governments assumed a greater role in administering forest resources, and to assess what the ongoing struggle among Indonesia’s national, provincial, and district governments is likely to mean for forest sustainability, economic development at multiple levels, and rural livelihoods. Drawing from primary research conducted by numerous scientists both at CIFOR and its many Indonesian and international partner institutions since 2000, this book sketches the sectoral context for current governmental reforms by tracing forestry development and the changing structure of forest administration from Indonesia’s independence in 1945 to the fall of Soeharto’s New Order regime in 1998. The authors further examine the origins and scope of Indonesia’s decentralization laws in order to describe the legal-regulatory framework within which decentralization has been implemented both at the macro-level and specifically within the forestry sector. This book also analyses the decentralization of Indonesia’s fiscal system and describes the effects of the country’s new fiscal balancing arrangements on revenue flows from the forestry sector, and describes the dynamics of district-level timber regimes following the adoption of Indonesia’s decentralization laws. Finally, this book also examines the real and anticipated effects of decentralization on land tenure and livelihood security for communities living in and around forested areas, and summarizes major findings and options for possible interventions to strengthen the forestry reform efforts currently underway in Indonesia.




Transforming REDD+


Book Description

Constructive critique. This book provides a critical, evidence-based analysis of REDD+ implementation so far, without losing sight of the urgent need to reduce forest-based emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change. REDD+ as envisioned




The Decentralization of Forest Governance


Book Description

'This book provides an excellent overview of more than a decade of transformation in a forest landscape where the interests of local people, extractive industries and globally important biodiversity are in conflict. The studies assembled here teach us that plans and strategies are fine but, in the real world of the forest frontier, conservation must be based upon negotiation, social learning and an ability to muddle through.' Jeffrey Sayer, senior scientific adviser, Forest Conservation Programme IUCN - International Union for of Nature The devolution of control over the world's forests from national or state and provincial level governments to local control is an ongoing global trend that deeply affects all aspects of forest management, conservation of biodiversity, control over resources, wealth distribution and livelihoods. This powerful new book from leading experts provides an in-depth account of how trends towards increased local governance are shifting control over natural resource management from the state to local societies, and the implications of this control for social justice and the environment. The book is based on ten years of work by a team of researchers in Malinau, Indonesian Borneo, one of the world's richest forest areas. The first part of the book sets the larger context of decentralization's impact on power struggles between the state and society. The authors then cover in detail how the devolution process has occurred in Malinau, the policy context, struggles and conflicts and how Malinau has organized itself. The third part of the book looks at the broader issues of property relations, conflict, local governance and political participation associated with decentralization in Malinau. Importantly, it draws out the salient points for other international contexts including the important determination that 'local political alliances', especially among ethnic minorities, are taking on greater prominence and creating new opportunities to influence forest policy in the world's richest forests from the ground up. This is top-level research for academics and professionals working on forestry, natural resource management, policy and resource economics worldwide. Published with CIFOR




Corporate commitments to zero deforestation


Book Description

This research critically examines implementation gaps and externality problems associated with the recent proliferation of zero deforestation commitments (ZDC) by large commodity producers. By developing and employing a hierarchical framework, we evaluate