Fight against poverty, climate change through forest: Experts

from the Hindu

Mumbai (PTI): Calling for a new kind of forest partnership, experts have said that a real breakthrough in the World Bank-nurtured idea of global forest partnership is possible only if it reflected the views and needs of local stakeholders including forest dwellers.

An emerging initiative could pave the way for fundamental change in forest management, boosting efforts to fight both poverty and climate change, according to research published today by the U K-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) said.

The World Bank-nurtured idea is of a global forest partnership that links local and global processes and promotes decision-making on the international stage that reflects the view and needs of local stakeholders such as forest dwellers.

IIED consulted widely on the WB's idea and the 72 page report is based on responses from more than 600 forest experts to IIED's survey or those participated in focus groups in Brazil, China, Ghana, Guyana, India, Russia and Mozambique, as well as at international meetings.

A majority agreed a new partnership was needed to protect forests and forest-based livelihoods, but pointed out ways that should diverge from the bank's initial idea if it is to really serve local needs on an equitable basis with the rapidly changing global forestry agenda.

IIED also reviewed more than 50 existing initiatives to identify the proposed alliance's potential partners and the gaps it could fill. The consultation identified key features that would make a global partnership and truly progressive way for international forestry to work. It should focus on empowering primary 'stakeholders' including forest dwellers so that their rights, knowledge and needs are centre-stage.

"It should greatly improve flows of finance to activities that support local needs alongside global public goods such as carbon storage. It should interact effectively with other sectors such as water and agriculture, where the underlying causes of forest problems and the seeds of sustainable solutions are often lodged," the report said.

Bass, one of the authors of the study, said: "Without these building blocks, the ambitious partnership idea is unlikely to succeed. This is a new opportunity to develop an empowering stakeholder-focused partnership that can attract real investent to manage forests sustainably. It has potential to harness an enormous groundswell of energy to manage forests so they can help address local poverty and global climate change."

"Right now, Western governments are planning large climate and forest funds. The partnership could identify the best ways to invest these funds for long-term good," he said. Existing efforts to make forestry work for the poor have not generated the results expected, he said, adding the desire to create a new global forest partnership that connects local and global processes and people is an ambitious break from tradition that could create new ways to do business in the forest sector.

Another author Mayers, who is also head of IIED's Natural Resources Group, said, "World Bank should be praised for breaking with normal practice and supporting the independent scrutiny of its plans through engagement with a broad range of stakeholders."

"What the bank must now avoid is trying to drive the partnership from the top down. Instead it must act as the facilitator, providing financial and other support in a hands-off way to enable an independent alliance to be built from the bottom up, bringing together local and regional partners with global organisations."

The report urges the formation of a 'development group' of forest, environment and development leaders, mainly from the South and credible to government, civil society and the private sector, who can come together and contribute to the development of the initiative.

They would be supported by a small group of progressive international institutions in their efforts to forge a new kind of local-global partnership. Welcoming the report, World Bank's Forest Advisor, Gerhard Dieterle said, "World Bank is happy to hear there is consensus on a new approach from a broad variety of forest stakeholders from around the world."

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