Assessing And Monitoring Forest Governance

This volume provides a guide to diagnosing strengths and weaknesses in forest governance using a tool developed by PROFOR. The tool consists of a set of indicators and a protocol for scoring the indicators in the course of several workshops. Field testing in a number of countries has confirmed that this tool provides a flexible and relatively inexpensive method to trigger candid discussions and build momentum for reform.

How to use this review; Methods; Concepts; Lessons learned; Impacts of participatory monitoring; Conclusions: looking back, looking ahead; Matrix table of case studies, methods and tools.

Several national and international initiatives have encouraged the development of criteria and indicators to measure progress in sustainable development and sustainable forest management. This review is intended to introduce the forestry community to social indicators that have been used to document and monitor community sustainability and community well-being. Natural resource sociologists have been studying community stability for over half a century. Included is a discussion regarding selection criteria for social indicators that focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative indicators. A review of several ongoing projects is included, and the appendix provides a quick reference for twenty-two indicator initiatives.

First Published in 2012. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This report explores criteria and indicators (C&I) for monitoring and assessing the sustainability of community managed forests (CMFs), and offers some insights into methodological tools and conceptual approaches for C&I development. The research was intended to explore the potential value of C&I to forest communities, their partners and their representative organisations to legitimise and enhance management, including strengthening of control over forest resources and facilitating the equitable distribution of the costs and benefits of forest management. The C&I for CMF tests involved six forest communities and their partners in Central Province, Cameroon, the Amazonian state of Pará, Brazil, and West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Each test was of approximately one-month duration. The core teams included an ecologist, a social scientist and a forest management specialist. Local involvement was an essential element of the research process. Facilitators enabled the active participation of community members in the critical appraisal of the C&I. After each field test, academics, policy makers, representatives of local and national non-governmental organisations, and representatives of other forest communities reviewed the emergent ‘draft’ C&I. Over 750 statements of principles, criteria, indicators and verifiers were generated by the tests. There is an evaluation of C&I testing processes and C&I for CMF development methodologies, as well as an analysis of the C&I for CMF. The comprehensive coverage of issues related to the sustainability of CMFs makes this report a valuable reference for those interested in implementing C&I for CMF, and for other users and purposes. These may include: researchers or policy makers analysing intersectoral impacts on CMFs; practitioners assessing and developing collaborative CMF initiatives; development planners and project managers evaluating or planning initiatives; and professors seeking guidance on incorporating community forestry into curricula for rural development, forestry and anthropology students.

National information needs on forests have grown considerably in recent years, evolving from forest area and growing stock information to key aspects of sustainable forest management, such as the role of forests in the conservation of biodiversity and the provision of other ecosystem services. More recently, information on changes in carbon stocks, socio-economic aspects including the contribution to livelihoods and poverty reduction, governance and broader land use issues has become critical for national planning.

Preparing for C&I testing. C&I testing procedures. Follow-up analysis. The conceptual basis of C&I development. Three case studies. Literature and further reading.