Assessing The Impact Of Cifor S Influence On Policy And Practice In The Indonesian Pulp And Paper Sector

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.

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.

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.

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.

This report assesses the experiences of forest rehabilitation in Vietnam and draws strategic lessons from these experiences to guide new forest rehabilitation projects. The report highlights lessons from Vietnam's experiences that will be helpful beyond the country border. This report has the following structure: the remainder of chpater one provides the conceptual clarification and theoritical underpinnings for the study and introduces the methodology. Chapter two provides background information and context for the outcomes of forest rehabilitation in Vietnam, including basic information on Vietnam, its forest cover, forestry sector and policies that are relevant to forestry and forest rehabilitation. Chapter three gives an overview of forest rehabilitation in Vietnam from its inception in the 1950s until today, as the country carries out its latest nationwide forest rehabilitation effort, the 5 million hectares reforestation project. Chapter four analyses in detail forest rehabilitation project that were analysed in the field study carried out as part of this study. Chapter five draws lessons from the report.

This study reviews existing environmental policies in the Indonesian pulp and paper industry. It assesses existing market-based incentives for efficient and sustainable use of the natural resources, and proposes an effluent charge to abate pollution.