Forest Law

This book analyzes the wide range of issues that should be taken into account in forest-related legislation. It stresses that forest law must be understood in the context of the broader legal framework governing land use and land tenure, as well as international obligations related to trade, environmental protection, and human rights. The book also pays significant attention to institutional arrangements and governance practices relevant to forests, including decentralization, transparency, and law enforcement. The authors draw extensively on experience from around the world to provide tools for dealing with various forest management challlenges. The authors are experts in the field of forest law. Lawrence C. Christy is a Former Chief, Development Law Service, Legal Office, Food and Agricultre Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Charles E. Di Leva is Chief Counsel, Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development and International Law Unit (LEGEN), Legal Vice-Presidency, World Bank. Jonathan M. Lindsay is Senior Counsel with LEGEN, Legal Vice-Presidency, World Bank. Patrice Talla Takoukam is Counsel with LEGEN, Legal Vice-Presidency, World Bank.

Despite covering almost a third of the globe, forests do not enjoy the protection of a singular global legal convention. Instead, International Forest Law is a complex ecosystem in its own right. This book sets out to examine this complexity by analyzing forest-related Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and how the decisions of the various corresponding Conferences of the Parties (COPs) may promote regime interaction in this field of law. Through an in-depth analysis of more than 60 decisions and resolutions of such COPs, Yilly Pacheco discusses how secondary law-making activity in forest-related MEAs may be strengthened and used to fill the gaps in International Forest Law.

Recent years have witnessed a significant acceleration in the revision of forest laws around the world. Forest law increasingly recognizes the multiple interests involved in or affected by forest management, with greater attention given to the environmental and social roles of forest resources and to their sustainable management and use. In addition, renewed emphasis is being placed on the involvement of a wider range of public and private actors. Issues in which forest laws have been reoriented include local forest and private management, the environmental functions of forests, forest management planning and forest utilization contracts.

The FAO-EU FLEGT Programme is carrying out an experience capitalization exercise to collect, analyse and share experiences, good practices and lessons learned during the implementation of the Phase III of the Programme. As a part of this effort, the Programme agreed to support the project entitled “Increasing Stakeholder Participation in Forest Law Reform Process: Case Studies from FAO-EU FLEGT Programme”. This project, carried out and co-financed by ClientEarth, includes a review of nine projects that focused on increasing stakeholder participation in legal reform processes in the following countries: the Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines. The publication includes the aggregate findings of the six focus countries, general analysis and recommendations.

The FAO-EU forest law enforcement, governance and trade (FLEGT) programme seeks to reduce and eventually eliminate illegal logging. With the support of its donors, the European Union, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme funds projects created by governments, civil society and private sector organizations in Latin America, Africa and Asia to improve forest governance and promote trade in legal timber products on domestic and international markets. The Programme works in support of the European Commission’s Action Plan on FLEGT to promote the legal production and consumption of timber. The evaluation looked at the third phase of the programme, which remained a significant contribution to the goals of the FLEGT Action Plan. The increased capacity of service providers (particularly beginner non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations) and micro, small and medium-sized enterprise associations was considered the most significant change generated by the programme. The promotion of South-South cooperation proved to be an important aspect of capacity enhancement. Thanks to increased capacities, but also multi-stakeholder platforms and improved policy and regulative tools, a positive incipient impact on more inclusive forest governance has been achieved. More information and independent forest monitoring provided an important contribution to improved enabling conditions for legal timber trade and on the information of timber legality, even though the actual market impact is still limited. Recommendations to FAO and its project partners and stakeholders include actions to take away institutional, fiscal, technical and political barriers to scale up results, and actions to strengthen the sustainability of results, gender equity and social inclusion, knowledge management as well as monitoring and evaluation.

Cognitive science is transforming our understanding of the mind. New discoveries are changing how we comprehend not just language, but thought itself. Yet, surprisingly little of the new learning has penetrated discussions and analysis of the most important social institution affecting our lives-the law. Drawing on work in philosophy, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, and literary theory, Steven L. Winter has created nothing less than a tour de force of interdisciplinary analysis. A Clearing in the Forest rests on the simple notion that the better we understand the workings of the mind, the better we will understand all its products-especially law. Legal studies today focus on analytic skills and grand normative theories. But, to understand how real-world, legal actors reason and decide, we need a different set of tools. Cognitive science provides those tools, opening a window on the imaginative, yet orderly mental processes that animate thinking and decisionmaking among lawyers, judges, and lay persons alike. Recent findings about how humans actually categorize and reason make it possible to explain legal reasoning in new, more cogent, more productive ways. A Clearing in the Forest is a compelling meditation on both how the law works and what it all means. In uncovering the irrepressibly imaginative, creative quality of human reason, Winter shows how what we are learning about the mind changes not only our understanding of law, but ultimately of ourselves. He charts a unique course to understanding the world we inhabit, showing us the way to the clearing in the forest.