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  • Making international standards more credible: The case of the FSC forest management label

Making international standards more credible: The case of the FSC forest management label

12 March, 2019
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FTA COMMUNICATIONS TEAM

Issue 50 of Perspective, the CIRAD policy brief series, looks at the credibility of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard that will be increased if certain indicators and auditing practices are reviewed. This revision process will facilitate the work of the certification bodies and will clarify the adoption of practices by certified forestry companies.

The global organisation FSC International regulates the FSC forest management label, which is translated into national standards according to the context in each country. The initial version of the Principles and Criteria for this label, published in 1994, was revised and, in 2015, new Principles and Criteria were published, along with a list of generic indicators. This new version should be used to update national standards. This issue of Perspective proposes recommendations for drafting these new national standards and reviewing certain audit procedures. The study’s recommendations are illustrated with specific cases in Brazil, Indonesia and the countries of the Congo Basin. Indicators for the new national standards need to minimise any scope for interpretation during certification audits. Audits should no longer accept recurrence of the same non-conformities, even when these issues are minor. With Gabon announcing in September 2018 the obligation to obtain FSC certification in order to allocate or maintain forest concessions from 2020 onwards, it is important to reduce existing weaknesses in this certification.

Access this publication in English.

Access this publication in French.

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  • CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) Annual Report 2017

CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) Annual Report 2017

30 August, 2018
case_studies
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FTA COMMUNICATIONS TEAM

The CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) contributes to 9 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to all CGIAR Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDOs) and to 31 sub-IDOs with different levels of investment. With efforts targeted respectively at 29%, 33%, 38% across System Level Outcomes (SLOs) 1, 2 and 3, FTA balanced its work across four main production systems (natural forests, plantations, pastures and cropping systems with trees) dealing with a number of globally traded and/or locally important tree-crop commodities (timber, oil palm, rubber, coffee, cocoa, coconut, wood fuel, fruits, etc.), that form the basis for the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of smallholders. These commodities also represent an important share of the land area, including 13 million km2 of forests and 9.5 million km2 of agricultural lands (45% of the total agricultural area with >10% tree cover). Progress towards IDOs in 2017 resulted from FTA work on technical innovations and tools, as well as on value chains, and institutional and policy processes. These innovations were taken up and diffused by different actors and along value chains, and all were suited to their particular context. As 2017 is the first year of FTA’s six-year program, progress towards SLOs was aimed at the upstream level; in some cases there was already progress towards downstream uptake.

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  • CIFOR now hosts comprehensive REDD+ tool ID-RECCO

CIFOR now hosts comprehensive REDD+ tool ID-RECCO

13 August, 2018
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FTA COMMUNICATIONS TEAM
A REDD+ Safeguards and Benefit Sharing Project site is seen in Jambi. Photo by I. Cooke Vieira/CIFOR

An innovative Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) monitoring tool, the International Database on REDD+ Projects and Programs Linking Economic, Carbon and Communities Data (ID-RECCO), is now hosted by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry’s (FTA) lead center, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Launched in 2013, ID-RECCO highlights 467 subnational REDD+ initiatives from around the world. It includes 110 variables, such as carbon certification, sources of funding, and expected socioeconomic and environmental impacts, in a format that can be used for research purposes and analysis. ID-RECCO was the first tool to gather such a large amount of information on subnational REDD+ initiatives in a comprehensive way, and it continues to evolve.

“CIFOR is very pleased to host the ID-RECCO database given our priority for understanding the progress and performance of REDD+ on the ground. We are committed to keeping the database updated and ensuring that it stays relevant for the broader tropical forests and climate community,” said Amy Duchelle, CIFOR Senior Scientist.

As Duchelle describes, the next big change to ID-RECCO will allow users to easily distinguish between local REDD+ projects and subnational jurisdictional programs. For REDD+ projects, CIFOR will validate the data through a survey with project implementers that will be conducted in upcoming months. To expand the database to include subnational jurisdictional REDD+ programs, CIFOR will draw on new collaborative research with Earth Innovation Institute (EII) and the Governors’ Climate and Forests (GCF) Task Force.

ID-RECCO was created by Gabriela Simonet when she was based at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and Climate Economics Chair (CEC) with founding partner the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI). CIRAD is also an FTA partner institution.

“ID-RECCO was born in the hands of Gabriela in CIRAD, pushed by her motivation to understand if REDD+ was going to fulfill the on-the-ground socio-economic and ecological impacts that stakeholders were advocating for. In that sense is a ground-breaking initiative and a unique dataset to reach such an understanding. It allows, for example, to extract simple statistics, like the amount of hectares covered by REDD+, and understand the trends and types of REDD+ projects and initiatives,” said Driss Ezzine-de-Blas, CIRAD Researcher.

Ezzine-de-Blas also notes that while the data can be used by researchers to match their expectations to the reality of REDD+, other stakeholders will also benefit by taking REDD+ more seriously and will have data-based evidence in hand to continue their work.

“ID-RECCO is the first comprehensive database on REDD+ projects worldwide. It has the great advantage to allow international comparison of very diverse types of projects, in various locations. Being frequently updated and open access, it then constitutes a unique tool that makes possible monitoring and impact evaluation of those initiatives, which will provide a better understanding of the conditions of success of REDD+ implementation,” said Philippe Delacote, Researcher, Climate Economics Chair.

ID-RECCO can be accessed at http://www.reddprojectsdatabase.org/

For more information, please contact Gabriela Simonet at gabriela.simonet@gmail.com.

This announcement was originally published by CIFOR.

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  • Adopting a new perspective on landscapes and water

Adopting a new perspective on landscapes and water

19 January, 2018
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Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD) scientist Bruno Locatelli presents Adopting a new perspective on landscapes and water at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) in Bonn, Germany.

Originally published by the GLF.

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  • Eighteen institutions sign up to Tropical managed Forests Observatory

Eighteen institutions sign up to Tropical managed Forests Observatory

19 December, 2017
It is estimated that only a quarter of tropical forests are pristine. Photo by TmFO
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The DR Congo has the second largest tropical forest area in the world. Photo by Ollivier Girard/CIFOR

The Tropical managed Forests Observatory (TmFO) was recently formalized by a collaboration agreement signed by 18 institutions, including Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD).

The confirmation of this unique network will enable it to continue monitoring the world’s logged tropical forests and drafting recommendations for sustainable silviculture. This is a crucial challenge in the light of biodiversity erosion and climate change.

Some 75 percent of the world’s tropical forests have been disrupted by human activity. It is vital to understand the ecology and resilience of these managed ecosystems in order to determine their future role in mitigating global warming and conserving biodiversity in the territories concerned. The TmFO network is the only organization working on logged tropical forests, as the other existing structures (Rainfor and CTFS) are limited to so-called primary forest.

“The network, which is now official, will benefit from greater visibility,” said the CIRAD researcher coordinating the network, Plinio Sist, also of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). “What we have to do now is to sustain it by developing projects.”

Read more: Tropical Production Forests Observatory

Fine-tuning recommendations concerning sustainable silviculture 

TmFO has existed informally since 2012. At the time, CIRAD decided to use funding from FTA to federate several experimental sites on three continents (in Amazonia, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia). Those sites are monitoring forest dynamics after logging and silviculture. Some have existed for more than 30 years, such as Paracou (French Guiana), Mbaiki (Central African Republic) and Tapajos in the Brazilian Amazon.

It is estimated that only a quarter of tropical forests are pristine. Photo by TmFO

“The aim is to have a regional and pantropical picture of the resilience of these forests,” Sist explained. In effect, “the forests of the northeastern Amazon do not react to logging in the same way as others in the South of the forest basin. The observatory’s data are placed within a regional context, and are thus more useful for adapting sustainable silviculture recommendations.”

Exceptional opportunity to study forest resilience  

The TmFO network has already enabled a degree of progress. For instance, it has demonstrated that Amazon forests recover their carbon stock in 20 years. This result shows that sustainably logged forests play a fundamental role in C02 capture, hence in mitigating climate change.

Read more: Diversity, commitment, challenges and shared goals: How CIRAD looks at FTA

The general agreement specifies four main structures: a steering committee, in which each of the 18 member institutions will be represented by a member, and three regional technical committees, for Amazonia, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. CIRAD is coordinator for the next two years.

The TmFO network in figures:

  • 22 experimental sites encompassing 517 forest plots covering a total of 1134 ha
  • 18 forestry research institutions are monitoring those sites, all of which have signed the agreement
  • 9 countries are home to those sites: Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, France (French Guiana), Surinam, Central African Republic, Gabon, Malaysia and Indonesia
  • 40 researchers are involved in the network.

Originally published on CIRAD.fr.

This work forms part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), which is supported by CGIAR Fund Donors. 

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  • Local tree knowledge can fast-track agroforestry recommendations for coffee smallholders along a climate gradient in Mount Elgon, Uganda

Local tree knowledge can fast-track agroforestry recommendations for coffee smallholders along a climate gradient in Mount Elgon, Uganda

01 September, 2017
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FTA COMMUNICATIONS TEAM

Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) is economically important for many smallholder farmers in the Mount Elgon region of East Uganda, but its production is increasingly threatened by climate change. However, ecosystem services (ES) provided by companion trees in coffee agroforestry systems (AFS) can help farmers adapt to climate change.

The objectives of this research were to develop agroforestry species recommendations and tailor these to the farmers’ needs and local context, taking into consideration gender. Local knowledge of agroforestry species and ES preferences was collected through farmer interviews and rankings. Using the Bradley-Terry approach, analysis was done along an altitudinal gradient in order to study different climate change scenarios for coffee suitability. Farmers had different needs in terms of ES and tree species at different altitudes, e.g. at low altitude they need a relatively larger set of ES to sustain their coffee production and livelihood. Local knowledge is found to be gender blind as no differences were observed in the rankings of species and ES by men and women.

Ranking species by ES and ranking ES by preference is a useful method to help scientists and extension agents to use local knowledge for the development of recommendations on companion trees in AFS for smallholder farmers.

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  • Farm-scale greenhouse gas balances, hotspots and uncertainties in smallholder crop-livestock systems in Central Kenya

Farm-scale greenhouse gas balances, hotspots and uncertainties in smallholder crop-livestock systems in Central Kenya

31 August, 2017
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FTA COMMUNICATIONS TEAM
  • Whole-farm GHG balances are needed to identify climate-smart options.
  • Coffee-dairy farms are mostly net sources of GHG at farm-scale.
  • Poor manure management can be a determining factor in the farm GHG balance.
  • Emissions are smoothed by zero grazing and larger soil and biomass C sequestration.
  • Improving GHG estimations requires developing EFs and site calibrations.

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  • Managing degraded forests, a new priority in the Brazilian Amazon

Managing degraded forests, a new priority in the Brazilian Amazon

21 June, 2017
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FTA COMMUNICATIONS TEAM

Overview 

By taking drastic steps, Brazil has succeeded in reducing the annual deforestation rate for Amazonia from 27 770 km2 in 2005 to 5 830 km2 in 2015. However, those steps have not had any effect on forest degradation, notably the partial destruction of the canopy.

In the Brazilian Amazon, degraded forests dominate the landscape along pioneer fronts. The region now faces a major challenge: stopping degradation and managing its forests sustainably. In this issue of Perspective, researchers highlight four priorities for research: developing degraded forest characterization and monitoring methods, drafting specific management plans, understanding the role played by all social players, and supporting policies on a territorial level.

Nowadays, degraded forests are a forest category in their own right. They could play a major role in mitigating climate change. They could also contribute to better ecological functioning on a territorial level. Drafting policies with the dual aim of reducing degradation and optimizing these forests requires strong support from research.

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  • CIRAD 2015 Annual Report: stocktake and prospects (in French)

CIRAD 2015 Annual Report: stocktake and prospects (in French)

07 July, 2016
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FTA

A look back at 2015 with the publication of the French version of the CIRAD Annual Report, containing the institutional highlights and a selection of almost forty research results. The report also contains a focus on climate change, which – for obvious reasons – was the topic chosen for the year. Through a series of major events – Paris International Agricultural Show, Climate-Smart Agriculture conference, and Under our Common Future conference, culminating in COP21 – but also the launch of the 4 per 1000 initiative, CIRAD proved its commitment to the topic. The report also contains indicators, an organizational chart, maps and addresses for CIRAD facilities worldwide as of 1 June 2016.

The English version will be out later in the year.

Also at CIRAD

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  • Discussion on CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

Discussion on CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

05 April, 2016
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FTA

To mark International Day of Forests 2016, Peter Holmgren, Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and Tony Simons, Director General of the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), discuss the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for forests and for our planet.

Below is a transcript of Part 3 in our special three-part TV interview series.

This final segment discusses the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), which was started in 2011 and will be entering its second phase in 2017.

The program is being supported by six research centers: CIFOR, ICRAF,Bioversity International, the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD). With over 230 researchers working in more than 35 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America, the FTA program responds to the urgent need for a strong and sustained research focus on the management of forests and trees.

Trees on farms and in forests play a crucial role in confronting some of the most important challenges of our time: reducing poverty, improving food security and nutrition, and protecting our environment. They are also important in sustaining ecosystem services like clean water and biodiversity conservation.

A conversation with the Directors General of two CGIAR centers
Part 3: The CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA)

CIFOR and ICRAF are two of the 15 research centers that comprise CGIAR – the only worldwide partnership addressing agricultural research for development whose work contributes to the global effort to tackle poverty, hunger and environmental degradation.

Adinda Hasan, Communications Specialist for Asia, CIFOR

Why did the CGIAR see the need to add a focus on natural resources in the 1980s?

Tony Simons, Director-General, World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF)

The CGIAR was very successful since its establishment in 1971 following a Bellagio meeting around the need to boost the world’s food’s production. We saw through that Green Revolution a lot of emphasis on improved varieties and improved cropping systems, but that was not the full solution. There was a lot of draw-down on natural capital.

So we recorded the revenue from increased cereal production, but not the negative cost to the environment. And that was why it was very important to bring in that environmental dimension and ecosystems services. Probably the biggest win for the world was the establishment of CIFOR in 1993 to help strengthen that within the CGIAR.

Peter Holmgren, Director-General, CIFOR

We live in a transition of times. In the 1970s, food production was the main agenda item for the CGIAR. Since then, we’ve seen the development of the political arena, development of the objectives on all levels. We see a lot more of the social and environmental aspects coming in, just as it does as it does with sustainable development.

Hasan:

So both your centers have played key roles in the program on Trees, Forests and Agroforestry. You’ve just finished your first phase. How did that go? Can you tell us about the key challenges and the main achievements?

Holmgren:

Well, this year is the final year of the first phase. We haven’t quite finished it yet, but CIFOR and ICRAF are the largest contributors to the program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.

We’re now moving into a second phase. We are currently working on the planning of that. The new phase of the Forests, Trees and Agroforestry program will start in 2017. We will add new partners. We will develop our work, our agenda, our objectives further. We will streamline and focus on our theory of change to make a difference along the lines that we’ve discussed here today. It’s really about the partnership. It’s really about the interests of stakeholders around the world to invest in this program.

Simons:

It’s a fascinatingly exciting program because it’s been operational for six years. And we’ve achieved more as two centers working together than we have probably in the previous decade.

That has brought excitement to the scientists; it brought operational realities on the ground. It was about co-location, co-design, co-investment and co-attribution and recognition of the outputs of that. To do what? To accelerate impact in those environments in which we work.

Holmgren:

As I see it, and I know we share this view, research capacity development and engagement is integrated in development and our efforts. CIFOR envisions a more equitable world where forests and trees contribute to the livelihoods, to the well-being and to a sustainable environment for all.

Simons:

A great focus in the second round is going to be capitalizing on the gains we made on gender. The Forests, Trees and Agroforestry program had one of the most progressive not only gender strategies, but gender action plans. It was rewarding also to see the high level of attribution of budget towards increasing the role of gender into our programs.

When you ask the question, ‘Are we optimistic’? I think Peter and I share a lot of hope, joy and opportunity around raising the profile of forests and trees in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, in the framework of the Paris Climate Agreement and also in the new CGIAR Forests, Trees and Agroforestry program.Because if these two premier research and development organizations on forests and trees- if we can’t do it, no one else is going to be able to.

This is the final episode of our special three-part video interview series for the International Day of Forests 2016.

Watch Part 1 and Part 2

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  • Managing and restoring natural tropical forests: discussion forum at GLF 2015

Managing and restoring natural tropical forests: discussion forum at GLF 2015

23 March, 2016
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FTA

Originally published at Global Landscapes Forum 2015

CIRAD’s Plinio Sist is an advocate of “tropical managed forests“. The Director of CIRAD’s Research unit BSEF made the case for the concept of tropical managed forests for example at the 2015 Global Landscapes Forum, with the discussion forum Managing and restoring natural tropical forests: Ensuring a sustainable flow of benefits for people in the context of global change. 

The obvious reasons to study tropical forests come from the sheer facts: they make up half of the earth’s forests, are home to half of the species on land, and they gather nearly a third of the terrestrial carbon stocks. At the same time, deforestation is concentrated in the tropics. The FAO estimated forest loss from 2010 to 2015 at close to nine million hectares (i.e. 90,000 km2) per year. That is nearly the size of Portugal or Hungary in forest cover lost every year.

Plinio Sist countered the view that deforestation equals logging and argued for Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) which disturbs the forest, but doesn’t destroy it. The main actors whose interests have to be balanced are forest companies, smallholder farmers and forest communities.

The discussion forum revolved around the challenges of

  • forest degradation, management and restoration (also in the context of landscape management)
  • tropical forests versus plantations
  • food production versus environmental services

Presentations focused on

  • FSC certification in the Brazilian Amazon,
  • concessions 2.0 in Central Africa, which suggests land-sharing through a hybrid of a company and a territorial institution
  • managing tropical forests in an era of change in South East Asia, in which FTA Director Robert Nasi and his co-presenter Michael Galante make the case for new approaches to managing logged-over forests and benefits
  • forest restoration as key component to tackle climate change, which argues that the underlying factors of deforestation have to do with governance

Also see the presentation here

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  • Why managing and restoring tropical forests matters

Why managing and restoring tropical forests matters
Posted by

FTA

CIRAD’s Plinio Sist is an advocate of “tropical managed forests“. The Director of CIRAD’s Research unit BSEF made the case for tropical managed forests for example at the 2016 Global Landscapes Forum, with the discussion forum Managing and restoring natural tropical forests: Ensuring a sustainable flow of benefits for people in the context of global change. 

The obvious reasons to study tropical forests come from the sheer facts: they make up half of the earth’s forests, are home to half of the species on land, and they gather nearly a third of the terrestrial carbon stocks. At the same time, deforestation is concentrated in the tropics. The FAO estimated forest loss from 2010 to 2015 at close to nine million hectares (i.e. 90,000 km2) per year. That is nearly the size of Portugal or Hungary in forest cover lost every year.

Plinio Sist countered the view that deforestation equals logging and argued for Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) which disturbs the forest, but doesn’t destroy it. The main actors whose interests have to be balanced are forest companies, smallholder farmers and forest communities.

The discussion forum revolved around the challenges of

  • forest degradation, management and restoration (also in the context of landscape management)
  • tropical forests versus plantations
  • food production versus environmental services

Presentations focused on

  • FSC certification in the Brazilian Amazon (slide 7-12),
  • concessions 2.0 in Central Africa, which suggests land-sharing through a hybrid of a company and a territorial institution (slide 13-25)
  • managing tropical forests in an era of change in South East Asia, in which FTA Director Robert Nasi and his co-presenter make the case for new approaches to managing logged-over forests and benefits (slide 26-34)
  • forest restoration as key component to tackle climate change, which argues that the underlying factors of deforestation have to do with governance (slides 35-47)

The presentation was originally published at Global Landscapes Forum 2015

Please contact us at cgiarforestsandtrees@cgiar.org if you need individual versions for each of the presentations.

 

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