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  • Forests are key to combating world's looming water crisis, says new GFEP report

Forests are key to combating world’s looming water crisis, says new GFEP report

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Rain clouds hover over a forest in Yen Bai, Vietnam. Photo by Rob Finlayson/ICRAF

The world is facing a growing water crisis: already, 40 percent of the world’s population are affected by water scarcity, and climate change threatens to increase the frequency of both floods and droughts in vulnerable areas around the world.

A new report released recently at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York suggests that successfully managing the world’s forests will be key to mitigating these risks and ensuring safe and sustainable water supplies for all.

Forest and Water on a Changing Planet: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Governance Opportunities presents a comprehensive global assessment of available scientific information about the interactions between forests and water, and was prepared by the Global Forest Expert Panel (GFEP) on Forests and Water, an initiative of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests led by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).

Read more: FTA at GLF: From rainfall recycling to landscape restoration

“In the assessment, we focused on the following key questions: Do forests matter? Who is responsible and what should be done? How can progress be made and measured?” said panel cochair and Meine van Noordwijk of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) – a member of IUFRO – and Wageningen University, Netherlands. Van Noordwijk is also a former research leader at the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA)

The role of forests in the water cycle is at least as important as their role in the carbon cycle in the face of climate change. In addition to being the lungs of the planet, they also act as kidneys.

Xu Jianchu of ICRAF noted that, “while public attention has tended to focus on forests’ potential as carbon sinks, from a local perspective water is often a greater priority.”

Read more: Bridging research and development to generate science and solutions

An agroforestry area is pictured in Sierra Leone. Photo by ICRAF

Carbon-centered forestation strategies could have significant consequences on water resources; in some cases, efforts to increase carbon storage using fast-growing trees have had a negative impact on local water supplies.

According to Xu, who contributed to several chapters in the report, looking at the climate-forests-water-people system as a whole could help formulate policies that address both local priorities and global targets such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

For example, water-sensitive land management policies in the Hindu Kush and Himalayas have successfully revived natural springs which are a critical source of water for local communities.

As noted by panel co-chair Irena Creed of the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, “natural forests, in particular, contribute to sustainable water supplies for people in the face of growing risks. And it is also possible to actively manage forests for water resilience.”

The report also calls for nuance in both scientific assessments of forests and policy-making. Rather than simply classifying land cover as ‘forest’ or ‘non-forest’, for example, the publication emphasizes the need to pay attention to forest quality and how trees are arranged within a watershed.

Read more: Trees, water and climate: Cool scientific insights, hot implications for research and policy

In Vietnam’s Huong River Basin, the intensification of traditional swidden-fallow systems from 1989 to 2008 was not an explicit change in land use but it still had major consequences for water flows. Over that same period of time, forests in the headwaters of the basin recovered and expanded, which would ordinarily be expected to mitigate the risk of floods. Yet intensification of the swidden systems overwhelmed these effects and in fact exacerbated flooding.

The report concludes by identifying a clear policy gap in climate-forest-water relations and calls for a series of regional or continental studies to complement and extend the current global assessment.

Filling this gap will not be a simple process, and the authors highlight the fact that any process for managing the trade-offs inherent in forest management must fully consider the wellbeing of local, indigenous and other vulnerable communities. To that end, social and environmental justice must be integrated into climate-forest-water policies, and stronger participatory approaches are needed to ensure that policy goals are sustainable and equitable.

By Andrew Stevenson, originally published at ICRAF’s Agroforestry World


The IUFRO-led Global Forest Expert Panel initiative of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests established the Expert Panel on Forests and Water to provide policy makers with a stronger scientific basis for their decisions and to specifically inform international policy processes and discussions on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the related Sustainable Development Goals.

The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) is the only world-wide organization devoted to forest research and related sciences. Its members are research institutions, universities and individual scientists as well as decision-making authorities and others with a focus on forests and trees. 

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  • Are there differences between men and women in REDD+ benefit sharing schemes?

Are there differences between men and women in REDD+ benefit sharing schemes?

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https://www.slideshare.net/CIFOR/are-there-differences-between-men-and-women-in-redd-benefit-sharing-schemes

Presented by CIFOR Principal Scientist and team leader Esther Mwangi at the IUFRO 125th World Congress on 18 September 2017 in Freiburg, Germany.

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  • ‘Rainfall recycling’ as a landscape function: Connecting SDGs 6, 13 and 15

‘Rainfall recycling’ as a landscape function: Connecting SDGs 6, 13 and 15

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The ‘Rainfall recycling’ as a landscape function: Connecting SDGs 6, 13 and 15 Discussion Forum was held at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Bonn on Dec. 19, 2017.

Climate change is a reality and, for those most affected by it, it is often experienced as a change in the most basic commodity: water. Drawing on the insights of farmers and local communities, this session examines the role of forests in regulating the water cycle.

New research suggests that vegetation plays a critical role in the frequency and intensity of rainfall. This discussion forum will explore the implications on the many areas affected by these effects — land restoration, water management and climate change adaptation — toward an integrated approach for land/water and climate for the SDGs.

The discussion forum will build on a successful online symposium that took place in May 2017. The discussion will also discuss highlights of the current Global Forest Expert Panel (GFEP) on forests and water, which is expected to issue a policy relevant global assessment report in the first half of 2018.

The session was hosted by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and Swedish International Agricultural Network Initiative (SIANI).

This video was originally published by the GLF.

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  • Introducing students to the ‘Earthscan Reader on Gender and Forestry’

Introducing students to the ‘Earthscan Reader on Gender and Forestry’

Women work a rice field in Nalma, Nepal. Photo by M. Edliadi/CIFOR
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Women work a rice field in Nalma, Nepal. Photo by M. Edliadi/CIFOR

Indonesia’s future leaders in forestry and gender studies had the chance to make connections between their disciplines at the Bogor headquarters of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) recently.

Reaching out to the next generation of gender and forestry scholars, policymakers, civil society organizations and other stakeholders, CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) researchers from CIFOR introduced the Earthscan Reader on Gender and Forests to members of the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA) from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB).

Read more: The Earthscan Reader on Gender and Forests

Launched earlier this year on the sidelines of 125th Anniversary Congress of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), the reader is an accessible collection of theory, analysis, methodology, case studies and more, spanning 30 years of scholarship. It was edited by Carol J. Pierce Colfer and Bimbika Sijapati Basnett of CIFOR, Marlène Elias, gender specialist at Bioversity International, and Susan Stevens Hummel from the Forest Service at the United States Department of Agriculture.

Read more: FTA gender scientists to launch ‘The Earthscan Reader on Gender and Forests’ during IUFRO congress

Building on the positive reception at IUFRO, the CIFOR event and discussion introduced Indonesian students to the book, which covers the intersections between gender, forestry and natural resource management across disciplines, geographies and historical periods.

Dian Ekowati, a CIFOR senior research officer and a host of the event, noted that the majority of students attending came from a forestry background without a strong gender focus, so should find the reader particularly interesting and thought-provoking.

Read more: Focus on gender research and mainstreaming

A Nepali woman prepares rice for cooking. Photo by M. Edliadi/CIFOR

“We hope that the discussion will further the students’ aspirations, or inspire them to learn about and integrate gender when looking at forest management during their study, research, fieldwork, and interaction with communities, and for their future work — especially, but not only, for those working in forestry,” she says.

Moderated by Mia Siscawati, a senior lecturer in gender studies at UI, the discussion will feature noted academics discussing the need to consider and mainstream gender into forestry and natural resource management in Indonesia, and the role the reader can play as an important resource for scholars and students.

Originally published at CIFOR.org.


 For more information on this topic, please contact Dian Ekowati at d.ekowati@cgiar.org.

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

This research was supported by UK aid from the UK government.

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  • Strengths and limitations of participatory forest management and area enclosure: two major state-led forest landscape rehabilitation initiatives in Ethiopia

Strengths and limitations of participatory forest management and area enclosure: two major state-led forest landscape rehabilitation initiatives in Ethiopia

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Presentation by Habte Mariam Kassa, Senior Scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), at the IUFRO Regional Congress for Asia and Oceania, October 2016, in Bejing, China

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  • How do property rights regimes provide incentives for Forest Landscape Restoration? Evidence from Nepal, China and Ethiopia

How do property rights regimes provide incentives for Forest Landscape Restoration? Evidence from Nepal, China and Ethiopia

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Presentation by Peter Cronkleton, Senior Scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), at IUFRO Regional Congress for Asia and Oceania, October 2016, in Bejing, China.


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