IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

They are intended to ensure that debt relief provided under the enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, and concessional loans from the international financial institutions, help to reduce poverty in the poorest, most indebted Southern countries

IUCN's Forest Conservation Programme is working to help build an economic case as to how forest conservation and sustainable management can make tangible contributions to the needs and livelihood strategies of the rural poor and bridge the gap that currently exists between poverty reduction strategies and national forest programmes.

At present the role of forests in poverty reduction strategies tends to be superficial. This is partly due to a disconnect between the analytical approaches of natural resource use and poverty assessments. Furthermore, national forest programmes seldom establish strong links with poverty reduction strategy processes.

Addressing poverty and forests leads into a suite of governance issues, including access and tenure rights. If forests are to fulfill their potential in making tangible contributions towards poor people's livelihoods then poor people must be able to access, use and control the resource.

Mainstreaming environment into PRSPs in Africa

IUCN EARO is working with Ugandan and Kenyan Authorities on mainstreaming the environment into national economic and development planning, as well as greening the next versions of the PRSPs.

Download a policy brief highlighting the findings of the Second Directors of Conservation Meeting held in February 2002 to discuss "Natural Resources Valuation and Accounting in National Planning and Development in East Africa" (802 KB).

In recent years, significant advances have been made in the development and use of economic tools and measures for sustainable forest management (SFM). Despite this, there is still low awareness of these economic methods and tools among both economic and forestry planners and policy makers, and most economic measures for sustainable forest management are still to be institutionalised at the national level.

IUCN's work highlights economic valuation and incentives. These two tools should be viewed as means to an end, and not as ends in themselves. A more holistic set of forest values (including both use and non-use values) should be incorporated in decision making that affects forests and the communities who depend on them. Valuation studies need to pay much more attention to the distribution of market and non-market values to different socio-economic groups, particularly the rural poor.

IUCN has advocated through the international policy arena that incentives and environmental and trade-distorting subsidies for forest-related land-use activities need to be re-orientated and reformed to enhance, rather than undermine, the functionality of forest landscapes. By doing so, the future prospects of the poor can be improved. Markets should be used to provide incentives for ensuring the long-term viability and sustainability of forests and of the communities that depend on them.

Click here for IUCN Position Paper on Valuation and Incentives at UNFF-3.

Click here to find out more about Valuation and Incentives.

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