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International
Forest Policy
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 In
the years following the 1992
Earth Summit (UNCED), the role of forests in providing ecosystem
services, contributing to food security, sustaining livelihoods,
and reducing poverty has increasingly been recognized at international
fora. The United
Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) and the Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD) are the two principal policy
arenas dealing with forests, though key aspects are being dealt
with under other forest-related agreements including United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the International
Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA).
Though all post-UNCED fora have repeatedly emphasized the need
to move from dialogue to action on the ground, this still largely
remains an unfulfilled challenge. However, some important progress
has been made, for example, more than 100 countries have developed
national forest programmes and there has been an increase in forest
protected areas. Furthermore, innovative public-private partnerships
and increasing collaboration among international organisations such
as IUCN and other members of the Collaborative
Partnership on Forests - an interagency group of 14 key
international organisations and bodies, are making significant contributions
to efforts to convert policy into practice.
One of the unique strengths of the IUCN Forest Conservation Programme
in this regard is our ability to draw directly on the experiences
and lessons learnt from the field-based activities of our various
regional and country offices, and members, while making international
and regional forest policy interventions. Likewise, this also enables
us to effectively convey the "big-issues" being debated
in international and regional fora to local and national-level stakeholders.
Our Work in International Forest Policy Processes
Our Work in Regional Forest Policy Processes
Our Partnerships and Alliances
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Experience from
the World Bank Forest Policy and Strategy Review Process
The World Bank's Forest Policy Implementation
Review and Strategy (FPIRS) - which came to a close in 2002
with the launching of its new forest strategy and policy -
is a good example of how the IUCN Forest Conservation Programme
works to improve international forest policy. For nearly three
years, the global FCP team facilitated widespread input to
the World Bank's forest policy review. IUCN also took on a
separate, substantive role in the review process, providing
technical inputs just like any other stakeholder and facilitating
its membership's involvement in the review.
There were certainly some difficult moments, working on
an issue on which our membership did not always share the
same opinions, but we continued to keep them all informed
of the progress and views, and documented a tremendous quality
(and quantity) of membership input into IUCN positions. In
the end, IUCN and its Members presented a consensus view that
the World Bank's forest policy should evolve to: 1) Apply
to all aspects of World Bank operations that impact on forests;
2) Address all types of forests in all World Bank client countries;
3) Safeguard social as well as ecological values of forests;
and 4) Apply to structural adjustment lending operations.
Lessons Learned
The final policy, approved by the World Bank's
Board of Executive Directors, adopted the first three recommendations.
Consideration of the fourth recommendation was postponed pending
completion of the Bank's subsequent review of its Operational
Policy on Structural Adjustment. The inputs facilitated by
IUCN have encouraged the World Bank to re-engage proactively
in forest-related issues, raising the profile of the forest
sector within the Bank. The Bank's new forest strategy and
forest policy now includes a number of innovative approaches
to increase stakeholder engagement and participation in implementation.
One of these innovations is the establishment of an External
Advisory Group (EAG), constituted in 2003 and modelled on
the FPIRS Technical Advisory Group, which provides the Bank
with independent advice on the implementation of its forest
strategy. FCP staff has been invited to be part of the EAG
on a non-institutional basis. Also recognizing that due attention
must be given to transparency and public disclosure, both
the Bank and the EAG have agreed that every effort will be
made to ensure that the nature of the advice provided by the
Group is widely disseminated through various channels including,
as appropriate, the arborvitæ
newsletter.
The participatory process that IUCN helped the World Bank
to design and implement was a more open and transparent policy
review process than anything the Bank had done before and
has become a model of its kind. However, this should not be
regarded as the end of the process; in reality it is a preliminary
milestone. We see it as our responsibility to remain actively
and openly engaged in the implementation of the World Bank's
new forest strategy, in both letter and spirit, and to help
reinvigorate declining donor interest in the conservation
and sustainable use of forest resources.
To know more about our role in the World Bank Forest Policy
and Strategy Review Process, click
here
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