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NEW TOOLS AND RESEARCH

Povery-Forests Linkages Toolkit
PROFOR has finalized the print version of the Poverty-Forests Linkages Toolkit. There is a CD version which provides downloadable spreadsheets, facilitating the collection of data described in the six tools that help to quantify the links between forest-dependant people and poverty and mainstream the findings into development policy. Practitioners are encouraged to use the toolkit (available here) and provide feedback on their experience on this feedback page.

Prive Community Forestry in South East Europe
Private and community forest owners in Macedonia, Albania and Serbia often face major difficulties in participating in national and cross-sectoral policy discussions due to poor governance, resulting in mismanagement and illegal activities that endanger the execution of property rights. PROFOR, working with Confederation of European Forestry Owners (CEPF), helped to address these issues by first making in depth assessments of the current status, then working through a website to organize a series of conferences and activities to develop networks of information exchange at the sub-regional level, and discuss issues related to property rights and the role of forest-owner associations in their management. 

Developing a Carbon Payment Scheme on Certified Forest Concessions
PROFOR supported work by INDUFOR that explores the links between certification and REDD verification as a way of creating incentives for the private sector to generate REDD benefits.

Preparing for REDD in dry-land forests: Investigating the options and potential synergy for REDD payments in the Miombo Eco-region, southern Africa
This activity aims to improve understanding among decision-makers in government, community-based organizations, and the private sector of the opportunities and challenges for pro-poor payments for REDD within national and regional contexts of the Miombo Ecoregion.

KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION 

Knowledge Notes
To support and strengthen the governance reform process of the forest sector in Cameroon and to share the experience with other sectors and regions of its policy reform lessons, PROFOR composed a Knowledge Note with the World Bank Africa Environment team to analyze how the reforms were built and implemented, and gave a number of useful insights into planning of a reform process. The Note was showcased at the Congo Basin Partnership Forum meeting in Yaounde. Cameroon on November 12, 2009, and is based on a report partially financed by PROFOR entitled The Rainforests of Cameroon: Experience and Evidence from a Decade of Reform. PROFOR plans on producing more such knowledge notes to distill its findings and lessons learned for a wider audience in the coming year.

Forestry Publications CD
To disseminate forestry related publications in a greener, cost effective, and more mobile way, and to reach a broader set of international audience, PROFOR and the World Bank forests team have produced a joint publications CD containing their most recent reports and findings.  Hundreds of the mini-CDs were disseminated at the XIII World Forestry Congress where they were received with postive feedbacks among high demand. PROFOR plans to take the CDs to more forestry events in the future.

List of Other New Publications

Poverty-Forests Linkages Toolkit
The Rainforests of Cameroon: Experience and Evidence from a Decade of Reform
Forest Connect
Forest Landscape Restoration Map

To request copies of any of the PROFOR knowledge products mentioned above, please fill out a publications request form on the PROFOR website. Click here to see a complete list of PROFOR publications and tools.

RECENT EVENTS

Workshop on Improving Governance in Mekong Region
As part of a project on Forest Governance and Law Enforcement (FLEG) in the Mekong Region PROFOR co-hosted a workshop in Hanoi, Vietnam in November 2009 on "Improving FLEG in the Mekong Region" (Vietnam, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Thailand). As the economic and environmental importance of FLEG has been growing in the region, and the regulatory framework in the EU and US on wood products import requirements has been changing, government, industry and other stakeholders in the region came together to determine how to address this paradigm shift in trade policy. 

XIII World Forestry Congress
PROFOR hosted a side event on the “Impacts of the New Wave of Investment in Large-Scale Farming on Forests and People” at the 13th World Forestry Congress on 21 October, 2009. The presentations addressed the impacts of large scale land acquisition for farming, as well as the impacts of global trade and farm investments, on forests and people, within Asia, Africa, and Latin America.