The second workshop for the EC-FAO Partnership Programme: Information and Analysis for Sustainable Forest Management: Linking National and International Efforts in South and Southeast Asia was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 22 to 24 January 2002. The workshop was entitled Forest Policy and Forest Policy Reviews.
The event was organized by FAO with financial support from the EC through the EC-FAO Partnership Programme (Tropical Forestry Budget Line B7-6201/1B/98/0531: Project GCP/INT/173/EC). The Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) provided logistical support and organized a visit to its premises in Kepong for some participants.
This report provides the proceedings of the workshop, including an overview of the Partnership Programme, the workshop objectives and conditions, an overview of the progress achieved so far, planned activities for 2002 and conclusions.
Overall objective of the programme: To promote the sustainable management of trees and forests in the tropics of South and Southeast Asia founded on policies that integrate and balance relevant economic, environmental and social aspects of forestry.
The following countries have been identified as participants in the EC-FAO Partnership Programme activities:
South Asia: Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan (six countries); and
Southeast Asia: Lao PDR, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines (seven countries).
Immediate objectives: To strengthen national capacities to collect, compile and disseminate reliable and up-to-date information on forestry in South Asia and Southeast Asia, to analyse the forest sector and to make information available to policy decision makers.
Workshop components, objectives and expected outcomes
The workshop had the dual purpose of serving as the venue for the third steering group meeting and as a forum for discussing arrangements for establishing a regional network of statistical correspondents and for conducting in-depth forest policy studies.
The objectives were as follows:
Review the progress of the EC-FAO Partnership Programme and discuss future activities to improve forestry statistics.
Discuss the status of forest policy reviews that have been conducted in the participating countries in the recent past (last five to seven years).
Agree on additional forest policy studies that could be supported by the EC-FAO Partnership Programme.
The workshop was designed to have the following outcomes:
Clear guidance for additional activities and agreed upon timeframes for the work to be initiated.
Reaching a consensus on the feasibility and need for a network of statistical correspondents.
Obtaining updated information on the status of forest policy in the 13 participating countries.
Agreement on the additional forest policy reviews under the EC-FAO Partnership Programme.
In preparation for the workshop, participants were asked to prepare a brief presentation on recent forest policy reviews in their respective countries, according to the following outline:
A preliminary overview of recent national forest policy reviews including a brief introduction and description of forest policy studies in the context of subjects/areas, main results/findings, and main implementing institutions/organizations over the past five to seven years.
Exploratory assessment of follow-up activities in response to recommendations made in the policy reviews, and impact of the most recent policy studies.
A brief assessment of the objectives, information sources, constraints to and opportunities for conducting policy reviews.
Introduction of the currently most important issues, constraints, challenges, and opportunities for sustainable forest management (SFM).
Identification of the key areas/topics that could benefit from policy studies the EC-FAO Partnership Programme could support.
All participating countries were invited to send representatives to the workshop, with a recommended preference that the National Focal Point attend. Twelve countries accepted the invitation to attend, but Bangladesh was unable to provide a representative. Last minute difficulties prevented the focal point in Viet Nam from participating at the workshop. The paper on forest policies in Viet Nam is included in the proceedings. A number of Malaysian representatives joined the meeting. The European Commission was represented by M. Louis du Breil de Pontbriand and four FAO officials facilitated the discussions (see Appendix 1 for the full list of participants).
