National forest programmes

Nfp Background

As early as the 1960s, forest sector assistance in the area of policy planning was deemed to be promising to rationalize the sector's performance and provide more strategic orientation towards forest development. In the 1980s, in response to worldwide concern over deforestation in the tropics, a first set of internationally concerted action plans was initiated (including tropical forest action plans, forestry sector master plans, forestry sector reviews). At the same time, countries were also approached for similar initiatives with a broader environmental scope (e.g. national conservation strategies, environmental action plans), all of which partly overlapped with the forest-specific ones. The lessons learned from TFAP and other planning frameworks had significant impact on the subsequent international forest policy dialogue.

In 1992, the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) triggered a change in paradigm, with holistic, cross-sectoral approaches being favoured. Chapter 11 (Combating Deforestation) of Agenda 21, the action plan of UNCED, requested governments:

"to prepare and implement, as appropriate, national forestry action programmes and/or plans for the management, conservation and sustainable development of forests".

Furthermore, the participating governments agreed to:

"reviewing and, if necessary, revising measures and programmes relevant to all types of forests and vegetation, inclusive of other related lands and forest based resources, and relating them to other land uses and development policies and legislation"

It stressed the need to integrate these activities within a global, inter-sectoral and participatory framework. Pluralistic partner structures in the forest sector (i.e. multiple models of ownership and management, plurality of service providers, diversity of administrative bodies, multilateral decision-making) were favoured over a concentrated hold on forest resources (e.g. centralized, heavily regulated government planning exclusively carried out by natural resources professionals or officials).

In 1995, the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF), established by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) to ensure continuity of forest policy dialogue and to develop an international consensus on national mechanisms for sustainable forest management, elaborated an agreement on a large number of forest-related issues. Within the approximately 150 Proposals for Action created by the IPF, nfps were conceived as central instruments to put the agreements into practice at the country level.

The conceptual design of nfps needed to be flexible and dynamic in order for nfps to be applicable to vastly differing political, socio-economic and ecological country contexts. At the same time, coherence of international action and lessons from previous programmes requested a definition of certain standards. Shortly before the fourth session of the IPF, when nfps were officially endorsed, FAO, supported by the International Forestry Advisors Group,consisting of forestry advisors from international, bilateral and multilateral agencies, had already incorporated the latest international developments into practical principles and guidelines for an evolving national forest programme concept.

In 1997, the CSD established the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) as a successor to IPF. It tackled a number of unresolved questions of IPF and promoted and monitored the implementation of the IPF Proposals for Action. IFF reconfirmed that nfps, as defined by IPF, were a viable framework for implementation of the existing Proposals for Action in a holistic, comprehensive and multisectoral manner. IFF added another 120 to reach the current total of 270 IPF/IFF proposals. Some aspects received more attention than before: explicit reference to women was added and the application of, and support to, the nfp processes more specifically referred to:

1. low forest cover countries;
2. least-developed countries;
3. developing countries and countries in transition; as well as
4. countries with critical ecological problems requiring rehabilitation and sustainable management of the forest cover.

In order to make full use of the Proposals for Action and the concept of nfps, the IFF recommended that countries conduct a systematic national assessment of the IPF/IFF Proposals for Action involving all stakeholders and plan for their implementation within country-specific national forest programmes. In 2000, the nfp concept moved on to the agenda of the International Arrangement on Forests – consisting of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) (2000–2005) and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests – which aims to promote the implementation of the IPF/IFF Proposals for Action through nfps. The UNFF meetings gave the opportunity to participating countries to share their experience, furnishing the necessary "translation" or guidance for operationalization of the IPF/IFF Proposals for Action. To meet the demand for regular updates on lessons learned and develop the nfp concept further, support structures have emerged since the late 1990s, including the World Bank’s Program on Forests (PROFOR) and, more recently, the National Forest Programme Facility, hosted by FAO.

For full reports and proceedings of the IFF, IPF and UNFF, see the United Nations Forum on Forests documents page