INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS FOR SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT: LINKING NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
Thomas Enters, FORESTRY SECTOR ANALYSIS SPECIALIST,
FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
This presentation will provide an outline of the overall programme: Information and Analysis for Sustainable Forest Management: Linking National and International Efforts in South and Southeast Asia. The presentation will provide a brief overview of the scope and objectives of the programme, before providing a more detailed discussion of the manner in which the programme is structured.
Objectives
The objectives of the Programme are largely at two levels. The overarching objective is to promote sustainable management of trees and forests in the tropics of South Asia and Southeast Asia, founded on policies that integrate and balance relevant economic, environmental and social aspects of forestry. The overarching objective recognises that development of good forest policy requires good supporting data and information. If we don't know where we are now, how can we plan where we are going?
The more immediate objectives of the programme should naturally promote the overarching objective.
The programme has, effectively three immediate objectives:
to strengthen national capacities to collect, compile and disseminate reliable and up-to-date information on forestry;
to utilise this information to update analysis of the forestry sector; and
to make information and analysis available to policy-makers.
In this workshop our principle objective will be to develop a platform from which we can work, principally, towards addressing the first objective.
Scope
The programme covers six countries in South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka); and seven countries in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam).
The Programme is also focused specifically on six forestry topics:
forest resources and land-use change;
forest plantations;
trees outside forests;
fuelwood;
wood supply potential;
non-wood forest products; as well as,
data systems to support these.
This list of specific topics is largely derived from the results of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study. These are areas that are seen as having considerable scope to improve and strengthen, particularly, quantitative data collection - while maintaining a primary Programme focus (and thereby keeping the scope within manageable limits), on physical tree and forest resources.
Structure
In terms of the structure of the Programme, there are three major components specified within the Programme of Work. That is, there are three main groups of tasks the Programme will carry out.
The first of these is to collect and update problem-oriented data. Of particular interest is to identify data currently collected, but not made generally available. This includes identifying various small-scale studies in countries, where the results or data generated, has not reached the public domain. It also includes developing linkages between various data collecting agencies to improve data consistency.
There is also a need, identified in the Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study, to clarify how data are collected or compiled, and to look at innovative means of generating new data. For example, in some countries there is a significant discrepancy between total roundwood production and the assessed sustainable supply potential of natural forests. In the past in has been assumed that natural forests have been being over-cut, unsustainably harvested - and, consequently we have had bleak forecasts of wood supply crises - resulting in possibly inappropriate policy measures such as excessive plantation programmes, harvesting restrictions, or consumption controls. More latterly, it appears that, in many countries, the wood supply role of trees outside forests has been neglected, and thus an important component of wood supply equations has been omitted. It becomes evident that we cannot merely look at statistics at face value. We also need to understand how they are collected and compiled. Which factors are included in a particular statistic and which factors are omitted? Thus, a significant part of this workshop will be spent in describing and discussing national information systems. How does your country collect information? How is it compiled? What pieces are missing?
As the Programme progresses it is intended that comprehensive national forestry data and information sets will be compiled, incorporating existing forestry information, new data generated during the Programme, and information and analysis from related sectors. In part, it is anticipated that focussed country studies, examining each of the six specified forestry topics, will be implemented in each country - and we will further discuss this implementation on the third day of the workshop.
A second core component in the Programme of Work is implementation of pilot studies designed to gather new information and data relating to areas where there are evident gaps in coverage and methodologies. The pilot studies are expected to generate useful data and information, but a central purpose for many should be to develop and demonstrate successful methodologies for collecting information to support the development of robust policies that promote sustainable forest management. Thus, the idea behind the pilot studies is to develop tools and capabilities that can be shared across the region - rather than merely implementing a one-time study. Much of our discussion here, particularly on the third day of the workshop, will revolve around planning a series of pilot studies.
The third aspect of the Programme will be a Forest Policy Review. This phase will occur in the latter stages of the Programme and will build on information gathered throughout the course of other activities. The Policy Review will specifically include:
incorporating improved data into forecasting models;
reviewing national forestry policies in the light of new information on supply and demand situations, evolving country aspirations, and requirements for sustainable forest management; and,
building national capacities to conduct detailed forest policy analysis.
Conclusions
The Programme specifies outcomes for five separate groups.
For all target countries, an improved and more in-depth coverage of forestry data and better reliable problem-oriented data which is needed for sustainable forest management;
For the selected pilot countries, a proven, cost-effective methodology to collect and analyse forestry data for sustainable forest management which is essential but not yet commonly available at national level, and to carry out policy/institutional analysis for each of the selected countries;
For the Forestry Departments, local staff and Forestry Officers, improved institutional and technical capacity obtained through the project's activities (workshops, international and national consultants, on the job training, pilot studies and analysis);
For the highest levels of policy makers, improved analytical tools to review and formulate appropriate forestry policies for sustainable forest management; and
For EC, FAO, International Community and general public, access to the data, information and analysis of the forestry sectors in the target countries.
It is apparent from these that an overall theme of the Programme is capacity building. The Programme is designed to provide opportunities to gather and organise data, both on regional and national levels. It also has a strong learning-by-doing component - particularly associated with the pilot studies. It is, as has already been emphasised, a partnership between the European Commission, FAO and you - the countries. Thus a funding framework is in place, but the types of studies that will be implemented within the Programme are largely down to you. What topics and studies will deliver the best outcomes for your country, for the region, and thus for the European Commission and FAO?
Thank you
