CHALLENGE

Investing in productive functions and use of forests through sustainable forest management (SFM), forest and landscape restoration, and afforestation and reforestation, could yield significant multiple wins of climate change mitigation, increased climate change resilience and adaptation, and green growth. Through the Stimulating Private Sector Engagement in REDD+, SFM and Landscape Restoration Activity, PROFOR is building evidence to support a broader approach to REDD+ that would incorporate the potential of productive functions of forests to mitigate climate change.

Current REDD+ approaches do not into take account the climate benefits that sustainable forests could provide outside of the forest sector, particularly in three key areas: substituting fossil fuels for renewable, forest-based energy sources; substituting fossil-fuel intensive construction materials; and creating a virtuous cycle of building the forest products carbon pool through durable, long-lived wood products combined with forest re-growth. Together, these areas could amount to as much as 20 percent of the global mitigation potential.

Such a radical expansion of the REDD+ approach would also address the unsatisfied need for timber, fiber and wood-based energy, which is a key driver of forest degradation and deforestation. Projections suggest that demand for fuelwood and charcoal will keep increasing beyond the year 2050 in order to meet the needs of around 2.5 billion people. At the same time, total demand for wood will grow faster than population growth, rising from a current 3.5 billion m3 to over 15 billion m3 per year.

APPROACH

The objective of this study is twofold: (i) To broaden the understanding of how including a landscape-based approach to forest, forest-based products supply chains, and downstream industries into a broadened REDD+ architecture could help mitigate climate change mitigation outcomes; and (ii) to develop a private sector engagement strategy for enhanced private sector investment in REDD+ sustainable forest value chain and landscape restoration efforts.

The study examines six countries in detail: Ethiopia, Columbia, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru and Vietnam.  

RESULTS

All of the countries analyzed indicate that productive forests and harvested wood products (HWP) have a high potential for green growth, employment creation, and climate change mitigation. All countries are projected to have significant supply gaps of HWP, suggesting that there is substantial potential to mitigate climate change and spur economic growth by bolstering HWP value chains.

The study finds that substituting fossil-fuel-intensive materials with HWP provides the greatest mitigation benefit in all countries. Productive forests for HWP would be the second largest sequestration source in Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. In Vietnam, sawn wood production and productive forests for HWP are second most important. Ethiopia and Mozambique have much more potential to produce other industrial roundwood. Production of paper and paperboard offer a more limited mitigation potential due to the short life spans of these products.

Moreover, the study confirms that productive forests could help fill the expected gap in roundwood supply. For instance, the research projects project that Ethiopia’s demand for HWP will grow from 4.1 million m3 in 2013 to 16.7 million m3 in 2040. Increasing demand will result in a projected industrial roundwood supply gap of 13.3 million m3 in 2040, which could be addressed by establishing an additional 750,000 hectares of professionally managed productive forests.

Compared to other land use mitigation measures, HWP production offers an attractive opportunity to involve the private sector and catalyze investment in land use. A relatively small amount of public sector finance would be necessary used to stimulate large private sector investment, while also helping countries to achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) objectives.

This study was complemented by an analytical paper on “Incentive Mechanisms towards Deforestation-Free, Forest-Smart Commodities.”

CHALLENGE

Investing in productive functions and use of forests through sustainable forest management (SFM), forest and landscape restoration, and afforestation and reforestation, could yield significant multiple wins of climate change mitigation, increased climate change resilience and adaptation, and green growth. Through the Stimulating Private Sector Engagement in REDD+, SFM and Landscape Restoration Activity, PROFOR is building evidence to support a broader approach to REDD+ that would incorporate the potential of productive functions of forests to mitigate climate change.

Current REDD+ approaches do not into take account the climate benefits that sustainable forests could provide outside of the forest sector, particularly in three key areas: substituting fossil fuels for renewable, forest-based energy sources; substituting fossil-fuel intensive construction materials; and creating a virtuous cycle of building the forest products carbon pool through durable, long-lived wood products combined with forest re-growth. Together, these areas could amount to as much as 20 percent of the global mitigation potential.

Such a radical expansion of the REDD+ approach would also address the unsatisfied need for timber, fiber and wood-based energy, which is a key driver of forest degradation and deforestation. Projections suggest that demand for fuelwood and charcoal will keep increasing beyond the year 2050 in order to meet the needs of around 2.5 billion people. At the same time, total demand for wood will grow faster than population growth, rising from a current 3.5 billion m3 to over 15 billion m3 per year.

APPROACH

The objective of this study is twofold: (i) To broaden the understanding of how including a landscape-based approach to forest, forest-based products supply chains, and downstream industries into a broadened REDD+ architecture could help mitigate climate change mitigation outcomes; and (ii) to develop a private sector engagement strategy for enhanced private sector investment in REDD+ sustainable forest value chain and landscape restoration efforts.

The study examines six countries in detail: Ethiopia, Columbia, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru and Vietnam.  

RESULTS

All of the countries analyzed indicate that productive forests and harvested wood products (HWP) have a high potential for green growth, employment creation, and climate change mitigation. All countries are projected to have significant supply gaps of HWP, suggesting that there is substantial potential to mitigate climate change and spur economic growth by bolstering HWP value chains.

The study finds that substituting fossil-fuel-intensive materials with HWP provides the greatest mitigation benefit in all countries. Productive forests for HWP would be the second largest sequestration source in Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. In Vietnam, sawn wood production and productive forests for HWP are second most important. Ethiopia and Mozambique have much more potential to produce other industrial roundwood. Production of paper and paperboard offer a more limited mitigation potential due to the short life spans of these products.

Moreover, the study confirms that productive forests could help fill the expected gap in roundwood supply. For instance, the research projects project that Ethiopia’s demand for HWP will grow from 4.1 million m3 in 2013 to 16.7 million m3 in 2040. Increasing demand will result in a projected industrial roundwood supply gap of 13.3 million m3 in 2040, which could be addressed by establishing an additional 750,000 hectares of professionally managed productive forests.

Compared to other land use mitigation measures, HWP production offers an attractive opportunity to involve the private sector and catalyze investment in land use. A relatively small amount of public sector finance would be necessary used to stimulate large private sector investment, while also helping countries to achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) objectives.

This study was complemented by an analytical paper on “Incentive Mechanisms towards Deforestation-Free, Forest-Smart Commodities.”

CHALLENGE

Deforestation, accompanied by GHG emissions, continues in Peru’s 65 million ha of tropical forest largely because bare land is worth more than forests. Most non-forest activities generate revenues more quickly and with less capital than forestry. Two market failures preventing forestry from being more competitive:

1. The historic inability of Peruvian manufacturers to engage with communities in "win-win" arrangements that yield a stable supply of raw materials, and development impacts to under-serviced forest communities in the Amazon; and

2. The lack of a system that allows both community suppliers and log buyers to monitor volume, species and cost of wood production at each step, thus providing information critical to making smart management decisions.

In most natural resource industries, stable raw material flow from loyal suppliers is considered of vital importance. This priority is new for most of the Peruvian wood industry: loggers traditionally high-grade forests of commercial species with little respect for legal harvest levels, minimum diameters, or "no-cut" zones. Indigenous leaders are often not aware of legal requirements and just follow the wood buyer’s lead. Once harvested, the forest has little economic value.

APPROACH

This activity aims to strengthen forest management in the Peruvian Amazon by improving the capacity of local governments and indigenous groups to monitor wood production on a transactional (community) and regional (indigenous federation) level. This will be achieved by adapting and applying IFC's wood production tracking program (C.O.C.A) to the Peruvian context in community-company value chains and indigenous federations to document volume of round wood harvested and transported by species (the program does not include on-site processing by communities but could be modified to do so).

In addition, it will improve the ability of companies to invest in communities with optimum development impacts by providing in-service training, company-specific analyses, and workshops to communities and companies that lead to the development and implementation of strategies for long-term community engagement monitored annually by involved parties.

RESULTS

The wood-tracking program (SimproFOR) is now available for use by companies and communities in Peru. Costing functions (but not manufacturing functions) have been added to the program and a user’s manual is complete and ready for use by OSINFOR and GIZ. Both the public and non-profit entities are ready to apply the program in the upcoming harvest season (June-Oct 2015). Comments from government officials and support organizations indicate that widespread use of SimproFOR will allow the country to improve the transparency of wood flow and help companies/communities increase their efficiency.  

CHALLENGE

Deforestation, accompanied by GHG emissions, continues in Peru’s 65 million ha of tropical forest largely because bare land is worth more than forests. Most non-forest activities generate revenues more quickly and with less capital than forestry. Two market failures preventing forestry from being more competitive:

1. The historic inability of Peruvian manufacturers to engage with communities in "win-win" arrangements that yield a stable supply of raw materials, and development impacts to under-serviced forest communities in the Amazon; and

2. The lack of a system that allows both community suppliers and log buyers to monitor volume, species and cost of wood production at each step, thus providing information critical to making smart management decisions.

In most natural resource industries, stable raw material flow from loyal suppliers is considered of vital importance. This priority is new for most of the Peruvian wood industry: loggers traditionally high-grade forests of commercial species with little respect for legal harvest levels, minimum diameters, or "no-cut" zones. Indigenous leaders are often not aware of legal requirements and just follow the wood buyer’s lead. Once harvested, the forest has little economic value.

APPROACH

This activity aims to strengthen forest management in the Peruvian Amazon by improving the capacity of local governments and indigenous groups to monitor wood production on a transactional (community) and regional (indigenous federation) level. This will be achieved by adapting and applying IFC's wood production tracking program (C.O.C.A) to the Peruvian context in community-company value chains and indigenous federations to document volume of round wood harvested and transported by species (the program does not include on-site processing by communities but could be modified to do so).

In addition, it will improve the ability of companies to invest in communities with optimum development impacts by providing in-service training, company-specific analyses, and workshops to communities and companies that lead to the development and implementation of strategies for long-term community engagement monitored annually by involved parties.

RESULTS

The wood-tracking program (SimproFOR) is now available for use by companies and communities in Peru. Costing functions (but not manufacturing functions) have been added to the program and a user’s manual is complete and ready for use by OSINFOR and GIZ. Both the public and non-profit entities are ready to apply the program in the upcoming harvest season (June-Oct 2015). Comments from government officials and support organizations indicate that widespread use of SimproFOR will allow the country to improve the transparency of wood flow and help companies/communities increase their efficiency.  

CHALLENGE

Deforestation, accompanied by GHG emissions, continues in Peru’s 65 million ha of tropical forest largely because bare land is worth more than forests. Most non-forest activities generate revenues more quickly and with less capital than forestry. Two market failures preventing forestry from being more competitive:

1. The historic inability of Peruvian manufacturers to engage with communities in "win-win" arrangements that yield a stable supply of raw materials, and development impacts to under-serviced forest communities in the Amazon; and

2. The lack of a system that allows both community suppliers and log buyers to monitor volume, species and cost of wood production at each step, thus providing information critical to making smart management decisions.

In most natural resource industries, stable raw material flow from loyal suppliers is considered of vital importance. This priority is new for most of the Peruvian wood industry: loggers traditionally high-grade forests of commercial species with little respect for legal harvest levels, minimum diameters, or "no-cut" zones. Indigenous leaders are often not aware of legal requirements and just follow the wood buyer’s lead. Once harvested, the forest has little economic value.

APPROACH

This activity aims to strengthen forest management in the Peruvian Amazon by improving the capacity of local governments and indigenous groups to monitor wood production on a transactional (community) and regional (indigenous federation) level. This will be achieved by adapting and applying IFC's wood production tracking program (C.O.C.A) to the Peruvian context in community-company value chains and indigenous federations to document volume of round wood harvested and transported by species (the program does not include on-site processing by communities but could be modified to do so).

In addition, it will improve the ability of companies to invest in communities with optimum development impacts by providing in-service training, company-specific analyses, and workshops to communities and companies that lead to the development and implementation of strategies for long-term community engagement monitored annually by involved parties.

RESULTS

The wood-tracking program (SimproFOR) is now available for use by companies and communities in Peru. Costing functions (but not manufacturing functions) have been added to the program and a user’s manual is complete and ready for use by OSINFOR and GIZ. Both the public and non-profit entities are ready to apply the program in the upcoming harvest season (June-Oct 2015). Comments from government officials and support organizations indicate that widespread use of SimproFOR will allow the country to improve the transparency of wood flow and help companies/communities increase their efficiency.  

CHALLENGE

Deforestation, accompanied by GHG emissions, continues in Peru’s 65 million ha of tropical forest largely because bare land is worth more than forests. Most non-forest activities generate revenues more quickly and with less capital than forestry. Two market failures preventing forestry from being more competitive:

1. The historic inability of Peruvian manufacturers to engage with communities in "win-win" arrangements that yield a stable supply of raw materials, and development impacts to under-serviced forest communities in the Amazon; and

2. The lack of a system that allows both community suppliers and log buyers to monitor volume, species and cost of wood production at each step, thus providing information critical to making smart management decisions.

In most natural resource industries, stable raw material flow from loyal suppliers is considered of vital importance. This priority is new for most of the Peruvian wood industry: loggers traditionally high-grade forests of commercial species with little respect for legal harvest levels, minimum diameters, or "no-cut" zones. Indigenous leaders are often not aware of legal requirements and just follow the wood buyer’s lead. Once harvested, the forest has little economic value.

APPROACH

This activity aims to strengthen forest management in the Peruvian Amazon by improving the capacity of local governments and indigenous groups to monitor wood production on a transactional (community) and regional (indigenous federation) level. This will be achieved by adapting and applying IFC's wood production tracking program (C.O.C.A) to the Peruvian context in community-company value chains and indigenous federations to document volume of round wood harvested and transported by species (the program does not include on-site processing by communities but could be modified to do so).

In addition, it will improve the ability of companies to invest in communities with optimum development impacts by providing in-service training, company-specific analyses, and workshops to communities and companies that lead to the development and implementation of strategies for long-term community engagement monitored annually by involved parties.

RESULTS

The wood-tracking program (SimproFOR) is now available for use by companies and communities in Peru. Costing functions (but not manufacturing functions) have been added to the program and a user’s manual is complete and ready for use by OSINFOR and GIZ. Both the public and non-profit entities are ready to apply the program in the upcoming harvest season (June-Oct 2015). Comments from government officials and support organizations indicate that widespread use of SimproFOR will allow the country to improve the transparency of wood flow and help companies/communities increase their efficiency.  

CHALLENGE

Deforestation, accompanied by GHG emissions, continues in Peru’s 65 million ha of tropical forest largely because bare land is worth more than forests. Most non-forest activities generate revenues more quickly and with less capital than forestry. Two market failures preventing forestry from being more competitive:

1. The historic inability of Peruvian manufacturers to engage with communities in "win-win" arrangements that yield a stable supply of raw materials, and development impacts to under-serviced forest communities in the Amazon; and

2. The lack of a system that allows both community suppliers and log buyers to monitor volume, species and cost of wood production at each step, thus providing information critical to making smart management decisions.

In most natural resource industries, stable raw material flow from loyal suppliers is considered of vital importance. This priority is new for most of the Peruvian wood industry: loggers traditionally high-grade forests of commercial species with little respect for legal harvest levels, minimum diameters, or "no-cut" zones. Indigenous leaders are often not aware of legal requirements and just follow the wood buyer’s lead. Once harvested, the forest has little economic value.

APPROACH

This activity aims to strengthen forest management in the Peruvian Amazon by improving the capacity of local governments and indigenous groups to monitor wood production on a transactional (community) and regional (indigenous federation) level. This will be achieved by adapting and applying IFC's wood production tracking program (C.O.C.A) to the Peruvian context in community-company value chains and indigenous federations to document volume of round wood harvested and transported by species (the program does not include on-site processing by communities but could be modified to do so).

In addition, it will improve the ability of companies to invest in communities with optimum development impacts by providing in-service training, company-specific analyses, and workshops to communities and companies that lead to the development and implementation of strategies for long-term community engagement monitored annually by involved parties.

RESULTS

The wood-tracking program (SimproFOR) is now available for use by companies and communities in Peru. Costing functions (but not manufacturing functions) have been added to the program and a user’s manual is complete and ready for use by OSINFOR and GIZ. Both the public and non-profit entities are ready to apply the program in the upcoming harvest season (June-Oct 2015). Comments from government officials and support organizations indicate that widespread use of SimproFOR will allow the country to improve the transparency of wood flow and help companies/communities increase their efficiency.  

CHALLENGE

Deforestation, accompanied by GHG emissions, continues in Peru’s 65 million ha of tropical forest largely because bare land is worth more than forests. Most non-forest activities generate revenues more quickly and with less capital than forestry. Two market failures preventing forestry from being more competitive:

1. The historic inability of Peruvian manufacturers to engage with communities in "win-win" arrangements that yield a stable supply of raw materials, and development impacts to under-serviced forest communities in the Amazon; and

2. The lack of a system that allows both community suppliers and log buyers to monitor volume, species and cost of wood production at each step, thus providing information critical to making smart management decisions.

In most natural resource industries, stable raw material flow from loyal suppliers is considered of vital importance. This priority is new for most of the Peruvian wood industry: loggers traditionally high-grade forests of commercial species with little respect for legal harvest levels, minimum diameters, or "no-cut" zones. Indigenous leaders are often not aware of legal requirements and just follow the wood buyer’s lead. Once harvested, the forest has little economic value.

APPROACH

This activity aims to strengthen forest management in the Peruvian Amazon by improving the capacity of local governments and indigenous groups to monitor wood production on a transactional (community) and regional (indigenous federation) level. This will be achieved by adapting and applying IFC's wood production tracking program (C.O.C.A) to the Peruvian context in community-company value chains and indigenous federations to document volume of round wood harvested and transported by species (the program does not include on-site processing by communities but could be modified to do so).

In addition, it will improve the ability of companies to invest in communities with optimum development impacts by providing in-service training, company-specific analyses, and workshops to communities and companies that lead to the development and implementation of strategies for long-term community engagement monitored annually by involved parties.

RESULTS

The wood-tracking program (SimproFOR) is now available for use by companies and communities in Peru. Costing functions (but not manufacturing functions) have been added to the program and a user’s manual is complete and ready for use by OSINFOR and GIZ. Both the public and non-profit entities are ready to apply the program in the upcoming harvest season (June-Oct 2015). Comments from government officials and support organizations indicate that widespread use of SimproFOR will allow the country to improve the transparency of wood flow and help companies/communities increase their efficiency.  

APPROACH
Since 2008 in Guatemala the World Bank's FLEG program has supported the national forest authority (Instituto Nacional de Bosques INAB) by providing assistance in the implementation of the Strategy to Combat Illegal Forest Activities. In its initial phase this assistance aimed to develop the necessary analytical work to understand the institutional, socio-economic and environmental causes of illegal activities.

RESULTS
Outputs included :

• a proposal for policy and legislative changes and adjustments  resulting from analytical work and a technical proposal for institutional changes to improve the implementation of the Strategy to Combat Illegal Forest Activities;
• a technical proposal to improve current forest control and supervision procedures (forest licenses, timber mobilization permits, logging volume control, complaints, etc) and a manual for forest control and supervision;
• a financial and cost effectiveness analysis of forest fees, royalties, other revenues and taxes, and a proposal for consideration of  new forest fees;
• an information system containing baseline data and information related to illegal activities in the forest sector;
• a training program targeting staff from INAB and other government agencies and groups involved in the implementation of the Strategy to Combat Illegal Forest Activities;
• and a national communications and awareness program targeting the general public related to illegal practices in the forest sector.

Available here in Spanish is a cost-benefit analysis of illegal activities in the forests sector and a proposal to strengthen INAB's control of the forests sector. 

NEXT STEPS
In February 2010, INAB’s Board of Directors approved an Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Illegal Logging. The Action plan includes legislation and regulatory changes to reduce illegal activities, review current forest fees, design forest control and supervision plans and campaigns, develop forest audit protocols and plan and initiate capacity building activities.

The implementation of this plan, developed on the basis of analytical work and technical proposals previously sponsored by the FLEG Program, demands the cooperation of various public administration and law enforcement agencies and stakeholders. PROFOR-FLEG is helping strengthen forest control and supervision through its activity Auditing timber supply to the Guatemala forest industry.

APPROACH
Since 2008 in Guatemala the World Bank's FLEG program has supported the national forest authority (Instituto Nacional de Bosques INAB) by providing assistance in the implementation of the Strategy to Combat Illegal Forest Activities. In its initial phase this assistance aimed to develop the necessary analytical work to understand the institutional, socio-economic and environmental causes of illegal activities.

RESULTS
Outputs included :

• a proposal for policy and legislative changes and adjustments  resulting from analytical work and a technical proposal for institutional changes to improve the implementation of the Strategy to Combat Illegal Forest Activities;
• a technical proposal to improve current forest control and supervision procedures (forest licenses, timber mobilization permits, logging volume control, complaints, etc) and a manual for forest control and supervision;
• a financial and cost effectiveness analysis of forest fees, royalties, other revenues and taxes, and a proposal for consideration of  new forest fees;
• an information system containing baseline data and information related to illegal activities in the forest sector;
• a training program targeting staff from INAB and other government agencies and groups involved in the implementation of the Strategy to Combat Illegal Forest Activities;
• and a national communications and awareness program targeting the general public related to illegal practices in the forest sector.

Available here in Spanish is a cost-benefit analysis of illegal activities in the forests sector and a proposal to strengthen INAB's control of the forests sector. 

NEXT STEPS
In February 2010, INAB’s Board of Directors approved an Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Illegal Logging. The Action plan includes legislation and regulatory changes to reduce illegal activities, review current forest fees, design forest control and supervision plans and campaigns, develop forest audit protocols and plan and initiate capacity building activities.

The implementation of this plan, developed on the basis of analytical work and technical proposals previously sponsored by the FLEG Program, demands the cooperation of various public administration and law enforcement agencies and stakeholders. PROFOR-FLEG is helping strengthen forest control and supervision through its activity Auditing timber supply to the Guatemala forest industry.