In earlier posts on this blog, we highlighted the role of the forest sector in offering a route out of poverty, with wood production for timber, pulp and paper offering economic opportunities for low-income communities. We also highlighted how The Forests Dialogue (TFD) convened seminars in South Africa, Indonesia, Bolivia, and Russia and to address not only the forest sector’s role in poverty reduction, but also the special advantages that poor communities bring to sustainable forest management, in terms of outgrowing, processing and selling timber and supplying associated environmental services such as biodiversity, carbon storage or fresh water supplies.
The latest TFD report, released in early July, addresses conflict in the forest sector, which can range from wars of words to serious acts of violence. It most often follows disputes over rights to land and resources but can also arise over conservation priorities, pollution, and access to benefits from the sector. The report says that conflict between companies that profit from forests and local people who depend on them could be tackled by industry-led approaches but too few companies use them.
The report was prepared for TFD by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). Titled Company-Led Approaches to Conflict Resolution in the Forest Sector (pdf, 35 pages), it urges companies to take the lead in resolving existing conflicts and preventing new ones from arising, calling for more industry-wide sharing of experience and knowledge, and the development of broadly applicable means of resolving conflicts. "Sustainable companies invest for the long term, so they have a broader perspective than the average company on who their major stakeholders are and a deeper interest in understanding and accommodating local expectations and concerns,” says TFD co-leader James Griffiths, who heads the sustainable forestry program at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). ”This report can help share best practice within the sector, while clarifying the respective roles of companies and other stakeholders, like government, in address existing conflicts or avoiding future ones.”
Background information:
The Forests Dialogue (TFD) is an international collaborative platform and process driven by environmental and social groups, businesses, indigenous peoples and forest community groups, trade unions, forest owners, and international organizations. Its mission is to promote sustainable forest management through a constructive dialogue among all key stakeholders.
TFD plans to pull together the findings of its dialogues on sustainable forestry practices and poverty reduction in South Africa (2006), Indonesia (2007), Bolivia (2007) and Russia (2008) into a summary publication, highlighting the potential for commercial forestry to play a greater role in enhancing rural livelihoods and reducing poverty. However, for this to happen, key issues such as equity in stakeholder relations, economies of scale, policy development and land tenure need to be addressed.
These same issues have consistently emerged in many other areas of TFD’s work and reports including deployment of intensively managed planted forests; measures to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation or REDD; and, most recently, investing in locally controlled forestry. In 2010 TFD will organize a new work stream around free, prior and informed consent (or FPIC) as a consultation process with Indigenous Peoples and forest communities on forest management practices.
For more information, contact James Griffiths at the WBCSD secretariat.
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