CIFOR Study for Sustainable Forest Mgmt.

• Forschungsstelle: DEZA
• Projektnummer: 7F-03786.05
• Projekttitel Englisch: CIFOR Study for Sustainable Forest Mgmt.

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

CIFOR

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

Land-use planning represents an important topic in every developing country where increasing population and new markets put pressure on the natural capital of the poor: Agricultural land and soil quality, forests, water, populations of wild plant and animal species = biodiversity. Their long-term development perspectives are seriously threatened by unsustainable production of commodities, especially in the poorest zones of developing countries.

With regard to greenhouse gases we observe an inversion of CO₂ -emission rates per sector in developing countries. More than 80 % of CO₂ -emissions stem from unsustainable land use and land-use change and only a very small percentage is stemming from the energy sector (industry, traffic), whereas at the same time precious assets for adaptation to climate change are getting lost: Forests and trees as elements of an effective watershed protection and as energy, fodder, and food sources. - Whereas developed countries rediscover fuel wood as a highly efficient, climate-neutral - and even liquefiable - energy source, developing countries practice some kind of closing sale. - Lao PDR, the country where this participative research is going to be realised, is exposed to extraordinary high pressures of emerging markets like China, Thailand and Vietnam. Every district in Lao PDR is asked to propose participatory Land-Use Planning (LUP) and ways to monitor its effects on land use changes, biodiversity and local livelihoods. This policy has been developed to address the Lao Government’s concerns about increasing pressure on natural resources and their devastating effect on the livelihoods of the poorest.

An ongoing Swiss-CGIAR co-funded project “Landscapes Mosaics” with the Biodiversity Platform between the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), aims at integrating agriculture, use of natural resources and conservation of natural vegetation (forests, trees, hedges) into LUP in fragmented landscapes. Landscape Mosaics is working in Lao PDR, Tanzania, Madagascar, Indonesia and Cameroon. In all countries research is linked directly with ongoing Swiss funded Natural Resource Management projects or other planning and implementation frameworks.

The present collaborative research project will represent a Laos oriented component of “Landscape Mosaics”. - Its objective is to develop a simple monitoring system, which is to furnish information on the efficiency of LUP with regard to maintaining the assets of the poor in landscapes (Non Timber forest products, wild animals for hunting, watersheds, firewood, timber for construction). Upland communities living at the edge of a protected area and institutions will review LUP together with CIFOR in the district of Vienghkam in Luang-Prabang province. After that, methods and institutional design of a monitoring system will be developed and tested - based on information from the field and on lessons learnt. The research results will feed into Laotian Land-use policies and will be scaled up by the CGIAR. Direct beneficiaries will be upland communities in Laos. - Creating coherence between energy, land-use and climate policies will be the challenge of the next decade for the international community and its achievement will be decisive for the survival of the global economy at an important scale. The SDC funded “Biodiversity & Landscape Cluster” in the CGIAR will contribute to this goal.

SDC’s main partner is the CIFOR-ICRAF Biodiversity Platform. It will work with the National Agriculture and Research Institute (NAFRI) and its regional entity ‘Northern Agriculture and Forestry Research Center’ (NAFREC), the National Agriculture and Forestry Extension Services (NAFES) and the National Land Management Authority (NLMA). Field activities will also involve Lao academic institutions like National University of Laos (NUOL). A team of bachelor and Master’s students will participate in the data collection in Viengkham districts and in their analysis.

A 2 year funding of an additional monitoring component for the existing Land-Use Planning research project “Landscape Mosaics” of the Biodiversity Platform is proposed for urgent funding.

Projektziele (Englisch)

Objectives

The overall goal is to contribute to maintaining the biodiversity of Lao PDR as one key to poverty alleviation and protect the current asset base of the poor to support the implementation of the Government’s priority programs.

The development objective is to develop a biodiversity monitoring system which can be integrated into participatory Land-Use Planning (LUP) of forest landscapes.

The specific objectives are:

· To review the existing forms of land management, LUP and of monitoring practices by different actors in Viengkham district;

· To develop a participatory biodiversity monitoring system based on different actors’ means, needs, and interests;

· To test the methods and provide recommendation for replication and scaling up.

More evidence on the impact of actual LUP on poverty and biodiversity and the active participation of different private and official stakeholders will strengthen the stake of the poor in LUP approaches. Research results will improve future designs of biodiversity conservation.

Learning on the local and national level will be realised mainly through direct interaction of the stakeholder with institutions, i.e. through active participation. The involved national and bilateral implementing partners will be able to make use of practice oriented scientific results in their programs.

The CGIAR will disseminate findings in the international system. Pronounced SDC involvement in CGIAR biodiversity and landscape related research is important, because national institutions dealing with the issues in development countries are often weak. The CGIAR is an important reference framework for them. The activities presented will raise the profile of environmental research, because they tackle identified global challenges: Food security, Water, Climate Change, Energy.

SDC has observed that locally elaborated CIFOR research results, which are very relevant for local development tend to “get lost” in the international system without being applied locally. Therefore the actual design is paying attention that knowledge and capacity are shared and integrated in local and national approaches.

The administrative landscape in Lao PDR is changing quickly and people within the administration are highly mobile. It will therefore be important to keep track of the changes of administrative responsibilities and to gain the interest of the newly involved for the project activities.