Global forest-governance-bringing-forestry-science-back-in

Global Forest Governance -Bringing Forestry Science (back) in (Author: Stefan Werland)

By Sajal Saha, Md. Mahmudul Hasan and Rakib Bin Asghar

Four Broader Aspects of This research

1. The kind of knowledge forestry scienceproduces,

2. Forestry science’s perception of politicalprocesses and actors,

3. The engagement of forestry scientists in politicalprocesses, and,

4. Forestry scientists’ attitude towards whetherforestry science should play an active role inpolitical processes.

Forest Governance

It comprises ____

1. All formal and informal, public and privateregulatory structures, i.e. institutions consisting ofrules, norms, principles, decision procedures,concerning forests, their utilization and theirconservation,

2. The interactions between public and private actorstherein and

3. The effects of either on forests.

Theoretical Models of International Forest Politics

1. The Core Forest Process

2. Global Forest Governance

Concept of The Core Forest Process

In core forest process, forests are framed assovereign resources

The Core Forest Process duplicate the ‘traditional’forest discourse and domestic actor coalitions on theinternational level

Conception of Global Governance

The concept of ‘global governance’ used as aheuristic framework in order to capture thechanging socio-political environment in thatforestry science acts.

It looks upon international political processes notexclusively in terms of inter-governmentalnegotiations, but understands international politicsas attempts to resolve (global) problems.

The Core Forest Process

The Core Forest Process

At the United Nations Conference on Environmentand Development (UNCED) also known as the ‘Rio deJaneiro Earth Summit’ in 1992, the Earths' forests weregiven a place on the global political agenda.

Rio- Process resulted an indeterminate call ‘tocontribute to the management, conservation andsustainable development of forests to provide for theirmultiple and complementary functions and uses’

Major Outcome of Core Forest Process

One of the few outcomes of the Core Forest Processis the concept of ‘sustainable forest management ‘

The concept is an evolution of the ‘traditional’sustainable yield perspective on forests and wasdeveloped within forestry institutions anduniversity forest departments

Drawbacks of The Core Forest Process

Participation and compliance are voluntary and the‘Global Objectives’ are not quantifiable.

The Core Forest Process has yet to affect “changes inthe behavior of actors, in the interests of actors, or inthe policies and performance of institutions”

The interest based approach to international forestpolitics seems appropriate to explain theineffectiveness of the Core Forest Process

Global Forest Governance

Global Forest Governance

Global Forest governance not only comprises internationalconventions and intergovernmental negotiations, but also amultitude of transnational processes with state- and non-state actors such as national bureaucracies, NGOs orscientific communities involved, gain greater influence onpolitics

Three aspects of Global Governance

1. Processes of denationalization and the emergence of a globalpublic domain beyond the sphere of states

2. The changing role of non-state actors in this new realm, andthe emergence of non-hierarchical modes of steering that donot rely on state’s formal authority.

3. Demands different forms of legitimacy. Governments maynot necessarily be contested as central actors in internationalpolitics, but atleast are supplemented through civic, non-stateactors such as NGOs, lobbyists, knowledge brokers, andscientists

Global Forest GovernanceConvention on Biological Diversity

The Convention on Biological Diversity developed from the ‘scientificagreements’ that the current rate of global species extinction exceeds thenatural rate by far.

Conservation biologists and ecologists had been central scientific actorsin bringing biodiversity conservation onto the global policy agenda.

Scientists formed coalitions with other non-state actors in order to gaininfluence and to promote a “comprehensive, ecosystem approach” tonature conversation on the international level

Global Forest GovernanceThe United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change

• Scientists pointed to the importance of forests for the globalclimate system and thereby established the global dimensions offorests and forest management for the first time

• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) refers to ‘forests’ by calling upon its signatory statesto’ promote and cooperate in the conservation

Global Forest GovernancePrivate norm setting – FSC

•The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was established oneyear after the Rio Conferences' failure to pass a forestconvention.

•FSC's organizational structure comprises a General Assemblythat consists of three equally weighted chambers withstakeholders. The chambers are staffed with equal numbers ofmembers from developed and developing countries.

The Shift of the Policy Field

Differences between the ‘ecosystem approach’ and ‘sustainable forest management’ have been settled: it declares that “sustainable forest management can be considered as a means of applying the ecosystem approach to forests”.

Consequences: The Changing Forest Policy

Field

The ineffectiveness of the Core Forest Process can be explained in terms of interstate-bargaining

Forests are framed as national resources, andtransboundary implications of forest management are‘systematically ignored’


Field

Core Forest Process, it ignores the dimensions ofproblem definition and agenda setting that areconsidered in the broader conception of global forestpolitics

The specific structure of the globalized forest policyfield helped actors from environmental departments tohave a stronger voice within their governments


Field

Ministry for the Environment is responsible forinternational biodiversity and climate changenegotiations and this exerts greater influence on localforest management

The crucial benchmark for scientific influence is notthe degree of reliable information about a givenproblem, but the socially constructed appropriatenessof specific knowledge forms


Field

According to internationalization of forest politics,‘forest’ is

1. globalized, i.e. taken out of its local, site-specificcontext and understood as being part and parcel ofglobal ecosystems; and

2. Framed as an environmental issue, i.e. the orientationon owners‘ objectives and local services

Diverging Forest Conceptions

First, forests are framed as forming part of globalecological systems and no longer predominantly asnational resources

Second, environmental administrations, NGOs, orprivate norm setters– influence forest policy atdifferent stages of the policy process

Third, forest conceptualizations are not stable—neither in time, nor cross-level.

Three different aspects of forest governance were addressed in this

paper

Possible Roles for Forestry Science

The strength of forestry science as an application-oriented research program seems to lie with theimplementation of political decisions

The growing international concern for forests seemsto benefit global conceptualizations and confrontsthe traditional conception of forests and forestrywith its inherent local orientation


Forestry science occupies a strategic position withinthe policy field between politics andimplementation and forest governance needs to bebetter communicated

Forest owners, foresters and the local and regionalforestry administration–with its close ties to forestryscience is losing its monopoly in formulatingforestry relevant political norms


Forestry science has to recognize the increasingpoliticization of ‘the forest’ and the shift that hasoccurred within ‘its’ policy field.

For the effectiveness of forest governance, forestryscience's strategic position in processes of implementationneeds to be better communicated towards non-silvicultural governmental and non governmental actors.


Forestry science should actively engage in promoting animage for forest communities that frames forests andforestry management to develop feasible concepts forlocal implementation,

for example through the development of evaluationcriteria for lost benefits from the reduced utilization offorests for timber production, and the development ofadequate compensation schemes


Forestry science should seek strategic coalitions withnon-forestry actors.

Forest science should reconcile diverging demands onthe global level as well as between global and localnecessities.

Thank You…