LESSONS FROM FLEGT FOR REDD
Kingsley Bekoe Ansah
West Africa Forest Governance Conference
Kofi Annan Centre of excellence in ICT, Accra
14 and 15 June 2011
Outline of presentation
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Introduction
Precursor for change
Principles for good governance
Issues that forest governance impact on
Governance challenges to achieving REDD
FLEGT/VPA and how it improves governance
Key lessons
Conclusion
Final reflection
Introduction
• Destruction of forest loss is a contributor to climate
change
• Preserving forest helps to mitigate global warming
• Discussions to reduce forest loss had been going on
long before the inclusion of forest in the climate
change mitigation discourse
• Efforts to reduce illegal logging and improve forest
governance through FLEGT/VPAs have yielded
substantial stakeholder participation and buy-in
• Value-addition important
Precursor for change
What is needed for real change
• Political will
• Address corruption
• Transparency, openness
• Ensure respect for rule of law
• Identify joint problems and ways to
address them (i.e. improve the regulatory framework,
strengthen community rights, improve participation of civil society
and communities in forest policy and management)
• Real participatory processes
5 Principles of good
governance
• Transparency: open actions which can be scrutinized
by rights holders and stakeholders;
• Participation: ensuring diverse and meaningful
participation in government policy by non state
actors;
• Accountability: clarity about the role of various
institutions in decision-making and whether they are
held accountable;
• Capacity: how those involved work toward common
objectives on forests;
• Coordination: a government’s role in giving public
access to decision-making, as well as the ability of
civil society to make use of this.
4 key issues that forest governance
impact on
• Forest tenure: the broad spectrum of ownership,
use, access and management rights to forests.
• Land use planning: the multi-stakeholder process to
determine optimal land uses that benefit current and
future generations
• Forest management: the management and control
of various different forests uses
• Forest revenues and incentives: collection and
management of revenues from forests; benefit
sharing
REDD is not different!
The underlying causes
of forest loss is shared
Some (governance) challenges to
achieving REDD
1. Political will
2. Lack of participation of stakeholders and rights
holders
3. Improving the policy and regulatory framework
4. Clarifying land ownership
5. Strengthening the enforcement capacity
6. Fighting corruption (rights and participation)
REDD can only work if addresses the
underlying causes of forest loss and
improves forest governance
Key questions to answer:
1. Who owns the forests (including clarifying tree
tenure and rights)
Ghana to use FIP intervention to contribute to this by investing in
substantial stakeholder consultation
2. Long term planning for sustainable (economic,
social and environmental) development is an
essential element of tackling deforestation
FLEGT/VPA and how it improves
forest governance
The EU FLEGT Action Plan
The action plan sets out a range of measures that
aim to combat the problem of illegal logging
including:
1.Government Procurement Policies
2.Financial due diligence
3.Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs)
between the EU and timber producing countries
4.Illegal timber regulation (additional legislative
options to control importation of illegal timber)
• Legally binding bilateral trade agreements between
timber producing countries (FLEGT Partner Countries)
and the EU, mostly known as VPAs.
• VPAs set out the commitments and actions of both
parties to tackle illegal logging, including measures to
increase participation of non-state stakeholders and
rights-holders, recognise rights of communities to the
land and address corruption.
VPAs should have the buy-in of national
stakeholders, including NGOs, local communities,
indigenous peoples, and the timber industry.
They consist of three key steps:
a) Defining legality, or deciding which laws will be
enforced
b) Designing a Legality Assurance System (LAS)
(including timber tracking, government legality
controls and external verification systems)
c) Independent audits of the whole system.
How FLEGT improves governance
• Multi-stakeholder negotiating process
• Full participation of non-state actors in decision
making
• Outcomes include commitments to law reform and
continued participation in policy reform
• Ongoing processes to share information and build
capacity and knowledge on the issue
• Real incentives and sanctions
So, if the underlying causes of forest loss are
similar for REDD and FLEGT:
• What is it for us to learn?
8 key lessons from FLEGT
1. Identify and address the key deforestation drivers:
the direct and underlying drivers of deforestation
must be recognized, and reflected in policy.
2. An integrated national land-use plan is essential:
coherent vision that outlines a path towards land use
planning that balances the competing demands for
revenue generation to pay for services essential to
improving livelihoods and protect the remaining
forests.
3. Multi-stakeholder decision making is vital:
Participation of civil society groups including forest
communities in decision making is vital if solutions
are to be found that will work in the local context.
4. Good processes cost time: While preventing
deforestation and climate change are urgent issues,
unrealistic time frames do not allow for the
development of effective policies.
5. Respect existing national and international law:
Recognition of tenure rights is a pre-condition to
tackling deforestation. International human rights
law is clear in the need for recognition of principles
of self determination. Proposed legal or institutional
changes must be based on these principles.
• 6. Carrot and stick are both needed: The right
incentives have to be put in place. Sanctions and
incentives must be designed to address the causes of
forest loss.
7. Independent monitoring of the system is required:
Monitoring the implementation of any bilateral or
international agreement is essential, though such
monitoring cannot remedy fundamental design flaws
or perverse incentives.
8. Safeguards: Ensuring countries improve forest
governance through improved measuring of
transparency, accountability, capacity etc. is vital.
Conclusion
• Any effective REDD mechanism needs to recognize
tenure and rights with regards to forest resources
• National REDD processes have been developed in a
top down manner, with a narrow focus on carbon
accounting, rather than on creating the political
‘space’ for required policy and legal change, including
the recognition of forest peoples’ tenure rights.
• A reduction in emissions from deforestation will only
occur as a result of actual reductions in deforestation
itself – which in turn will not be lasting without
tackling the drivers of deforestation.
Final reflection-revisiting history
FLEGT was developed by those wanting to
improve governance.
REDD was developed by carbon addicts...
... those trying to avoid change!
THANK YOU