Key issues for the natural resources group

Biodiversity and Conservation

Many of the world’s most biodiverse areas are found in developing countries with high levels of poverty.

Our work on biodiversity and conservation aims to establish and highlight the multiple values that biodiversity can provide in these countries and the rest of the world. We work on issues of conservation, mainstreaming, ecosystem resiliance and sustainable use. Our current projects include:

The United Nations has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. It’s a key reminder of how fundamental biodiversity is to the health of planetary systems as well as human prosperity and wellbeing — and a chance for all of us to learn more. See summary of biodiversity work and 2010 events calendar.

 

Empowerment and Land Rights

Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, land is a fundamental asset for economic development, food security and poverty reduction. Secure land rights enable rural people to ensure their livelihoods.

Related to land rights we work on issues of policy/legal reform, security of tenure, gender and alliances that enable peer-learning and effective policy advocacy. Our current projects include:

 

Food and Agriculture

The knowledge and needs of rural communities - and of poor, marginalised food providers and food workers - are largely absent from international debate on food systems.

In our work on food and agriculture our primary aim is to help agricultural communities gain/maintain control of their own resources.

We will achieve this by pushing for policy reform to allow all people the right to food, and by supporting equal property rights and the role of local organisations. We will also seek to build food systems that are resilient to the growing risks of climate change and water crises. The strengthening of citizens' voices in the design and oversight of policies and regulations for food and agriculture is key to all of this.

Our current projects include:

Forestry

IIED’s Forest Team, now in its 27th year, is dealing with one of the key issues of our time. More carbon is sequestered in forests than is held in the Earth’s atmosphere, and deforestation and forest degradation account for some 17 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions globally. 

As the economic growth and resource needs of various nations intensifies, forest area and use are under ever heavier pressure. Illegal logging has not abated and forest-dependent communities continue to demand their rights to determine forest use. There is a need for effective, integrated approaches to forestry that are locally controlled and so work on the ground.

In pursuit of this, the Forest Team works to the following four objectives:

1. Partnerships and governance: improved international, national and local networks, capacity and informed decision-making for social justice and sustainability in forestry. Partnerships and governance form the core of IIED initiatives that together span 11 countries across Africa, Latin America and Asia; exploratory work is also beginning in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Nepal.

2. Forest-linked enterprise: policy reforms, institutional arrangements, business development and financial services and markets in favour of secure forest rights and successful small forest enterprise. Enterprise is central to the Forest Connect alliance in 11 countries: Burkina Faso, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, India, Mozambique, Lao PDR, Nepal and Vietnam.

3. Forest-based climate strategies: initiatives to combat climate change through action in the forest sector contribute to pro-poor forest governance, local livelihoods and sustainability. Forest-based climate strategies will be developed with partners, starting in Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. Broader international strategy work will also focus on REDD preparations and other forest-based climate strategies.

4. Energy and forests: developments in energy security and forest product-based energy production contribute to pro-poor forest governance and sustainability. We will be scoping in three countries how biomass and liquid biofuels can better meet local energy requirements and generate income for the poor. IIED will also begin to develop a network of partners with the capacity to mainstream energy security issues within the forest sector.
 

Forest Team Projects

Partnerships and governance

How to shape governance of tenure for responsible forestry
Lead for IIED: James Mayers (active)

Forest Governance Learning Group (active)
Lead for IIED: James Mayers

Growing Forest Partnerships (active)
Lead for IIED: Grazia Piras

Policy that works for forests and people (completed)
Lead for IIED:  James Mayers

The Poverty-Forests Toolkit: showing what forests mean to the poor (completed)
Lead for IIED: James Mayers (formally Sonja Vermeulen)

Power Tools: for policy influence in natural resource management (completed)
Lead for IIED: Elaine Morrison (formally Sonja Vermeulen) 

Forest ethics (completed)
Lead for IIED: Duncan Macqueen 
 

Forest-linked enterprise

Forest Connect (active)
Lead for IIED: Duncan Macqueen

Developing Community Forestry Management as a contribution to poverty reduction in the Democratic Republic of Congo (completed)
Lead for IIED: Duncan Macqueen (formally Cath Long) 

Small and medium forest enterprises and associations (completed)
Lead for IIED: Duncan Macqueen

Distinguishing community forest products in the market (completed)
Lead for IIED: Duncan Macqueen

Exploring fair trade timber (completed)
Lead for IIED: Duncan Macqueen 

Instruments for sustainable private sector forestry (completed)
Lead for IIED: James Mayers

Forest-based climate strategies

Incentive and market-based mechanisms for sustainable land management
Lead for IIED: Isilda Nhantumbo

Poverty and sustainable development impacts of REDD architecture (active)
Lead for IIED: Maryanne Grieg-Gran

South-South REDD: A Brazil-Mozambique initiative (active)
Lead for IIED: Isilda Nhantumbo

The Forest Dialogue on REDD readiness and REDD finance mechanisms (active)
Lead for IIED: James Mayers

Design and monitoring of a consultative process for Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (completed)
Lead for IIED: Duncan Macqueen 

REDD and community-based natural resource management in southern Africa (completed)
Lead for IIED: Muyeye Chambwera 

Forests, resilience and climate change (completed) 
Lead for IIED: Duncan Macqueen

Developing markets for watershed services and improved livelihoods (completed)
Lead for IIED: Ina Porras

Energy and forests

Biomass energy: optimising its contribution to poverty reduction and ecosystem services (active)
Lead for IIED: Duncan Macqueen 

Biomass and biofuel innovations for local energy provision and income generation (active)
Lead for IIED: Duncan Macqueen