Forestry

IIED’s Forest Team, now in its 25th 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 

Forest Governance Learning Group (active)
Lead for IIED: James.Mayers@iied.org

Growing Forest Partnerships (active)
Lead for IIED: Cath.Long@iied.org

Policy that works for forests and people (completed)
Lead for IIED: James.Mayers@iied.org   

The Poverty-Forests Toolkit: showing what forests mean to the poor (completed)
Lead for IIED: Sonja.Vermeulen@iied.org  

Power Tools: for policy influence in natural resource management (completed)
Lead for IIED: Sonja.Vermeulen@iied.org  

Forest ethics (completed)
Lead for IIED: Duncan.Macqueen@iied.org
 

Forest-linked enterprise

Forest Connect (active)
Lead for IIED: Duncan.Macqueen@iied.org

Developing Community Forestry Management as a contribution to poverty reduction in the Democratic Republic of Congo (active)
Lead for IIED: Cath.Long@iied.org

Small and medium forest enterprises and associations (completed)
Lead for IIED: Duncan.Macqueen@iied.org

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

Exploring fair trade timber (completed)
Lead for IIED: Duncan.Macqueen@iied.org

Instruments for sustainable private sector forestry (completed)
Lead for IIED: James.Mayers@iied.org

Forest-based climate strategies

REDD for sustainable local livelihoods: developing cost effective options (active)
Lead for IIED: Maryanne@iied.org

South-South REDD: A Brazil-Mozambique initiative (active)
Lead for IIED: Duncan.Macqueen@iied.org 

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

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

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

Forests, resilience and climate change (completed) 
Lead for IIED: Duncan.Macqueen@iied.org 

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

Energy and forests

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