Have your say: Enabling forest landscapes to score Sustainable Development Goals

Conference

IIED co-hosted a discussion at the Global Landscapes Forum in Lima, Peru, on how forest landscapes can score Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Peru’s Belen Valley is a landscape largely uninhabited by humans, but home to hummingbirds, the spectacled bear and more than 50 species native to the area (Photo: Leendeleo via Flickr)

In partnership with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), IIED asked how the SDGs can catalyse policy and practice that enables 'goal-scoring' for forests and landscapes in a transformative, universal and integrated manner.

The forum reviewed progress and discussed the best way forward to incorporating forests and a landscape approach in the SDGs: both in their formulation and in their implementation.

Global Landscapes Forums, held alongside the UN climate negotiations, create a platform for positioning landscapes in the new international agreements on climate and sustainable development.

On the panel were IIED director Camilla Toulmin, Paula Caballero, senior director of Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice at the World Bank, Peter Holmgren, director general of CIFOR, Sonia María González Molina, the director general of Research and Environmental Information in the Peru Ministry of Environment, and Heru Prasetyo, head of REDD+ Management Agency, Indonesia.

Although forests contribute towards many sustainable development outcomes, incorporating forests and above all a landscape approach in the SDGs is a challenge.

The session explored how institutions, strategies and approaches can enable integration across sectors, address systemic barriers and promote the essential enabling conditions, and addreseds the strong linkages between the post-2015 sustainable development and the climate change agendas.

The discussion forum started by setting the scene regarding the process to formulate the SDGs and other aspects of the post-2015 agenda, and looked at where forests and landscapes stand in this. Research of how to incorporate forests in the SDGs in an integrated, landscape approach was presented and there were insights from the results of a workshop held in Lima in November.

Among the key questions discussed were:

  1. In light of the SDGs proposed by the UN Open Working Group, what specific action is needed during the period up to September 2015 to enable forests and landscapes deliver sustainable development outcomes?
  2. What can we learn from forest sector experiences at national and local levels about how to deliver an integrated approach, including the kinds of institutional models that catalyse 'goal scoring'?
  3. What is needed to ensure integration of post-2015, climate and other international frameworks of relevance to forests, including how to channel finance in support of integrated approaches?
  4. How can we best identify the right enablers for transformation, and ensure they are targeted for support?

What are your views? What insight do you have to the discussion? What questions do you have for the panel?