Developing policy and regulatory frameworks to promote restoration, sustainable land management, and emissions reductions
TRI CAR is actively working to facilitate the development of policy and regulatory frameworks that promote restoration, sustainable land management, the maintenance and enhancement of carbon stocks in forests and other lands uses, and emission reductions from the land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) sector and agriculture. This includes initiating discussions with the Ministry of Water, Forests, Hunting, and Fishing on the revision process of CAR’s forest policy. TRI CAR will bring all of the stakeholders together to define and plan the process of revision and provide the ministry with technical input. TRI CAR is also conducting documentary analysis of local development plans of five forest communities – Mbata, Mongoumba, Nola, Pissa, and Yobé – and is in discussions with the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Territorial Planning to develop a joint management plan for the southwest territory so the local development plans can be implemented in a broader vision. Additionally, TRI CAR is helping upgrade the Wood Energy Supply Plan (WISDOM) in Bangui with recommendations developed from research on wood energy production and market.
TRI CAR is able to help develop policies support FLR and sustainable land management because of the political will of CAR’s major ministries to improving laws and regulations to support its restoration goals. It is also possible because of TRI CAR’s ability to bring together the various stakeholders implicated in the LULUCF sector and restoration activities in CAR. Without input and recommendations from the numerous actors, the policies could not as adequately address the diverse priorities of everyone affected by FLR.
Through the process of helping CAR’s various ministries update policies related to restoration, sustainable land management, and emissions reductions, TRI CAR has learned multiple lessons around the process of policy elaboration in CAR and how policy updates can better address the needs of the various stakeholders. Between working with the Ministry of Water, Forests, Hunting, and Fishing on the revision of the country’s forest policy and the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Territorial Planning on developing a joint management plan for the southwest territory to better implement the local development plans, TRI CAR is learning how the different ministries approach policy development and how the team can work with them all to ensure policy cohesion across sectors. Additionally, in its work to provide information on the market and practices of wood energy production in Bangui, TRI CAR has gained knowledge around how wood energy can affect restoration and how best to approach its management.
Filling knowledge gaps in restoration opportunities and the valuation of ecosystem services
To increase CAR’s commitment to forest and landscape restoration at the national and subnational levels, TRI CAR is working to fill existing knowledge gaps in the valuation of ecosystem services and restoration opportunities. To do this, TRI CAR has contracted two graduate students with the Central African Agricultural Research Institute (ICRA) and the Higher Institute for Rural Development (ISDR) to carry out a valuation of ecosystem services. As the projects develop, the on-the-ground research will inform TRI CAR’s technical recommendations for the various policies being elaborated. Similarly, to help identify restoration opportunities, TRI has initiated the creation of a geospatial working group that will focus on finding restoration priority areas. This will also lay a base for TRI CAR’s policy input, as the team will pursue measures focused on the restoration opportunities identified in geospatial data analysis.
To successfully engage in projects that fill knowledge gaps necessary for policy elaboration, the work of ICRA and ISDR in supervising and leading the graduate projects looking at the valuation of ecosystem services will be critical. Additionally, to best enable the technical working group working on analysis on geospatial data, TRI CAR has conducted trainings on how to collect and use data analysis. The trainings ensured the working group most effectively analyzes the geospatial data.
Contracting two projects to research the valuation of ecosystem services and bringing together a technical working group to conduct analysis of geospatial data to identify restoration opportunities, TRI CAR is learning critical lessons around how to work with local institutions to facilitate knowledge generation and how to train participants to best implement project research. TRI CAR is growing its understanding of how working with institutes like ICRA and ISDR through the graduate projects will help policy commitment and how collaborating with outside actors can provide greater resources for filling knowledge gaps. TRI CAR is also strengthening its ability to train participants and local actors in collecting and analyzing data required for the effective development of the country’s policies. Ultimately, TRI CAR’s work has also provided the team with invaluable information it can use to provide technical input and recommendations for the elaboration of national policies related to restoration and sustainable land management.
Developing Forest Management and Landscape Restoration Frameworks for Chilgoza Forest Ecosystems
Reviewing Policy and Regulatory Frameworks to Promote the Use of Innovative and Sustainable Financial Mechanisms
Improving strategic and regulatory frameworks for mangrove restoration
To further develop a restoration strategy, TRI has worked to improve the regulatory frameworks in Guinea-Bissau. This includes supporting the elaboration of the National Mangrove Law and National Mangrove Strategy. Although an initial draft of the law produced in 2016 was ultimately unsuccessful because of too few resources, TRI brought in jurist and socio-anthropologist experts to develop a new draft that integrated all parameters of mangrove restoration learned from the participatory assessment phase. Once formulated, the law was presented to PLANTA (National Platform for Mangrove Restoration) members to provide feedback. The platform, which was created by TRI in 2021, includes , includes national and international partners working on mangrove landscapes, such as the Institute for Biodiversity and Protected Areas, the Directorate General for Forest and Fauna, and the Ministry of Agriculture. Since receiving feedback, TRI assisted in producing a second draft in July 2023, which must now go through the approval process. Similarly, the first draft of the national strategy was developed by the TRI team and submitted to national stakeholders in the PLANTA network for feedback. Once finalized, the policies will need to be approved or taken up by government bodies to ensure a restoration strategy is in place.
The drafts of the mangrove policies have been enabled by the participation and technical input from the PLANTA members. Without the participation of national stakeholders, the policies would not be robust or complete and would have extreme difficulty passing through the approval process. While most members provided technical assistance and feedback, international NGOs Bosque Communidad and Wetlands International also provided financial assistance necessary to hire consultants and elaborate the draft policies.
Through developing, reviewing, and negotiating mangrove restoration policies, TRI has been able to gather valuable information regarding what gaps exist in mangrove management and ensure the involvement of various stakeholders to elaborate a robust and sustainable policy framework. With each round of input, PLANTA members ensure the finalized National Mangrove Law and Strategy will address every aspect of mangrove restoration. Similarly, working with a socio-anthropologist whose task included integrating community knowledge into the law allowed the process to avoid excluding vital community input and traditional knowledge.
Identifying mangrove restoration opportunities in three intervention regions
Improving strategic and regulatory frameworks for mangrove restoration
Supporting goals of reform and technical tools upgrades in SFFs’ governance structures
To ensure SFF reform fully considers the roles of SFFs in providing ecosystem services and developing appropriate supporting legal and financial instruments, TRI has worked to ensure that SFF’s governance structures support the goals of FLR and the ongoing conversion of SFFs to public benefit organizations and technical tools upgrade forest resource management planning. This includes providing key suggestions and facilitating the production of a report on innovative governance and management of SFFs. The report analyzed cases from different SFFs that incorporated governance structures focused on restoring and enhancing forest quality and bringing economic and social benefits to surrounding communities. The project also promoted an FLR-based Forest Research Management (FMR) plan developed at the end of 2020 enhancing key forest eco-services, which covered 16 SFFs incorporating institutional structures supporting SFF reforms. The analysis of governance structures and promotion of an FLR-based forest resource management plan also contributed to the creation of guidelines for the development of innovative forest resource management in SFFs. Set to be launched in September 2023 and promoted in 4,297 SFFs nationwide, the guidelines provide a detailed way of how to start to work toward ecosystem service-based management .
Without the incorporation of governance and institutional structures that support SFF reform in 16 SFFs, TRI would not have been able to assess innovative management of SFFs or develop an FLR-based FMR plan. With 16 SFFs receiving support from national finance and including management structures focusing on enhancing forest quality, the project successfully used on-the-ground experience to recommend SFF governance measures that would promote restoration.
By working to ensure governance structures support SFF reform goals and SFFs have the technical tools to upgrade management planning, TRI China gained critical information on how to develop national and subnational policies that support FLR-centered management and promote the role of SFFs in providing ecosystem services. Using these learnings from applied innovative governance structures, the guidelines developed by TRI also provided comprehensive suggestions on how to determine key ecosystem services and how to select management measures based on landscape approaches.
Ensuring national and subnational forestry policymakers are equipped with information and tools to integrate forest and landscape restoration as a cornerstone of SFFs management
To help develop policies and regulatory frameworks that integrate SFFs as a cornerstone for local FLR implementation, TRI China has worked to ensure national and subnational forestry policymakers have relevant information and useful policy recommendations. This includes promoting a national policy summary of SFFs to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA), which provided an overview of forestry policy development in China and recommendations that helped facilitate the elaboration of a special research report on innovative management mechanisms and systems of state-owned forest farms, which aimed to provide a new perspective of SFF management mechanisms that enable SFFs to better play a role in protecting forest resources and providing forest ecosystem services. In 2022, TRI also developed policy suggestions on promoting the green development of SFFs and a research report on the Green Development Strategy of SFFs. The recommendations contributed to multiple policy documents outlining specific actions to be implemented in the three pilot provinces. Additionally, TRI hosted policy workshops, further conveying policy messages and recommendations to key stakeholders.
Without collaboration and willingness to implement sustainable forest management and FLR reforms from the NFGA, the policy review and recommendations would not have been successfully included in national policy guidelines and implementation plans. Similarly, input from academia such as China Forest Academy and the Planning Institute of the NFGA as well as local policy makers was conducive to policy conversations and discussions over development issues and recommendations.
The review of existing forestry policies and regulations and the formulation of recommendations provided many lessons that were passed on to national and subnational forestry policymakers. A review of policies and analysis of their effects on SFF development and sustainable forest management showed which policies promote FLR and which policies need reform in order to move them towards green development. Meanwhile, the recommendations provided by TRI, which included improving the ecological compensation system, taking enhanced forest quality as SFFs’ main responsibility, and encouraging the wise use of forestry resources, presented policymakers with actionable suggestions that promote FLR implementation and sustainable forest management. The workshops also provided beneficial information with fruitful discussions over green development and the sharing of policy-related reports.
Ensuring national and subnational forestry policymakers are equipped with information and tools to integrate forest and landscape restoration as a cornerstone of SFFs management
Supporting goals of reform and technical tools upgrades in SFFs’ governance structures
