Research documents

This page offers you a shortlisted selection of research documents and working papers, recently published in French or English in international research journals or as monographic web-publications.  The shortlist will be updated regularly, and its content will (hopefully) reflect ongoing discussions and our partners' committments to specific research topics and approaches.

Exhibition area at the 17th Meeting of the Parties (MOP) of the CBFP - Registration open

Partners interested in booking an exhibition stand are kindly requested to fill out the registration and return it to us before 10th October 2017, 12p.m. GMT...

Mainstreaming the environment in poverty alleviation policies: influencing policies and practices through dialogue and dissemination of innovative responses

 

This capitalization aims at sharing the achievements, lessons learned and challenges arising from the implementation of the Initiative for Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management (Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management Initiative - PREMI). Implemented from 2009 to 2012 by the Western and Central Africa Programme of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN-PACO), PREMI sought to demonstrate how a proper consideration of the environmental dimension in policy and programs can contribute to a more effective fight against rural poverty. The document is also available in French. The knowledge generated by the PREMI initiative is available from the following link: www.iucn.org/premi

Dudley, Nigel; Shadie, Peter; Stolton, Sue (IUCN) : Guidelines for applying protected area management categories including IUCN WCPA best practice guidance on recognising protected areas and assigning management categories and governance types

 

Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No. 21 - Please download the guidelines hereafter:

Economic valuation of ecological functions and services of natural ecosystems : A Guide on the use of simple methods 607KB

National forest cover change in Congo Basin: deforestation, reforestation, degradation and regeneration for the years 1990, 2000 and 2005

This research refers to an object-based automatic method combined with a national expert validation to produce regional and national forest cover change statistics over Congo Basin. A total of 547 sampling sites systematically distributed over the whole humid forest domain are required to cover the six Central African countries containing tropical moist forest. High resolution imagery is used to accurately estimate not only deforestation and reforestation but also degradation and regeneration. Find out more...

 

Ernst Céline1,*, Mayaux Philippe2, Verhegghen Astrid1, Bodart Catherine2, Christophe Musampa3, Defourny Pierre1

Article first published online: 16 JAN 2013

Modeling impact of development trajectories and a global agreement on reducing emissions from deforestation on Congo Basin forests by 2030

Abstract - The Congo Basin encompasses the second largest rainforest area after the Amazon but the Congo Basin rainforest has been more preserved during the last decades with a much lower deforestation rate. At the same time, the region remains one of the least developed in the world. We use the partial equilibrium model GLOBIOM for the global agricultural, forestry and bioenergy sectors that seeks to find optimal land use options by spatially representing land qualities. We show the trade-offs between achieving agricultural growth at the expense of forests and protecting forests at the expense of agriculture development in the Congo Basin... find more ...

-  A. Mosnier, P. Havlik, M. Obersteiner, K. Aoki, E. Schmid. S. Fritz, I. McCallum, S. Leduc, Environmental and Resource Economics.

Coffee table book – Invasive Alien Plants and their Management in Africa

 

Invasive Alien Species (IAS) pose one of the most significant threats to biodiversity, agriculture, sustainable economic development and human and animal health on this planet, including increasingly in the African continent. The following coffee table book has been produced as one of the final outputs of the UNEP/GEF project 'Removing Barriers to Invasive Plant Management in Africa' (RBIPMA), implemented in the four countries Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia, between 2005 and 2010." A link to this nicely
written and compelling story is found  HERE

More information can be obtained from its co-author Arne Witt (A.Witt@cabi.org) or Max Zieren the project task manager (max.zieren@unep.org).

FAO Issues Guidelines on Climate Change for Forest Managers - Forests Policy & Practice

 

The guidelines were presented last week at the 28th Session of the Latin American and Caribbean Forestry Commission (LACFC).

Please consult the Full Article available under the following Link:  Impact of climate change on forests requires early action - Forest managers should invest more in climate change response – new guidelines published

Water Towers (2012) : Forests and Green Economy - Outcome of the First High Level National Dialogue in Kenya

Deforestation in Kenya’s water towers deprives the Kenyan economy of 6 billion Shillings annually and threatens the supply of more than 70 per cent of the country’s water supply. The dialogue commended the vision and leadership of the government, and calls on all political leaders to ensure that the emerging forest sector transformation and sustainable water management should remain a high priority for the country, to be championed by the highest political level.

 

FAO-CIFOR (2013) : Multiple-use forest management in the humid tropics: opportunities and challenges for sustainable forest management

Executive summary

 In this report, multiple-use forest management (MFM) is defined as the deliberate management of a particular forest area in a particular time period for various goods and services. Three regional assessments were carried out between 2009 and 2012 to identify and draw lessons from on-the-ground initiatives in MFM in the Amazon  Basin, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. In all three regions, information was collected through interviews with country-based forestry experts, forest managers and technicians. A complementary, Web-based questionnaire was used to examine  a range of variables in ongoing or completed MFM initiatives at the country level.  The regional assessments canvassed 46 MFM initiatives in 13 countries. This  report provides an overview of forestry in those countries and the 46 initiatives,  the constraints they face, and the opportunities for diversifying and integrating  products and services in forest management units. The evidence, opinions and  perceptions gathered through interviews and surveys indicate that the practical  application of MFM is a complex and challenging task in the prevailing conditions.  There is wide variation in the forest area encompassed by the surveyed MFM  initiatives, from 1 900 hectares to almost 1 million hectares in the Amazon Basin,  from almost 11  000 hectares to more than 2.1  million hectares in Southeast Asia,  and from 4 800 hectares to almost 200 000 hectares in the Congo Basin. The smaller  areas are mostly forests managed by indigenous peoples or by associations of small-scale extractors.  Of the surveyed initiatives, timber production is the predominant primary  objective, followed by the production of non-timber forest products. Other  economic activities of importance in at least some of the surveyed MFM initiatives  were fisheries, ecotourism, forest conservation, the production of fuel wood and  charcoal, and ecosystem services.  In many of the countries analyzed in this report and for certain categories  of actor, MFM remains an interesting yet barely operational concept due to  economic, technical and administrative constraints. Timber is still the only forest  commodity with major lucrative markets, whose operation is based on a reliable  body of technical knowledge, and which provides a significant contribution to  national economies. The dominant model of timber harvesting is, however, being  undermined in some regions by the arrival of investors interested in agro-industrial  or mining projects, for which the financial benefits can be much higher than those  associated with sustainable timber harvesting. In this new context, MFM could  increase the economic benefits of SFM. Several initiatives, such as certification  and legality schemes, could help support the implementation of MFM, although  generally forest management certification has so far failed to yield significant  increases in timber prices.  Forest managers should be supported in efforts to realize the potential of MFM.  Greater effort is needed to eliminate unfair competition from operators whose sole objective is to extract timber, with little or no concern for multiple uses. In most countries, the demarcation of a permanent forest estate and the development of  national land-use plans would increase investment in long-term forest management  and lend support to MFM. Improving the value of logged-over forest through silvicultural treatments would improve the chance of those forests being managed  for multiple uses. Training and awareness-raising to change the entrenched mindsets of certain forestry stakeholders is also recommended.

Cécile OTT-DUCLAUX-MONTEIL (2013): Logging in Central Africa and populations’ rights in Central Africa

Natural resources derived from forests are a key component of the livelihoods of indigenous and local communities in Africa. In pursuance to the recommendations of the "unprecedented" Rio conference, in the words of Professor Alexandre KISS, many African countries have agreed to recognize peoples’ right to manage their environment, subject to certain limits. Inspired by this movement, the countries which are the subject of our study have embarked on a series of reforms to improve the legal and regulatory framework for logging, with a view to increasing involvement of local communities, people and promoting sustainable development. Several years after the implementation of these reforms, many questions remain as to whether the much desired objectives of transparency, equity and efficiency have been achieved.
 
Cécile OTT-DUCLAUX-MONTEIL holds a PhD in International Environmental Law (University of Lyon 3), as well as being lecturer, consultant in environmental law and an Associate Doctor at the Centre de droit international (Centre for International Law, CDI - Lyon 3).