Download: Forest Governance Forums Lesson Learning Report 

Brief summary

The Forest Governance Forums (FGF) or the in-country illegal logging up-date meetings for ‘high’ and ‘mid’ level stakeholders were designed to foster open and transparent exchange of views and information on relevant national and international forest policy and interventions aimed towards improving forest governance and combating illegal logging. 

These forums have helped explore issues that affect the forest sector such as transparency and the rule of law. A key aim was to bring debates on forest governance to four key African countries, allowing for broader participation, and the inclusion of more national voices in the conversation, situating issues within a local and international context. Within each country, a 2-day national meeting on was organised and delivered. 

These meetings were modelled on the Illegal Logging Stakeholder Update meetings held bi-annually at Chatham House in London and contribute to the broader objective of the EU and DFID-funded project, ‘Strengthening African Forest Governance’. Active stakeholders from the private sector, government, civil society, research institutes, the international community and local communities were invited to attend and give presentations at these Forest Governance Forum meetings.

The purpose of the lesson learning study was to draw out key lessons from 4 years of organising and delivering FGF meetings in Central and West Africa that could be shared with project partners, donors, and other national and international stakeholders. These lessons were drawn from examining how the FGF meetings were designed and implemented. The study is qualitative assessment of the FGFs with a central focus on capturing what different stakeholders got out of them. For more information, please read the report