White Papers
A Cost-Benefit Framework for Analyzing Forest Landscape Restoration DecisionsBackgroundThis report provides a cost-benefit analysis of forest land restoration (FLR) decisions with a focus on African countries. It seeks to help decision makers "set prices for payment for ecosystem services, identify sources of restoration finance, identify low-cost/high-benefit pathways towards carbon sequestration, and identify priority landscapes for restoration based on return-on-investment analysis." Open access copy available |
Payments for Environmental Services: Some Nuts and BoltsBackgroundThis paper reviews current literature and considers observations from Latin America and Asia to describe Payment for Environmental Services (PES) strategies. Research Goals & MethodsThis paper aims to help demystify PES for non-economists, starting with a simple and coherent definition of the term. Open access copy available |
Évaluation des Directives OIBT pour la restauration, l’aménagement et la réhabilitation des forêts tropicales (Evaluation of ITTO Guidelines for the restoration, management and rehabilitation of tropical forests)This report provides case studies on the restoration of degraded and secondary forests in Ghana, Indonesia, and Mexico. The authors summarized common needs as they relate to each case, such as the needs for efficient governance, financial viability, monitoring and evaluation programs, and integrative management. Finally, they provided recommendations to the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO, or OIBT in French) for priorities and future areas of interest.
Open access copy available |
Etude environnementale de la Réserve naturelle forestière de Bururi (Environmental study of the Bururi forest reserve)The author presents a study of the Buruni forest reserve in Burundi (RNFB). He puts the current state of the forest in a historical context and provides a survey of animals and plants living in the reserve. The author details the forest reserve's ecological functioning and provides hydrologic and climatic data about the reseve along with discusses the threats to the Buruni forest reserve and offers suggestions for its protection.
Open access copy available |
Gestion durable des ressources forestières: Rapport pour les états généraux de la forêt, de la faune et des ressources en eau (Sustainable management of forest resources: report on the state of forest, fauna, and water resources)The authors discuss causes for ecosystem degradation in Ivory Coast. They highlight problems of governance, inappropriate management techniques, industrial exploitation of minerals and production of charcoal, ultimately offering recommendations to improve forest management.
Open access copy available |
Pratiques de restauration des zones degradees d’Afrique de l’Est (Restoration practices in degraded landscapes of Eastern Africa)The author provides an introduction to the state of the land, i.e. extent of degradation in eastern Africa. He then goes on to discuss restoration practices and for degraded landscapes in eastern Africa. The author also provides an evaluation of reforestation practices currently in use. The author ends by reviewing successful technologies for reforestation in eastern Africa and offering suggestions for scaling up.
Open access copy available |
Participatory Monitoring in Tropical Forest Management: A Review of Tools, Concepts and Lessons LearnedbackgroundThis report reviews the impacts, challenges, and shortcomings of well-documented cases of successful as well as unsuccessful participatory monitoring programs in tropical forests across the globe. Open access copy available |
The Mountain Pine Ridge Reforestation ProjectBackgroundBy 2000, the pine trees in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Preserve in Belize were heavily attacked by the Southern Pine Bark Beetle (Dendroctomus frontalis). The beetle did so much damage that the natural restoration of the pine forest was practically unattainable due to a lack of seed resources and continuing fires. The alternative is to abandon management and allow a pine savannah to develop. This paper compares the carbon sequestion potentional for a pine forest and a pine savannah in this region. Open access copy available |
Assuming Women’s Representation in Carbon Forestry ProjectsBackgroundWomen have historically played a critical role around the world in forest-related decision making yet there has been a significant unequal representation of this stakeholder group when it comes to the recent explosion of carbon-trading interventions, such as payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes, clean development mechanisms (CDM), and reduced emmissions and deforestation and forst degradation (REDD+). This unequal representation has been widely recognized and there is a fear that it is getting worse as forest governance changes. Open access copy available |
Multiple-Use Forest Management in the Humid Tropics: Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Forest ManagementbackgroundThis report documents three regional assessments that were carried out between 2009 and 2012 to identify and draw lessons from on-the-ground initiatives in multiple-use forest management (MFM) in the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. Open access copy available |
