Photo: IUCN
Many hands to govern the land
Application of the 10 principles of the natural resource governance framework to strengthen inclusive decision-making across landscapes.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 28
Renaissance of a protected area in the Democratic Republic of Congo
A success story on the participatory development and validation of a management plan for the Mangai Hunting Domain and Hippopotamus Reserve.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 27
Making sense of community natural resource governance perceptions
Learning from results of a social survey tool called SenseMaker® in support of natural resource landscape governance in Uganda
> Download Forest Brief, No. 26
A seat for everyone at the table for sustainable natural resource management in Ghana
A look at building inclusive decision making structures for natural resources in two Ghanaian landscapes.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 25
Africa & the Bonn Challenge: A monumental commitment to change
No continent has committed more hectares to forest landscape restoration than Africa. With 84 million hectares of degraded and deforested land committed to the Bonn Challenge and AFR100, and over 125 million hectares of identified opportunities, Africa leads the world in restoration ambition.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 24
Forest landscape restoration: Transforming landscapes and livelihoods in the Caucasus and Central Asia
Globally, the restoration of degraded and deforested landscapes using the forest landscape restoration (FLR) approach has gained recognition as a way for countries to achieve multiple national and international priorities on mitigating climate change, enhancing the resilience of vulnerable communities, improving livelihoods, reducing desertification and conserving biodiversity. The Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) region – which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – has been severely impacted by climate change and land degradation, and would greatly benefit from FLR.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 23 (en)
> Download Forest Brief, No. 23 (ru)
Her Farm Radio: Building knowledge and developing the capacity of Malawi's female farmers on forest landscape restoration
As farmers, foresters and providers, women have a unique understanding of the ecosystems they live alongside. A Pioneering radio programme in Malawi is tapping into this immense body of knowledge by creating a platform for women to engage in landscape restoration.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 22
The Bonn Challenge and the Paris Agreement: How can forest landscape restoration advance Nationally Determined Contributions?
IUCN advocates that NDCs, in order to be strengthened, should be translated into robust, ambitious and implementable policy instruments to bridge the global emissions gap and enhance the adaptive capacity of social and environmental systems.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 21
Assessing the value of a donor's dollar in forest landscape restoration investments
Donors and governments want to understand the return on their investments. A value for money assessment in Guatemala takes us a step closer to understanding how to capture and report this key information.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 20
Relationship building improves forest policies and good governance in Eastern Europe and Russia
The success of the ENPI-FLEG programme – a seven-year undertaking by IUCN and partners to improve the sustainable governance, management, and protection of forests in seven countries – was founded on developing strong relationships and building trust among stakeholders.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 19
Forest landscape restoration: meeting national & international biodiversity commitments
Biological diversity is the foundation of healthy, productive ecosystems, and forests hold most of the world's terrestrial biodiversity. How can forest landscape restoration contribute to biodiversity and help countries meet their commitments?
> Download Forest Brief, No. 18
The Bonn Challenge in Asia: Driving leadership on forest landscape restoration
Countries in Asia are looking to the restoration of their degraded and deforested lands to generate a variety of benefits, with a focus on poverty alleviation, climate-smart agriculture and reversing deforestation. Engagement in the Bonn Challenge is a strategy towards meeting those ends.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 17
Intensive restoration assessment helps structure landscape-level incentives programme in Brazil
A pioneering payment for ecosystem services programme in Brazil’s Espírito Santo state uses landscape assessment tools to determine landowner compensation for conserving standing forests and initiating forest landscape restoration interventions on their land.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 16
Deriving landscape benefits through forest and farm producer organisations
When smallholder farmers and local communities organise, they can benefit by restoring the functionality of deforested and degraded landscapes, enhance food production, increase the availability of forest products and access to markets, and effect change.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 15
The Bonn Challenge: Catalysing leadership in Latin Amercia
The Bonn Challenge has unprecedented support in Latin America with over 35 million hectares pledged. Initiative 20x20 is a regional platform with the goal of bringing an additional 20 million hectares of land into restoration by 2020.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 14 (en)
> Download Forest Brief, No. 14 (es)
Africa & the Bonn Challenge: A demonstration of leadership (see issue no. 24 for update)
To date, more than 100 million hectares have been pledged to the Bonn Challenge; a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land into restoration by 2020 and 350 million by 2030. Seventeen African nations have contributed 63.3 million hectares.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 13
Designing natural resource management projects that support local representation and accountable governance
If they are to yield effective, equitable outcomes, natural resource management projects need to work with representatives who are responsive and accountable to local people. This brief presents practical suggestions on how projects can avoid some of the most common pitfalls in tackling the thorny issue of governance.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 12
Enhancing forest livelihoods in Uganda to advance REDD+
Livelihood-enhancing initiatives in the Mount Elgon and Agoro Agu landscapes are offering innovative, rights-based incentives for communities to engage in REDD+.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 11
Capitalising on conservation agreements in Peru to enhance sustainable forest livelihoods
Comprehensive conservation agreements with forest-dependent native communities in Peru are providing the ideal tool to improve local livelihoods and increase stakeholder engagement with REDD+ benefit sharing.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 10
Mexico’s subnational REDD+ efforts inform national REDD+ strategy
Efforts to understand the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, and advance rights-based REDD+ benefitsharing arrangements in the states of the Yucatan Peninsula (Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatan) are providing valuable inputs into Mexico’s national REDD+ actions.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 9
Indonesia links REDD+ benefit sharing with local forest governance
Leveraging existing forest management units in Indonesia’s Papua and West Papua Provinces is playing an important role in advancing rights-based approaches to REDD+, sustainable forest management, national climate plans, forest tenure reforms and the country’s green growth strategy.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 8
Guatemala makes gender a priority for REDD+
Since 2014, IUCN and partners have been focused on working with a wide range of local and national stakeholders in Guatemala to support the design of a gender roadmap for REDD+, which aims to incorporate gender considerations as early as possible in the design of the country’s national REDD+ strategy.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 7
Ghana advances rights-based REDD+ through existing local forest governance initiatives
Ghana’s Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) are providing the ideal entry point to advance rights-based approaches to REDD+ implementation.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 6
Mobilising partnerships in Cameroon to advance rights-based REDD+ forest governance
Synergies between IUCN, government, civil society and key forest governance initiatives in Cameroon are effective mechanisms to streamline and scale-up support for rights-based approaches to REDD+.
> Download Forest Brief, No. 5
Mobilising public and private stakeholders for landscape restoration in Brazil
Brazil has the capacity to make a huge contribution to the global challenges of restoring landscapes and fulfilling international commitments on sustainable land use. How could this potential be realised?
Concerted action on restoration and REDD+ in Mexico
Mexico is progressing towards its goal of using REDD+ as a means to promote sustainable rural development, but improved coordination is still needed.
Mapping the health of forest reserves in Ghana
Little was known about the state of Ghana’s forest reserves over the past 20 years. New maps are helping to fill these gaps and open up new opportunities for restoration.
Making forest restoration a good investment for Guatemalan farmers
Over the past 20 years the Guatemalan government has delivered about US$ 173 million in incentives for reforestation and restoration. How can we build on this investment?
