2.4 COMMUNITY FORESTRY: Lessons Learned of Relevance to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) Tom Blomley Lusaka, Tuesday February 3 rd, 2015

Background to FCMC Study Impacts of Community Forestry Lessons on community empowerment Lessons on governance and engagement Lessons on benefits and incentives Lessons on capacity building Lessons on scaling up Lessons on sustainability Group work 2 Session outline

INSERT GRAPHIC TO ADD PHOTO Why is community forestry relevant to REDD+? What is community forestry ? FCMC Study of Lessons Learned from Community Forestry and their Relevance to REDD+ –Regional reports for Africa, Asia, and Latin America –Global synthesis Ensuring we capture three decades of experience from community forestry in REDD+

Brainstorm on benefits / impacts of community forestry What are some of the positive impacts of community forestry that you have seen in your country / projects / context?

What are the impacts of community forestry? Improved forest management Improved access and management rights for local people, leading to livelihood benefits (subsistence and some cash) Improved forest governance and decision making (community level and higher) Improved skills, capacity and social capital INSERT GRAPHIC TO ADD PHOTO

Key Lesson: Effective rights to make and apply rules governing forest use and access are keys to success Relevance to REDD+: Policy and legal reforms are necessary Communal property rights over NRs need strengthening Policy implementation even more critical to make paper rights into effective rights What have we learned about community empowerment?

INSERT GRAPHIC TO ADD PHOTO What have we learned about governance and stakeholder engagement in community forestry? Lessons: Self-generated structures have greatest legitimacy – need legal recognition Strong community organization is critical Greater success when all stakeholders integrated Principle of subsidiarity – but need to work at higher levels of scale as well Relevance to REDD+ Build upon self-generated community institutions and systems where possible Strengthen accountability mechanisms

INSERT GRAPHIC TO ADD PHOTO What have we learned about benefits and incentives in community forestry? Lessons: Benefits to date – limited Overall benefits must outweigh costs Sharing of benefits and costs must be equitable – elite capture is a risk National and local objectives often differ – need to reconcile Relevance to REDD+: Minimize transaction and opportunity costs Carbon (cash) benefits are supplemental to other “co-benefits”

Benefits and incentives – discussion points… To what degree have community forestry benefits in your country / context been translated into concrete livelihood benefits to local communities What constrains the flow of benefits from community forestry in your context?

What have we learned about capacity building? Relevance to REDD+: Technical as well as “softer” skills are needed, such as governance, leadership Lessons: Diverse capacities needed Forest management Accounting, business management Planning, M&E, adaptive management Governance capacities (accountability, enforcing rules, sharing costs and benefits) Government capacity

INSERT GRAPHIC TO ADD PHOTO What have we learned about scaling-up in community forestry? Lessons: Proven community forestry systems spread themselves Reforming policies, laws and regulations - priority Donor dependence Benefits - diverse Scaling up takes time Intermediary organizations Relevance to REDD+: Address conflict over speed and timing Undertake legal reforms and pilot field initiatives Focus on co-benefits – not carbon Aggregation of carbon benefits – from across multiple sites

What have we learned about sustainability in community forestry? Key Lessons: Long-term gains from improved forest condition – leakage may be an issue unless CF is scaled up to national level Integrate market actors and private sector Capture and reinvest forest revenues Address stakeholder conflicts Relevance to REDD+: Multiple social and economic benefits for communities are essential for REDD+ success INSERT GRAPHIC TO ADD PHOTO

Group Work In your country / regional groups review the success stories in community forestry Why were they successful, and how do you define “successful”? What are some of the challenges faced in the implementation of community forestry activities? Why were results less than expected? Present your ideas on a flipchart!