1. (Past, present, future) Involvements of the VFI team on Forest (landscape) Restoration
CIFOR Annual meeting,
October 2017

2. Content
VFI experience on forest landscape restoration
Ongoing projects
Promising research questions, comparative advantages, current gaps
Future proposals

3. VFI experience on Forest landscape restoration
Not a major focus over the latest years: no outcome stories, nor famous publications, nor renowned projects.
Romain Pirard published a few articles on large-scale tree plantations, and Krystof Obidzinski on land-based investments (large-scale timber or oil palm concessions), but they have not been replaced in VFI team
We may draw lessons from our extensive work with large-scale timber, oil palm, farmland concessions to contribute to design “landscape” management
The idea is to show what’s VFI legitimacy and strengths to work on forest restoration, based on relatively recent experience,

4. % dedicated to forest restoratio n Partners on restoratio n
Ongoing projects
Title
Location
Funder, period
Objective
% dedicated to forest restoratio n
Scale(s)
Partners on restoratio n
Profeaac
Cameroon and DRC
FFEM,
Technical and financial assistance to households or communities to plant/replant/maintain trees in their fields/fallows/forests, if they partner with formal small-scale loggers.
30%
Household, community, council
CIRAD, GIZ
Political economy of fire and haze
Indonesia (Riau Province)
DFID Knowfor
Preventing forest and land fires through landscape restoration (rewetting, revegetation and livelihood development)
Difficult to quantify
Landscape/ Village/com munity level
University of Riau

5. promising research questions on forest restoration
Comparative advantages
What are the “business cases” for forest restoration, under different contexts shaping land use opportunity costs, existing investment portfolios, and perceptions of risks?
CIFOR is conducting work across different tropical contexts, and likely has extensive information on factors shaping local land uses
Which (political economy, financial, economic) conditions for successful post-fire forest restoration in Indonesia ?
Good knowledge, partners and network on political economy of fire and haze; field experience; partners on similar issues (CIRAD, ANU)
Why is forest restoration so difficult in Congo basin (whatever the scale) ?
Good network of (private, public) partners on the field, with good experience on the issue
Under which conditions of market and finance access can smallholders benefit from forest restoration programs that also deliver economic benefits?
CIFOR has undertaken work on other commodities that could facilitate understanding this question
(Large) landscape is not a concern for these research questions

6. promising research questions on forest landscape restoration
Comparative advantages
Are there options of business and financing models that could support for landscape restoration while delivering financial benefits for smallholders?
CIFOR is building work on finance and innovative financial schemes that could provide lessons
What are the outcomes of KPH after 10 years of technical, political and financial supports?
CIFOR reputation on natural forest management; knowledge of a few KPH cases
What is the potential of blended funds for effective scaling up of restoration projects?
How can forest landscape restoration contribute to supply future wood value chain for domestic and urban markets in Africa and Indonesia ?
Works already done on domestic market in Congo Basin and Ivory Coast by CIFOR with CIRAD.
Can we extend SFM certification of timber concessions to a landscape scale (including environmental services)?
FSC thinking on certifying environmental services; zero deforestation commitments might go beyond concessions boundaries

7. Coming proposals Title & topic Location VFI Leader / Partners
Business and finance schemes for restoration that effectively support social inclusion and improved benefit sharing
Different locations across the tropics
Pablo / TBI
Restoration dynamics as result/and shaping wider dynamics of transitions towards sustainable agricultural/forest landscapes
Pablo / CIRAD
Potential of blended funds to scale up forest restoration projects
Pablo /

8. Thanks for your attention