Sustainable Forest Management, FLEGT, and REDD+: Exploring Interlinkages to Strengthen Forest Policy Coherence

Abstract

Sustainable forest management (SFM) is a concept that guides forest management and policy globally. Over the past decades, two prominent regimes have emerged at the global level that can strengthen SFM: The European Union's Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) and the United Nations’ mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+). However, the understanding of how FLEGT and REDD+ can interlink with SFM to strengthen forest policy coherence is limited. Enhancing knowledge about interlinkages and synergies is important in view of recent global commitments to strengthen policy coherence. This study employed content analysis of the main global policy documents related to FLEGT and REDD+ to identify (i) the potential contributions of the two regimes to SFM, and (ii) strategies to manage the interlinkages among SFM, FLEGT, and REDD+. The results revealed several potential interlinkages, such as monitoring, reporting, and verification systems, establishing the enabling conditions of SFM, and addressing drivers of forest degradation. However, the interlinkages must be managed if their potential is to be realized. For this, the study proposes three approaches to managing the interlinkages and catalyzing progress toward SFM.

Spatial patterns of logging-related disturbance events: a multi-scale analysis on forest management units located in the Brazilian Amazon

“…At the same time, several countries have made substantial progress towards the implementation of forest management activities in the tropics (Blaser et al 2011). While there is still a debate about the use of the word ''sustainability'' (Putz 2018;Tegegne et al 2018), it has been reported that forest management in tropical forests may help to stall deforestation activities (Burivalova et al 2020). Concurrently, in recent decades policies such as the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) policy of the European Union were created to foster the sustainability and legality of tropical forest products (Tegegne et al 2018).…”

“…While there is still a debate about the use of the word ''sustainability'' (Putz 2018;Tegegne et al 2018), it has been reported that forest management in tropical forests may help to stall deforestation activities (Burivalova et al 2020). Concurrently, in recent decades policies such as the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) policy of the European Union were created to foster the sustainability and legality of tropical forest products (Tegegne et al 2018). The correct implementation of forest management activities, ensuring their sustainability, and the legality of forest products, are highly dependent on the countries' monitoring capacity.…”

Advances in Carbon Management Technologies

“…The Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000) was formed as a successor to the IPF to develop a framework for the implementation of the IPF proposals for action. The United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) (2000 until present) was established in order to develop international legally binding agreements for the long-term commitments in sustainable forest management (Humphrey, 1998(Humphrey, , 2001Ruis, 2001;Tegegne et al, 2018). The Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) was established in 2001 among 14 international organisations to support the work of the UNFF.…”

“…The REDD was further discussed and expanded into REDD+ at the COP14 in Poznan to include the importance of conservation and improvement of forest and forest carbon stocks in developing countries (Pistorius, 2012;Kronenberg et al, 2015;Tegegne et al, 2018). REDD+ is a voluntary approach that Bucknum, 1998;Humphrey, 1998Humphrey, , 2001Ruis, 2001;Curran et al, 2005;Flejzor, 2005;Levashova, 2011;Stupak et al, 2011;Pistorius, 2012;Knauf et al, 2015;Kronenberg et al, 2015;Prestemon, 2015;Sample et al, 2015;Gratzer and Keeton, 2017;Holl, 2017;UNSPF, 2017;Guan et al, 2018;Mitchard, 2018;PEFC, 2018;Tegegne et al, 2018;Barbier et al, 2019;FSC, 2019. provides results-based payments for verified emission reductions from participating countries. It aims at reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conserving forest carbon stocks and managing the forest sustainably (Newton et al, 2015;REDD+, 2016).…”

“…Similarly, in the European Union (EU), the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan and the FLEGT Regulation were established in 2003 and 2005, respectively, aiming to combat illegal logging and ban the trading of illegally-sourced timber (Levashova, 2011;Tegegne et al, 2018). The FLEGT, under the Voluntary Partnership Agreement between the EU member countries and timber exporters, has set up a licensing scheme in order to identify legal timber and timber products in trading (Levashova, 2011;Guan et al, 2018).…”