FO:LACFC/2002/5

INTRODUCTION

1. National forest programmes are recognised through the IPF/IFF proposals for action as important means for addressing forest sector issues in a holistic, comprehensive and multi-sectoral manner. In this context, national forest programmes (NFPs) are seen as the ongoing forest policy dialogue occurring in various forms in most countries. The need to maintain a broad base of support across civil society is fundamental to their success and flexibility is required for these programmes to encompass and address new issues and opportunities. In order to facilitate broad involvement by civil society and in order to bring the latest forest information to bear on the forest policy dialogue, the National Forest Programme Facility (or in short "Facility") was created by a group of concerned countries alongside of FAO.

2. The Facility focuses especially on knowledge sharing and capacity building in the forestry sector and assists to upgrade the role of information and knowledge to ensure the informed participation of a broad range of stakeholders in the national forestry debate. The Facility also seeks to effectively link forest policy and planning with the broader national objectives, strategies and programmes particularly to those related to poverty alleviation.

3. The Facility concentrates on improving enabling conditions towards sustainable forest management through capacity building and knowledge sharing rather than through project funding. Critical to the success of the programme will be the development of partnerships among governments with civil society, institutions, private sectors, forest dependent people, and donors and NGOs.

4. Over a period of five years, the Facility aims to work in some 60 member countries facilitating those Governments who are implementing their national forest programmes. Furthermore, the Facility will strengthen global knowledge sharing on forestry. The estimated costs for the five-year period are around US$ 32 million.

5. The Facility will operate with a two-pronged strategy: (i) through direct country-level support and (ii) through information services.

(i) Direct country-level support

6. The strategy for the direct country-level support is to assist countries in building up the capacity of governmental and civil society actors involved in an NFP process to enable them to successfully manage and develop such processes. The Facility will help beneficiary countries to develop a series of well-integrated activities that will create a critical mass of knowledge as well as processes and mechanisms for knowledge management related to forest policies and instruments for policy implementation. Facility funding will thus be focussing on capacity building and advice, not investment. For more information see: http://www.fao.org/forestry/nfp.

7. The actual support offered by the Facility will be different from country to country, given that countries are in different situations regarding (i) how far they are in developing their national forest programmes, (ii) how far they have been able to progress in developing the foundations for sustainable forest management, and (iii) what external support is available from other sources. However, the same criteria will apply for assessing and ranking the applications from countries.

8. The expected key outputs of the direct country-level support are focusing on improvements in:

• capacity of the national actors to manage the NFP process in a participatory manner; this could either mean initiating a credible NFP process, or strengthening an existing process to make it more compatible with the internationally agreed criteria;
• coherence and synergies between the NFP process and broader policy and planning processes, e.g. those related to poverty reduction, environmental strategies and sustainable development in general;
• civil society participation in the NFP process, especially regarding the capacity of the forest-dependent people and other marginalised groups (such as the rural poor) to make themselves heard in the process;
• availability of information and knowledge relevant to the NFP process (e.g. on the forest resource and its use, forest products, marketing and trade, value of forest products and services, institutional arrangements roles and mandates, etc.) and improved access to this information and knowledge by all relevant actors;
• capacity for policy analysis, negotiation of policy goals and instruments, policy formulation and design and implementation of policy instruments (e.g. laws, institutional reforms, incentives, financing mechanisms, etc.);
• systematic use of local knowledge, experiences and capabilities in the above processes;
• access to internationally available information and knowledge (e.g. on financing, forest related conventions and agreements, experiences from other countries on specific issues relevant to sectoral development, etc.); and
• sharing of knowledge between institutions and actors both nationally (e.g. through information and knowledge networks on specific issues and themes) and internationally (e.g. through sub-regional and regional networks and mechanisms).

(ii) Information services

9. The Facility will develop and maintain a forest information platform to facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge relevant to NFP processes. These services are provided by the Facility to strengthen the overall momentum for effective implementation of NFPs by sharing experiences and knowledge world-wide. The platform will rely on knowledge networks and communities of practice to link and provide access to experiences in other countries and to the global body of forest related knowledge.

10. Effective connections will be created with the forest related information and knowledge services housed in the FAO, other major forest related information providers (e.g. IUFRO, CIFOR , ICRAF , and CATIE), and with sources of relevant information and knowledge at the country level (e.g. forest research institutions, universities, ministries, NFP focal points, projects and programmes, etc.).

11. Links will also be established with other relevant sectors (e.g. agriculture, transportation, mining, tourism, etc.), with providers of cross-sectoral information relevant to NFP processes (e.g. on gender issues, conflict resolution, human rights, governance and corruption, etc.) and with the secretariats supporting forest related international conventions and processes (e.g. CBD, FCCC, CITES, UNFF). Specific information services will also be created to serve the needs of donors and international financing institutions to enable them to identify opportunities for funding.

12. The forest information platform should enable the users to identify and access the best possible sources of information and knowledge for any issue which may arise in a national forest programme process, whether technical, political, process-related, sectoral cross-sectoral or of any other type.

13. The intended key outputs regarding the information platform are:

• networks established and functioning between producers and providers of NFP related information, knowledge and tools;
• an electronic forest information platform established, managed and continuously developed based on feedback from users, providing improved access to beneficiaries and partners to NFP related information, knowledge and tools;
• countries involved in NFP processes actively exchanging information, knowledge and tools related to national forest programme processes and key themes and issues which need to be tackled in such processes;
• financial institutions and donor agencies making effective use of the information provided by the Facility in their internal processes, leading to increased financial flows and improved targeting of funding;
• increased formation and improved operation of communities of practice around specific NFP related themes and issues;
• targeted information provided to actors involved in NFP processes on specific themes and issues of high relevance; and
• the issues and resolutions coming out of the IPF/IFF/UNFF process related to implementation of NFP effectively communicated to NFP practitioners.

IMPLICATIONS FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

14. The Latin American and the Caribbean region has accumulated rich, although piecemeal, experience in designing guidelines for forest development and in testing national and international mechanisms to promote it. Unfortunately, the deterioration of forest resources has continued to accelerate while the potential of forests to improve the living conditions of the population continues to be practically untapped. National forestry programmes as strategic frameworks to sustainable forest development should be the best mechanism to revert this trend.

15. Commission members are invited to suggest the ways and means that the Facility can best assist countries in reinvigorating their NFPs and broadening the base of support for sustainable forest management in civil society.