Contributing to the Draft V0 – by Solidaridad
Comments by Katie Minderhoud
Guidance provided by HLPE - At this early stage of the draft report we are in the process of better integrating boreal and temperate forests, and would welcome inputs on these types of forests. In order to strengthen the report as a whole, the HLPE would welcome submission of material, evidence-based suggestions, references, and examples, in particular addressing the following important questions:
1. The V0 draft is wide-ranging in analyzing the contribution of forests and trees to food security and nutrition (FSN). Do you think that the draft adequately includes the range of contributions that sustainable forestry and forests can make to FSN? Is there additional important evidence or aspects that would enrich the report?
- In my opinion we need to deepen the argument around the impact of plantation forest and plantation agriculture on food security and nutrition (FSN). On page 23/R.9 HCV is mentioned “Sustainable forestry systems however, often incorporate or set aside areas of high conservation value (HCV) – areas of forest assessed to be of high importance for local communities and biodiversity conservation. Such HCV areas can provide sources of NTFPs and wild foods as well as ecosystem services for agriculture. However, integrating HCV areas of forest into the broader landscape as well as connecting them with wildlife corridors and buffer zones remains a challenge.” Can we share experiences (challenges and opportunities) how HCV methodology has contributed to supporting NTFP use and management, especially looking at health and diets?
How can we better quantify/qualify and support FSN functions in HCV? Is this an important opportunity for HCVRN to set the agenda and promote HCV as a prominent methodology? Also addressing the challenges around HCV use (beyond commodity sectors) and safeguarding the quality of the HCV assessments and capacity for management afterwards. These questions or suggestions could be more thoroughly addressed in this report with contribution of companies and standard setting bodies working with HCV methodology, or by the HCVRN secretariat.
- Elaborate on the food security challenges resulting from plantation agriculture. The point is made on page 24/R.9 “The contribution of plantation systems to FSN and livelihoods is often at the cost of negative environmental and social impacts” and there is supporting evidence which could highlight these negative impacts more clearly, building towards an argument that companies, investors and supply chain/sector as a whole have a greater responsibility to address these issues.
See: http://www.forestpeoples.org/sites/fpp/files/news/2015/04/Hollow%20Promises%20PRESS%20RELEASE.pdf
2. The report’s structure consists of: the context and conceptual framework; the role and contributions of forests and forestry to FSN; the challenges and opportunities for sustainable forestry in relation to FSN; and governance issues for an integrated approach to sustainable forestry and FSN. Do you think that this structure is comprehensive enough, and adequately articulated? Does the report strike the right balance of coverage across the various chapters? What are the important aspects that could be covered more thoroughly?
- Typology is now based on forest functions and type of forest use but focus on type of landowners/users and their rights and customs allow more opportunity to consider who are the actors in this space (this is addressed later under governance for example, but in light of policy responses and development pathways it can help to highlight the actors earlier in the report – especially considering the role of business, both large national and multinational enterprises as sme’s.
- Important aspect which should receive more attention is how trade and export oriented commodities impact sustainable forests management as well as FSN locally; an interesting analysis has been carried out by FAO on Food Security and international trade http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5160e.pdf to unpack disputed narratives. In addition, ongoing efforts to increase transparency in international supply chains to understand local impacts in sourcing regions in relation to supply chain actors and linking this information to private sector commitments of zero-deforestation and responsible investments with respect for local communities increases the understanding and urgency for business to operate in a sustainable and inclusive way. Deforestation is already very much on the radar, but the link with Food Security and Nutrition not so much – while they prove to be highly interlinked.
3. The report uses four broad categories of forestry systems, in order to better identify distinct challenges and sustainable development pathways for each of them. Do you find this approach useful for identifying policy responses and actions in different socio-economic and environmental contexts? Do you think the terminology used in this report for forest, sustainable forestry and agroforestry are comprehensive and relevant?
- The approach is useful, although I would argue that the dependency of agriculture on forests ecosystem functions should be emphasized in such a way that agriculture in forest mosaic landscapes are mentioned as an additional category. For example in the Venn diagram on page 19, Agriculture is left out of the discussion of categories (when only referring to agroforestry and plantations as forest relevant agriculture) while actually the dependency of agricultural production on forests ecosystem functions for water, soil and carbon is clear and acknowledged, it is then not taken further in the discussion. However, to ensure appropriate development pathways are articulated regarding forests functions for sustainable agriculture through PES and landscape level solutions it is critical to include “agriculture in forest mosaic” as a category.
4. Are there other studies that the report needs to reference, which offer different or complementary perspectives on the integration of sustainable forestry in FSN strategies?
- Food Security and international trade by J. Clapp (FAO, 2016) http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5160e.pdf
- IPES: Uniformity to Diversity in Food Systems
http://www.ipes-food.org/images/Reports/UniformityToDiversity_FullReport.pdf
- AGROMISA Agro Special: Hidden Resources, NTFP for livelihood improvement and biodiversity conservation: examples from Kenya
- Supply chain relation food security and nutrition:
- RSPO relation to Food security and nutrition:
5. The report has identified a range of challenges likely to be faced in the future that policy makers and other stakeholders will need to take into account so that sustainable forestry can meaningfully contribute to FSN. What are other key challenges/opportunities to be addressed for the development of approaches that integrate forestry and agricultural systems, including landscape approaches?
- Building on the references provided above, the role of private sector players in commodity sectors needs to be tuned towards how they can contribute to food security and nutrition in a meaningful way in the production landscape where they operate. This requires a paradigm shift in how companies see their roles and responsibilities and how they set up their business models; it also requires partnerships with government, NGO’s and academia.
- Critically assess the role of certification and commodity standards in relation to agricultural investment, sustainable forest management and certification; sometimes it is overestimated what these standards can achieve and not all commodity standards make sufficient reference to land rights, food security and nutrition. HCV can function as recurring guidance, but still the awareness among both secretariat and members of the respective round tables and standards on dealing with these issues in an integrated way – looking at land use, rights, needs and possibilities - is lacking (i.e. making reference to the VGGT or structural assessment of food security and nutrition impact). The question is if it is their task. For example RSPO and RTRS are mentioned as forest certification on page 91/R.31; not sure if this is relevant or correct, deserves further elaboration how these standards come into play.
6. The social and cultural dimensions of sustainable forestry and FSN have often been less well described and understood for many reasons, including due to a lack of comprehensive as well as disaggregated data. Submission of examples and experience related to issues such as livelihoods, gender, equity, tenure and governance would be of particular interest to the team.
- AGROMISA Agro Special: Hidden Resources, NTFP for livelihood improvement and biodiversity conservation: examples from Kenya
7. What are the key policy initiatives or successful interventions needed to improve the sustainability of our global food systems related to sustainable forestry and FSN, both in different countries and contexts, that merit discussion in the report?
- Reference to the VGGT only starts in page 92 of the report, while landgovernance, land rights, access to land are discussed earlier on in chapters 5. I think this report can help position the VGGT as a critical guidance for how land administration and land management can be structured, clarified and negotiated between the different stakeholders. This should be more prominent in both the structure and content of the report.
8. Is there evidence of the potential of economic incentives (e.g. REDD+), regulatory approaches, capacity building, Research & Development, and voluntary actions by diverse stakeholders or actors that could enhance the contribution of forestry to sustainable food systems? Could you provide examples or case studies of such key policies, initiatives or successful interventions?
- Transformative Transparancy https://ttp.sei-international.org/ ; a traceability platform aiming to connect supply chain impacts to place of origin and actors in order to hold companies accountable to their zero-deforestation commitments. This kind of data analysis can help clarify impacts on forests and wider landscapes and spur action to halt negative impact and increase incentives (combined with local policies to regulate and support business and investments) to make a positive contribution to natural resource management and healthy local food systems.
9. The design and implementation of policies for FSN require robust, comparable data over time and across countries. What are the data gaps that governments, national and international organizations and other stakeholders might need to address in the future in order to understand trends and formulate/propose better policies for sustainable forestry and FSN? What roles could diverse stakeholders play in relation to addressing these data gaps, and identifying ways in which the data could be disaggregated for more effective formulation of policies?
- In the conclusion it is mentioned that “there is a need to measure socio-economic benefits from forests and data collection must focus on both people and trees”. I would like to suggest that it is of interest to look at the degree of dependency of people in terms of quantity and quality of food provision from the forest, but in such a way that the actual potential is part of this analysis at the same time. I do not have a concrete example, but I am aware of efforts assessing food security situation without touching on the potential for change – while this should be part of the same effort.
This type of complex subject how forests relate to food security and nutrition is also difficult to capture and quantify and requires more innovative ways to capture dependency and what people need or wish for in terms of food security and nutrition in relation to forests. Derived from complexity theory and systems thinking, the collection of self signified micronarratives might be an interesting approach to grasp changes over time (Sensemaker methodology). There is experience on the subject of inclusivity in business models, but this can be equally applicable for food security of communities in or near forests and can be run by both government, NGO, business or communities themselves to gather this information and discover trends and changes, as well as opportunities for change. See examples: https://vredeseilanden-wieni.netdna-ssl.com/sites/default/files/paragraph/attachments/veco_inclusive_business_scan_8_pager.pdf
SolidaridadKatie Minderhoud