Author Blaser, J.

Year of publication 2010

Issues related to forest law compliance and governance have received considerable recent attention in various international forums and processes. There remains, however, considerable uncertainty about the extent to which poor forest law compliance and weak governance affect local livelihoods and national economies and how these shortcomings can best be addressed in the pursuit of sustainable forest management (SFM). FAO and ITTO believe that forest law compliance and good forest governance are essential for countries and local forest-dependent communities. The objective of this report is to summarize the main outcomes and lessons learned from five regional workshops on forest law compliance and governance conducted jointly by FAO and ITTO throughout the tropics. Based on the outputs of the workshops, the report makes a number of region-by-region recommendations and draws some general conclusions. The five workshops were held between August 2006 and July 2008 with the aims of: promoting a multi-sectoral dialogue between the countries of a region and an exchange of ideas and experiences related to best practices for improving law compliance in the forest sector; agreeing on tangible and deliverable actions to enhance progress on the ground. A total of 291 participants from 46 countries and more than 20 international organizations contributed to the workshops.