Forests Sourcebook - HCV Resource Network

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ernance and increased transparency and accountability
in the sector. They have also made improving forest sector
governance and institutional reform a central focus
in many countries, including Cambodia, Cameroon,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Honduras,
Indonesia, and Russia, and initiated the process of sector
reform in some of these countries (Democratic Republic
of Congo, Gabon, and Tanzania).
Conserving local and global ecosystem services. The World
Bank has supported and spearheaded the development
of conservation through payments for environmental
services schemes and improved management of protected
areas through Bank projects. The World Bank also
recently launched the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
(FCPF) to enable payments for REDD.
Facilitating responsible private investment. Most World
Bank client country governments are working to attract
responsible domestic and foreign private sector investments
to achieve effective conservation and sustainable
management of forest resources.
Building strategic partnerships. Through strategic partnerships
and programs, such as the World Bank–WWF
Alliance, PROFOR, and FLEG initiatives, the World
Bank has been leveraging resources, aligning stakeholder
interests, enabling innovation, improving outreach, and
scaling up impacts. The World Bank has been actively
supporting strategic partnerships at regional (for example,
Congo Basin Forest Partnership) and national levels.
The World Bank is currently facilitating the development
of a Global Forest Partnership to galvanize
synergies among forest partnerships and programs and
to scale up the availability of grants for the development
of the sector.
THE CHALLENGE AHEAD
The 2002 Forests Strategy emphasized a path of “cautious
reengagement.” Since fiscal 2002, this has included the
World Bank selectively reengaging in key countries, building
a solid analytical foundation for World Bank lending and
grants, using partnerships to initiate and implement
national and international processes for strengthening governance,
enhancing poverty considerations in forest activities,
and advancing forest conservation and sustainable forest
management. Progress made in these areas since the start
of the new strategy is described above. Still, significant gaps
and challenges remain, not only across countries and
regions, but also in implementation of the World Bank’s
priority areas. These challenges are as follows.
Key global challenges
Address poverty and forest governance by promoting
forest ownership and access rights. Promote greater
recognition of the rights of local and indigenous groups and
give greater attention to land tenure, ownership, and rightsto-resource
and access issues. Emphasize and enable
stakeholder participation in the formulation and
implementation of policies, strategies, and programs to foster
ownership and long-term sustainability of the resource.
Enhance the role of forests as an engine of
economic growth and development. Increase
investments in plantations (especially in tropical countries),
expand forest certification and overall forest management,
and encourage responsible private sector investments,
including for community-company partnerships for on-site
forest enterprise development, and for market access.
Protect vital local and global environmental
services and values. Create markets for local ecosystem
services, such as water and soil erosion. Seize the potentially
enormous financing opportunities emerging in the context
of global climate change to increase investments for carbon
sequestration and avoided deforestation to reduce
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
Assist countries to integrate the global forest agenda
into their own national strategies and policies and to
harness the development opportunities available. Use
the World Bank’s leadership position in the global forest
dialogue and take advantage of emerging economic and
environmental opportunities (such as the attractiveness of
biofuels, for example) to foster sustainable forest management.
Integrate forest interdependencies into the design of
agriculture, rural development, and natural resource
management projects to ensure sustainable economic growth
and rural poverty alleviation.
Key regional challenges
Sub-Saharan Africa. Continue promoting fundamental
sector reforms and capacity building around the challenges of
governance, environmental protection, and forest livelihoods.
Expand market mechanisms to secure environmental
services, and improve dry forests management.
East Asia and the Pacific. Invest in plantation area
expansion, expand instruments for natural forest
10 INTRODUCTION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN THE FOREST SECTOR