FGM Workshop Background Paper - REDD - VietNam

6) Socio-economic functions;
7) Legal, policy and institutional framework.
United Nations Forum on Forestry (UNFF)
2.2. Why strengthen forest governance?
Before ourselves asking the question: why monitor forest governance, we need to
ask ourselves: why enhance forest governance? We may approach this question
from two angles: a) assessing the costs of bad governance and b) assessing the
benefits of good governance.
Inadequate forest governance has often contributed to the following interrelated
costs 6 :
• Environmental impacts resulting in deforestation, forest degradation and
biodiversity loss and loss of environmental services such as clean water and
carbon sequestration;
• Economic impacts caused by poor governance and corruption which distort
forest economies. This may lead to unfair competition between legal and
illegal forest practices and it may lead to loss of revenues for the state and
other stakeholders. Areas with poor governance will pose risks that
discourage investors (so lack of trust). Also, the forest sector may get a bad
reputation, which affects the investment climate.
• Poverty reduction and social impacts caused by poor governance that harms
forest-dependent communities. Livelihoods of indigenous people and the rural
poor may be threatened through unclear and insecure land tenure and other
property rights, lack of adherence to rule of law, and excessive discretionary
authority.
6 See: World Bank, 2009. Roots for Good Forest Outcomes: An Analytical Framework for Governance reform.
Report No. 49572-GLB. 47 pp.
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