LESSONS FROM FLEGT FOR REDD Kingsley Bekoe Ansah

West Africa Forest Governance Conference Kofi Annan Centre of excellence in ICT, Accra 14 and 15 June 2011

Outline of presentation • • • Introduction Precursor for change Principles for good governance Issues that forest governance impact on Governance challenges to achieving REDD FLEGT/VPA and how it improves governance Key lessons Conclusion Final reflection

Introduction • Destruction of forest loss is a contributor to climate change • Preserving forest helps to mitigate global warming • Discussions to reduce forest loss had been going on long before the inclusion of forest in the climate change mitigation discourse • Efforts to reduce illegal logging and improve forest governance through FLEGT/VPAs have yielded substantial stakeholder participation and buy-in • Value-addition important

Precursor for change What is needed for real change • Political will • Address corruption • Transparency, openness • Ensure respect for rule of law • Identify joint problems and ways to address them (i. e. improve the regulatory framework, strengthen community rights, improve participation of civil society and communities in forest policy and management) • Real participatory processes

5 Principles of good governance • Transparency: open actions which can be scrutinized by rights holders and stakeholders; • Participation: ensuring diverse and meaningful participation in government policy by non state actors; • Accountability: clarity about the role of various institutions in decision-making and whether they are held accountable;

• Capacity: how those involved work toward common objectives on forests; • Coordination: a government’s role in giving public access to decision-making, as well as the ability of civil society to make use of this.

4 key issues that forest governance impact on • Forest tenure: the broad spectrum of ownership, use, access and management rights to forests. • Land use planning: the multi-stakeholder process to determine optimal land uses that benefit current and future generations • Forest management: the management and control of various different forests uses • Forest revenues and incentives: collection and management of revenues from forests; benefit sharing

REDD is not different! The underlying causes of forest loss is shared

Some (governance) challenges to achieving REDD 1. Political will 2. Lack of participation of stakeholders and rights holders 3. Improving the policy and regulatory framework 4. Clarifying land ownership 5. Strengthening the enforcement capacity 6. Fighting corruption (rights and participation)

REDD can only work if addresses the underlying causes of forest loss and improves forest governance Key questions to answer: 1. Who owns the forests (including clarifying tree tenure and rights) Ghana to use FIP intervention to contribute to this by investing in substantial stakeholder consultation 2. Long term planning for sustainable (economic, social and environmental) development is an essential element of tackling deforestation

FLEGT/VPA and how it improves forest governance The EU FLEGT Action Plan The action plan sets out a range of measures that aim to combat the problem of illegal logging including: 1. Government Procurement Policies 2. Financial due diligence 3. Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) between the EU and timber producing countries 4. Illegal timber regulation (additional legislative options to control importation of illegal timber)

• Legally binding bilateral trade agreements between timber producing countries (FLEGT Partner Countries) and the EU, mostly known as VPAs. • VPAs set out the commitments and actions of both parties to tackle illegal logging, including measures to increase participation of non-state stakeholders and rights-holders, recognise rights of communities to the land address corruption. VPAs should have the buy-in of national stakeholders, including NGOs, local communities, indigenous peoples, and the timber industry.

They consist of three key steps: a) Defining legality, or deciding which laws will be enforced b) Designing a Legality Assurance System (LAS) (including timber tracking, government legality controls and external verification systems) c) Independent audits of the whole system.

How FLEGT improves governance • Multi-stakeholder negotiating process • Full participation of non-state actors in decision making • Outcomes include commitments to law reform and continued participation in policy reform • Ongoing processes to share information and build capacity and knowledge on the issue • Real incentives and sanctions

So, if the underlying causes of forest loss are similar for REDD and FLEGT: • What is it for us to learn?

8 key lessons from FLEGT 1. Identify and address the key deforestation drivers: the direct and underlying drivers of deforestation must be recognized, and reflected in policy. 2. An integrated national land-use plan is essential: coherent vision that outlines a path towards land use planning that balances the competing demands for revenue generation to pay for services essential to improving livelihoods and protect the remaining forests.

3. Multi-stakeholder decision making is vital: Participation of civil society groups including forest communities in decision making is vital if solutions are to be found that will work in the local context. 4. Good processes cost time: While preventing deforestation and climate change are urgent issues, unrealistic time frames do not allow for the development of effective policies.

5. Respect existing national and international law: Recognition of tenure rights is a pre-condition to tackling deforestation. International human rights law is clear in the need for recognition of principles of self determination. Proposed legal or institutional changes must be based on these principles. • 6. Carrot and stick are both needed: The right incentives have to be put in place. Sanctions and incentives must be designed to address the causes of forest loss.

7. Independent monitoring of the system is required: Monitoring the implementation of any bilateral or international agreement is essential, though such monitoring cannot remedy fundamental design flaws or perverse incentives. 8. Safeguards: Ensuring countries improve forest governance through improved measuring of transparency, accountability, capacity etc. is vital.

Conclusion • Any effective REDD mechanism needs to recognize tenure and rights with regards to forest resources • National REDD processes have been developed in a top down manner, with a narrow focus on carbon accounting, rather than on creating the political ‘space’ for required policy and legal change, including the recognition of forest peoples’ tenure rights. • A reduction in emissions from deforestation will only occur as a result of actual reductions in deforestation itself – which in turn will not be lasting without tackling the drivers of deforestation.

Final reflection-revisiting history FLEGT was developed by those wanting to improve governance. REDD was developed by carbon addicts. . . those trying to avoid change!

THANK YOU