TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Producer organizations key to better forest management: FAO
Indigenous people, local communities and private smallholders who own or manage a growing proportion of the worldâs forests can play a significant role in tackling deforestation and reducing poverty; especially if they band together in producer organizations, say two publications recently released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and a group of its partners
Change Size
I
ndigenous people, local communities and private smallholders who own or manage a growing proportion of the world's forests can play a significant role in tackling deforestation and reducing poverty; especially if they band together in producer organizations, say two publications recently released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and a group of its partners.
Two policy papers published by the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), a partnership between the FAO, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said a better policy environment, coupled with targeted support to help small-scale forest and farm producers organize themselves into forest producer organizations, could help break their isolation from markets, information, business services, policymakers, financing and investment opportunities.
An FAO forestry officer, Jeffrey Campbell, said coming together in forest and farm producer organizations could help indigenous people, local communities and private forest smallholders overcome their isolation, as well as other very real constraints such as a lack of secure forest tenure and financial and business development instruments.
'They must compete with large-scale businesses that often receive preferential treatment, access to markets, financing and resources,' said Campbell in a release made available to The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The papers reveal that in many rural economies, the forest enterprises of families and communities are major contributors to local livelihoods. Unfortunately, the vital role that they play is often overlooked in government policies.
'Governments need to provide legal status and services for organizations of small-scale forests and farm producers, which will serve their interests and help reduce rural poverty,' said Campbell.
IUCN's Forest and Climate Change Program deputy director Chris Buss said that empowering forest producer organizations was crucial to achieving goals like the Bonn Challenge, which seeks to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested lands by 2020. (ebf)
