Landscape level planning in the context of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM)

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Landscape level planning in the context of
Sustainable Forest Management (SFM)
Kumasi, May 2008
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Questions

• What is sustainability and sustainable forest
  management?
• How does this relate to Landscape approaches or
  Landscape Level Planning?
• How can Landscape Level Planning improve on
  conventional forestry planning systems?

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Sustainability (in the forest sector)

• Used to be..
• Sustained yield of timber
• Nowadayssustainability of
• Timber yield
• Other products (bushmeat, NTFPs etc)
• Services for society e.g. water supplies, soils,
  cultural sites, biodiversity, recreation

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What is sustainable forest management?

• The process of managing permanent forest land to
  achieve one or more clearly specified objectives
  of management with regard to the production of a
  continuous flow of desired forest products and
  services without undue reduction in its inherent
  values and future productivity and without undue
  undesirable effects on the physical and social
  environment (ITTO)

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Why has SFM become important?

• Government and international requirements insist
  on high environmental standards
• Market pressures require sustainably-sourced
  forest products (especially timber)
• Investors in forestry want to ensure their
  green credibility
• Longer-term economic benefits will result
  (compared with the short-term gains from
  unsustainable practices)
• A wish to reduce environmental and social risks
  and avoid litigation
• Climate change

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This requires paying attention to

• The legal and policy framework and its
  enforcement
• Sustained, optimal production of forest goods and
  services
• Environmental protection
• Peoples well-being

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Proper planning at all levels is an essential
component of sustainable forest management

• How much forest do we need or want?
• What kinds of forest should there be?
• Where should it be situated?
• How should it be preserved and managed?

This determines the type of planning we need for
SFM
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Two key planning principles for SFM

1. Optimisation
2. Negotiated process

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Optimisation?

• Optimise the mix of products and services from a
  forest
• Managing for a single product or service will
  usually affect forests ability to provide other
  services and products
• Trade-offs will almost always have to be made for
  SFM (cant maximise everything all the time)

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Negotiated process?

• In democratic societies no single person or
  organisation can exert excessive controls over
  others
• To make effective trade-offs and optimise the mix
  of products and services from a forest,
  discussion is required
• This allows different stakeholders,
  (organisations and individuals) to express their
  values, preferences and to NEGOTIATE

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Landscape level planning (compared with
traditional forest planning)

• Allows us to work out what the necessary
  trade-offs are through a negotiated process

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Landscape level

• A suitable scale for
• Optimising and making trade-offs
• Negotiating processes (with stakeholders)
• Normally intermediate in size between a larger
  eco-region or country and a site

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A landscape level planning process

• Involves multiple stakeholders in planning and
  negotiating agreed outcomes
• Uses multiple criteria to evaluate and agree on
  different options (environmental, social,
  economic, cultural, political etc.)
• Is open, transparent and free from external
  manipulation
• Where different knowledge sources meet
• Integrates the needs of different sectors
• Looks at external effects i.e. those outside the
  forest
• Produces a plan that is flexible enough to
  respond to external changes
• Planning as iterative process (learning is key)

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A landscape level planning process

• Stands or falls with good facilitation!

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Thinking in landscapes and landscape level
planning

• how does it help in achieving your project
  objectives?
• Discuss in same 2 groups and report back by
  preparing a statement for general discussion such
  as yes, it helps because or yes, but. etc.