To succeed, the new institution would have to establish itself quickly as an authoritative source of knowledge about Forests+ so that its auditing and reporting activities are regarded as legitimate. However, a new institution might be able to move more easily beyond the boundaries of the existing forest sector and the professional policy community. A possible model here, which would retain a link to the United Nations system, is the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, an organization that combines high-level access and openness to a wide variety of stakeholders. An alternative might be a version of the United Nations Global Compact.
In the past, there has been a tendency to assume that problem-focused learning will take care of itself and that good practices and institutional innovation will eagerly be adopted by stakeholders. But genuine policy learning threatens the status quo and the interests of those who benefit from it. Coordination through learning is equally threatening. The exercise of power, which is distributed unequally among the principal actors, is inseparable from international forest governance. Thus, collaboration by learning requires more than simply research or even a space in which to develop a strong knowledge base about effective governance arrangements. It requires entrepreneurial leadership and new institutional forms dedicated to protecting that space and to promoting evidence-based debate about forests and their functions. Here is the key challenge for global forest governance.
Details of Original Study:
Title of the Study: “Embracing Complexity: Meeting the Challenges of International Forest Governance”
Coordinating Lead Authors: B. J. M. (Bas) Arts, Steven Bernstein, Benjamin Cashore, Deborah S. Davenport, Peter Glück, Michael Howlett, Constance L. McDermott
Lead Authors: Arun Agrawal, Arild Angelsen, Marie Appelstrand, Samuel Assembe-Mvondo, Graeme Auld, Janette Bulkan, Richard Eba’a Atyi, Reem Hajjar, Patrick D. Hardcastle, Eva Heidbreder, Hans Hoogeveen, Karl Hogl, David Humphreys, Daniela Kleinschmit, Kathleen McGinley, Kathleen McNutt, Ahmad Maryudi, Ravi Prabhu, Helga Pülzl, Patrick Verkooijen, Ingrid J. Visseren-Hamakers, Christoph Wildburger, Peter Wood, Yurdi Yasmi
Numerous additional experts participate as Contributing Authors.
Published by IUFRO on January 24, 2011.
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About IUFRO
IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) is a non-profit, non-governmental international network of forest scientists, which promotes global cooperation in forest-related research and enhances the understanding of the ecological, economic and social aspects of forests and trees. It unites more than 15,000 scientists in almost 700 Member Organizations in over 110 countries, and is a member of ICSU. Scientists cooperate in IUFRO on a voluntary basis. For more information, visit www.iufro.org.
