Looking Ahead: International workshop on Deforestation Drivers and the Rights of Forest Peoples, Indonesia

An international workshop organised by Forest Peoples Programme and Pusaka will bring together forest peoples, governments, NGOs, international agencies and forest scientists from Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America on 9 -14 March 2014 in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.

The aim of the workshop is to share lessons and generate recommendations on effective measures to stem deforestation, promote human rights and secure local livelihoods. 

Workshop participants will review the findings of five country case studies and four thematic papers on deforestation drivers and forest peoples’ rights from Peru, Colombia, Paraguay, Guyana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

In many tropical countries, up-to-date information on direct and underlying causes of forest loss is lacking or relies mainly on self-reporting by governments. Currently information is often  based on non-participatory government desk-based assessments completed in 2010-2011 as part of national REDD+ Readiness Proposals for the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). Therefore, this workshop aims to provide up-to-date information on deforestation drivers in nine different tropical forest countries with a priority on local experiences, participatory assessments and community-perspectives on direct and underlying causes and solutions.

It is intended that the results of this international workshop will complement national and global assessments of the drivers of deforestation and increase knowledge and understanding among policy makers about the social, economic and political factors underlying forest loss and degradation. A key goal of the workshop will be to pinpoint community-based solutions and strategies to tackling forest loss and land use emissions in forest nations.

Outcomes of the workshop will be published in future editions of the FPP E-Newsletter and channelled to relevant international policy discussions, including the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP20) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Peru in December 2014.