UK government seeks public comments on proposals to tackle deforestation

The UK government is inviting public comments on government proposals to address deforestation and land use emissions in developing countries under the UK International Climate Fund (ICF), which is co-administered by DECC[1], DFID[2] and DEFRA[3].

The paper, entitled “Forests and climate change: Discussion paper on a proposed new set of UK interventions to tackle deforestation” is available (in English only) here:

http://tinyurl.com/bf2n3od 

Proposals encourage private sector involvement in combatting deforestation

The official paper argues that land use conversion decisions are increasingly driven by market and private sector operations in the developing world, so engaging companies and the market is seen as vital to global efforts to stem forest loss. Under the UK business model, interventions would seek to support activities aimed at “levering and partnering with private investment to reduce deforestation.” UK government ministries propose to use ICF funding to promote demand-side and supply-side market reforms to tackle deforestation. Under this setup, the UK would assist agribusiness companies and national governments to enable sustainable investments and developments on “brownfield sites”. The logic is to shift agribusiness expansion away from “greenfield” natural forest sites to land that is already deforested and considered to be “idle” and unproductive. The UK notes that British bilateral efforts might be extended to other deforestation drivers, including mining and infrastructure developments.

ICF resources and “catalytic finance” for forests would support developing country governments to “improve the business environment” and amend “jurisdictional architectures” to enable private sector investment in activities that “reduce emissions from deforestation”. At the same time, UK interventions would seek to increase the value of standing forests on greenfield sites by supporting “community-based forest management, agroforestry, sustainable harvest regimes, biomass energy, forest restoration and best practice plantations.”

Funds for tackling deforestation and land use emissions would be channelled through a proposed “Facility” that would enable demand-side reforms and provide “technical assistance” to the governments of forest nations that wish to work with the UK in “mobilising the private sector” in combatting deforestation.

Initial response of civil society organisations

NGOs have so far broadly welcomed the UK’s commitment to tackling the drivers of deforestation, and encourage the UK government to maintain its leadership role in global efforts to combat forest loss and address climate change. At the same time, they note that the UK proposal is too narrowly focused on the private sector and does not pay adequate attention to key indirect drivers of deforestation linked to insecure tenure and weak forest governance (though a need to clarify tenure is briefly noted in the UK document, rights-based and livelihood analyses are notably lacking). NGOs highlight the need for the UK strategy to be widened to go beyond engagement with the private sector, in order to enable much needed and essential work with forest peoples and civil society to address deforestation within an inclusive, transparent and balanced framework that involves government, business and civil society.

NGOs are therefore recommending that to be effective and deliver sustainable outcomes any UK forest Facility would need to ensure targeted resources for securing community land tenure and promoting cross-sectoral reforms alongside better regulation of land acquisition frameworks in order to fully uphold human rights and environmental norms.

For further official information on UK policy on forests, sustainable development and climate change, see:

http://www.dfid.gov.uk/What-we-do/Key-Issues/Climate-and-environment/Forests/

http://www.dfid.gov.uk/News/Latest-news/2012/Forests-Britain-teams-up-with-business-to-tackle-deforestation/

http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Documents/publications1/Multi-stake-forestry-prog-ann-rev-2012-1.pdf

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Global-issues/Emerging-policy/Climate-environment/?tab=4

http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Documents/UK%20Fast%20Start%20Finance%20Commitments%20by%20Country%20%202010-11.pdf

[1] The Department of Energy & Climate Change

[2] The Department for International Development

[3] The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs