This guide aims to help researchers working in tropical rainforests consider ethical issues in field-data collection and publication activities that involve indigenous or local knowledge.

Several cases of bio-piracy and an increasing focus on the rights of indigenous peoples mean that researchers are often called on to follow rules and regulations.

The guide is broken down into chapters that discuss the importance of creating a code of conduct, provide an overview of existing codes of conduct and international policy guidelines, and address issues related to informed consent. It also presents a protocol that can be adapted to the needs of researchers in various countries.

This report provides guidance on improving forest health practices by explaining the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs), and assisting policymakers, planners and managers — particularly in developing countries — to apply these standards. This advice aims to help prevent the spread of insects, pathogens and other non-indigenous pests as a result of growing global trade and the exploitation of new market opportunities.

The guide includes information on how the ISPMs and regulations put in place by national plant protection organisations (NPPO) affect the import and export of forest commodities; how management approaches can help people reduce the risks of spreading pests in the forest; and how ISPMs can be used to prevent the spread of forest pests. It suggests that forest sector personnel and NPPOs need to work more closely to develop and implement ISPMs, and help preserve forest health.

This report synthesises the results of a review of 104 studies on gender and the adoption of agroforestry in Africa, and aims to identify strategies that challenge gender imbalances in development initiatives. It explores women's participation in agroforestry, including their ability to manage agroforestry practices, access to agroforestry information, and how they benefit from agroforestry.

The results highlight the substantial benefits that agroforestry can offer to rural women in Africa, mainly because it requires fewer resources than alternative enterprises. But women's participation is low, with limited access to information and markets, and a mixed record of successful management of agroforestry technologies.

The report provides several technological, policy and institutional recommendations for improving the efficiency of women's participation in agroforestry. They include domesticating important tree species, and ensuring that women have access to market information and microfinance. The report concludes by suggesting further research in areas such as measuring the income that women generate from agroforestry, and identifying the key ingredients of success stories across Africa.

This guide aims to outline key actions and considerations towards developing a successful and sustainable forest carbon project that produces emissions reductions marketable under the most widely used carbon standards. It complements existing guidance by drawing on specific tools and resources already available to project developers, and indicating where specialised advice might be necessary.

The document provides guidance on how forest carbon project developers can navigate the challenges involved in complying with standards of analysing and documenting carbon benefits; working through legal, business, and community relationships; and carrying out forest and land management activities.

It includes a comprehensive discussion around technical aspects of quantifying carbon benefits using rigorous methodologies detailed in a Project Design Document, as well as subsequent steps needed to independently validate and verify these benefits so that certified carbon credits can be issued.

This report examines economic factors that drive deforestation and forest degradation: soybeans, beef cattle, palm oil, timber and pulp, wood for fuel and small farmers. It investigates the impact of population growth and changing diets, both of which fuel the demand for tropical commodities that causes deforestation.

The report finds that the drivers of deforestation vary significantly between continents: cattle and soy play an important role only in Latin America, for example, while palm oil plantations are found almost exclusively in Indonesia and Malaysia.

It describes examples of successful management of deforestation and other factors behind forest degradation, and concludes by suggesting agricultural and forest management policies that can help promote development without increasing deforestation.

This report presents the Framework for Assessing and Monitoring Forest Governance — an analytical framework that can help governments and other stakeholders describe, diagnose, monitor, assess and report on the state of a county's forest governance. It builds on the results of an expert workshop organised by the UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) and the UK's Chatham House.

The framework aims to promote informed discussions about forest governance, drawing on approaches currently used or being developed. The report includes information about the framework's design, including a description of its components and a guide on how it should be used.

This sourcebook provides guidance to managers involved in the design of projects that follow the World Bank's forest strategy, and draws on past experiences to highlight innovative strategies for implementing them. The first section addresses a range of topics including how forests can be managed to enhance their contribution to poverty reduction; engage the private sector; meet the growing demand for forest products; and improve forest governance. For each topic, the document gives a general overview of fundamental issues, constraints, policies, and institutional requirements that need to be considered, and includes a discussion of past World Bank activities. It also outlines future priorities for scaling up activities, and lists of key sources of information. The second section introduces the World Bank's Forests Policy and provides guidance for implementing safeguards, including how to use environmental assessment to identify critical forests and natural habitats.

This report advocates for the conservation and sustainable management of world's forests by highlighting the ways in which these support ecological stability, economic development and human well-being.

The authors present case studies from the Amazon, Central America and South-East Asia to discuss issues such as livelihoods, biofuel and indigenous people. An overview of the legal mechanisms to protect forests is also given.

This report investigates the effectiveness of various legislations in protecting biodiversity and indigenous peoples' rights when implementing projects to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

It includes case studies from Columbia, India, Mozambique and Nepal. The authors recommend a rights-based forest conservation regime and conclude that national and international policies must fully involve indigenous peoples, small farmers and women.

This report reviews four types of measures used in activities to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to promote environmental benefits beyond mitigating climate change. These measures are: non-binding recommendations, support, minimum standards and incentives.

The authors conclude that national policies on REDD are key to determining the extent to which co-benefits are promoted.

This report examines the relationship between biodiversity, forest resilience and ecosystem stability in the face of climate change. The authors review ecosystem resilience and stability theories, and conclude that forests' capacity to withstand disturbance depends on biodiversity at multiple scales.

This book, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), reviews the policies, programs and investments that have been crucial in promoting agricultural development and alleviating poverty, hunger and malnutrition across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

By identifying cases where interventions — to enhance productivity, combat disease, conserve natural resources or expand market opportunities — have been especially successful, this book draws out some valuable lessons that can be applied to other efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger.

Successes highlighted include the Green Revolution in Asia, community forestry in Nepal and land tenure reform in China.

This factsheet from The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) aims to answer common questions about the role of reducing forest emissions in tackling climate change.

This includes explaining why reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is important and identifying the four key challenges facing REDD projects — measuring carbon, making payments, accountability and funding. The authors summarise ongoing global initiatives to implement REDD, including the UN REDD Programme Fund and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.

A glossary of terms used in the debate is included as well as a list of facts and figures on key variables such as forest cover and forest loss. Contact details for some of the key people involved in CIFOR research are provided.

This feature article, published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal, uses the Cordillera Azul national park in Peru as an example to introduce mechanisms for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) that are under global discussion. 

The author discusses both the potential importance of and challenges associated with REDD projects. For example, although Cordillera Azul has been established as a national park by the Peruvian Government, funds for conserving it are still needed.

The article outlines some important milestones in progressing to an international framework for REDD, but notes that important details are yet to be resolved, such as how to ensure that beneficiaries of REDD funds deploy them effectively to protect forests.

The article suggests that active forest management is important and concludes with a brief introduction to the principle of proactive investment in natural capital (PINC) — the idea, promoted by the Global Canopy Programme, that forests should be regarded not only as a source of emissions, but rather as a public utility providing global ecosystem services that should be paid for.

This book, written by researchers at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), poses several critical questions that must be addressed in designing a global framework for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to be implemented after 2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol runs out.

The authors frame their discussion within the 3E criteria, first proposed in the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, of carbon effectiveness, cost efficiency and equity/co-benefits. Questions posed include how to set scales and baselines, deal with leakage, ensure permanence, and achieve co-benefits.

They examine various technical solutions for monitoring, reporting and verifying REDD projects, including remote sensing techniques and forest inventories. The political implications of implementing different technical options to distribute REDD income across different countries are also addressed.

The book highlights the need for flexibility in REDD strategies due to differences between countries and the need to allow for room to adapt to changes to the mechanisms as lessons are learned from initial implementation.

This information briefing, published by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), focuses on the implications of different country circumstances for measuring and monitoring forest degradation within activities for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

The authors introduce forest degradation as a set of activities that can have different driving forces than deforestation, highlighting the fact that forests can remain degraded for a long time before becoming deforested. Degradation is typically caused by selective logging, fire and fuel wood collection.

The authors discuss monitoring, reporting and verifying (MRV) options for projects aiming to reduce forest degradation, emphasising the need to consider changes in both forest area and average carbon stocks per unit area. Based on a framework for forest transition with varying rates of deforestation and degradation, the relative importance for including degradation within REDD mechanisms for different countries is also outlined.

The briefing concludes that although monitoring and measuring degradation is more complicated than deforestation, developing a flexible MRV framework for including degradation in REDD mechanisms could be important for international equity. In particular, they expect that many African countries could benefit from the inclusion of degradation within REDD frameworks.

This policy brief, published by the Global Canopy Programme, proposes a system called Proactive Investment in Natural Capital (PINC), to reward countries for conserving large areas of tropical forest that act as 'global utilities' providing ecosystem services essential for preserving global food and energy security.

The authors suggest that the system, could complement current proposals for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). They argue that REDD could encourage countries with historically low deforestation rates to destroy their forests. They point out that if REDD successfully brings deforestation rates down — to zero eventually — then in the long-term, countries will not be able to receive payments for reducing deforestation.

The alternative, PINC, would build on existing systems that pay for ecosystem services, such as eco-certification, although scaling-up funding for standing forests is still a challenge, say the authors. To be effective, PINC requires capacity building and improved governance across the world. Land tenure reform will be needed in many countries, as will local participation in decision making and training in forest management. But, if appropriately designed, PINC could provide local communities with co-benefits such as poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation.

This opinion article, published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), argues that the real challenges to effective preparation for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) are creating robust governance and funding structures, not just capacity building.

The authors outline the practicalities of developing REDD mechanisms. They note that REDD could potentially mitigate the risk of climate change, conserve biodiversity and support development in forest areas. They express concern, however, that some approaches to implementing REDD projects have had limited success and note that reducing degradation can be particularly challenging.

The report concludes with suggestions for ensuring that REDD frameworks move from preparation to successful deployment. These include careful consideration of development implications for measures taken to promote reduced forest dependence and improve links between public and private finance to encourage complementary use of funds.

This guide, published by Tebtebba (Indigenous Peoples' International Centre for Policy Research and Education), outlines the expected impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples around the world, and showcases traditional methods of climate change mitigation and adaption.

Following a basic introduction to climate change and the bodies, mechanisms and processes used for addressing it, the authors outline how climate change is impacting indigenous peoples in diverse ecosystems. For example, food and water insecurity arising from increased flooding or drought, and loss of biodiversity and traditional knowledge from rising temperatures.

The authors discuss the likely impacts of climate change mitigation measures highlighting, for example, the limitations of market-based strategies such as the Clean Development Mechanism. They discuss a range of alternative adaptation measures already being practiced by indigenous people, providing several case studies and examples of innovative strategies used in different regions. For example, African farmers using zero-tillage practices to moderate soil temperatures, Asian farmers growing varieties of crops to minimise the risk of harvest failure, and Honduran farmers using agroforestry and terracing to reduce erosion.

The authors go on to discuss measures for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) and emphasise the need for indigenous people to be fully engaged in the debate.

This policy paper, published by the World Resources Institute (WRI), suggests a range of sustainable development policies within frameworks for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

The authors argue that there can be significant barriers to countries providing guaranteed quantified measures of emissions reductions for use in carbon trading schemes. They propose that a broader range of sustainable development policies and measures, such as building institutional capacity to reduce fires or combat illegal logging, should be included within REDD measures.

The authors recommend that developed countries encourage developing nations to reduce forest degradation, including measures that do not produce tradable carbon credits, and support a range of approaches to measure, report and verify nationally appropriate mitigation actions.

Further work is urgently needed, they say, to develop and refine these approaches, including specifying acceptable metrics, determining how to make different countries' activities comparable, and exploring alternative sources of sustainable funding.