Embracing complexity: Meeting the challenges of international forest governance

Summary

In November 2009, the Global Forest Expert Panel (GFEP) Steering Committee established an expert panel on the international forest regime to provide a “scientific assessment of the current global forest regime and identify options for improving the effectiveness of the current regime.” The GFEP Steering Committee is composed of representatives from the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), a network of 14 international organisations and secretariats with substantial programmes relating to forests. The CPF’s mission is to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forest and to strengthen long-term political commitment to this end. Specifically, the present assessment is intended to contribute to: - International forest deliberations and international forest related processes - The improvement of coordination among political actors, policy instruments and institutions - International Year of Forests 2011 by raising awareness about the role of international instruments and institutions affecting forests The report and its accompanying policy brief will provide an overview of the complex and diverse elements that currently make up the global forest governance arrangements; will identify and analyse the core components of these arrangements; and propose options for dealing with complexity and improving the effective implementation of forest governance at global, regional, national and sub-national levels. Following the mandate of the CPF Global Forest Expert Panels, this assessment is based on existing scientific knowledge. It represents the Expert Panel’s understanding of the best available scientific literature. In the case of global forest governance, that literature is, of course, largely drawn from the social sciences, especially political science, law, international relations and policy studies.