Independent forest monitoring (IFM) is a tool for assessing and strengthening legal compliance in the forest sector internationally. By complementing official forest law enforcement activities with the objectivity and public credibility of an independent third party, IFM can improve transparency in the short term while contributing to the development of a sound legislative and regulatory framework for responsible

forest management Forest management is a branch of forestry concerned with overall administrative, legal, economic, and social aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects, such as silviculture, protection, and forest regulation. This includes management fo ...

. Transparency was emphasized as a key element in ''Reducing Emissions from

Deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then land conversion, converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban area, urban ...

and

forest Degradation Forest degradation is a process in which the biological wealth of a forest area is permanently diminished by some factor or by a combination of factors. "This does not involve a reduction of the forest area, but rather a quality decrease in its c ...

'' ( REDD) by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the

Conference of the Parties A conference of the parties (COP; french: Conférence des Parties, CP) is the supreme governing body of an international convention (treaty, written agreement between actors in international law). It is composed of representatives of the membe ...

(COP-15) in Copenhagen in December 2009 in its decisions on methodological guidance for forest monitoring systems.

Principles

IFM has been defined by

Global Witness Global Witness is an international NGO established in 1993 that works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide. The organisation has offices in London and Washi ...

as “the use of an independent third party that, by agreement with state authorities, provides an assessment of legal compliance, and observation of and guidance on official forest law enforcement systems.” IFM centres around the establishment of a partnership between an official ‘host institution’ responsible for oversight of the forest sector and an appointed monitoring organisation. The monitor's principal activity is to conduct field investigations to observe the work of the official law enforcement agency and to document illegal activity in the forest and related trade. These investigations result in the publication of authoritative information on forest operations, which is made widely available to all levels of government, industry, and civil society. By monitoring official forest law enforcement, IFM enables mechanisms of illegal activity and

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

to be identified. Monitors expect their evidence to be acted on and will pro-actively guard against entrenched resistance to improved governance.

Use

IFM has been undertaken in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

Republic of Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

, Honduras, and

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea, Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to ...

, and piloted in many other countries. IFM has also been called Independent Monitoring, Independent Observation, and Third Party Observation.

References

Notes

External links

IllegalLogging.info
a networking site providing background information on the key issues in the illegal logging debate {{Forestry Anti-corruption agencies Forest certification World forestry Deforestation Forest governance

Principles

Use

References

Notes

Further reading

External links