Advocacy-driven monitoring Chatham House 2015 David Young

Tackling deforestation through linking REDD+ and FLEGT Cameroon Ghana Liberia (Republic of Congo) 2014 to 2017 Funded by the European Union and DFID Civil society monitoring systems in place in all four priority countries. Key REDD+ and FLEGT LAS governance principles respected in practice. National REDD+ plans build on FLEGT VPA achievements (Linking REDD and FLEGT). Tenure rights seen as critical to effective REDD+ and FLEGT implementation.

What problem are we trying to solve? FLEGT has put considerable emphasis on the legality assurance system and wood-tracking. We want to focus on developing a tool to monitor ‘governance improvements’. So we will develop monitoring systems that focus on our ‘governance priorities’. These will feed into national FLEGT and REDD+ monitoring systems.

Concentric rings of monitoring FLEGT c.1.2 Types of independent monitoring Concentric rings of monitoring FLEGT Development Forest Governance Legality Assurance System Independent Audit Civil society-led Monitoring VPA Impact Monitoring

What’s the difference from IFM? Monitoring system Independent monitoring Indicator-based Iterative: repeat the same assessments to observe change. Could be conducted by anyone (and may be absorbed into other FLEGT or REDD+ processes). “Advocacy-driven monitoring” Case studies or ‘missions’. Open-ended, investigatory, no two reports the same. Clear rationale for maintaining independence.

What are our governance priorities? Governance indicators Our focus A wide concept, related to Transparency Participation Coordination Capacity Accountability Access to information Participation (in policy formulation and implementation) Equity in benefit sharing Rights, to trees, forests and land

What are our advocacy priorities? Ghana Greater FC transparency Ghana’s VPA Transparency List is complied with. Informed communities access information that affects their natural resource base Access by communities to information on logging … on REDD+ projects … on large land investments Stronger participation and clearer consent in forest management decisions Availability and functionality of decision making platforms at the community level Quality of consent in the decisions on logging. … on REDD+ projects operations. … on large land investments. Improved equity and fairness in benefit sharing from Forest Resources Revenue collection by the Forestry Commission District assembly use of royalties Compliance with Social Responsibility Agreements and compensation

What are our advocacy priorities? Cameroon Improved access to information Community access to information on REDD+ process and projects … to information on social agreements … to information on benefit sharing … to information on land investments Fair and transparent benefit sharing mechanism Community participation in the negotiations, implementation and monitoring of social agreements Compliance of social agreements with legal and contractual requirements Management by Municipalities of forest and land revenue for communities Monitoring compliance with social obligations by the administration

What are our advocacy priorities? Liberia Access to information Forest communities access to information on social agreement … on community benefits from forest operations ... about REDD+ risks and benefits Liberia’s VPA Transparency Annex is complied with Benefits redistribution Community participation in the negotiations, implementation and monitoring of social agreement implementation Compliance of social agreements with legal and contractual requirements Management by counties of forest and land revenue for communities Monitoring by the government agencies of compliance with all social obligations Consistency in benefit redistribution systems across logging, agriculture, and REDD+ sectors

Methodology includes: How do we do it? Reaction Methodology includes: Freedom of Information requests Building ‘social SIGIF’ Social Audit (e.g. Liberia 2013) Working with local communities/CBOs Desk analysis of social agreements Semi-structured interviews Focus group discussions Direct observation Multi-stakeholder meetings Consultancies Action Outputs Methodology Indicator

Reflections so far… Still at system design stage, no results yet. Already contributing to greater attention on social outcomes of FLEGT. Has focused our mind on the changes we want to see. Monitoring system = databases, live monitoring? Need to work more at integration with other FLEGT REDD+ monitoring plans and systems. Four-country study on social ‘obligations’ planned.

David Young, Technical Advisor Tackling deforestation through linking REDD+ and FLEGT project www.fern.org