12 th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF) ReFOP collaboration with AMAF/ASOF and ASEC Achievements and Recommendations by Andreas Obser Nay Pyi Taw, June 25-27, 2009

12 th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF) Overview I.ReFOP in Brief II.ReFOP Approach III.Major Achievements by AMAF/ASOF and ASEC IV.Emerging Trends and Responses in Forest Policy and Management V.Recommendations and Future Directions Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar 2

12 th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF) I. ReFOP in Brief The Project contributes to improving intergovernmental coordination and cooperation among ASEAN Member States (AMS) in forest policy and to enhancing capacities at the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) to fulfil its mandate. The Project’s strategy is aligned to the ASEAN Community Blueprints. ReFOP is currently in its second phase which started in August 2006 and will end latest in July The German Government (BMZ) informed ASEAN about its interest in supporting a new follow-up program to ReFOP, based on the concept note of the AFCC-FS as developed at the ASEAN High-Level Meeting (with SOM-AMAF and DSG participation) in Berlin, March Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar 3

12 th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF) II. ReFOP Approach Policy development and implementation, e.g. to the ASOF/AMAF on effective policy-making supported by regional knowledge networks and to the ASEAN Expert Group on International Forest Policy Processes (AEG- IFPP) on common positioning; Intergovernmental coordination to the ASOF/AMAF on peer consultation and a cross-sectoral programme approach in ASEAN; Technical skills and training, e.g. to the ASEAN Working Group on a Pan- ASEAN Timber Certification Initiative (AWG-C) on a phased approach to forest certification; Organizational development to ASEC, e.g. on managing knowledge sharing and networking through the ASEAN Forest Clearing House Mechanism (CHM) and the ASEAN Regional Knowledge Networks (ARKN). Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar 4

12 th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF) III. Selected Major Achievements by AMAF/ASOF and ASEC in collaboration with ReFOP and other partners 1.Application of the monitoring, assessment and reporting (MAR) format based on the ASEAN Criteria and Indicators (C&I); 2.Up-scaling and advanced use of the ASEAN Forest Clearing House Mechanism (CHM); 3.Agreement on the specified elements for a regional timber legality standard; 4.Establishment and commissioning of the ASEAN Regional Knowledge Networks (ARKN) on FCC and FLEG; Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar 5

12 th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF) III. Selected Major Achievements by AMAF/ASOF and ASEC in collaboration with ReFOP and other partners 5.Conclusion of the 2nd ASEAN Peer Consultation Framework (PCF) in the Philippines; 6.Application of the ASEAN Caucus on Forestry to position ASEAN, e.g. at the CLI on Financing for SFM (September 2008, Surinam) and UNFF-8 (April 2009, New York); 7.Submission of the ASEAN Common Position Paper on REDD to the COP-14 of UNFCC (November 2008, Poznan); 8.Two holistic program proposals for multi-donor support as results of the ASEAN High-Level Meeting (March 2009, Berlin) Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar 6

12 th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF) IV. Emerging Trends and Responses in Forest Policy and Management ASEAN: forest policy-related convergence of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Blueprint (ASCC); GTZ/BMZ: forest policy-focused transition from ReFOP to multi- sectoral AFCC-FS; Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar 7

12 th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF) V. Recommendations and Future Directions 1.Transition support: ReFOP to link and synergize the phasing-out of current (ReFOP) and phasing-in of future (AFCC-FS) support program to AMAF/ASOF and ASEC; 2.ReFOP to focus transition support on sustaining the two ARKNs on FLEG (policy advise) and FCC (research networking) as well as AWG-C (training), strengthen their complementarities, broadening their partner support base and embedding them into the AFCC-FS development and implementation; 3.ReFOP to elaborate and potentially make recommendations in the AFCC-FS project proposal on how to further adapt the ASEAN Peer Consultation Framework (PCF) to make it most conducive to ASEAN policy-making; Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar 8

12 th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry (ASOF) V. Recommendations and Future Directions 4.ReFOP to support advancing the ASEAN Forest CHM to cross-cutting issues (e.g. alignment to AEC- and ASCC Bluprints) and position the CHM as a best practice of an ASEAN-wide learning platform in ASEC (e.g. the ASEAN Global Development Learning Network, supported by the World Bank); 5.ReFOP to foster strategic collaborations with leading regional/international research and executive education institutions on issues of cross-sectoral coordination in forest policy (e.g. „whole-of-government“ approaches focusing on key roles of AMAF/ASOF and related units in ASEC vis-a-vis other ministerial and senior officials‘ bodies); 6.ReFOP to foster strategic collaborations and joint research programs with leading regional/international expert and research institutions on the impact, economics and management of climate change in forstry; Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar 9