165 / 311
[
] 166
Changing perspectives on forests through
broad stakeholder engagement:
the Model Forest approach
Peter Besseau, Christa Mooney, Richard Verbisky, Virginie-Mai Hô and Nicolas Duval-Mace,
International Model Forest Network Secretariat, Natural Resources Canada – Canadian Forest Service
N
ature does not recognize administrative boundaries, and
yet historically we have managed it as though it does.
The frequent result has been fragmentation, degradation,
competing and often incompatible land-use activities, unrea-
sonable expectations and conflict. Landscape-level approaches
have increasingly been adopted in recent years by national and
international agencies to support their efforts to manage natural
resources sustainably. By working on a landscape scale, actors
can assess resources as an interlinked, interdependent package,
determine impacts of proposed resource use and make informed
decisions. Overlapping issues of concern can be addressed simul-
taneously, providing an opportunity for approaches that have
greater impacts and meet multiple needs.
In this International Year of Forests, we are seeing an increasing focus
on the importance of the relationships between forests and the people
who depend on them. Maintaining these relationships is a fundamen-
tal principle of sustainable forest management (SFM)
and relies on sound forest policy in order to succeed. In
its document,
Guidelines on the management of tropical
forests
, the Food and Agriculture Organization advises
that national forest strategies should be part of national
land use policies. International priorities, policies and
instruments, such as the Non-legally Binding Instrument
on All Types of Forests, and agreements such as Agenda
21, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN
Convention on Climate Change, also influence decision-
making, from national to local levels.
Effective application of policy requires the meaning-
ful engagement of local actors operating at a landscape
scale. Recognizing this, in the early 1990s Canada
set out to test and implement a participatory, multi-
stakeholder approach to SFM. The result was the Model
Forest Program.
In 1992, at the UN Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED), Canada invited other coun-
tries to join with it in testing the new Model Forest idea.
It pledged US$8.5 million to launch the International
Model Forest Network (IMFN) with a view to even-
tually creating a global network that would serve as a
conduit for disseminating best practices between Model
Forests around the world. Today the IMFN has grown
to almost 60 Model Forests in 30 countries.
What is a Model Forest?
A Model Forest is an approach to sustainable resource
management that addresses social, environmental and
economic needs of local communities while ensuring
the long-term sustainability of large, predominantly
forest-based landscapes. Fundamentally, they are about
people, the choices they make and the actions they
collectively take to bring about lasting, positive change.
Importantly, the approach responds to local needs and
is country-driven.
Model Forests are based on six principles:
• Broad-based, inclusive, voluntary partnerships
• A commitment by all partners to work collabora-
tively in support of sustainable forest management
• A land base large enough to incorporate the main
land uses and values
Dr Chimère Diaw, Director General of the AMFN Secretariat tours Lake Karago in
Rwanda’s Gishwati landscape, with the Honourable Stanislas Kamanzi, Minister of
Natural Resources, and Dr J.J. Mbonigaba Muhinda, Chairman of Rwanda’s Irrigation
and Mechanization Taskforce
Image: Théophile BOUKI, African Model Forest Network Secretariat