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commitment of financial resources for the NFP structure, which,
in turn, may be regarded as an indicator of a country’s political will
to embrace an NFP process. An NFP structure that is lean, efficient
and affordable is most likely to be durable.
Involving stakeholders is critical for the legitimacy and effec-
tiveness of an NFP
When the NFP approach was adopted in the mid-1990s, coun-
tries stressed the need for appropriate participatory mechanisms to
involve all interested parties in NFP processes. Overall, countries
have made considerable progress in strengthening participation.
Today, there is a broadly shared recognition of the importance
of involving public and private stakeholders at all levels and an
increased effort to do so.
In most countries, the participation of local groups and the private
sector in forest-related decision-making is increasing, also due to the
strong promotion and support of the NFP Facility, FAO and other
development partners. Nevertheless, insufficient access to information
and a lack of organization and capacity still hinder the involvement of
certain stakeholder groups – especially indigenous peoples, women
and local community groups – in NFP processes. There is also a need
to further increase stakeholder participation in the implementation of
NFP-driven policies and strategies, particularly in the monitoring of
implementation. Such involvement can be encouraged by supporting
capacity-building in stakeholder groups.
To be effective, NFPs require a broad intersectoral approach
The need for a broad intersectoral approach at all stages is one of
the agreed NFP principles. NFPs should be integrated into wider
programmes for sustainable land use and activities of other sectors,
such as agriculture, energy and industrial development,
should be taken into account. This is rarely the case in
practice, however, and the mandate and role of an NFP
in coordinating forest-related activities across sectors is
often neither clear nor widely accepted.
In many countries, other sectors show only a limited
willingness to participate actively in an NFP process,
especially when the benefits of doing so are unclear.
Moreover, other sectors rarely consider fully the
outcomes of NFP processes in their respective policies
or planning processes. One reason for this is that, in
most countries, the contributions of forest products
and services to local livelihoods and wider economic
development are still insufficiently recognized. Often,
forest agencies also need to strengthen their efforts to
understand fully the views of other sectors and how
they work, and invest sufficient time and resources in
engaging in dialogue with other sectors on major topics.
There is also a need to strengthen alignment with long-
term national priorities and commitments.
There is widespread consensus that NFPs can play an
important and sometimes essential role in improving
forest governance and fostering sustainable forest manage-
ment. Forests are part of the livelihoods and daily realities
of vast numbers of people. An NFP, therefore, can have
far-reaching effects. Among its other purposes, a widely
supported and vibrant NFP process can ensure that the
forest sector also plays a leading role in promoting national
goals such as good governance, democratization, decen-
tralization and sustainable rural development.
Many farmers are experienced cross-sectoral land-use planning practitioners
Image: FAO