CRP6 Research Portfolio

2.3 Component 3: Landscape management for

environmental services, biodiversity conservation
and livelihoods

2.3.1 Introduction

Using the “forest transition” as a conceptual framework, this component of CRP6 will
analyze the localized driving forces (c.f. Component 5) behind the decline and recovery in
ecologically functional forest and tree cover and consequences for livelihoods and
landscapes. The key problem this component addresses is how to manage for multiple
benefits and multiple stakeholders at the landscape scale. Within this research framework, we
will investigate the institutional and policy options for reducing the conversion of remaining
natural forests while not compromising rural livelihoods. In addition, bolstering collaborative
governance mechanisms and increased local and national institutional capacity will contribute
significantly to this aim.

To leverage the unique opportunity offered by the work of Component 3, it is essential to

understand trends in forest and tree cover. Historically, forested countries have experienced
phases of fluctuating forest area, shifting both the quantity and the quality of tree cover in
landscapes. The progress of a country or region along the so-called “forest transition curve”
has tended to mirror demographic change and often concomitant economic development.
Depending on stakeholder perspectives, changes can imply environmental degradation or
improvement. 73 However, various trajectories along the curve can lead to the suboptimal
outcomes now experienced from the perspectives of rural communities and societal

73
For example, according to the FAO Forest Resource Assessment (www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2010/en), Asia
is the first tropical region to record a forest transition from a decrease to a net increase of forest cover. However,
new tree cover through the development of plantation forestry based primarily on a few highly productive exotic
species has little in common (other than the label “forest”) with the biologically diverse vegetation that it
replaces.

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resilience, where tree cover loss lead to deficits in forest-based livelihoods and environmental
goods and services, and biodiversity decline.

As a result, integrated landscape restoration efforts must be sensitive to terminology that

connotes control of land and resource use by one side or the other. 74 A central challenge
facing integrated landscape management is the institutional dichotomy between “forest” and
“non-forest” land. For example, while conservation efforts continue to focus on the
management of protected areas (PAs), 75 most of the world’s biodiversity occurs outside PAs,
primarily in fragmented landscape mosaics containing a range of land use categories. The
traditional policy focus of forestry agencies on objectives related to “form” (e.g., percentage
of forest cover maintained) must be transformed into objectives related to “function” and
“quality” if the complex trade-offs between conservation and development outcomes are to
be resolved. 76

While the segregation of functions (e.g., strict protected areas adjacent to intensive
agriculture) as an approach to natural resource management is possible, the reality is that the
boundaries between land uses are often not clearly delineated. Hence, more integrated
approaches are required. In addition, empirical evidence is needed to understand the longer-
term trajectories and drivers of change (see Component 5), including those that are climate
induced (see Component 4 and CRP7), that affect the functionality of landscapes on which
human welfare depends. Holistic models are needed for the conservation of diversity,
including intraspecific genetic diversity, integrating ex situ, in situ and circa situ (on-farm)
approaches (see Component 2) that do not undermine communities’ ability to achieve
substantial improvements in their livelihoods. 77

The future flows of environmental goods and services 78 from forested landscapes ultimately
depend upon integrated approaches to management, use and conservation. 79 In developing
countries, the non-market values present in fragmented landscape mosaics, such as
environmental service provision, are often accorded little priority, and the sustainable
productive potential of different land areas is often inaccurately assumed during land use
planning. The inability to adequately assess such non-market values results in both damaging
and inopportune loss of environmental services, as well as reduced productivity of marketed
agricultural and forestry products. Managing for sustainable utilization and conservation

74
Even the meaning of the term “forest” has become an arena for debate, with an emerging need to differentiate
between “natural forest” (in various degrees of ecological disturbance/recovery and management, such as for
wildlife and other non-timber forest products (NTFPs)), “plantations” (with or without differentiation between
agricultural and forestry trees and tree crops, usually inferring monocultures or few-species mixtures), “mixed
tree-based land use” (often referred to as agroforestry or reforestation/restoration) or conversion into pasture for
livestock grazing.
75
However, the CBD recently set a new target: “17% of terrestrial lands will be under formal protection by
2020”. Hence, understanding the human, social, economic and biological impacts of this increased protection,
and ultimate annexation, will require considerable research effort.
76
Sunderland, T.C.H. et al. 2008. Conservation and development in tropical forest landscapes: a time to face the
trade-offs? Environmental Conservation 34(4): 276–279.
77
Xu, J. et al. 2009. Functional links between biodiversity, livelihoods, and culture in a Hani swidden landscape
in southwest China. Ecology and Society 14(2): 20 [online] http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art20/.
78
For the purposes of this document, “environmental services” can be taken to include: provisioning (food,
energy, biomass), regulating (water quality, pest and disease control, carbon sequestration), supporting
(pollination, seed dispersal, nutrient cycling) and cultural (aesthetic, recreation, spiritual) services.
79
Lele, S. et al. 2010. Beyond exclusion: alternative approaches to biodiversity conservation in the developing
tropics. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2: 94–100.

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outcomes requires explicitly investing in negotiating and managing the inherent trade-offs
between the two through more effective land use allocation practices, as well as improved
modalities for assessing and managing environmental services. 80

The characteristics of landscape governance also play a key role in determining which goods
and services are given priority and how benefits are distributed. The fate and history of many
formerly forested landscapes have been determined by decisions to convert forestlands to
agriculture, pasturelands or plantations, or to conserve them as protected areas, 81 often
without due consideration of the interests or incentives of forest communities and farmers.
Weak and unclear tenure and access right regimes have proven particularly problematic, and
the perspectives of local women have counted for even less. The sustainable management and
use of forest resources, as well as extensive agroforestry systems, have traditionally been
excluded from formal land use planning, despite their importance to forest-dwelling people
and farmers. At the global level, multilateral environmental agreements establish objectives,
obligations and opportunities for national policies and strategies, but rarely harness or
recognize the potential of community-managed forests and agroforestry to advance
environmental objectives.

However, the increasing trend toward the decentralization of forest governance, 82 coupled
with efforts to enhance transparency and public scrutiny of government and private sector
actions, are improving the governance systems that affect multifunctional landscapes. 83 More
collaborative and transparent governance mechanisms are needed to overcome the traditional
lack of cooperation between science, government, corporations and local communities. 84 An
integrated multi-stakeholder assessment process that reaches out to all relevant communities
has to be the basis for meaningful change. In this regard, research into tenure and land rights
undertaken as part of Component 3 will examine ongoing negotiation mechanisms and land
tenure reforms in fully or partially forested landscapes that can contribute to improved
landscape management. Our work will also illuminate how governance processes and
institutions at local and landscape levels can be reformed to become more legitimate, to

80
Wackernagel, M. and Rees, W.-E. 1997. Perceptual and structural barriers to investing in natural capital.
Economics from an ecological footprint perspective. Ecological Economics 20: 3–24; Baumgärtner, S. 2007.
The insurance value of biodiversity in the provision of ecosystem services. Natural Resource Modeling 20(1):
87–127; Hooper, D. et al. 2005. Effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning: a consensus of current
knowledge. Ecological Monographs 75(1): 3–35.
81
Given the recent CBD 2020 target that “17% of terrestrial ecosystems are to be protected”, PAs will continue
to be a major tool for biodiversity conservation; exploring ways to mitigate social conflict while enhancing
benefits from PAs remains a pertinent research issue.
82
Agrawal, A. et al. 2008. Changing governance of the world’s forests. Science 320: 1460–1462.
83
Ostrom, E. 1990. Governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge
University Press, New York; Ostrom, E. 2007. Going beyond panaceas special feature: a diagnostic approach
for going beyond panaceas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104: 15181–15187; Giller,
K.E. et al. 2008. Competing claims on natural resources: what role for science? Ecology and Society 13: 34.
[online] http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art34/.
84
Colchester, M. 2004. Conservation policy and indigenous peoples. Environmental Science and Policy 7: 145–
153; Tomich, T.P. et al. 2004. Asking the right questions: policy analysis and environmental problems at
different scales. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 104: 5–18; Cash, D.-W. et al. 2006. Scale and cross-
scale dynamics: governance and information in a multilevel world. Ecology and Society 11: 8. [online]
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss2/art8/; Kristjanson, P. et al. 2009. Linking international agricultural
research knowledge with action for sustainable development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
USA 106: 5047–5052; German, L.A. and Keeler, A. 2010. “Hybrid institutions”: applications of common
property theory beyond discrete property regimes. International Journal of the Commons 4: 571–596; Colfer, C.
and Pfund, J.L. (eds). 2010. Collaborative governance of tropical landscapes. Earthscan, London.

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increase the security of rights and to balance customary norms and formal policy and,
ultimately, to provide insights into what kinds of land use rights lead to optimized outcomes
for conservation and development.

2.3.2 Thematic focus

This component will have the following three main research themes (closely linked with
research undertaken in other components of CRP6 and other CRPs):
1. understanding the drivers of forest transition at the landscape scale (e.g., demographic
processes, infrastructure development, tenure reform, policy regulation and
incentives, governance and power relations) and developing options for their
mitigation (linked to Component 5 on global trade and investment);
2. understanding the consequences of forest transition for sustaining and provisioning
environmental goods and services to benefit livelihoods of the poor and
disadvantaged (linked with Component 1 on smallholder livelihood aspects,
Component 2 on sustainable forest management and Component 4 on climate
change);
3. integrating a network of learning landscapes in which local monitoring and
evaluation, coupled with adaptive management, link stakeholder interests to actual
performance and opportunities to change incentives at the landscape scale and,
through cross-site comparison, at the national and regional scales. 85

The Driver–State–Response framework (see Figure 2.4) points to the following broad groups
of research questions.
1. How do national and local drivers interact to modify and/or sustain landscape
composition (components/habitat types/land uses) and mosaic configuration?
2. What are the current state and role of biodiversity assets and environmental services
in livelihood strategies in forest mosaic landscapes?
3. What institutional and governance frameworks define the occupation, use and
management of such landscapes and guide the allocation of benefits and
responsibilities?
4. What are the consequences of the landscape composition and spatial configuration for
specific stakeholders?
5. How can stakeholders and their external supporters influence the structure of such
landscapes (enhance productivity, better manage and protect resources, maintain
services, balance trade-offs, etc.) to reduce conflict and enhance functionality?

85
These landscapes differ from sentinel landscapes (see Annex 4) in that they represent existing and new
landscape sites, some with long-term data sets, in which additional research will be undertaken as part of this
component. A subset of these sites may be selected as sentinel landscapes, and will accordingly be closely
aligned with relevant research outputs of all five components.

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Figure 2.4 Driver–state–response framework

2.3.3 Objectives and expected outcomes (10 years)

The goal for this component is to provide knowledge and solutions for how society, across
the various stages and patterns of tree cover transition, can best achieve the management of
multifunctional landscapes. This research will be undertaken in a manner that balances the
provisioning functions of ecosystem goods and services for local stakeholders and external
markets with the maintenance of natural capital and social inclusiveness.

Within 10 years, research undertaken under the three research themes within this component
will have contributed to the following changes.
1. In temporal terms: When dealing with tree-based systems across the transition,
longer-term impacts should be expected, usually in the range of 10–30 years.
However, research conducted under Component 3 of CRP6 will both reduce the
conversion and degradation of forests and enhance the restoration/rehabilitation of
forestlands. The restoration of tree cover and forest functions (including
environmental services and biodiversity) will thus be accelerated while meeting the
needs of poor and disadvantaged communities and contributing to national
development.
Relevant outcomes include the following. Local resource managers will have access
to and be able to use cost-effective tools to appraise the likely impacts of changes in
land use on watershed functions, biodiversity, carbon stocks and the economic

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productivity of the landscape, and to restore forests and the services they provide.
What historically has taken a decade, or longer, of intensive research and negotiation
support could feasibly be replicated in a third to half the time.
2. In spatial terms, Component 3 of CRP6 will lead to: (i) an increase in the area of
natural and sustainably managed (woody) vegetation with effective protection; (ii) an
increase in the area of multifunctional zones that provide for production within
forested landscapes while maintaining biodiversity assets and the provision of
environmental services; and (iii) a decrease in the area of low-value, contested and
formerly forested land that can be transformed into productive agroforestry/forest
landscape mosaics.
Relevant outcomes include the following. Land use planners and practitioners will use
principles and methods resulting in clearer recognition of conservation and
development trade-offs in land and rights allocation, notably tenure, leading to
optimized biodiversity and livelihood outcomes.
3. In functional terms, Component 3 of CRP6 will enhance rural livelihoods and
environmental service provisioning, while acknowledging that trade-offs must be
ultimately recognized and negotiated. Environmental services will be integrated using
appropriate criteria and indicators that reflect the drivers and consequences of tree
cover transitions.
Relevant outcomes include the following. Local and national agencies will identify
environmental service flows and biodiversity assets, supporting efficient and effective
conservation, management and marketing of, and rewards for, the provision of
environmental services. Opportunities for ecological restoration will be fully used;
trade-offs will be recognized and the contest over them will be eased by negotiation.
4. Institutionally, the knowledge and solutions generated under this component of CRP6
will support the delivery of forest and tree services through innovative rewards and
incentives, particularly through payments for environmental services (PES) systems.
These will support social and economic relations between external and local
stakeholders that strive for reciprocity, and seek a balance of fairness and efficiency.
Relevant outcomes include the following. Local and external stakeholders will
negotiate and have access to a range of conditional and performance-based
arrangements that support the provision and maintenance of environmental services
and biodiversity assets in productive landscapes. Community involvement will be
based on collaborative decision making aided by monitoring tools for strengthening
meaningful participation in conservation and land use planning, especially by women
and other disadvantaged groups.

2.3.4 Geographic priorities

We will identify the geographic priorities for this research component through a systematic
process of portfolio analysis. The criteria will include the use of representational approaches
for the establishment of landscapes that will strengthen the power of this research by
spanning a range of climatic zones, forest types (biomes/ecoregions), human population
density, associated livelihood strategies and collaborative governance approaches. A balance
will be sought between humid and dry forest zones, as their primary environmental service
issues differ. A detailed geographic priority-setting process will take place during the first

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year of CRP6 implementation, building on and rationalizing existing research sites and
networks.

At the regional level, priorities are:

• Latin America: Amazon Basin, Andean region
• Africa: Humid forests of the Congo Basin and West Africa; Miombo, Sahelian and
other dry forests
• Asia: South, Southeast Asia

At the country level, priority countries where we expect to undertake research and
demonstrate outcomes are:
• Latin America: Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia
• Africa: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Guinea,
Burkina Faso, Mali, Uganda, Kenya
• Asia-Pacific: China, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos

2.3.5 Theme 1: Understanding drivers of forest transition as a

prerequisite for their management
Rationale

Landscape transformation, and thus qualitative and quantitative tree cover transition, is often
driven by a wide range of factors. These may include, among others, demographic processes,
infrastructure development, changing market dynamics, tenure reforms and policy regulations
and incentives. Understanding the drivers of forest loss requires an assessment of the multiple
interactions that shape forest transitions at the landscape scale and how they manifest in terms
of patterns and process in different biophysical, spatial and institutional settings. 86

The aims of this research theme are to:

• develop and share knowledge and replicable analytical methods on the spatial and
temporal patterns of qualitative and quantitative tree cover transitions and the roles of
national and local drivers of landscape change;
• provide analyses of the winners and losers (e.g., indigenous peoples, poor and
disadvantaged, large-scale ranchers and farmers, elites, corporations, foreign
investors, land speculators) in various phases of current transformations and of the
existing and emerging opportunities to shift the balance between them; and
• identify and influence public policy and market-based instruments to enhance the
institutional architecture, at multiple scales, for negotiating the trade-offs between
biodiversity conservation, environmental service provision and economic
development.

86
This is in contrast to Component 5, which will assess and address the influence that external pressures from
large-scale investments associated with global market demand and expanding domestic markets have on social,
economic and ecological dynamics, primarily at national level. However, these factors can also have impacts at
the landscape scale, and this synergy and complementarity between the two components will strengthen the
overall impact of CRP6.

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Methods and research approach

This component builds on current and emerging practices in the Global Earth Observation
System of Systems (GEOSS) 87 science community through active cooperation at the
landscape level, coupled with national and global syntheses of tree cover and forest change.
The development and application of models that improve our capability to record and predict
trends in land use and cover changes form an essential contemporary requirement of planning
processes. Land use and cover change (LUCC) models that link drivers and actors to
observable change 88 will be the main research method applied within this theme. An
understanding, at the driver and actor levels, of historical, geographic, demographic, political
and ecological contexts is a prerequisite both for any planned interventions and for the
exploration of alternative scenarios for land cover change.

LUCC models are underpinned by a variety of research tools that assist in the mapping of
local, public/policy and science-based interpretation of the landscape through “legends” of
maps that have meaning across disciplines and stakeholders. The current terminology of
“forest” and “forest-derived” land cover types is notoriously confusing and often inadequate
for the formulation of policy instruments. Remote sensing and geographic information
systems (GIS) technologies can provide both spatial and temporal framing, but these are only
of use when accompanied by complementary research undertaken on the ground. This can
include recording historical trends, participatory rural appraisals (PRAs), participatory border
delineation and mapping exercises, multi-stakeholder analysis and policy and governance
analysis aimed at developing a common platform for dialogue and analysis for local
governance, national planning and international debate. Coupling these with quantitative
techniques such as biodiversity assessment monitoring through permanent sample plot (PSP)
methods and other biophysical approaches will provide the multi- and interdisciplinary
methods required to understand both the drivers of forest loss and their impacts on
biodiversity and, potentially, livelihoods.

The primary reasons for undertaking a scientific analysis of changes in land cover are the
consequences of such change on a wide range of stakeholder interests and the various ways
stakeholders can try to modify land cover change in their favor. The utility of concept-based
models will depend strongly on the types of entry point the models provide for feedback.

Four main types of “feedback” are as follows.

1. Land use, or the direct benefits that agents derive from their impact on land cover: this
usually involves direct learning and relatively short response cycles, although there is
ongoing debate about how much an economic lens misses real motivations of
different agents. 89
2. Land use planning, or the attempts by stakeholders of land cover beyond the land
user, to change the rules that are part of the set of drivers influencing land users.

87
http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.shtml
88
Hersperger, A.M. et al. 2010. Linking land change with driving forces and actors: four conceptual models.
Ecology and Society 15(4): 1. [online] http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art1/.
89
Villamor, G.B. et al. 2010. Diversity deficits in modelled landscape mosaics. Ecological Informatics
doi:10.1016/j.ecoinf.2010.08.003

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3. Agent-specific modifications of incentive structures that are conditional on

performance, such as forms of PES and related institutions. 90
4. Generic changes in rules and economic incentives through policy change that is
expected to enhance environmental services and/or economic performance at the
(sub)national scale.

A fifth component of the system (5) is at the interface of 1–4 in the form of Negotiation
Support Systems, 91 in which multiple stakeholders, usually based on their own understanding
and interpretation of the Drivers–State–Response relationship, negotiate a range of options to
manage the trade-offs between their respective stakes.

CIFOR and the World Agroforestry Centre have completed more than a decade of research
on the underlying causes of deforestation. This effort must now be shifted further down the
research-development continuum and refocused on the impacts of land use change for
livelihoods, for example to answer the question: “how do land use changes pay off, and
where and under which circumstances?” With our global mandate and competences in both
social and natural sciences, both institutions have a comparative advantage in carrying out
comparative analyses. Such studies will inform decision makers at various levels about
policies and conditions that favor or impede sustainable development and forest conservation.
Deforestation remains a major topic on global and national agendas. Carefully targeted
research will be able to reach the various constituencies and inform decisions regarding
deforestation and the links to livelihood change.

Research questions

This research theme will explore and analyze the links between the drivers of land use and
tree cover change at global/national/local scales, and identify opportunities to negotiate and
influence the reversal of current degradation and acceleration of ecological restoration and
rehabilitation, through both reforestation and agroforestry transformation.
Broad research questions Gender-specific aspects Examples of science outputs
(Component 3, Theme 1) of the research
question
• What are the major drivers and • How are the Empirical (including time series) data
patterns of qualitative and perceptions, sets of quantitative and qualitative
quantitative tree cover appreciation and tree cover transitions across
transitions, and how do they experiences of tree continents
vary with scale in space and cover transitions Analysis of the links between the
time? influenced by gender? drivers of land use and tree cover
• What are the consequences of What are the gender change at global/national/local scales,
commercial logging and forest impacts of such including its relationship with:
conversion for migrant-based transitions?
• demographic change, including
agriculture or plantations? • How do different factors changes in rates of urbanization,
• What is the impact of that influence transition, circular and other migration
infrastructure development and including governance patterns, and human population
how can negative consequences arrangements, density
on the environment and incentives and
• road networks, and other

90
van Noordwijk, M. and Leimona, B. 2010. Principles for fairness and efficiency in enhancing environmental
services in Asia: payments, compensation, or co-investment? Ecology and Society 15(4): 17 [online]
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art17/.
91
van Noordwijk, M. et al. 2001. Negotiation support models for integrated natural resource management in
tropical forest margins. Conservation Ecology 5(2): 21 [online] http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss2/art21

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Broad research questions Gender-specific aspects Examples of science outputs

(Component 3, Theme 1) of the research
question
livelihoods be mitigated? institutional reform, infrastructure (e.g., pipelines,
• How do local stakeholders interact with gender hydrocarbon fields, dams, mines)
interact with external ones in dynamics to produce • processing industry (linked to
various stages of forest better outcomes? Component 5)
transition? • national supply/demand and
• How do governance systems import/export data and overall
and their reform influence economic development
stages in forest transition at the • forest categorization and forest
forest/agrarian interface? policy regimes
Identification of opportunities to
negotiate and influence the reversal
of current degradation patterns and
acceleration of forest rehabilitation
and agroforestry transformation

Research partners

The partnership arrangements will increase in complexity across the three themes from a
more technical research approach in Theme 1, to a multidisciplinary approach in Theme 2
and then a more explicit multi-stakeholder, location-specific approach in Theme 3.

Type of research Organization Research partner contributions

partner
Participating CIFOR Contributes interpretation of forest types and forest
CGIAR Center policy domains, as well as human livelihood (poverty)
perspectives for forest-dependent people
World Agroforestry Contributes research on the drivers of forest transition
Centre (tree cover dynamics within broader land use change
patterns) and its interface with agriculture at the
landscape level
CIAT Quantifies and models agricultural drivers of forest
transition
International CIRAD Contributes expertise on forestry/agroforestry interface
level NASA Undertakes analysis of land cover change
IUCN Provides comparisons of forest transitions (e.g., in LLS)
GEOSS Links the world’s many stand-alone biodiversity
monitoring systems and connects them to other Earth
observation networks that generate relevant data, such
as climate and pollution indicators
IITA Has shared interest in modeling agricultural drivers of
forest transition—coordination with CRP1.2 via ASB
partnership
IFPRI Has shared interest in modeling agricultural drivers of
forest transition—coordination with CRP2 via ASB
partnership
Universities of Louvain- Analyze forest transition patterns in relation to drivers
la-neuve, Macaully of change
Land Use Research
Institute, Gottingen,
FOCALI university
network in Sweden,
University of Maryland
Forest Trends Conducts case studies of forest transition and its
relation to policies
Rights and Resources Provides analysis of options for tenure reform and
Initiative (RRI) “boundary organization” interface with advocacy
organizations and national policymakers
WRI Analyzes changes in forest cover and its relationship to

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Type of research Organization Research partner contributions

partner
drivers and policies
IMFN Implements sustainable management of forest-based
landscapes through the Model Forest approach
Regional level CATIE Conducts forest transition analyses in Central America
and Amazon
ICIMOD Conducts land use change analysis in greater Himalaya
subregion
AIT Conducts land use change analysis and research
RECOFTC Engages in research uptake and dissemination through
training
Country or site FORDA (Indonesia) Collaborates in analysis of national and local patterns of
level forest transition in Indonesia
NAFRI (Laos), MARD Conduct research on land use planning processes
(Vietnam)
Ministries of forestry Engage in landscape management and restoration
(Guinea, Sierra Leone)
Embrapa (Brazil), LIPI Conduct land use monitoring
(Indonesia)
Indonesian Soil Collaborate in analysis of national and local patterns of
Research Institute forest transition in Indonesia
IRAD (Cameroon) Undertakes forest transition studies
Private sector RSPO (Roundtable on Conducts analysis of forest transition data in relation to
and NGOs Sustainable Palm Oil) proposed industry self-regulation
Private sector IPOC (Indonesian Palm Conducts analysis of land use trajectories preceding oil
Oil Commission) palm and drivers of smallholder oil palm expansion in
relation to emerging standards and policies

2.3.6 Theme 2: Understanding the consequences of the forest

transition for environmental goods and services and
livelihoods

Rationale

The role of the different spatial configurations of forests and trees in the provision of
environmental services needs to be realistically assessed 92 so that appropriate incentives,
property rights arrangements and regulatory approaches can be negotiated and updated
through learning. Research shows that institutions and arrangements for the management of
multifunctional landscapes should be assessed in terms of their efficiency (realistic,
conditional, voluntary), fairness (pro-poor, pro-women, pro-untitled landholders, including
objectively measurable equity) and environmental sustainability. Existing results show that
there is potential for using new property rights arrangements and flexible policy instruments,
often implemented through decentralized forms of government, to strengthen community
forest management and provide incentives for farmers and ranchers to invest in agroforestry
and other tree-based forms of land use. 93

92
Malmer, A. et al. 2010. Carbon sequestration in tropical forests and water: a critical look at the basis for
commonly used generalizations. Global Change Biology 16: 599–604.
93
Vandermeer, J.H. (ed.). 2003. Tropical agroecosystems: new directions for research. CRC Press, Boca Raton,
Florida, USA; van Noordwijk, M. et al. 2004. Belowground interactions in tropical agroecosystems. CAB
International, Wallingford, UK. Scherr, S.J. and McNeely, J.A. (eds). 2007. Farming with nature: the science
and practice of ecoagriculture. Island Press, Washington, DC.

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Mechanisms and contracts that provide conditional rewards for environmental services have
the potential to provide farmers and ranchers with incentives to conserve forest patches and
adopt restoration and agroforestry systems and other land uses associated with environmental
stewardship, if the appropriate tenure and rights conditions are in place, thus promoting a
greater degree of biodiversity conservation. The management of multifunctional landscapes
requires research tools and management mechanisms that strike a balance between (1) the
provision of goods and services; (2) short-, medium- and long-term resource and biodiversity
conservation and use objectives; (3) efficiency and fairness; (4) the interaction of biology and
policy in the pursuit of sustainable development of socio-ecological systems, 94 and the likely
increasing vulnerability of tree performance in the face of growing climate variability. 95

This research theme will explore questions directed toward developing tools for
understanding the roles of trees and various forest types in providing a wide range of
environmental goods and services, and in maintaining biodiversity in landscape mosaics. It
will also develop tools for assessing trade-offs between these services and the direct benefits
of subsistence and marketed goods. Research under this theme will provide methods and
tools to assess and design PES schemes and other reward mechanisms and incentives for
reconciling conservation and development objectives. Lessons learned from PES
implementation can have considerable application for the design and implementation of other
compensation or incentive schemes such as REDD+. Thus, there is close synergy between
Components 3 and 4.

Methods and research approach

A wide range of methods are used for understanding the various consequences of land cover
change for ecosystem functioning through “lateral flows” (water, sediment, biodiversity and
landscape aesthetics). Current approaches in landscape ecology, ecohydrology and
conservation biology will be combined with methods that have their foundations in social and
economic science disciplines. For example, new approaches to biodiversity scaling in
landscape mosaics have recently been proposed, 96 incorporating two important aspects of
biodiversity in nature: scale and spatial variation in the supply of limiting resources. These
concepts can be used to understand and forecast species diversity in ecological communities
in landscape mosaics—an area in which the institutions involved in the implementation of
CRP6 have extensive experience and continuing ambitions. In the context of CRP6
biodiversity-related research, a focus on trees and their functional diversity is appropriate, as
trees provide infrastructure for the rest of the vegetation, are at the base of a major share of
food webs and have intricate relations with pollinators and seed dispersal agents.

To determine the locally perceived relevance and value of environmental services, as well as
the (potential) value for external stakeholders, 97 it will be necessary, in collaboration with
local stakeholders, to develop indicators and effective monitoring systems to assess the
environmental services provided by different systems (primary forests, agroforestry systems,

94
Anderies, J.-M. et al. 2004. A framework to analyse the robustness of social–ecological systems from an
institutional perspective. Ecology and Society 9(1): 18 [online] www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss1/art18/.
95
Gebrekirstos, A. et al. 2008. Climate–growth relationships of the dominant tree species from semi-arid
savanna woodland in Ethiopia. Trees 22: 631–641.
96
Ritchie, M.E. 2010. Scale, heterogeneity, and the structure and diversity of ecological communities.
Monographs in Population Biology 45. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA.
97
TEEB. 2010. The economics of ecosystems and biodiversity: mainstreaming the economics of nature: A
synthesis of the approach, conclusions and recommendations of TEEB. http://www.teebweb.org/

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mosaics of the two embedded with other land use types, etc.). 98 Such monitoring will guide
decision making in landscape management and provide a basis for valuing such services and
through incentive schemes, thereby creating political support for biodiversity-friendly land
uses (see Box 2.4). Policy and governance research will be undertaken to determine tenurial
arrangements in place within a particular landscape and, combined with multi-stakeholder
analysis, provide further insights into power relations and equity issues that may need to be
addressed.

Box 2.4 Payments and rewards for environmental services

Payments and rewards for environmental services (PES and RES) are widely seen as a way to provide
land managers with incentives to opt for land use practices that maintain or enhance the level of
environmental services (ES). Such services are expected, but have not typically been appreciated, by
“downstream” or ES beneficiaries.1 In the case of watershed services, the term “downstream” can be
taken literally. However, where biodiversity conservation, landscape beauty or a reduction in net
emissions of greenhouse gases are involved, the term is used as a metaphor.2
Many current and emerging mechanisms use the PES terminology, ranging from subsidies for forest
owners paid from levies on water or hydropower users, trade in certificates of rights to pollute (based on
certified emission reductions elsewhere), ecotourism and moral incentives to plant trees, to outcome-
based contracts to reduce sediment loads of streams and rivers. Although all these mechanisms differ
from a pure command-and-control approach, there is a need for more careful descriptors of mechanisms
as a basis for comparisons of performance and for re-blending elements of both approaches to adjust to
local context. Swallow et al.3 proposed the term CRES (compensation and rewards for environmental
services) for a broader set of approaches that have enhancement of ES as a common goal.
The discussion of the pros and cons of purely financial mechanisms is often antagonistic,4 and the
formulation of alternative paradigms is underway.5 Both CIFOR and the World Agroforestry Centre have
been among the early movers in the emerging fields of PES and RES, respectively.6 This component of
CRP6 will benefit from a closer relationship between the key scientists involved in these fields of study.
References:
1
Asquith, N. and Wunder, S. (eds) 2008. Payments for watershed services: the Bellagio conversations.
Fundación Natura, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia; Porras, I. et al. 2008. All that glitters: a review of
payments for watershed services in developing countries. IIED, London.
2
Landell-Mills, N. and Porras, I. 2001. Silver bullet or fools’ gold: a global review of markets for forest
environmental services and their impact on the poor. International Institute for Environment and
Development, London; Ferraro, P.J. 2008. Asymmetric information and contract design for payments for
environmental services. Ecological Economics 65: 810–821.
3
Swallow, B.M. et al. 2009. Compensation and rewards for environmental services in the developing
world: framing pan-tropical analysis and comparison. Ecology and Society 14(2): 26. [online]
www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art26/
4
Peterson, M.J. et al. 2010. Obscuring ecosystem function with application of the ecosystem services
concept. Conservation Biology 24: 113–119; Pascual, U. et al. 2010. Exploring the links between equity
and efficiency in payments for environmental services: a conceptual approach. Ecological Economics 69:
1237–1244; Kosoy, N. and Corbera, E. 2010. Payments for ecosystem services as commodity fetishism.
Ecological Economics 69:1228–1236; Gomez-Baggethun, E. et al. 2010. The history of ecosystem
services in economic theory and practice: from early notions to markets and payment schemes. Ecological
Economics 69(6): 1209–1218.
5
van Noordwijk, M. and Leimona, B. 2010. Principles for fairness and efficiency in enhancing
environmental services: payments for environmental services or co-investment in environmental
stewardship? Ecology and Society 15(4): 17. [online] www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art17/
6
Wunder, S. 2005. Payments for environmental services: some nuts and bolts. CIFOR Occasional Paper
42. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia; Wunder, S. 2008. Payments for environmental services and the poor:
concepts and preliminary evidence. Environment and Development Economics 13: 279–297; Tomich, T.P.
et al. 2004. Environmental services and land use change in Southeast Asia: from recognition to regulation
or reward? Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 104: 229–244; van Noordwijk, M. et al. 2004. An
introduction to the conceptual basis of RUPES: rewarding upland poor for the environmental services they
provide. ICRAF Southeast Asia, Bogor, Indonesia.

98
Schroth, G. et al. 2004. Agroforestry and biodiversity conservation in tropical landscapes. Island Press,
Washington, DC.

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One of the milestones in this theme will be the extension of existing tree databases (e.g.,
www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/resources/databases/agroforestree with information on tree
utility and www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sea/Products/AFDbases/WD/, a global
reference for wood density information relevant for C-stock appraisals) to include a wider
range of ecologically relevant properties, and linking these databases to operational data sets
and site-level studies.

Box 2.5 CIFOR and World Agroforestry Centre landscape research methodologies
CIFOR: At the landscape scale, CIFOR has standardized a research methodology that it has implemented
in many sites, often in collaboration with IUCN. The research method may be summarized as follows.
• Define the landscape: undertake PRAs and stakeholder analysis, identify all the stakeholders within
the landscape and undertake participatory mapping to ascertain local perceptions of land cover and
use.
• Collect baselines: assemble available background information (documentation, maps, etc.).
• Explore scenarios: what is happening within the landscape?
− Clarify the historical context
− Visualize the landscape
− Develop simulation models
• Facilitate desired landscape scale outcomes (policy implications, catalogue incentives, rewards etc.).
• Identify indicators to measure progress.
• Monitor change.
Reference: Sayer, J. et al. 2007. Assessing environmental and development outcomes in conservation
landscapes. Biodiversity and Conservation 16: 2677–2694.
World Agroforestry Centre: As a follow-up to the intensive studies at long-term sites, the World
Agroforestry Centre has focused on replicable methods for improved natural resource management that
can be used in a cost-effective and timely manner, once capacity at national and local universities and
NGOs is enhanced. Methods include:
• understanding land use, poverty and drivers of change (DriLUC and PaPOLD);
• understanding agroforestry systems and their market links (RAFT, RMA and WNoTree);

• understanding the landscape and water flows (PaLA and RHA);

• understanding biodiversity in landscapes (RABA and QBS);

• understanding carbon stocks and GHG emissions (RaCSA and FBA);

• understanding tenure and resource use rights (RaTA and FERVA);
• understanding trade-offs and scenario analysis (Fallow/TALAS and RESFA).
Details and examples of applications can be found at: www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/sea/
projects/tulsea/

New insights are also emerging on the interface of social norms and monetary instruments,
regarding financial incentives (payments) for environmental services. CRP6 work can
contribute new paradigms in this arena, based on direct experience of action research that
tries to “make things work”, while stimulating discussions with the scientific community. It
will not be easy to move from analysis to action in this arena, unless fine-grained solutions in
rural landscapes and tropical forest margins align with institutional change at the global level.

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In such cross-scale analysis, the lack of economic research tools remain a challenge, 99 and
partnerships in new fields such as experimental (behavioral) economics will need to be
enhanced.

Different tools will be applied to promote multi-stakeholder dialogue and consensus building
in order to enhance landscape-scale multifunctionality. Multi-criteria decision analysis will
be carried out to assess the minimum set of institutional, organizational and policy conditions
for promoting multiple-use forest management and minimizing trade-offs. Research will
provide analyses of the range of property rights regimes that exist in diverse multifunctional
landscapes and determine how they create, allocate and enforce entitlements and
responsibilities among actors. Research will also identify tights allocation regimes that have
potential to resolve existing conflicts, as well as governance processes and practices that have
potential to enhance equitable access and benefit distribution from the productive elements of
multifunctional landscapes.

Many forest-adjacent communities, including those residing close to production forests, are
among the poorest and suffer from inequitable power relations compared with governments,
civil society and the private sector. This research will seek to understand how communities
can build cooperation and synergies, both internally and with external actors. Factors that
strengthen or undermine collective action for sustainable use and/or securing rights within
forested landscapes will be assessed, as will the extent to which communities are aware of
their rights and responsibilities.

Research questions

Broad research questions Gender-specific aspects of Examples of science

(Component 3, Theme 2) the research question outputs
How can “environmental service How does preference for Tools for determining and
deficits” be quantified? “quantifiable” environmental quantifying the
• How do landscape-scale watershed services (ES) vary between environmental services at
services, carbon storage, genders, based on perceived stake in various stages of
biodiversity conservation and the direct value of ES and tree cover transition
sustaining of ecological functionality foreseeable benefits, influencing
depend on the attributes of forestry level of participation? Strategies and practices for
and agroforestry systems as part of managing tree species to
landscape mosaics across climatic, conserve genetic resources
biogeographic, ecological and today and for the future at
socioeconomic contexts? the scale of landscapes
• What are the most effective
methods for assessing Strategies and practices for
environmental service provision and sustaining ecological
changes that result as a function of functionality in multiple-use
landscape-level disturbance? landscape mosaics
• What holistic combination of in situ
(including managed forests), ex situ
and circa situ (on-farm)
conservation approaches are most
effective for conserving key
populations of priority species and
their genetic diversity at the scale
of landscapes?

99
Bateman, I.J. 2009. Bringing the real world into economic analyses of land use value: incorporating spatial
complexity. Land Use Policy 26S: S30–S42, doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.09.010; Pascal, U. et al. 2009.
Valuation of ecosystems services: methodology and challenges. Report to Review of The Economics of
Ecosystems and Biodiversity. European Commission/UNEP/BMU-Germany.

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Broad research questions Gender-specific aspects of Examples of science

(Component 3, Theme 2) the research question outputs
• How can fairness and efficiency be How do gender roles influence Adaptive landscape
combined in ways to reduce participation in negotiation of management in which local
environmental service deficits? PES schemes? What stakeholders are supported
• How do outcomes of negotiations approaches, including timing, and enabled to enhance
over conservation and development sequencing and overall design environmental service
trade-offs vary in relation to such of PES negotiation processes, provision as well as their
factors as stakeholders’ negotiation are necessary for ensuring livelihoods
capacity, scientific input and effective participation? Tested tools and governance
inclusiveness of participation and How to understand, across the mechanisms for managing
gender considerations? various cultural contexts, the trade-offs between
• How realistic are expectations that gender roles and representation conservation and
regulation of and incentives for in policy dialogues in light of development at multiple
enhancing tree-based watersheds, integration? scales
carbon storage and biodiversity What are the gender-specific
services can enhance and sustain impacts of the implementation
environmental services? of ES schemes? How are
• What are the trade-offs between benefits distributed between
efficiency, perceived fairness and men and women, with what
measurable equity, and poverty impacts on sustainability and
reduction associated with livelihoods? What alternative
alternative mechanisms for options and arrangements can
environmental service rewards for narrow and/or eliminate
smallholder farmers, both men and distribution gaps?
women?
• How can cross-sectoral policies and
community-based forest policy limit
or enhance the potential for
environmental service rewards?
• How can policies, tools, methods
and approaches enhance the
sustainability of financial flows, and
improve governance and
institutions?
• Under what conditions and at what
scales can PES schemes and related
mechanisms produce positive
outcomes for conservation and
human well-being that are
effective, efficient and equitable?
How can forestry and agroforestry How can forestry and Overview of current policies
initiatives best interact with the agroforestry and the for the agriculture–forestry
drivers of forest and landscape perspectives of women (and interface that can be
transitions? other marginalized actors) be adjusted to maximize
included in policies? What positive environmental and
strategies, and at what stages socioeconomic outcomes
in the sequence of policy
design, will ensure effective
participation of women and
other marginalized actors?

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Research partners

Type of research Organization Research partner contributions

partner
Participating CIFOR Leads analysis of consequences on forest-based biodiversity
CGIAR Center and related ES and livelihood issues; co-leads PES/RES
research with a focus on Latin America, gender analysis of ES
perceptions and institutional analysis of community-based
resource management in forest margins and around protected
areas (and its representation in models); co-leads research on
tree and land tenure and associated rights
World Leads analysis of watershed functions and consequences of
Agroforestry trees-in-the-landscape for biodiversity and related ES; co-
Centre leads PES/RES research, with a focus on Africa and Asia;
leads work on integrated assessment methods and agent-
based modeling, which include livelihood options; co-leads
research on tree and land tenure and associated rights; leads
analysis of national-level institutions and their legal basis for
use of economic instruments for ES enhancement
CIAT Quantifies and models agricultural drivers of forest transition
International CIRAD Contributes expertise on forestry/agroforestry interface
level RRI Conducts tenure and rights analysis
IUCN/CEESP Researches rights-based approaches to conservation
CARE Involved in livelihoods, tenure, rights and development
IMFN Implements sustainable management of forest-based
landscapes through the Model Forest approach
IITA Has shared interest in modeling agricultural drivers of forest
transition—coordination with CRP1.2 via ASB partnership
IFPRI Has shared interest in modeling agricultural drivers of forest
transition—coordination with CRP2 via ASB partnership
UNEP Conducts trade-off analysis among environmental services in
areas such as Mt Kilimanjaro, Lake Tanganyika
DIVERSITAS Provides access to global agrobiodiversity network and
consequences of intensification and multifunctionality
INBAR Conducts ES analysis of bamboo- and rattan-based systems
as part of broader landscapes
Ecoagriculture Identify criteria and indicators for eco-friendly agriculture in
partners biodiversity-rich landscapes
Katoomba group Hold discussion forum on PES and its innovations
IUCN Develop innovative approaches to integrated natural resource
management
Conservation Function as hotspot alliance partner on innovative solutions
International for conservation in agriculturally used landscapes
Universities of Analyze forest transition patterns in relation to drivers of
Alberta, change
Amsterdam
(VU), Gottingen,
Hohenheim,
Utrecht,
Wageningen,
Leuven,
Cambridge,
Macaulay Land
Use Research
Institute, SLU,
ZEF
Sustainability Conducts analysis and synthesis of boundary organizations in
Science Program natural resource management (NRM) negotiations and
at the Kennedy payments for ES
School of
Environment at

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Type of research Organization Research partner contributions

partner
Harvard
University
Tropenbos Improves knowledge, and individual and institutional capacity
for better governance and management of tropical forest
resources
Regional level CATIE Coordinates research in Central America
RECOFTC Adopts research and disseminates through training
WOCAN Researches gender aspects of community-based NRM
De la Salle Researches gender aspects of emerging PES/RES institutions
University,
Philippines
Heart of Borneo Provides compensation scheme development, sustainable
Initiative financing
Country or site FORDA Collaborates in research in specific sites
level (Indonesia)
NAFRI (Laos), Researches land use planning processes
MARD (Vietnam)
Ministries of Conduct landscape management and restoration
forestry (Guinea,
Sierra Leone)
Embrapa Conduct land use monitoring
(Brazil), LIPI
(Indonesia)
FFI (Indonesia) Develops environmental services compensation schemes
FRIM (Malaysia) Evaluates environmental services
IRAD Conducts forest transition studies
(Cameroon)
Private sector Bridgestone Identifies criteria and indicators for eco-friendly rubber
production
Mars Inc. Identifies criteria and indicators for eco-friendly cacao
production

2.3.7 Research Theme 3: Enhancing responses and policy

options to sustain and maximize environmental and social
benefits from multifunctional landscapes

Rationale

Under what circumstances is it possible to reconcile conservation and development objectives

in forested landscapes? What needs to be done to create appropriate conditions for this
reconciliation? A new generation of integrated conservation and development initiatives,
using approaches variously termed as the “landscape approach” and the “ecosystem
approach”, are being implemented to address these problems. 100 Existing evidence suggests
that such projects should: (1) be implemented at multiple scales; (2) address the problem of
trade-offs by quantifying them, providing platforms for multi-stakeholder negotiations and
using instruments such as PES; (3) pay greater attention to organizational and institutional
aspects during implementation; (4) give greater weight to extra-sectoral and non-local drivers
of change; (5) use adaptive management; and (6) mainstream participatory action approaches.

100
Sayer, J. et al. 2007. Assessing environmental and development outcomes in conservation landscapes.
Biodiversity and Conservation 16: 2677–2694.

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The combination, sequence, timing, form and quality of interventions at the various scales are
all important in influencing outcomes.
Adaptive management implies both “experimentation” and “learning” components of these
conservation and development interventions, especially where the opportunity is taken to
compare experiences and learn across sites. Research will target identifying and negotiating
trade-offs between conservation and development, 101 as well as identifying and
understanding the factors influencing implementation success and failure.

A specific interest in CRP6 at the interface of Components 2 and 3 is how forest ecosystems
can be managed for conservation alongside production functions. Research aimed at
developing guidelines, to be used at the “management unit” level in Component 2, will be
viewed in a wider landscape context in Component 3. This will allow holistic models to
emerge for the conservation of biological diversity, especially intraspecific diversity,
including ex situ, in situ and circa situ (on-farm) approaches that do not undermine
communities’ ability to improve livelihoods.

Research under this theme includes examining ongoing negotiation mechanisms and land
tenure reforms in fully or partially forested landscapes that can contribute to improved
landscape management by recognizing the trade-offs between conservation and development,
and by improving prioritization of land use. Research will illuminate ways to reform
governance processes and institutions at local and landscape levels to make them more
legitimate, to increase the security of rights and to balance customary norms and formal
policy. The work will yield insights into what kinds of land use right lead to optimized
situations for both conservation and development, and will produce tools and approaches for
assessing trade-offs, mitigating conflicts and conducting multi-stakeholder negotiations.

Methods and research approach

The “learning landscapes” approach implies that key stakeholders in target landscapes are
learning; at the same time, scientists are learning about what these stakeholders learn—this
can remove bottlenecks elsewhere. Such “social learning” is used to frame logical but
challenging requirements for evidence of (1) individual changes in understanding; (2) shifts
in understanding in wider social units or communities of practice; and (3) attribution of (1)
and (2) to social interaction processes. Methods will thus be a combination of quantitative
and qualitative approaches that include focus group discussions and self-reflections as well as
“hard” data, such as the use of remote sensing to determine changes at the landscape scale
over time (c.f. CRP6.3.1). Methods used in this theme are a trade-off between “product” and
“process” -oriented traditions. Product-oriented traditions emphasize quantitative approaches
that scale across space and time and can feed into forecasting and scenario development.
They are generally seen as good science and replicable, but may have a problematic
outcome/impact pathway. The focus of process-oriented traditions is on multi-stakeholder
learning; these approaches emphasize outcome and impact, but may be weaker on scientific
content and replicability.

101
Sunderland, T.C.H. et al. 2008. Conservation and development in tropical forest landscapes: a time to face
the trade-offs? Environmental Conservation 34(4): 276–279.

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An important consideration in selecting and managing “learning landscapes” for this

component is to balance the level of engagement of researchers in support of change
(including influencing local policy reform) with the continued opportunity to interpret the
ongoing processes of change of relevance for a broader set of landscapes. While “sentinel
landscapes” (see Annex 4) will serve more as “observatories”, the “active learning
landscapes” described here will involve more direct researcher participation in local action.
This approach opens opportunities to use sentinel landscapes for formal impact assessment of
work undertaken in this theme; however, in practice, the line between sentinel and learning
landscapes will not always be very distinct.

Landscape studies provide powerful tools to examine how society-wide changes, such as
changing macroeconomic conditions, infrastructure development, land tenure and agrarian
reforms, influence the development and sustainability of particular agricultural strategies or
production systems, and thereby reveal the pressure they have on forest resources.

However, these approaches often provide no information about the implications for
livelihoods and the social distribution of benefits of economic growth, or about the
differentiated implications of emerging land uses for forest goods and services. Hence, the
challenge is to link landscapes to livelihood approaches, and to interpret them within a
broader context of factors shaping the interplay between economic development and
landscape change. Although there has been a great deal of research on the causes of
deforestation and forest degradation, much remains to be learned about viable solutions to
emerging problems. For example, can policies be developed that can enhance people’s
livelihoods by stimulating particular agricultural strategies and land use practices, while
mitigating pressures on forest resources? NGOs, district officials and other key stakeholders
need tools and appropriate information (such as scenario building, trade-offs assessment and
opportunity costs analyses) to assist them in making decisions for the optimized management
of multifunctional landscapes, allowing for integration of land use management, conservation
and socioeconomic planning. These tools will further raise awareness among national and
local decision makers about the pace, magnitude and location of landscape changes, and
potential implications of such changes for forest goods and services.

Research questions

Broad research Gender-specific aspects of Examples of science outputs

questions (Component the research question
3, Theme 3)

How can multi-stakeholder, Do conserved and other forests Identification of principles, methods
multifunctional landscapes have different values and and processes for optimizing
evolve from a conflict- accessibility for men and women? conservation and livelihood values
dominated state to one from the allocation of land use rights
What kind of conflicts may occur
that involves negotiation within forest landscapes
within communities and how
and use of opportunities for
might their nature and intensity Collaborative decision-making and
synergy—with positive
vary by gender? monitoring tools for strengthening
environmental and social
community involvement and
outcomes? What options exist for conflict
meaningful participation in
management and resolution that
How do the outcomes of conservation and land use planning,
draw upon the relative strengths
negotiations between especially by women and other
of men and women?
conservation and disadvantaged stakeholders
development trade-offs How can different abilities to
systematically vary in participate and negotiate,
relation to such factors as including bargaining power,
negotiation capacity of between men and women be
various stakeholders, accounted for and addressed?
scientific input and

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Broad research Gender-specific aspects of Examples of science outputs

questions (Component the research question
3, Theme 3)
inclusiveness of
How to facilitate equitable land
participation?
use rights allocation and women’s
ability to maintain rights?
What kinds of safeguards are
required in rights allocation
processes to ensure equitable and
effective rights and access?
How can conservation and How do species uses differ Identification of improved modalities
livelihood objectives be between user groups and how and approaches to effectively support
reconciled at the landscape should these be taken into conservation in forest landscape
scale? account in conservation and mosaics
management?
Participatory models for reserve
How to resolve conflicting uses managers to identify how reserve
between multiple users within dwellers use particular resources and
and among communities? threaten long-term sustainability of
targeted species; monitor current
How to empower women by
uses; and develop guidelines for
recognizing and strengthening
conservation and sustainable
their role in and livelihood
management of species and
benefits from resource
populations of value
management?
What might be the unintended
consequences of such
empowerment and how can such
consequences be mitigated
and/or avoided?
What suite of incentives,
knowledge and resources is
required to enhance reserve
managers’ gender sensitivity?

Research partners

Type of research Organization Research partner contributions

partner
Participating Jointly convene and participate in research in a number
CGIAR Center CIFOR/World of focused “learning landscapes”, experimenting with
Agroforestry Centre new ways of balancing goods and service provision in
multifunctional landscapes

International CIRAD Contributes expertise on forestry/agroforestry interface

level IUCN/CEESP Provide a framework for a “rights-based approach” to
conservation
IMFN Implement sustainable management of forest-based
landscapes through the Model Forest approach
Diversitas Assesses biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and the
anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity change
IUCN Convenes global network of “learning landscapes”
through LLS
WWF, CARE Lead a number of landscapes with PES experiments
IFAD Mainstreams RES approaches in regular agricultural
development projects
Tropenbos Improves knowledge, personal capacity and institutional
capacity for better governance and management of
tropical forest resources

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Type of research Organization Research partner contributions

partner
Regional level CATIE Coordinates research in Central America
ICIMOD Conducts land use change analysis in greater Himalaya
subregion
RECOFTC Engages in research uptake and dissemination through
training
Heart of Borneo Engages in compensation scheme development,
Initiative sustainable financing, long-term research
CARPE Engages in landscape-scale implementation in Congo
Basin
WWF Lower Mekong Engages in landscape-scale conservation and
development in Lower Mekong
CARE Works with livelihoods, tenure, rights and development
Country or site FORDA (Indonesia) Collaborates in research in specific sites
level NAFRI (Laos) Researches land use planning processes
MARD (Vietnam) Researches land use planning processes
Ministries of Forestry Conducts landscape management and restoration
(Guinea, Sierra Leone)
Embrapa (Brazil), LIPI Conducts land use monitoring
(Indonesia)
FRIM (Malaysia) Conducts environmental services evaluation
IRAD (Cameroon) Conducts forest transition studies
CI (Indonesia) Conducts West Papua landscape assessments
WCS (Cambodia and Carry out landscape-scale conservation and
Laos), WWF development
(Cameroon, CAR and
Gabon), FFI Cambodia
National RUPES Identify national-scale regulation and legislation
committees and bottlenecks linked to “focused learning” sites
networks in Indonesia,
Philippines, Vietnam
and Nepal
Many site-level NGOs involved at site level and in scaling-out to
partners such as province/national scale
WARSI in Indonesia
Private sector + RSPO (Roundtable on Conduct analysis of forest transition data in relation to
NGOs Sustainable Palm Oil) proposed industry self-regulation
Private sector Various drinking water Potentially invest in environmental service provision
companies

2.3.8 Sentinel landscapes

Details of the rationale for establishing a CRP6 network of sentinel landscapes are provided
in Annex 4. The particulars of how this network will be implemented will be resolved during
the first year of this program’s implementation. Most or all of the individual sentinel
landscapes within such a CRP6 network will likely be research sites for this landscape-
oriented component. Given its focus on this scale, CRP6 Component 3 will work with other
component research teams to integrate knowledge generated, for instance, at the scale of
individual farmer plots (CRP6.1), timber stand harvesting by communities (CRP6.2), climate
change mitigation and adaptation strategies (CRP6.4) and the impacts of global trade and
investment (CRP6.5) and to build understanding of how these factors play out in individual
landscapes.

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We will benefit from this network to undertake long-term research to monitor the impacts of
exogenous and endogenous change at the landscape scale, and test the durability of options to
sustain livelihood and environmental resilience. Subsequently, we will develop and apply
field-tested and standardized research protocols to allow global comparative studies of forest
transition stages, economic and demographic conditions and climatic/biophysical
determinants of environmental services and livelihood options, building on the learning
landscapes approach of Theme 3 of this component. Finally, via the overall coordination with
other CRPs that CRP6 will provide (see Section 4 on program support) we will link with
researchers in other CRPs in exploring development questions at the scale of landscapes (see
Annexes 3 and 4).

2.3.9 Impact pathways

We expect to produce impacts (see Figure 2.5) primarily by developing and disseminating
methods and policy strategies under the auspices of international treaties and policy
frameworks (e.g., CBD, IPBES) and by conducting capacity building with our partners for
user groups including planning agencies (Theme 1), forest and land use governance agencies
(Theme 2) and landscape management agencies and actors (Theme 3). (See Section 3.1 for
gender-specific impact pathways.)

To achieve our desired results, we will apply a range of strategies. Our work, spanning a wide
network of landscapes, will cover the primary dimensions of variation for longitudinal (long-
term) research where existing data sets and partnerships can be used to monitor the impacts
of exogenous and endogenous change at the landscape scale. This will provide key
information and knowledge for policy and practice partners. To enable global comparative
studies of forest transition stages, economic and demographic conditions and
climatic/biophysical determinants of environmental services and livelihood options, we will
develop and apply field-tested and standardized research protocols. Negotiation Support
Systems 102 will be used to influence and facilitate change among multiple stakeholders at
local scales. Finally, for scaling-out, diagnostic approaches will be packaged into replicable
appraisal methods that will be used for train-the-trainer events. The initial stages of their
application will typically be supported by universities, NGOs and government agencies.

Risks remain in the overselling of oversimplified approaches linked with quantitative impact
indicators that are not broadly supported (voluntary) or not feasible (unrealistic) and that do
not have operational indicators for achieving the conditionality necessary for PES and RES.
This component is designed to deal with these key risks through its focus on quantifiable
indicators and cause–effect relations, while documenting experience on the use of PES and
RES for conditional, outcome-based forms of rewards.

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van Noordwijk, M. et al. 2001. Negotiation support models for integrated natural resource management in
tropical forest margins. Conservation Ecology 5(2): 21 [online] http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss2/art21.

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Figure 2.5 Impact pathways for Component 3

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Box 2.6 Examples of potential impacts of Component 3

The benefits of improved and integrated landscape management can include maintenance and even
increases in many different environmental goods and services, leading in turn to increased rural
incomes, food security, biodiversity conservation and carbon storage. Following are some examples.
• Forest-based pollination services for agricultural productivity. As natural habitat for bees, bats and
other critical taxonomic groups, forests, agroforests and other tree-based systems provide
pollination services to adjacent agricultural areas. Studies suggest that forest-based pollinators can
substantially increase coffee yields and quality. In one case from Costa Rica, coffee yields and the
quality of beans on sites close to forests and forest edges were 20% and 27% higher, respectively,
than on sites far from forests. This difference in productivity translated into an additional farm
income of approximately US$60 per hectare.1 Maintaining forests and viable forest fragments in
landscape mosaics can thus increase agricultural productivity and rural incomes.
• Co-management for improved incomes and biodiversity conservation. The Landscape Management
for Improved Livelihoods (LAMIL) project in Guinea supported co-management of forests between
local forest committees and the Department of Forests and Fauna2. As a result of better
management, the area affected by fire each year was reduced by around 80%, and wildlife
populations were restored. Assistance to farmers in buffer zones in the form of improved farming
and agroforestry practices and improved varieties of crops and trees contributed to increases in
average household income of more than 25%, with many villagers able to increase their incomes by
a factor of three or more. Co-management has also resulted in collective community benefits, as
proceeds from forest harvests have gone into construction of community schools and wells.
• Tenure clarity for REDD+ revenues and carbon storage. One condition for payments for
environmental services (PES) is the need for a clear “seller” of those services, requiring similarly
clear land tenure rights. However, some 24% of all land in Brazil and more than 50% in Indonesia
(the two countries with the highest rates of deforestation) are characterized by unclear or
insufficient tenure rights. As a result, PES-related approaches to REDD+ mechanisms are hindered
as a climate change mitigation strategy. Projections indicate that about 67% of all deforestation will
occur in these areas, hence limiting the feasibility of PES to approximately one-third of its potential
to reduce deforestation.3 The development of policies and strategies to clarify tenure rights in Brazil
and Indonesia would thus have a dual benefit: potentially millions of smallholders living in these
areas would become eligible for a new source of income as environmental service providers, and
REDD+ investments would reduce emissions from deforestation4.
• Wildlife management for increased food security. In at least 62 countries worldwide, wildlife and fish
together constitute at least 20% of the animal protein in rural diets. In some rural areas in Central
Africa, bushmeat constitutes up to 80% of protein and fat in local diets. While the extinction of
significant forest mammals is of concern from an ecological point of view, the impacts of wildlife
depletion on food security can also be dramatic. Protein malnutrition would likely increase rapidly as
many African countries do not produce sufficient quantities of non-bushmeat protein to feed their
populations.5 Improved strategies for sustainably managing these ecosystem goods at the landscape
scale could significantly improve food security.
• Clean and sustained sources of water. The influence trees and forests have on the total water yield
of a catchment is generally negative, but quality of surface and ground water and regularity of river
flow are generally positively related to tree cover. The relationship between forest cover and
flooding risk is an area of ongoing public debate and scientific analysis6.
References:
1
Ricketts, T. et al. 2004. Economic value of tropical forest to coffee production. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences USA 101(34): 12579–12582.
2
Pye-Smith, C. 2009. Restoring lives and landscapes: how a partnership between local communities and
the state is saving forests and improving livelihoods in Guinea. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia; World
Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi.
3
Börner, J. et al. 2009. Direct conservation payments in the Brazilian Amazon: scope and equity
implications. Ecological Economics 69: 1272–1282.
4
Akiefnawati, R. et al. 2010. Stewardship agreement to reduce emissions from deforestation and
degradation (REDD): Lubuk Beringin’s Hutan Desa, Jambi Province, Sumatra as the first formal and
operational “village forest” in Indonesia. International Forestry Review 12: 349–360.
5
Nasi, R. et al. 2008. Conservation and use of wildlife-based resources: the bushmeat crisis. Technical
Series No. 33. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal; CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia.
6
van Dijk, A.I.J.M. et al. 2009. Forest–flood relation still tenuous—comment on “Global evidence that
deforestation amplifies flood risk and severity in the developing world” by C.J.A. Bradshaw, N.S. Sodi, K.
S-H. Peh and B.W. Brook. Global Change Biology 15: 110–115.

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2.3.10 Milestones

Working milestones for Component 3 are as follows.

Year 1: Organizations key to achieving impact pathway are confirmed as partners.

Partnerships are formalized through MoUs/subcontracts, etc. Platforms for negotiation are
established to underpin the “feedback process”. Baseline data are collated (e.g., synthesis of
current agent-based spatially explicit modeling frameworks in relation to forest and tree cover
transitions); research methodologies are developed and tested. Long-term implementation
research strategies are agreed. Ongoing research and other activities are aligned with CRP6.3
as appropriate. Research sites (including for sentinel landscapes) are selected in consort with
other CRP6 components and key partners.

Years 2–4: Research activities are undertaken and results validated through peer-review
publication. Multi-stakeholder analysis provides feedback on progress on achieving outcomes

Years 5–6: Research outcomes; for example: use of improved methods for evaluating
environmental services leads to improved assessment and calculation of reward mechanisms;
land use planners and practitioners adopt new approaches that result in clearer conservation
and development trade-offs in land and rights allocations; improved modalities and
approaches that effectively support conservation in forest landscapes are identified and
implemented. Research outputs are adopted and further disseminated by lead CG-centers,
partners and research targets (e.g., CBD, IPBES).

Years 7–9: Continued monitoring (including multi-stakeholder analysis) in both learning and
sentinel landscapes provides evidence of improved land use practices, more equitable tenure
and resource rights and improved livelihoods.

Year 10: Observable decrease in forest and tree loss and increase in forest cover (due to both
restoration and agroforestry). Continued feedback informs future research efforts.

We emphasize that the milestones listed above are preliminary and subject to refinement
during the initial project start-up, and as part of a rolling annual planning process over three
years. In practice, a 3–4-year project cycle is frequently most appropriate as lessons are
learned, new priorities emerge and situations change in individual landscapes and globally.
We are targeting a 10-year project design, but suspect that delivery of the full potential
impacts will likely require a longer time horizon (see also Annex 4 on sentinel landscapes).

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2.3.11 Role of partners

This component will build on the solid foundation of partnerships developed in previous and
ongoing research undertaken by the CGIAR centers involved in CRP6. The World
Agroforestry Centre, and the ASB Partnership for Tropical Forest Margins that it convenes,
has long-term research underway analyzing environmental service dynamics, incentives to
influence agroforestry transformations and the links between the drivers of land use and tree
cover change at global, national and local scales along with opportunities to influence
agroforestry transformation.

Another example is CIFOR’s landscape-scale research on conservation and development

trade-offs (which includes the joint CIFOR/World Agroforestry Centre Landscape Mosaics
initiative, as part of the joint Biodiversity Platform, collaboration with IUCN’s Livelihoods
and Landscapes Strategy (LLS) and the International Model Forest Network), sustainable
forest management, and smallholder and community forestry. CIAT has also undertaken
extensive research on forest–farmland margins.

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Table 2.3 Illustrative list of policy and knowledge-sharing partners for Component 3.

Levels/types Policy and practitioner Roles/contributions Knowledge-sharing Roles/contributions

partners* partners
International CBD Key international instrument for Panos Uses scientific content in training
level sustainable development journalists

FAO State of the World’s Forests: annual forest WOCAN Promotes institutionalization of gender
cover assessment perspectives in NRM-related
organizations
FSC Investigates the potential role of certification of De la Salle University, Gender aspects of emerging PES/RES
environmental services Philippines institutions

IPBES Mechanism proposed to further strengthen the

science–policy interface on biodiversity and
environmental services

GEOSS Links stand-alone biodiversity monitoring

systems and connects them to other Earth
observation networks, such as climate and
pollution indicators
RRI Analysis of options for tenure reform and
“boundary organization” interface with advocacy
organizations and national policymakers
IMFN The sustainable management of forest-based
landscapes through the Model Forest approach

Katoomba Group Discussion forum on PES and its innovations

Regional level COMIFAC Translates research results into policy guidance CATIE Uses content in graduate curriculum
for Congo Basin governments
OTCA Translates research results into policy guidance RECOFTC Capacity building for community
in Amazon Basin countries. forestry and devolved forest
management
Heart of Borneo Initiative Compensation scheme development,
sustainable financing

Country or site Ministries in charge of forest, Land use planning policy and implementation IPB/LIPI Science and policy links to education
level forest resources and environment and curriculum development
e.g., FORDA (Indonesia), NAFRI
(Laos), MINFOF (Cameroon)
Ministries, agencies in charge of Sustainable rural development Environmental education Community outreach of research
gender and community organizations e.g., Living outputs
development e.g., MARD Earth Cameroon
(Vietnam)

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2.3.12 Prioritization

This component of CRP6 is pivotal to the program, not only for building understanding, but
also for linking the landscape-scale impacts of drivers (CRP6.4, 6.5) to consequences and
management options (CRP6.1, 6.2). The logic of drivers–state–response implies that
priorities cannot be set easily at the thematic level in this component as all three themes are
needed. A fully effective CRP6.3—that accomplishes all of its objectives—will require a
suite of research landscapes across the global tropics to capture social and ecological
variation. The scale and rate at which we will build this program will depend on the
availability of funds, appropriate partners and other resources. Greater investment will enable
a finer scale of research, whereas budgetary limitations will reduce it to more coarse-scale
coverage, with less reliable conclusions. The stronger our financial support, the more rapidly
we will be able to achieve our overall outputs targeting specific outcomes and impacts, as
well as integrate better with other CRP6 components. Planning and prioritization will be
undertaken through the rolling annual planning process over three years (continuing the
CGIAR Medium Term Planning mechanism at center and CRP levels) with the engagement
of the Component Implementation Team and broader CRP6-wide elements. We envisage the
following two main strategies to prioritize the rollout of Component 3.

• The scale of operations: Work will need to start in all three themes from the initiation
of CRP6 to ensure continuity of currently funded activities, enabling the effective and
timely production of key outputs. However, if unavoidable budget restrictions prevail,
it may be possible to delay the delivery of certain outputs as cost-saving measures
over the first years of this program, pending more detailed analysis by the Component
Implementation Team.

• The number of landscapes in which we conduct research: An ideal research design,

from a global comparative study perspective, would require a number of replicates in
each cell of a multidimensional matrix encompassing forest types (e.g., ecoregions),
human population density, livelihood strategies and governance approaches.
However, from a prioritization perspective, we would aim first to fill out the matrix
with research underway in at least one landscape per cell in order to capture broad
global variation. Subsequently, we would add research in replicate landscapes as more
funds and other resources became available to enable us to produce more robust
outputs. Rather than direct replication, additional sites would allow a finer resolution
in a hierarchical typology of landscapes. In practice, the typology itself will be subject
to review and revisions as more data become available. Further, selection of
additional sites will depend on research design criteria, as well as partnerships
opportunities and co-funding.

A full prioritization strategy will follow the initial Component Implementation Team meeting
during the first semester of CRP6.

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