Forests Sourcebook - HCV Resource Network

Box 7.16
Forest Monitoring in Cameroon
Cameroon has made significant commitments and
notable progress in monitoring forest-based activities.
These commitments have launched initiatives to produce
and compile forest information and improve the
quality and availability of relevant forest data, in part
to enable better decision making.
In 2005, a partnership that included the Cameroon
Ministry of the Environment and Forests (MINEF),
Global Forest Watch, the Limbe Botanical Gardens,
and Cameroon Environmental Watch (the latter two
are members of civil society) assembled the Interactive
Forestry Atlas of Cameroon. The decision-support tool
is a compact disc (CD) atlas that compiles and integrates
GIS/RS data useful to forest monitoring. Key
data sets presented in the atlas include roads, hydrological
networks, logging concessions, vegetation, forest
management unit statistics, and forested areas.
Forested areas include boundaries of (i) state forests
(protected areas such as game reserves, hunting areas,
game ranches, wildlife sanctuaries, and buffer zones, as
well as zoological gardens belonging to the state); (ii)
Source: Noguerón and Stolle 2007.
forest reserves (ecological reserves and forests allocated
for production and research, as well as botanical gardens,
plant life sanctuaries, and forest plantations); (iii)
council forests; (iii) communal forests; (iv) community
forests; and (v) private forests.
The CD tool has been widely distributed and used.
Because it presents the data in graphic, user-friendly
formats, the tool has been used in various ways including
in prioritizing forest monitoring and enforcement
of forest laws, and monitoring compliance by determining
whether road construction is taking place
within the boundaries of legally attributed logging
areas and in compliance with approved management
plans. MINEF and private companies use the tool
to support land-use planning, assess impacts
from forestry operations, and (because maps are
unequivocal) inform dialogue and negotiation in conflict
resolution.
The Interactive Forestry Map is currently being
updated; a new version is expected to be released in the
near future.
Box 7.17
Forest Monitoring in Indonesia
In a 2004 forest sector paper, the Center for International
Forestry Research (CIFOR) identified the lack of
reliable and timely information on forests as the foremost
origin of poor public and private forest policies.
The Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia (MoF) also recognized
this lack of information as a major obstacle for
sound decision making and development of appropriate
policies; this recognition has paved the way toward
better forest governance in Indonesia.
In 2005, the MoF established a National Forest Sector
Monitoring and Assessment Process (FOMAS). The
overall goal of FOMAS is to promote good forest governance
to ensure the optimal contribution of forest
resources to poverty reduction, economic growth, and
sustainable forest management and conservation. To
achieve this goal, FOMAS will enable transparency and
accountability, which are the essential foundations for
effective forest governance. The specific objective of
FOMAS is to establish the conditions for transparency
in the forest sector by
Source: Noguerón and Stolle 2007.
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making relevant, reliable, accurate, and up-to-date
forest sector information available to decision makers
inside the MoF on a continuous basis, as well as
making key information accessible to the public;
and
supporting better decision and policy making based
on this information.
A first and necessary step is to provide support and
inform forest management decisions with updated and
reliable maps of forest use and forest cover. FOMAS is
using mapping technology as a tool within a comprehensive
decision-making and policy reform approach.
Thus, FOMAS will help the MoF in better carrying out
its mandate of regulating and managing forest use and
establishing an appropriate framework for a profitable
forest sector in Indonesia that is socially and environmentally
sustainable.
NOTE 7.3: SPATIAL MONITORING OF FORESTS 275