sustainable development 20 years on from the ... - José Eli da Veiga

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Box II.7
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: PROMOTION OF FOREST MANAGEMENT
FOR NON-WOOD FOREST PRODUCTS – CASE STUDY IN BOYACÁ (COLOMBIA)
The municipality of Ráquira, in Boyacá, is considered Colombia’s craftwork capital and is famous for its clay crafts,
as well as its hand-woven bags, baskets and hammocks and for pottery in general. It has 13,300 inhabitants of whom
around 1,250 are craftworkers, and 75% of its economy hinges on the craft trade. Of all the forest species recorded
in the municipality of Ráquira (287), it was found that 46% have current or potential use and that the pottery trade
uses 42 species for fuelwood and 19 species for crafts, including the lianas, Smilax floribunda and Smilax aff.
tomentosa, and other species like Indigofera suffruticosa (indigo), used as a dye, and Juncus effusus (rush), used in
basketwork. These species are priorities for the <strong>development</strong> of management plans relating to harvesting models and
market research to ensure an economic benefit for the region’s farmers and craftspeople (López, <strong>20</strong>06).
Equally successful cases of local communities deriving enormous social and economic benefit from
harvesting non-wood products from forests can be found in other areas of Latin America and the Caribbean (one
such case is the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala, as reported by Mollinedo and others, <strong>20</strong>01).
Source: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Latin America and the Caribbean: Environment Outlook, Panama
City, <strong>20</strong>10. R. López, “Lista de especies vegetales vasculares registradas en el municipio de Ráquira, Boyacá. Informe
final”, Bogota, Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, <strong>20</strong>06; A.C. Mollinedo and
others, “Beneficios sociales y económicos del bosque en la Reserva de Biósfera Maya”, Revista forestal
centroamericana, No. 34, <strong>20</strong>01, pp. 57–60.
The economic importance of forests goes far beyond formal trade figures for forest products. On
the one hand, the economic value of many of the products sourced from forests is included in agricultural
accounts. On the other hand, conventional statistics take no account of the great importance of various
forest products and services for the survival and lifestyles of families and local communities, as well as
for the local and global environment (ecosystem resources account for about 89% of the income
generated by some <strong>20</strong> million poor (TEEB, <strong>20</strong>10)). As mentioned earlier, the region has great potential in
innovative markets for payment for environmental services. Initiatives such as the World Bank Forest
Carbon Partnership Facility and the United Nations Collaborative Programme on reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) support countries in
establishing payment mechanisms for forest environmental services. 10 Two examples of ongoing
initiatives are Brazil’s Bolsa Floresta programme (Viana, <strong>20</strong>08) and Costa Rica’s payment for
environmental services programme.
Many of the region’s success stories have been limited to one-off initiatives or relatively small
areas. In many cases, a weak State presence in remote forest areas compounds problems of logistics,
funding and technical capacity, hampering the implementation of larger-scale, more effective measures.
There is room for: the transfer of successful experiences; the widespread introduction of models of
participation in forest management by civil society, communities and specific groups, such as women (see
box II.8); and the use of technology tools such as information and communication technologies.
An emerging issue is governance of the region’s forests to realize the potential of carbon
sequestration, including financing mechanisms for communities reliant on forest resources. Another issue
of increasing importance is upgrading the forestry industry by introducing the principles of efficiency,
cleaner production, appropriate working conditions, social benefits for the communities living in the
vicinity of forests and certification schemes accessible to small farmers.
10
See [online] http://www.forestcarbonpartnership.org/fcp/ and http://www.un-redd.org.